By Ireland Castillo
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The MHS Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) successfully completed the first round of the Junior Leadership Academic Bowl (JLAB) in December at MHS. Cadets participating in JLAB have learned how to become better individual leaders and team contributors.
“(The leadership team is tested on) pretty much leadership skills, terms and what it takes to be a leader,” explained team member Sophomore Sarah Owen continuing, “(The academic team is tested on) math, (vocabulary), writing, sentence structures and science, like SAT or ACT questions.” JROTC is represented by a Leadership and Academic team, with six cadets per team. Each team answers an online test by solving various questions that challenge their leadership and academic ability.
Since the JLAB competition is an online test, both JLAB teams created a strategy that involves participation of all team members ensuring quick productive responses. “(Once we all contribute) Iíll sort of collect the information, cause thereís around five of us, so whoever, like, majority vote itíll go in (as our answer),” explained team member Junior Andrea Thayne.
As JLAB is a team effort, each member is able to contribute regardless of knowledge and experience, resulting in a professional performance. “We’re expected to really be the leaders where when it comes to next year,” explained team member Junior William Pagonis continuing, “What theyíre doing, itís as simple as that, and thatís one of the benefits of being in JLAB, you know how to be a leader.”
The overall JLAB experience allows cadets to become comfortable with each other, facilitating greater confidence and pride with their team members. “I think weíre doing fine because (we’ve) made it to the next round and we get along with everyone in the team,” expressed team member Junior Quentin Tapaoan.
In the end both of MHS JROTC JLAB teams are now in the second round of the competition, which is being held from February 1st through 15th at MHS. If the JROTC JLAB teams pass the second round they will be flown to Washington D.C. to participate in the JLAB national competition
