An Air Force Scholarship Advisor came to campus on Wednesday to talk to the students about Air Force ROTC and the benefits getting a scholarship for it comes with. 

AFROTC is a 4-year program that allows students to commission as officers into the Air Force/Space Force, while also getting a college degree in anything they want. This program is offered at more than 1,000 colleges and universities across the country. 

If interested you can apply for the AFROTC scholarship. This scholarship can pay for 100% of your college tuition, give you great benefits, and after you’re done with the required 4 years of service, you’ll have the rest of your life to do whatever you want. 

“I think the thing that helped  the most was learning the difference between enlisting in the military, and being an officer after doing the 4 year rotc program,” senior Joshua Baldwin said. “A lot of them learned you don’t have to make the decision immediately to go in, if you get the scholarship you get 1 year to make the decision”

With the ROTC program you’ll learn critical time management skills, communication and conflict resolution techniques and it will help you build your confidence levels. 

“It gives them more of that structure than they would normally have without ROTC,” English teacher and veteran Ross Gragert said. “It gives them somebody that’s reminding them where to be and what to look like and some students coming right out of highschool, they need that. Because I know if I had gone right out of high school, I would have done very poorly in college. But since I went into the military I had people that were telling me what to do everyday, where to be and all these things.”

Coming right out of high school and having to immediately be an adult doesn’t work for some kids. Doing an ROTC program will give them more time to mature, learn how the world works, and grow into a responsible adult. 

“I think if I were to do it again I would rather go through the ROTC program,” Gragert said. “I would try to go from being an enlisted soldier to an officer, especially after seeing the presentation. They have a whole lot to offer, even if you don’t go through the formal academy. Having an ROTC program will set you up really well for your future.”