Good afternoon everyone. Uhm getting ready for the Army ROTC web and RI know this is ready to start. He ran it is just two o'clock. I will give a couple more seconds for participants to join in and then we'll get started. So as I wait for those to arrive.
Uh, let's just take a quick pause and will start momentarily.
OK, there may be a few more. The join us, uh, but hopefully they will join in a Good afternoon. My name is peepli. I'm the enrollment in scholarship officer for Army ROTC at Colorado State University and our partnership school. the University of Northern Colorado. Just a little background on me. I finished college for quite awhile ago and I was a product of an army ROTC program and I served 30 years in the army.
Uh, for an active duty and 26 in the Army Reserve retired as a Colonel core of Engineers, so I've got a lot of background with ROTC and the Army. I've also been doing this job for about 17 years now so I'm very familiar with updates since I graduated in ROTC and more particularly in the Ram Battalion program. So what it's like for those of us here at CSU?
And our partnership at at UNC.
Uhm, I know you are able to type in questions. I won't get to those till the end, but if you do have questions I would encourage you to do so. I will click on the questions tab when I'm done with the presentation and I will answer them. So if you want to stick around at the end up I will get to those questions later. With that let's get started.
This is what my agenda looks like, uh, for the web and R I'm going to talk about what RTC is because there are some misconceptions about that, and some of you may or may not know exactly what it is, so this is a good time to learn a little more about it. I'm also going to give you program information both about connect command and more specifically about our program at CSU. And then I'm going to talk about scholarships. I know most of you will be coming in without scholarships.
At least without Army ROTC scholarships. And if you are considering um going through the Army ROTC program and becoming a Lieutenant in the army, whether that's active duty reserve or National Guard, there are opportunities to help pay for your college and minimize how much out of pocket you're going to have.
I'll talk about a few other opportunities with the program. Most of 'em are elective opportunities, so there are things that you can participate in. If you're interested and then we'll get to the questions that you post for me to try to answer.
So what is army ROTC in its simplest form, it is really just an elective college class, so you can take the class and leadership lab with no military service obligation for up to two years you don't actually incur a service obligation until you sign a contract as a freshman. The only way you can sign a contract is if you had applied for and received a four year national scholarship.
Other than that, it's a free year, so you're going to receive elective credit tored your major. Uhm, it'll count towards your GPA. And when comparing to most other college courses, it's much more basic as we step through the process of learning soldier skills and leadership skills, so it should not be in overly challenging class to take, especially not the freshman year, it does.
Get harder as you go along, as most college classes do, uhm, but it's a good opportunity to learn more so that when you start making a decision on whether or not to move forward and continue in the program, you're basing it on things you have learned and experienced, rather than a bunch of people's opinions. Whether that's mine, a friend, parents, aunts, uncles, whoever it may be.
Their opinions are great, but they're still there opinions and they may or may not match your opinions in your desires, so getting to experience and learn more helps a lot. The two levels of instruction are the basic course and the advanced course, the basic courses, the area where you can continue to take the class, if you are undecided so that you gather more experience and information to make sure that you're making the best decision possible for you.
The Advanced Course is the junior and senior year and if you have not already done so, you are required to sign a contract at the beginning of your junior year, which essentially means that you are committing to complete the program and Commission as an army officer, Second Lieutenant.
In in return, there are some guarantees that the army makes also. First off, you've got the support of Cadrez Uhm?
You there are financial benefits. Obviously, scholarships is one, but even pass scholarships there is for non scholarship individuals. There is a monthly living allowance or stipend. Plus it's the development of your leadership skills that will apply regardless of where you go after college, whether it's active Duty Reserve, National Guard, a civilian career or whatever.
Army ROTC is the first step in the professional leadership education for an officer and it's really designed to do multiple things. It's obviously designed to teach you more about the army, basic soldier skills, leadership skills, things like that, but it's also.
Uh, intended to enhance your knowledge of yourself what you are capable of, what your leadership style is, build confidence in not only your academic but your physical abilities. So all these things are part of what Army ROTC is.
So let's let's look at the program. Overall, the program run by Cadet Command out of Fort Knox produces the majority of the armies officers. Now most of you are all aware of West Point being an officer producing program and they are. It's a great program, but West Point only produces about 10 to 12% of the armies officers. Now all of 'em go to active duty, which is a big thing. And that's really the Gray box that you see.
Uh, I don't think the labels came out very well on this. Which is unfortunate. Uhm, the yellow and the green boxes are what Army ROTC produces. The yellow being active duty officers that are produced by army ROTC, the grain being reserved component. Either army reserves or Army National Guard officers. So combined, that's about 78% of the armies officers and then the Blue Box is OCS officer candidate school and that kind of.
Uh, produce officers for either active duty or Army Reserve and National Guard.
We talk about Army ROTC being a leadership development program and it truly is, and the reason I have this slide here is really just to give you a little bit of an idea of the breath of the leaders that have been produced from Army ROTC and obviously with some research you could fill up this and probably many more slides with leaders, whether it be.
