With the sun rising in the background, students' minds race with thoughts of their upcoming course exams as their peers yell out commands for physical conditioning drills.
This is the reality of a Reserve Officer Training Corps student.
What is ROTC?
ASU is home to ROTC and has a total of four military branches: the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
ROTC is a program that University students can take as an elective credit, alongside other offered classes.
Some students join the program when they get to college; others serve active duty, then return to college through the Green & Gold Congressional Aide Program, to then enter deployment after graduation with the possibility of a higher rank.
The program meets every day of the school week and does activities ranging from physical training and lectures to mission training and leadership labs. On top of that, these cadets have coursework, homework and presentations they need to complete for their majors.
"The ROTC program definitely demands a lot of you for the better," Jose Leon, an ROTC cadet and a graduate student studying construction management and technology, said. "There's a lot of required things that you have to do to succeed in the ROTC program, to compete for a commissioning slot."
Balancing academics and ROTC
In the ROTC program, cadets not only work with each other but also compete against each other for ranks and points on merit lists. The highest points a cadet can earn are for academic performance and grades.
For a few cadets, it can feel difficult to call participating in both worlds a fair balance. Both can feel physically and mentally demanding.
These students have learned that you have to be adaptable when juggling both parts of college.
"I would say there is no such thing as a perfect balance, you learn to be adaptable," Jade Goulet, an ROTC cadet and a junior studying psychology, said in a written statement. "Some days will be demanding for ROTC, others are going to be really busy for academics, so I try not to focus too much on trying to find the perfect balance between the two. Instead I try to stay flexible and reassess my priorities when things get overwhelming."
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While the program teaches leadership skills, many would argue that it has also taught them how to manage their time.
Time management looks different for many cadets, such as using calendars, planning weeks in advance, and prioritizing their time when they can.
"I used to be someone who procrastinated assignments until the last minute but having an outline of my tasks laid out for the week or month helps keep me on track," Goulet stated. "Visualizing what my workload will be for the next week helps me realize it is achievable and I have time to also take care of my mental health and fitness."
Community in ROTC
For Paul Hickerson, an ROTC cadet and a junior studying mechanical engineering, personal time can be time spent with the people he cares about when he feels overwhelmed.
"It's definitely straining having a lot of those time commitments," Hickerson said. "I do carve out those times for myself. I'll specifically have time to just rest, recover."
The program also finds support in each other. While there are individual assessments and tasks, the goal for Cade Garner, an ROTC cadet and a junior studying geographic information science, is to work together and help each other.
"If you can step away, step away," Garner said. "There's no reason to stay in that mindset of hard work if you don't need to ... we work together, we check on each other."
The ROTC program creates its own small community on campus, with cadets learning and leaning on their peers for support. The main goal is communication for cadets.
"It is a community, believe it or not, and I think that's the biggest thing that keeps people from joining, is that we do care about each other," Garner said. "I'm going to train you (and) I'm going to be hard on you, but you're also going to see the care and the compassion that I have for you."
Edited by Senna James, Jack McCarthy, Emilio Alvarado and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at galawre3@asu.edu.
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Grace Lawrence is the lead reporter for the community and culture desk at The State Press. This is her 2nd semester working with The State Press.
