When Rider High School’s JROTC team received an email at the beginning of March they were ecstatic, for it revealed that they had qualified for the final round of the 2017-2018 JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl. This is the first time Rider has won the opportunity to compete at the national level in Washington D.C.

“We were prepared to be unprepared, so I was surprised when we won,” said junior Joseph Scales.

The first round of the competition took place on Nov. 2017 in the form of a Jeopardy-style test and consisted of questions dealing with JROTC, English, math, science, and current events. The team participated in the Army branch of the competition against 128 schools, with a total of 1,389 other Army teams.

“I wouldn’t say there was much fear in our group,” said junior William Nguyen. “We devoted a lot of time outside of class to develop the skills that are necessary to survive the JROTC section of our test and current events.”

Following the test, in February, every sophomore, junior, and senior in the program was required to write an essay about emotional intelligence.  Junior Catherine Coyle said she wrote hers in approximately half an hour. To her surprise her essay was chosen as one of the top ones, so she will be going to Washington, DC to compete.

From June 22-26, the team will be participating in the championship against 31 other schools that also passed the second round. The winner of the Army Academic Championship will face the winners from the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps in the Joint Service Academic Championship.