by Snit Kahsay

JROTC is a youth program that gives students the opportunity to acquire basic military knowledge and leadership abilities. This program is related to the Armed Forces but doesn’t force students to join anything after high school.

The teacher, Lt. Col. Bill A York, has been in the program for six years now. The part of teaching that he loves the most is “the part that teaches leadership. The reason I like to teach that is because I see a lot of technical issues going on with children at home and to help improve their communication, decision making skills and not give up on themselves.” 

This program can help kids feel more confident about public speaking due to the way they do their attendance and their way of communication and leadership. JROTC is one of the most popular pathways in Patterson High School, with more students joining every day. Some students were initially placed in the JROTC pathway without signing up for it but later came to appreciate it.

“I didn’t choose it, actually.”, explained Commander Alison Licona-Pacheco. “They gave it to me and I really liked how they organized the program and got cadets involved in everything. That’s why I liked it and that is how I got my position in leadership.”

This program is mostly known for  its unique way of teaching students to act like responsible adults and how to handle stressful things. This program includes uniforms that students must wear. On Thursdays, cadets must wear either their blues or OCPs (Operational Camouflage Pattern). On Fridays, cadets wear sweats because they do exercises on those days. 

JROTC organized a citywide 5K run on October 3 at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Poly) that any cadet (JROTC student) could participate in. The Patterson High School JROTC finished in 2nd place overall.