The Bataan March is a standard-length marathon through incredibly challenging high-terrain desert. Runners and “ruckers” must climb and descend Mineral Hill — where they will encounter snow — and then wind their way through miles of loose sand while enduring a rising heat as the day grows long. This year, Army ROTC Cadet Sean Schoch took first place in his class.
As Penn State celebrates Military Appreciation Week by honoring 100 years of women officially serving in the U.S. armed forces, Kelly Wolgast, assistant dean for online education and outreach in the College of Nursing and a Penn State alumna, shares her experiences as an Army nurse and her path back to the University after retiring from the military.
From Nittanyville and on the field at Beaver Stadium this weekend to Ruck for a Cure in November, the three branches of the Reserve Officer Training Corps are working to make Military Appreciation Week a special time for veterans and active-duty military.
In recognition of Memorial Day and Military Appreciation Month, the College of Information Sciences and Technology honors the men and women among its faculty, staff, students and alumni who are serving or who have served in the armed forces.
Penn State’s Army ROTC program has been selected as a General Douglas MacArthur Award winner for 2017-18, outperforming 41 other programs in the Northeast for the honor. The award is presented annually to the top Army ROTC program in each of the U.S. Army Cadet Command’s eight brigades, with the winning units selected from among the 275 Army ROTC programs nationwide.
Of the more than 300 ROTC students enrolled annually, more than half receive the U.S. Army Cadet Command Scholarship, which can be used to cover costs associated with tuition, room and board, books or other specific expenses. For cadets who do not receive this scholarship, the struggle to pay for college expenses is more difficult.
Kaizen, a THON group comprised primarily of Penn State Army ROTC cadets and supporters, will work to raise funds for the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon during its inaugural "Ruck for a Cure" on Saturday, Nov. 4, through Sunday, Nov. 5.
Penn State’s annual 24-hour prisoners of war/missing in action vigil will begin at 4 p.m. Sept. 16 on Old Main lawn at the University Park campus. The joint-service vigil, which is open to the public, will include a 21-gun salute and missing man table ceremony. More than 200 cadets and midshipmen from the Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC programs at Penn State will be in attendance.
Military instruction became part of Penn State's mission in 1863 when the institution was named by the Morrill Act to be Pennsylvania's Land-Grant university, requiring it to provide military training (among other terms). One hundred years later, Penn State Army ROTC alumni and current cadets and cadre of the Nittany Lion Battalion will join together to celebrate one of the oldest, largest, and most successful Army ROTC programs in the nation.
Three Penn State ROTC students, future representatives of three of the branches of the military, are better at commitment than most.
All three Penn State ROTC branches have a shared philosophy that the Penn State student experience takes precedence, and ROTC students can get involved in campus life within and outside of the ROTC.
Students coming to Penn State ROTC, one of the largest and oldest ROTC programs in the country, have many different backgrounds, but they all leave with a few things in common: a University degree, a core group of friends and the leadership skills and experience to make them successful.
A team from Penn State's Army ROTC program won the 2nd ROTC Brigade Ranger Challenge Competition, held Nov. 9 and 10 at Fort Dix, N.J., for the fourth year in a row. An annual competition for 42 ROTC units in the northeast, the event is a regional qualifier for the annual Sandhurst Military Stakes Competition held in April at West Point, N.Y. Last year, the Penn State squad bested all other American and ROTC squads in the international competition.
Penn State Army ROTC students have the opportunity to participate in leadership training programs throughout the world. Recently, cadets have attended programs including the Nurse Summer Training Program at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu and the Cadet Command internship at the National Forensic Science Technology Center in Largo, Fla.
