Tinian JROTC team makes it to nat’l championship

After advancing in two phases of competitions, the Tinian High School JROTC academic team will fly to the national event in Washington, D.C. in June as representative of the Commonwealth.

The team, composed of cadet 1st Lt. John Ramos, cadet CPL Mary Hocog, cadet Sgt. Alana Taksi, and cadet Sgt. Richeena Farrel, will compete in the championship round of the College Options Foundation’s 2009 JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl at the George Mason University campus in Washington.

The event is slated for June 26 through 30.

Earlier this month, the Tinian JROTC team competed in two rounds of competitive online play against thousands of JROTC students from across the world to win a slot in the final round and the trip to the nation’s capital. In these rounds, students were tested on standard high school curriculum, math, science, English, and leadership skills.

Saipan Tribune learned that the Tinian team is one of only 24 in the nation to advance to the finals.

The JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl is a nationally recognized academic competition created exclusively for JROTC students. By participating, cadets learn the values of citizenship, academic competition, and college opportunity. The competition creates tremendous opportunities for JROTC and its cadets by demonstrating the academic abilities of JROTC students.

The Tinian team was recently presented the 13th Brigade’s first place plaque by Lt. Col. Bob Gay, director of the CNMI JROTC, for its outstanding performance during the brigade online competition on March 13 in front of the entire school body, its principal Florine Hofschneider, the CNMI Youth Summit Council High School members, teachers, and chaperones.

Gay stated that this is a very big achievement not only for Tinian but the entire CNMI Public School System and the JROTC Program.

“A number of our CNMI JROTC programs did exceptionally well in both the academic and leadership competitions and we want to continue to excel in these national endeavors. There is much to do before the June competition. The cadets will need to study hard and be prepared to take on the best of the best. They will also have a great learning experience by meeting cadets from around the world, touring Washington, D.C., and establishing lasting friendships,” he said.

He told Saipan Tribune that there are approximately 1,645 JROTC programs in the world and over 280,000 cadets.

“Tinian is one of the 24 schools to have earned the honor to compete at the national level,” he said, describing the accomplishment as “awesome” and hopes to see it continued into the future for all CNMI schools.

The College Options Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the academic development of high school students and assisting them in their preparation for higher education using academic competitions, college exam study guides, college admissions tutorials and personalized counseling.

The foundation has assisted the nation’s 1.1 million Department of Defense-JROTC students worldwide.