UNION COUNTY —The Union County High School JROTC Leadership Team will once again compete in a national leadership and academic event.

The JROTC Leadership Symposium and Academic Bowl is a nationally recognized academic and leadership competition created exclusively for JROTC students. Cadets who participate learn the values of citizenship and academic competition while increasing their SAT/ACT scores. The process also increases interest in college admissions, improves leadership skills, and boosts team and unit esprit de corps. The competition creates opportunities for cadets to demonstrate the leadership and academic strengths of the JROTC program.

The UCHS JROTC Leadership Team competed in the event in 2012 and finished 22nd in the top 40 of the 1,700 JROTC units throughout the country. The team was recognized for its participation by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The team will also compete in this year’s leadership symposium and academic bowl.

Lt. Col. John Odell, senior army instructor for the Yellow Jacket Battalion, announced this week that the team “has once against advanced to the national finals in the Army JROTC Leadership Bowl. The teams will compete with 39 other finalists in Washington, D.C., June 21-25. The team consists of Team Captain Michael Leigh, Alana Wright, Nicole Fowler, Alex Childers, Les Wentz, and Dalen White.”

The leadership and academic bowl began in 2005 as the George C. Marshall JROTC Leadership Symposium on the campuses of Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. Since 2008, the competition has been held at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

In 2006, selection for participation in the national competition was based on competitive examination for the first time. The selection process consists of two levels of on-line qualifying examinations. Level I reduces the field of 1,700 Army JROTC units by half. Level II then narrows the field to 40 finalists who are invited to attend Level III, the national competition.

Among the teams taking part in the competitive examinations in 2006 was the Union High School JROTC Leadership Team as it was then known. It was the first year the team competed and the first year it won the right to attend the national competition. Since then, the team has made it Level III six times in a row, a record matched by only one other school. The team achieved its highest ranking in the competition in 2011 when it finished second.

Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.