The JROTC Program cadets at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School were among the finalists in the Academic Team competition of the JROTC’s Junior Leadership and Academic Bowl (JLAB). They held their own in Washington, D.C., against their nine challenging teams seeking the national championship for the Army and all the armed services overall, according to Retired Col. Eddy Charles, the senior army instructor for the JROTC Program at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas
It was to the sound of cheers for Ivanna Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas that Cadet Captain Jamal Al-Ameen marched across the stage at the Concert Hall of George Mason University to collect the team’s Finalist Trophy and individual awards. For the first time, the U.S. Virgin Islands has made the listing of states that have been represented at the national finals of the JROTC’s JLAB Championships, which are held annually in the nation’s capital.
Representing the JROTC Mighty Rays Battalion of the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, the team of cadets, which included Deyjah Foster, Heather Henderson, Jamaal Al-Ameen and Mary Buendia, was among the top 24 teams of the U.S. Army’s overall 1,731 JROTC Programs that comprised the finalists for this year’s academic bowl segment of the JLAB. For two days and nine rounds of very, very fierce competition, they held their own among some of the nation’s best and brightest in math, science, English and social studies in some really grueling matches that had onlookers in awe. While they did not place among the top three of the Army’s JROTC Academic finalists, nor among the top three JROTC academic teams of the armed services — Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — they earned their trophy and individual awards for being among the “Best of the Best” of the nation’s JROTC programs scattered across the globe.
Each cadet received the JLAB College Credit Award scholarship from the College Options Foundation and RTG & Associates Inc. for their participation; a Certificate for Outstanding Achievement in the Army JROTC Academic Championship; a personal letter from Retired Four-Star General and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell; the George C. Marshall Foundation Medal for Leadership and Academic Excellence being presented for the first time to JROTC Cadets; and the Gold Coin commemorating America’s JROTC Program’s 100th anniversary, which will be observed in June 2016.
JROTC is very proud of its cadets on their remarkable achievement. They represented and competed fiercely. This reflects great credit upon themselves, their parents, their teachers, their high school, the St. Thomas-St. John District of the V.I. Department of Education, and the territory, because these students have proven that a public education in the U.S.V.I. can indeed compete with the “Best of the Best” from around the nation.
The team returns home on Tuesday from Washington, D.C.
