Over the summer, three JROTC cadets achieved top honors at the Joint Command Leadership Course (JCLC) camp. These students are excited for their future in JROTC.

Juniors Jonah Faneuf and Aidan Hayes and sophomore Jennifer Nguyen were cadets who attended JCLC.

“I didn’t look at my fellow cadets as my competition, but rather my foundation so I could improve myself by watching them,” Jonah Faneuf said.

The camp focused on leadership and how to learn to work together to complete tasks along with Army-style training.

“Everything I did was concentrated around working as a team,” Faneuf said.

Aside from the team building aspect, cadets can take a personal benefit from the camp.

“I felt like I learned a lot more about myself because it challenges you a lot,” Nguyen said. “It makes you do things that you wouldn’t do just at school.”

Hayes, Faneuf and Nguyen were among some of the top cadets at the camp. They worked with 350 students from 25 schools throughout N.C. and Virginia.

Lt. Col. Dimitri Belmont knows the cadets will get them ready for camps and competitions.

“Wake Forest cadets do whatever preparation it takes to succeed, whether it was on their own or whatever we did with them prior to going.”

Junior Hayes was ranked in the top 3 percent of the cadets at the camp.

“The sergeant major’s board is a board that selects the top cadet in the camp,” Belmont said. “They each go and compete by answering questions, they look at how they dress, and determine what their military bearing is.”

Each of the cadets had placed high in one of the camp’s events.

Faneuf placed first in the physical fitness test, Hayes had the best mile and Nguyen was the first freshman to win the top award from the sergeant major’s board.

To Nguyen, winning this award felt “really, really good,” considering how many cadets were in attendance at the camp.

Faneuf said that being honored “motivates” him “by showing that everything is reachable, and you just have to work to get there.”