so three years ago my freshman year of
high school I wanted to join ROTC but I
decided not to because I listen to the
stereotypes that I was told that all
people in ROTC did was work out and run
laps and I wanted no part of that now I
play rugby and I’m a Catholic and I’ve
heard all the negative stereotypes you
can possibly think about for those two
things so I figured if I wanted to
really understand what ROTC was about I
needed to just join it so I talked to my
counselor and a few months later I found
myself right in the middle of an ROTC
classroom and I was facing what
stereotypes were true and what were
false so one of the stereotypes I hear
all the time that really is just not
true is that ROTC means nothing I always
hear people say it’s just a stupid high
school class they don’t do anything
important in there well over the three
and a quarter years that the program has
been in existence at holiday school we
have generated over six thousand hours
of community service through Gleaners VA
hospital and adopt-a-highway and many
more organizations on top of that
inspection is a program wide evaluation
of how well our ROTC unit runs and it
occurs every three years and is
conducted by the director of aft ROTC
and last year being our third year in
existence was our first ever inspection
and we were awarded distinguished unit
award with merit which is the highest
award an ROTC program can be can acquire
and only 8% of all units in the country
even acquire
it’s all fantastic and I’m so proud of
our OTC if you’re doing that let me tell
you why it’s important to me when I
first joined ROTC it was my it was the
second semester of my sophomore year and
I was not confident in my public
speaking abilities or my leadership
abilities and I really just tried to
stick to myself and for I was fortunate
enough to make some friends immediately
after joining ROTC and they took me
under their wing and let me and let me
tag along and things like community
service and the events then I just grew
to love every little bit of it I tried
to go to as much as I possibly could and
I found that all of my work that I just
thought was fun had landed me a spot as
element later now for all of you who are
not aware of the structure of an ROTC
classroom an element lead is in charge
of three to four people and their
primary task is to take attendance every
day and lead in small group activities
and I was enormous ly proud of what I
did is helmut lead and when the school
year was finished I was very upset
because I only had a semester in ROTC
while everybody else had an entire year
so I had to suffer through an ROTC last
summer and when I got back to school was
very excited
and I sat down the class quietly and I
just looked around I was like wow this
is a fantastic flight or a class or
who’s gonna be in charge and at that
moment Colonel and starts were both
looking at me and pointing at me and I
was just petrified I just tried to look
down like I hadn’t seen anything and I
just prayed that I hadn’t seen something
that I wasn’t supposed to and a few
minutes later they pulled me out to
class and they told me that was flight
commander which it means to be in charge
of the class it’s the cadet who runs the
data at the day-to-day operations of the
class and I was extremely extremely
happy for it because it’s a huge honor
to be selected to be flight commander
out of your entire class but then I got
really really nervous because I realized
I didn’t know the first thing about how
to be a flight commander so it was a day
of mixed emotions but I got through it
and at first it was a little difficult I
was promoted over a few of the cadets in
are in my class and they were never
necessarily insubordinate but there was
definitely a barrier I had to break
through before they considered me as
their leader so I just did another thing
I knew how to do and I just tried to be
as good of a role model as possible in
class I tried to learn the
curriculum inside now so I could be a
good resource to my cadets if they ever
had a question on uniform inspection day
I tried to be kind when I corrected them
but constructive enough to the point
where they wouldn’t make the same
mistake again on PT Fridays I would
always try to be at the front of the
pack and I would never happen to do an
exercise that wasn’t about to do with
them so it was all fine for a few months
but then we had to slip up one day in
class my cadets were consistently
talking throughout the entire lesson and
through the following quiz they’re
beginning to talk over colonel I will
call out at ease which means be quiet
and they’d be quiet for a couple of
minutes and then they’d get right back
to talking and it’s the classes winding
down I realized I needed to say
something so I walked to the front of
the class and I said there is a time for
fun and there is a time to be silent and
show respect the amount of disrespect
that I’ve seen for colonel and myself
today is unacceptable do you understand
me and there were a few yes sirs I said
do you understand me and they knew this
and they said yes sir and this they all
got up and ran out of class I caught the
eye one of my freshmen and I will never
forget the look he gave me it was a look
it was a mixed look of fear and
confusion similar to that of a child
first scolded by his parent and I had a
moment of dread and I thought the
relationship that I have worked so hard
to build up over the past few months has
just been ruined because I lost my
temper and the next day when I was
walking in the class I was more worried
than I was at my first day but I walked
in and the strangest thing happened they
weren’t mad at me I walked in and they
say good morning Ferris and I said good
morning sat down
I’ve got a few smiles like blue
throughout class if they ever had a
question they would raise their hand
properly and they wouldn’t talk unless
they were called upon and at the end of
class I got up and I walked over and I
said don’t I talk to my cadets like I
always did and they weren’t for us to do
with me or anything and I realized
something I had finally earned the
respect of my cadets that I was working
