John Steger: My take on how ROTC is, and college, and how you can [00:00:05] serve and go to college at the same time, it's just a great experience [00:00:10]. I know a lot of people think that military is either one path, or college is another path [00:00:15], but what I found through ROTC is that you can do both and [00:00:20] still reach the same goals that you want. And it's a great opportunity [00:00:25] and I know that's what I wanted to do because I wanted to be in the military [00:00:30], but still go to college. So ROTC was, obviously, the best choice for that [00:00:35].
Jessica Marshall: I used to be the biggest procrastinator in the world before I actually [00:00:40] came here. And you just learn to better manage [00:00:45] the things that you're supposed to do.
Alex Pombar: Yeah we do, we have a lot of great, you know, cadre around here [00:00:50], we can kind of pick their brains and, you know, take stuff, bits and pieces, from their experiences and try to apply it to [00:00:55] our own, you know, our own experiences as leadership. So, you know, there [00:01:00] are tons of opportunity here to develop yourself so they do a really good job [00:01:05] of, you know, putting stuff out there and making sure, you know, we're as good as we can be.
Jessica Marshall: I've gotten a lot of good [00:01:11] training, Marine Corp-wise; with the knowledge of the weapons [00:01:15] and fighting formations and [inaudible] navigation, stuff that I [00:01:20] never would've learned had I not joined this program.
John Steger: ROTC [00:01:25], we take college students and teach them how to become officers [00:01:30]. Yes, that's pretty short, but I guess that sums it up. Here we have a lot of opportunities [00:01:35] where, I know I've seen it first hand where the people that first come here freshman year and you're like [00:01:40], man, this guy wants to be an officer? Or, you know, he wants to be a leader, it's like, I don't know, he's just real timid and shy [00:01:45] and just not what you'd expect to see in a leader. But, you know, over the years they [00:01:50] kind of gain that confidence from doing the small things, you know, marching formation, to chow [00:01:55], or something, just little things. And by the time they leave here, you know they're, you know, walked on, like wow, this guy [00:02:00] really went through a, you know, big change.
Jessica Marshall: And my [inaudible] he used to say this all the time, it's not about [00:02:05] preparing you for the military, it's about teaching you how to be a better civilian and how to better [00:02:10], I guess respect, you know, pay respects to the flag, pay respect to the fact that you're [00:02:15] living in the country where people are fighting for your freedoms every single day [00:02:20]. You know, you learn a lot about the military there, but the big thing about it [00:02:25] is learning how to be a better civilian. All in all, it's been a really awesome time [00:02:30]. I have to say I love it. I love it so much and [00:02:35] I couldn't think of going on a different path to get to where I want to be [00:02:40].
[End of Recording]
