OPINION: YVHS Needs JROTC
A push for opportunity, a fight for your future, and what you can do to help.
Untapped Potential
As a military kid, I have lived all over the world and seen many things, but only a few times in my life have I seen so much leadership potential, yet so few opportunities. If Yucca Valley High School were to apply for and be approved for a Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program, there would be so many amazing opportunities provided to the students. It provides YVHS the opportunity for student leaders to grow as leaders, as well as to grow and multiply more leaders. In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell, it is implied that if you want to add growth, lead followers, and if you want to multiply that growth, you have to lead leaders.
The only way to lead those leaders is if there are leaders to lead. There is so much leadership potential throughout the high school population of YVHS, and I’ve seen it. But because of the somewhat limited student body and government opportunities, and how there can be harsh requirements for entry and acceptance, the character and potential for students who don’t get accepted are completely limited. Many students have leadership potential and ability that is untapped, yet still apparent, and JROTC would be the perfect opportunity for that leadership to develop and blossom amongst all participating students.
I am a firm believer in the notion that leaders are born as well as made. I’ve seen multitudes of cadets who’ve gone from having no essence of leadership in their being to becoming some of the greatest and most trustworthy leaders I’ve ever encountered. Many of the world’s greatest leaders were essentially born as leaders, willing to step up to the plate, hungry for success and betterment, and striving to be better than they were yesterday. But at the same time, leaders can also be made.
Learning Leadership
You can teach leadership, and students are the best population to learn the virtues of leadership and how to be a leader. JROTC capitalizes on building and developing leaders. Along with developing new leaders comes having a safe leadership team. Everyone has an equal opportunity to be part of this team, and everyone is afforded that chance. JROTC has several important principles it is built upon, all helping to define leadership, and how a leader should be and act.
Being in JROTC, I became more outgoing and outspoken than I’d been my entire life. I went from being the kid who was too timid to be counted on or try new things, to a person others turned to for help and guidance, and someone who incited courage and confidence amongst those around me. The effect this training had on me wasn’t just a fluke or a one-time event. I firmly believe any and everybody can be refined or reformed into a great and respectable leader.
Beyond Boundaries
By pushing students past their comfort zones, three things happen: they break past their original boundaries, opening up to the world and the community, they learn to discipline themselves through and from their trials and tribulations, and they develop a feeling of respect for oneself and respect earned from one’s comrades. Respect is a virtue earned and learned. From my personal experience in my short time in YVHS, I’ve noticed that one thing students in our school need work and emphasis on is respect. We often times find ourselves in positions to be constantly told and reminded to maintain even the slightest degree of respect because we’ve proven to be incapable of more. JROTC is the perfect opportunity for that essence and virtue of respect to be tamed and trained, then put into practice.
However, the precursor to that degree of respect is self-discipline. We need to learn how to discipline ourselves, how to sit still, how to not always react to everything, how to display and maintain tact, and how to maintain our bearings. Tact and bearing are two very important leadership traits taught in JROTC, but these concepts can be applied in day-to-day living. The two go hand in hand in multitudes of situations and apply equally in real-life situations, as well as in classrooms.
One Unit, One Team
JROTC isn’t just a class, a club, an activity, or a credit — JROTC is a family. We are one unit, one team, with one goal. None of us are better than the other, nor hold more or higher value over the persons to our left and right. We treat each other with equal and positive respect and build each other up. I’ve never felt so safe in my life as I have being in a JROTC program. We can and do rely on each other in many aspects. We emphasize the fact that we are one family, brothers and sisters together. What happens to one person affects not just that person, but everyone else as a whole. We stand for and behind each other because it’s not only our duty and way of life, but it is the right thing to do.
It’s a different type of family, similar to that of a closely-knit nuclear family, but stronger than a bee colony or lion pride. Being in this family, regardless of your race, ethnicity, religion, history, and background, teaches you the prospects of trust and integrity. You learn to put legitimate and strong trust in those around you.
For Your Consideration
Establishing a JROTC program is inexpensive. The Marine Corps, as a Department of the Navy, sends us all the supplies, uniforms, textbooks, drill and marksmanship rifles, and other materials to be provided for the cadets within the unit. Other than an annual payment of roughly $500, deposited to the Marine Corps, which can be amassed by cadets through fundraisers and community services, budgets and expenditures shouldn’t be a problem with the establishment of this program.
The big issue is this — the Marine Corps has stopped accepting host unit applications, which means they’ve stopped establishing new units. This is where you as a student, parent, teacher, adult, marine, soldier, or reader, whomever you are, come into play. You alone have an incomparable amount of value. You can be the voice we need to provide the students of Yucca Valley with an invaluable opportunity. Our goal is to get the support of as many students, community members, city council members, and active duty servicemen as possible. WE have a voice, but having a voice doesn’t always mean you’re heard. But we NEED to be heard. We NEED this program and this opportunity, and we NEED your help. Your support for this cause can go a long way. Simply sharing this article is all the support we ask for. We are fighting to convince the school, the school district, and most importantly, the Marine Corps to establish just one more program, and we need your help to do so.
Our Mission
I believe the students of Yucca Valley High School deserve to have a Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program. I’ve talked to and presented to nearly two hundred of the 1,350 students at this school, ranging from freshmen to seniors, and each of them believes in and wants an MCJROTC program. These are average students, young men and women with untapped leadership potential, including many current student leaders in their respective organizations, as well as students looking for a possible career within the military, students who are looking for a means of simply getting out of their shell, and students who may just seek a passion or purpose.
As 14% of the students at this school want this program for the chance for themselves and their peers to grow, it would be wrong to not attempt to provide something that could be so beneficial. Funding and expenditure shouldn’t even be barriers to moving forward. The establishment is a process, but a process worth the while. Students are seeking opportunities. They seek betterment, and they deserve this program. There is so much leadership potential amongst and within these students, and I will do everything I’m capable of if it means a chance at providing these students with something so amazing to put that potential to use. I’m willing to fight for this cause, the students and student leaders are willing to fight for this cause, are you?
Yannick Assilamehou is a junior at YVHS, and a former member and officer of JROTC. After graduation, he plans to apply to the United States Naval Academy and commission as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