so hard to gain they finally understood
when it was time to have fun and goof
around and when it was time to buckle
down to do it you were told on the other
hand I learned when I was sign to be
leaning it with my cadets and when it
was time to crack the whip and
they’ve done something wrong after that
I noticed a complete behavior change
with my cadets but it did take a little
bit of motivation at first we had an
event called military ball that was
coming up which is just a Dancing’s very
fun and we had about 12 percent of our
cadets going to that which I believe
would translate to like – how did like
the 24 that we had and I said listen if
we can get at least 80% of our flight to
go to the military ball I will dress up
as Dwight Schrute from the office I
don’t think a whole week pass before
they went from 12% to 90% so I had to
dress up as Dwight Schrute and after
they found out about how much I love the
office they stole my $10 pen and they
put it in jello which if any of you have
seen the office gym does that the Dwight
and Michael but that was one of my
favorite moments of all last year and
after that a complete behavior change
happened my cadets became motivated and
they started going to things like
community and community service events
and the outside of school events and
they created an atmosphere of acceptance
for when all the other cadets from the
other flights would join us they would
it be immediately accepted as the group
as a part of the group and it created
what is still known today is the Charlie
children now Charlie being third hour
and then the children was just my really
awkward way of getting their attention
it was a complete flip and there in the
in the mindset of my cadets if anybody
else from another flight came over they
were immediately accepted as part of the
group without any hesitation whatsoever
and if I had to choose one thing to be
my legacy for ROTC without a doubt it
would be the Charlie children there we
go let’s see so the question still
remains
why is ROTC given such a negative
stereotype why are a group of cadets who
do nothing but good for their community
ridiculed and alienated for what they do
well I’ve asked myself that question for
the two years that I’ve been in the
program now and the only conclusion that
I’ve been able to draw is that maybe
somewhere along the line somebody had a
bad experience with one of our cadets
and you know that’s fine
every organization has that one person
just rubs people the wrong way but that
is no reason to write off ROTC or any
other group as a bad organization this
is what ROTC is about it’s about
developing friendships with people you
wouldn’t normally have the opportunity
to do so with it’s about teaching the
importance of community service and
inspiring other students to do the same
it’s about finding direction in life
around people who have your best
interest in mind
ROTC has been a fantastic experience for
myself and hundreds of other cadets and
without it our school and community
would be a very very different place
thank you
high school I wanted to join ROTC but I
decided not to because I listen to the
stereotypes that I was told that all
people in ROTC did was work out and run
laps and I wanted no part of that now I
play rugby and I’m a Catholic and I’ve
heard all the negative stereotypes you
can possibly think about for those two
things so I figured if I wanted to
really understand what ROTC was about I
needed to just join it so I talked to my
counselor and a few months later I found
myself right in the middle of an ROTC
classroom and I was facing what
stereotypes were true and what were
false so one of the stereotypes I hear
all the time that really is just not
true is that ROTC means nothing I always
hear people say it’s just a stupid high
school class they don’t do anything
important in there well over the three
and a quarter years that the program has
been in existence at holiday school we
have generated over six thousand hours
of community service through Gleaners VA
hospital and adopt-a-highway and many
more organizations on top of that
inspection is a program wide evaluation
of how well our ROTC unit runs and it
occurs every three years and is
conducted by the director of aft ROTC
and last year being our third year in
existence was our first ever inspection
and we were awarded distinguished unit
award with merit which is the highest
award an ROTC program can be can acquire
and only 8% of all units in the country
even acquire
it’s all fantastic and I’m so proud of
our OTC if you’re doing that let me tell
you why it’s important to me when I
first joined ROTC it was my it was the
second semester of my sophomore year and
I was not confident in my public
speaking abilities or my leadership
abilities and I really just tried to
stick to myself and for I was fortunate
enough to make some friends immediately
after joining ROTC and they took me
under their wing and let me and let me
tag along and things like community
service and the events then I just grew
to love every little bit of it I tried
to go to as much as I possibly could and
I found that all of my work that I just
thought was fun had landed me a spot as
element later now for all of you who are
not aware of the structure of an ROTC
classroom an element lead is in charge
of three to four people and their
primary task is to take attendance every
day and lead in small group activities
and I was enormous ly proud of what I
did is helmut lead and when the school
year was finished I was very upset
because I only had a semester in ROTC
while everybody else had an entire year
so I had to suffer through an ROTC last
summer and when I got back to school was
very excited
and I sat down the class quietly and I
just looked around I was like wow this
is a fantastic flight or a class or
who’s gonna be in charge and at that
moment Colonel and starts were both
looking at me and pointing at me and I
was just petrified I just tried to look
down like I hadn’t seen anything and I
just prayed that I hadn’t seen something
that I wasn’t supposed to and a few
minutes later they pulled me out to
