• the story of a liberal arts education

  October 5, 2010

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  Tags:  

  rotc   ldac   Financial   Education   army   strong   training  

  How Army ROTC and Army training has helped me financially, intellectually, and physically develop as a scholar-athlete-leader and as a citizen.

  Financial support - I have the distinct privilege of attending the most expensive school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Army ROTC has helped pay for almost all of my financial needs: full tuition, book money and biweekly stipend.  I like the fact that I'm not as dependent on my parents for money all the time. 

  Intellectual development - I go to school with a bunch of smart people, but it has been through the Army ROTC that I've realized that intelligence and intellectual capacity isn't just how well you do on your SATs.  Its about how you innovate, create ideas, execute your plans, intrapersonally connect, among other qualities.  The Army actually has a leadership development model that lists all the qualities that a leader should have.  When I look at my resume nowadays, I feel completely obliged to put the fact that I've been involved with ROTC because it has played a large role in my education.  Army ROTC has compelled me to interact with a lot more diverse of a crowd that I am used to of all different races, socio-economic class and geographical locations.  Interacting with such a broad swath of the American population has helped me develop as both a leader and a learner.

  As somebody who is very involved in student government, my ROTC experience has helped me very much in the way that I represent students on campus and interact with my peers to get projects done.  The military planning process and thought process has brought a different perspective of thinking to what I do giving me both an Athens (idealistic) and Sparta (realistic) approach to problems. 

  The military puts a huge emphasis on the learning process because simply put..if you make a mistake out there in the fields of strife people can die.

  At just about any training event that we do its a learning process.  We plan, execute, decision-make and learn from the mistakes that we make.  To give an example of the learning that we do..we always do what is called an After Action Report essentially asking what worked well, what didn't work well and observing what actually happened from all different perspectives

  Physical health -  Army ROTC gives you an excuse to work out.  I remember one of my fellow cadets from Harvard sending an email out to the entire battalion how there are only so many professions in the world that pays you to work out (hint: the military is one of them).  I'm not going to lie by telling you its always fun and games.  As a college student theres nothing worse than having to get up in the morning after a long night of social activities or studying, but all in all it works out.  The physical aspect of life is just one aspect of leading a healthy life. 

  As a sidenote..you also get paid to jump out of airplanes!

  submitted by Cadet Edward Chao on Oct 5 2010

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