Leaders in the army active reserve or National Guard. Government positions in civilian corporations. There's been a lot of people that have gone through Army ROTC and utilized the leadership development to really enhance and develop themselves for the start and for continuation of their karere
So the Ram Battalion Vision is really Simply put, we want to be a world class leadership training opportunity to take our cadets who are scholars, athletes and leaders and train them.
Ready to become a commissioned officer when they graduate and that they are fully capable of leading their unit their platoon at their first unit of assignment, regardless of where that assignment is.
OK, with the program I talked about the basic course, which is the first two years military science one is the freshman year military science two is the sophomore year and this gives you an idea of what you're going to be learning and it's just a brief.
Um description, there's obviously a lot more to it than that, but it does give you an idea about the fact that as you go along, this is a crawl walk run program. We don't expect you to come in with a lot of military knowledge, so we're going to teach you about the profession of arms were going to teach you basic soldier skills. We're going to help you be prepared for info.
School readiness aspects for the demands of the army.
We're going to give you an introduction to leadership skills and knowledge. There will be lessons in ethics and also critical thinking so that when you are in a decision making process, you are capable of making sound decisions.
The sophomore year is really an extension of that, and we're going to start throwing a little more leadership into the mix as you go along, along with technical and tactical skills. So it's really Step 2 and getting you prepared for becoming a junior should you decide to continue in the program where you're going to be thrust into a much heavier dose of of leadership.
So that's The Advanced Course is what I'm referring to there going into the MS3 level the junior level?
The junior level is really focused on.
Putting you in leadership.
Scenarios, leadership positions. It could be a squad leader. It could be a platoon leader or platoon Sergeant, various leadership positions and having to lead the Ms ones and twos that are in your squad in your platoon through various activities. Those activities could be physical fitness training. It could be our leadership labs, field training exercise, some of the extra curricular activities that are open to connect that I'll talk about later.
Um, whatever it is you're going to be in. Leadership positions.
And when you're in those leadership positions, you're going to receive feedback feedback from seniors who have already been through those leadership positions. Feedback from Cadrez and that feedback is designed to do two things. One is it's designed to let you know what you're really good at, because we want you to continue to Excel at things you're already good at. But it's also designed to give you feedback of areas that can be improved. A little things were.
And different people will look at it different differently. But areas where you can continue to develop and turn something that may not be as strong as other areas into a great strength for you.
Uh, the military science four level. The seniors now you start getting into battalion staff. How does a staff work together? They will actually plan for to execute virtually everything that the Ram Battalion does from leadership labs to EFCC to physical fitness training. All that is planned by the seniors and then executed by the juniors. Leading the freshmen and sophomores.
The other things that happened during the senior year is you're going to, uh, that's kind of your final preparation to become a Lieutenant in the army. So you're going to.
Do things like, um, going through exercises to learn how to counsel your subordinates, your squad leader, or I'm sorry, yeah, your squad leaders, or your platoon Sergeant. You're going to learn how to do evaluations because you have to write their evaluations. You're going to learn a little bit about military law so that you understand the military law process for your soldiers. All of those things will help prepare you to be successful.
Platoon leader and transition to either active duty reserve or National Guard and go onto your first schooling official schooling. Once you're commissioned, which is your branch course?
Our leadership labs really correspond to a lot of the classroom instruction that you're going to receive. It's broken down by Ms class because there's different functions. Most of our leadership labs are hands-on. It's like a practical exercise of a lot of the things that you're learning in class and for the most part they are tactically based based on infantry skills because.
Uh, whether we like it or not, regardless of your branch in the Army, you could be caught in a situation if you were deployed where you have to act as an infantry soldier. So you have to know infantry tactics and we use that the leadership of your squads and platoons when you're a junior as a basis to evaluate and give you feedback on your leadership skills.
Our physical fitness training program is also a part of the program. It is required for any contractid or pending contract cadets. Individuals who have received scholarships that have just not signed their contract yet. It is also a strongly encouraged activity for anyone who is continuing considering continuing in the program. The reason I say that is.
It would be a disservice to yourself and to others if you decide to sign a contract and then find out that Oh my gosh, you don't like doing physical fitness training or it's just something that you just dread all the time because it's going to make your time in the service a lot tougher. I mean, everybody likes to do some sort of physical fitness. Some people like it more than others, and I understand that.
Uh, but there is a physical aspect to Army ROTC and being in the military, so this is to prepare yourself for that. And this will also help you make a decision moving forward as to whether or not.
This is a good fit for where you want to go with your karere.
Again, the physical fitness program is led by juniors and it's supervised by seniors and Cadrez, and it's really it's always been oriented on whole body fitness, but that becomes even more important as the army is transitioning from the army physical fitness program or physical fitness test to the Army Combat Fitness test, which is really more oriented tored. The types of activities and the muscle movements and things that you might experience if you were.