class and they told me that was flight
commander which it means to be in charge
of the class it’s the cadet who runs the
data at the day-to-day operations of the
class and I was extremely extremely
happy for it because it’s a huge honor
to be selected to be flight commander
out of your entire class but then I got
really really nervous because I realized
I didn’t know the first thing about how
to be a flight commander so it was a day
of mixed emotions but I got through it
and at first it was a little difficult I
was promoted over a few of the cadets in
are in my class and they were never
necessarily insubordinate but there was
definitely a barrier I had to break
through before they considered me as
their leader so I just did another thing
I knew how to do and I just tried to be
as good of a role model as possible in
class I tried to learn the
curriculum inside now so I could be a
good resource to my cadets if they ever
had a question on uniform inspection day
I tried to be kind when I corrected them
but constructive enough to the point
where they wouldn’t make the same
mistake again on PT Fridays I would
always try to be at the front of the
pack and I would never happen to do an
exercise that wasn’t about to do with
them so it was all fine for a few months
but then we had to slip up one day in
class my cadets were consistently
talking throughout the entire lesson and
through the following quiz they’re
beginning to talk over colonel I will
call out at ease which means be quiet
and they’d be quiet for a couple of
minutes and then they’d get right back
to talking and it’s the classes winding
down I realized I needed to say
something so I walked to the front of
the class and I said there is a time for
fun and there is a time to be silent and
show respect the amount of disrespect
that I’ve seen for colonel and myself
today is unacceptable do you understand
me and there were a few yes sirs I said
do you understand me and they knew this
and they said yes sir and this they all
got up and ran out of class I caught the
eye one of my freshmen and I will never
forget the look he gave me it was a look
it was a mixed look of fear and
confusion similar to that of a child
first scolded by his parent and I had a
moment of dread and I thought the
relationship that I have worked so hard
to build up over the past few months has
just been ruined because I lost my
temper and the next day when I was
walking in the class I was more worried
than I was at my first day but I walked
in and the strangest thing happened they
weren’t mad at me I walked in and they
say good morning Ferris and I said good
morning sat down
I’ve got a few smiles like blue
throughout class if they ever had a
question they would raise their hand
properly and they wouldn’t talk unless
they were called upon and at the end of
class I got up and I walked over and I
said don’t I talk to my cadets like I
always did and they weren’t for us to do
with me or anything and I realized
something I had finally earned the
respect of my cadets that I was working
so hard to gain they finally understood
when it was time to have fun and goof
around and when it was time to buckle
down to do it you were told on the other
hand I learned when I was sign to be
leaning it with my cadets and when it
was time to crack the whip and
they’ve done something wrong after that
I noticed a complete behavior change
with my cadets but it did take a little
bit of motivation at first we had an
event called military ball that was
coming up which is just a Dancing’s very
fun and we had about 12 percent of our
cadets going to that which I believe
would translate to like – how did like
the 24 that we had and I said listen if
we can get at least 80% of our flight to
go to the military ball I will dress up
as Dwight Schrute from the office I
don’t think a whole week pass before
they went from 12% to 90% so I had to
dress up as Dwight Schrute and after
they found out about how much I love the
office they stole my $10 pen and they
put it in jello which if any of you have
seen the office gym does that the Dwight
and Michael but that was one of my
favorite moments of all last year and
after that a complete behavior change
happened my cadets became motivated and
they started going to things like
community and community service events
and the outside of school events and
they created an atmosphere of acceptance
for when all the other cadets from the
other flights would join us they would
it be immediately accepted as the group
as a part of the group and it created
what is still known today is the Charlie
children now Charlie being third hour
and then the children was just my really
awkward way of getting their attention
it was a complete flip and there in the
in the mindset of my cadets if anybody
else from another flight came over they
were immediately accepted as part of the
group without any hesitation whatsoever
and if I had to choose one thing to be
my legacy for ROTC without a doubt it
would be the Charlie children there we
go let’s see so the question still
remains
why is ROTC given such a negative
stereotype why are a group of cadets who
do nothing but good for their community
ridiculed and alienated for what they do
well I’ve asked myself that question for
the two years that I’ve been in the
program now and the only conclusion that
I’ve been able to draw is that maybe
somewhere along the line somebody had a
bad experience with one of our cadets
and you know that’s fine
every organization has that one person
just rubs people the wrong way but that
is no reason to write off ROTC or any
other group as a bad organization this
is what ROTC is about it’s about
developing friendships with people you
wouldn’t normally have the opportunity
to do so with it’s about teaching the
importance of community service and
inspiring other students to do the same
it’s about finding direction in life
around people who have your best
interest in mind
ROTC has been a fantastic experience for
myself and hundreds of other cadets and
without it our school and community
would be a very very different place
thank you
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