Douglas High School JRTOC Cadets and seniors Damian (Tigger) Russell, Ian McDonald, and Jacob Haire display their awards from the Leadership and Academic Bowl in Washington D.C., which they participated in during the summer. Senior and Cadet Aiden Martinez, not pictured, was also on the team.
Photo by Sarah Drinkwine.
Four Douglas High School JROTC cadets received bragging rights over the summer at the Leadership and Academic Bowl in Washington D.C. as the first Douglas team to make it to nationals.
Seniors Cadets Ian McDonald, Jacob Haire, Damian (Tigger) Russell, and Aiden Martinez participated in the event June 21-24 at the Catholic University and were awarded the MacArthur Foundation Leadership Award and the George C. Marshall Foundation Leadership and Academic Award.
The Junior ROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl is a jeopardy-like setting that tests cadet’s knowledge on leadership skills and some other topics such as math and geography. It is conducted online by the cadets and the national finalists get a full funded trip to compete in Washington D.C.
Glynn said participants have to be a sophomore or junior to compete and it’s all cadet run. He said there is an initial test conducted, then once the scores come in the cadets decide whether they want to compete and organize meeting times for their teams from there.
Sponsored by the College Options Foundation and Army Junior ROTC, the competition started online in November 2023 with over 3,000 teams across all services. By February, only 370 qualifying teams made it to level 2 of the competition and only 16 teams advanced to the national finals in Washington D.C., and Douglas High School was one them.
“They loved the fact that they made it to nationals, got to sightsee, and they were excited to come back and train this year’s groups,” said Glynn.
