JROTC grants students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, prepare them for the real world and to experience what it may be like to be in the military. 

Like its real-world counterparts, the Cougar Battalion features officers who outrank their peers. 

Executive Officer Lemaya Johnson earned the chance to be one of the top three leaders of the battalion. 

“It’s definitely strengthened my leadership skills and prepared me to go to college, and go into the real world,” Johnson said.

Johnson oversees an important evaluation measurement as one of her leadership duties.

“As a leader, I manage the entire battalion as well as our Continuous Improvement Project, which manages our entire battalion grade average, which is currently set at an 80, which was our goal last year which was an 85. We got 79, but it’s okay, we’re getting back up there,” Johnson said.

Being given leadership roles can be overwhelming and exciting.

“It was honestly kind of unexpected, I was like, alright, okay. It didn’t really set in until school. I was just shocked. I thought it was going to be someone else. Everyone thought it was going to be someone else. Really just unexpected,” Johnson said.

Having the leadership role comes with lots of responsibilities. 

“It’s really just managing everybody, like that’s 88 kids. I get so tired sometimes,” Johnson said.

JROTC teaches its cadets that they are independent and can rely on themselves for help. It’s an important skill to have so you can take care of yourself.

“It’s definitely allowed me to just see how I govern myself as a person and see how I manage my own responsibilities because I can’t always rely on my parents to help me,” Johnson said.

Some people assume that because a student is in JROTC, they automatically will want to join the military, and that’s not the case.

“We are not going to war. We are not fighting in Ukraine. We are not getting shipped to Gaza. We are not going to the military. You will not enlist me, enroll me, you will not see me on the front lines. Not everybody that is in JROTC wants to go to the military,” Johnson said.

Instead, Johnson envisions a different career path. 

“I’ve been a cadet for three years now, doing it since my sophomore year,” Johnson said. “I plan to attend a four-year college and hopefully medical school, and become a dermatologist,”