Leadership is important in clubs, sports and all around life. A few students stand out in JROTC that represent their peers through leadership, discipline and patriotism.

Senior Jacob Schwier has been in JROTC since his freshman year. Schwier was greatly influenced by his father who was in the Army and joined JROTC through Appalachian State University.

He has worked up to his leadership position with the help of great examples.

“I became the Cougar Battalion Executive Officer through a lot of hard work and getting on well with my leadership. I learned from the best people in the battalion, for example, my freshman year Battalion Commander Houston Jones, my Platoon Leader sophomore year Johnson Ngo and my Company XO sophomore year Deion’te Taylor,” Schwier said. “They each taught me skills that I am still using today, and also gave me stellar recommendations to Colonel and CSM so that they could consider me to become a member of the Battalion top three.

Senior Cat Healy has been in JROTC for four years and plans on serving in the navy and becoming a naval officer and a naval engineer.

Healy has found a great passion in being a leader.

“I’m really grateful for my opportunity. It’s something I never expected to happen to me, and it has taught me more than anything else,” Healy said.

Senior Lia Stokes enjoys being a JROTC leader and finds joy in helping others.

“I think being a leader means uplifting students and helping them. For JROTC leaders, if you can help out a student and get their confidence up and help them out, that’s a really big thing. For me that’s what being is about,” Stokes said.

Stokes provides insight on what it takes to be a good leader.

“I think determination first off, and definitely resilience. Not everything is going to go the way you want to and you will fail sometimes and not everyone is going to be nice about it,” Stokes said. “You need to have the resilience to get through it. Integrity is a big thing also because if you do something stupid and you lie about it, it’s a big deal.”

CSM Cribb, the JROTC co-teacher gives leaders a lot of responsibilities and signifies key traits they should hold.

Cribb said, “these cadets are responsible for the management of the Cougar Battalion. They develop the plans for all events that the battalion conducts. They consider all factors involved in the execution to include safety risks, timeline, resources needed and cadet participation required. These leaders are a necessity to our student-led organization.”