KINGSLEY — Kingsley High School recently announced the launch of Northern Michigan’s first Naval Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corp at the district.
The new unit is the first program north of Flint and will be offered to all high school students as a daily elective class.
The in-class experiences will be accompanied by extracurricular activities that may include shooting practice, military site visits, ceremonies and field trips.
The NJROTC program offers a comprehensive four-year curriculum centered on naval science and leadership development. Students will explore topics like naval history, strategy, navigation, astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, marksmanship and engineering.
The curriculum also incorporates essential life skills such as personal fitness, financial literacy, college prep and mental health.
30 students are already signed up for the program and enrollment will remain open through the first few weeks of the school year.
Kristen Bauer, a high school history teacher who helped bring the program to the school, said the class will impart lessons applicable to every student, whether on a military trajectory or not.
“It’s easy to teach kids that are going to go on to college, but then you have a whole other host of kids, increasingly so, who are looking at alternate paths,” Bauer said. “In the course of 20 years, I (started) taking a look around at what was going well for me and areas that I could innovate, also what was going well for the school, in general, and areas that we could innovate. This was an area that popped up.”
Bauer said NJROTC has a lot of the things the community has asked for including SAT prep, financial planning, how to stand up to bullying, how to prepare a college application, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and managing anxiety and stress.
Launching the program has been a dream years in the making for Bauer, who was inspired to bring the program to Kingsley after visiting an NJROTC unit in Belleville and learning about its impact on students.
Bauer regularly encourages student engagement in current events and media in classes, and she said seeing her students express different perspectives showed the potential that bringing the program to the district could have due to its diverse curriculum.
Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Mathew Barr was instrumental in bringing NJROTC to the district and connecting with students to discuss the curriculum and the program’s benefits.
He said the class is not a recruiting program but rather a class rooted in the core values of the Navy.
“The Navy is looking to start these programs across the country to help students gain better leadership, citizenship and pride in their country,” Barr said. “This is for students who want to have the experience of the military and gain all the intangible stuff like leadership, integrity, commitment and discipline. I guarantee students will never want to leave this class. It becomes a family, like a close-knit unit like we are in the military.”
An important aspect of the program, according to Bauer, is that it can help every kind of student become active, acquire leadership skills and give them the next level of training they’ll need for college, trade school, or the workplace.
Kingsley junior Isaiah Cosgrove said he is excited to start hands-on learning in the NJROTC classes.
“I joined this class because it’s stuff I love to do and I just hate sitting in the classroom,” Cosgrove said. “I think it’d be really cool to be able to do all this stuff that I’ve done before and love to do.”
The school administration’s support has also helped integrate the program into the curriculum seamlessly, Bauer said.
“Always, the most important thing is the knowledge that we are family first,” she said. “We are community-first. My coworkers, I think, are the best that are in the business. My department is amazing. My administration has always been extremely supportive. They understand you need to be innovative in the industry.”
Bauer has also heard from family members in Livonia including her uncle who participated in ROTC himself growing up of how the friendships and bonds built during participation can last a lifetime.
Cultivating an NJROTC program that serves all kinds of students and provides unique experiences will be a fundamental goal, she said.
“This is going to be a program that is for every student,” she said. “This is a program for athletes, you belong here. This is a program for kids that love band, art, science — anything that you can think of. You’re going to get something out of this no matter what it is that you want to do.”
According to the NJROTC, approximately 60% of the NJROTC cadets who are graduating seniors continue to higher education.
Bauer said she hopes the program will see growth as students engage and share their one-of-a-kind NJROTC experiences.
“I think that Kingsley is the best fit,” she said. “It’s an amazing place to be. I know that we need this for Michigan. We need this for a great America, for a great Northern Michigan. It has to be communities everywhere that are adopting programs like this, and you see more and more interest in programs like this. This is the first program like it in northern Michigan, my goal is that it certainly isn’t the last.”
For more information on Kingsley Area Schools visit www.kingsleyschools.org .
For more information on the NJROTC visit www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/njrotc .
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