What do a football coach, astronaut, founder of Walmart and an Army four star general have in common?

(Sponsored Post) They are all graduates from Army ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Course). Lou Holtz, legendary football coach; Nancy Currie, space shuttle astronaut;  Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, and General (Retired) Colin Powell, are just a few of the great men and women that learned and developed their leadership skills from the Army ROTC program. Like many other ROTC graduates, their training gave them the skills to lead, manage, motivate their peers, and most importantly, foster teamwork – all the qualifications of successful leaders.

Army ROTC lays the groundwork for students to excel both personally and professionally by setting goals and guidelines that will take them to the next level of success – far enough to potentially create the fastest space shuttle or maybe the next great marketplace.

So what is Army ROTC?

Since its establishment in 1916, more than half a million men and women became officers through the Army ROTC program. Army ROTC is administered by the United States Army Cadet Command located at Fort Knox, Ky. The ROTC curriculum consists of a series of military science classes and hands-on leadership training experiences that provides students the necessary foundation to serve successfully in positions of responsibility – both in the Army and the civilian workforce. It can also provide benefits including full tuition, book and fees allowance, and a monthly stipend to qualified students. Just last year, the Army awarded approximately $294 million in scholarships to over 14,000 students across the nation – all studying a variety of specialized fields.

Today, with our host programs and partner schools we have Army ROTC at almost 1,000 campus locations across the country, as well as in Guam and Puerto Rico.

In addition to the Army college ROTC program, the Army offers Junior ROTC for high school students which teaches students to become better citizens. Currently, there are more than 320,000 cadets enrolled in over 1,730 JROTC programs at high school campuses in the U.S., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and at selected American high schools overseas.

What’s next?

For many students, Army JROTC and ROTC programs provide the necessary structure to get them on the right path to leadership and life-long success.

As we work to prepare our future leaders to be the next great athlete, first astronaut to step foot on Mars, new innovator in e-commerce, or even a future Army general, we must provide our children and students with all of the resources available to lead them to success.

For more information on the Army ROTC program, visit www.goarmy.com/rotcinfo or text “rotcinfo” to GoArmy (462769).

Maj. Robert D. “Dean” Carter is the lead marketing officer for the United States Army Cadet Command. In his role he is responsible for synchronizing all recruiting, marketing and outreach events for the command designed to increase awareness of leadership training and opportunities provided by Army ROTC that will benefit a potential army officer in a successful army career and beyond to the civilian corporate community.