Students, faculty and staff often see camouflage-clad students walking the halls of Gannon University, but their unique appearance is just one of the many aspects of a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps – ROTC – member’s college experience.
Sure, it can be easy to spot the students and faculty of Gannon’s ROTC program in a stroll down A.J.’s Way.
Two students involved in the program, however, have more to say about the choices they have made and the direction in which participation in ROTC has led them.
Corbin Lounsbury, a senior information systems major at Gannon, and Cadet First Lieutenant in the ROTC program, said the program is designed to help students and future military officers develop leadership qualities.
He said students can take ROTC as a class – which is free and open to all students – for up to four semesters, and then a contractual commitment to the Army is required to continue taking it.
Lounsbury is in his fourth and final year in ROTC, but before that he was in the United States Army Reserves for a little more than a year and a half.
He said his experience in the Army was drastically different from his experience in ROTC.
“Before, I was taught how to take orders and follow my orders with discipline,” he said. “Now, I am being taught how to make those decisions and give those orders.”
Lounsbury said he aspires to commission into the Pennsylvania National Guard and hopefully find a job in network administration. He said his experience in ROTC will no doubt help him in his career pursuits.
“I will be using what I learned here to keep my soldiers safe,” he said.
Another member of Gannon’s ROTC program, junior journalism communications major Amanda Harrigan, said she is also planning on a future career in the military.
She said she is planning on going active duty with a signal corps unit and using her degree to work through the ranks as a public affairs officer.
“ROTC will give me all the opportunities I could ask for,” she said, “including traveling overseas and becoming a well-established person.”
Lounsbury said his participation in the program has been a rewarding experience.
“ROTC has improved my leadership techniques,” he said, “as well as gave me a new understanding on how the military decision-making process works.”
Harrigan also said her experience in the organization has been worthwhile.
“I’ve made a lot of great friends that I can rely on and I became a more confident and independent person,” she said.
Harrigan also described ROTC as a practical solution to a college student’s post-graduation woes.
She said there’s no job guarantee after college, no insurance; nothing that is set in stone. She said ultimately that was a big part of the reason she got involved.
“I wanted to have a chance to travel and do what I love,” she said. “ROTC gave me that and I’m so glad I joined.”
Lounsbury similarly said he joined ROTC because it was a good way to pay for college and continue on a track he had already set for himself.
“I had no idea about the experiences I would have and the friends I would make,” he said.