OK, this slide may look a little confusing, but I hope it's not. You see the advanced course, that's all everyone. Its contract has to be contacted by then. That's on the right hand side of the slide. The basic course on the left hand is broken down into several blocks and the reason for that is, and I know from the participants today, not everyone is just an incoming freshman. We do have some transfer students, so progression is the normal way you start as a freshman.
And then go to sophomore year and continue on, um, some people will come in and actually double up on classes because they don't have a full four years. And that's OK. That's still under the progression portion. But there's also some folks who will come.
To the University who are considered lateral entry because they are in the reserves or National Guard and they've already got some schooling under their belt or their prior service. And then the final one is a transfer student who has less than three years remaining, has to go through basic camp in order to enter the junior year. So it's all under the basic course, but those are the different entry methods for Army ROTC.
OK, on to the scholarship opportunities. Probably what most of you are most interested in, and I'm going to focus my talk today on the campus based opportunities. They're the ones highlighted in green and I'll talk a little bit more about each of those. I believe we do have one participant that is going into their high school senior year.
The high school scholarship process is not local, it's a national process. So that is an on line process and you can apply for that at www.armyrotc.com and it's a little different process and I'm not going to detail that here, but you are welcome to email me if you do have any questions for the campus based scholarships there broken down into a couple of types.
The campus base can be either a scholarship that will take any major or it can be a stem science, technology, engineering, and math. And then there are guaranteed reserved force duty scholarships. Those are scholarships for individuals who decide to enlist in the reserve or National Guard.
And be a simultaneous membership program cadet while they are in college and ROTC, so they essentially have a part time job, one weekend a month along with the University classes that are taking but they get paid for their drill time, which is a good thing, and those scholarships pay the exact same as all of the other scholarships that are sponsored by the active army. But there are two differences. First differences that you are required to.
Thrilled with the unit. So you've got that part time job. The second difference is that when you graduate, you will Commission into where you enlist it. So if you enlisted into the National Guard, you're going to Commission into the National Guard. If you enlisted into the army reserves, you will Commission into the Army Reserve. Those are your only options. All of the other scholarships actually give you an opportunity to go active duty to guaranteed reserve forces duty scholarships do not.
Those require you to go into the reserve component.
Eligibility for scholarships is pretty simple and I've got it listed here. The two things I'm going to highlight really are the minimum GPA an AC TRSAT scores.
The minimums are what are required for you to be even able to start an application.
But like that bottom bullets as eligibility doesn't mean that you're going necessarily going to be competitive.
All scholarships are merit based, so competitive means higher is better. A GPA of 2.5 while you're able to apply for a scholarship, you're very unlikely to get one if you are much below a 30, and I generally say try to stay above 3 two in order to remain very competitive. Same way with a CTRSAT scores 19.
Or 1000 between AC TR. S80 respectively, means that you can apply. More likely you're going to need a 2425 or higher in the AC T, probably a 12 sixty 1280 or higher. In the essay tea, but I'm also going to get to what it takes to be competitive because.
There are different things that are looked at and you don't have to be necessarily competitive in each one.
So let's go to that slide.
Competitiveness, uhm, when I talk about competitiveness, uh, generally speaking a high school.
GPA of three 5 or higher. A college GPA of 3, two or higher. I talked about the AC TS 8024 and I think I said 1280. I meant 1180 and an Army Physical Fitness Test score of 225 which is about 75 points in each event or higher. Now in saying that it doesn't mean that you have to check every block where you are competitive in every block.
Uhm, but if you are below that, what is normally considered competitive in a certain block? Hopefully you will be higher in one of the others and I'll use an example. Maybe you got a 21 or 22 on the AC T.
OK, that one doesn't end up being quite as competitive as what. Uhm, most people are. However, if you had a 3 eight or three 9 GPA, you've kind of counteracted that. So you don't necessarily have to be hit each of these categories at or higher than what I've got listed here, but hopefully overall you're going to the more blocks you can check, the better, the more competitive you will be.
So the better your chances of getting a scholarship, and if you are a little low in one area, you've got another area.
The campus based selection process. This is what it looks like. Like I said it's a little different than the national process. Initiating an application really is done in our army ROTC office. Once you are registered for the Army ROTC class and leadership lab and we have you in the correct command system, all you need to do is come see me and say you are interested in applying for a scholarship.
I'll go into the system, check a block and your application is in. That's the easiest part, but the rest has to be completed before you are.
To be reviewed by a selection board. So we do have to have a copy of your final high school transcript and your AC T or SAT scores. You do have to complete a connect command form 104 R, which is an academic plan worksheet from wherever you are in college to your graduation. Listing all the classes, what semesters you plan on taking him. This does not get cast in Stone. We understand classes may not be available at a certain time when you projected Amor.
Classes may fill up. You will review this an update it and adjust it as necessary each semester. But there has to be a plan to graduation.
You do have to complete the army physical fitness test. Hopefully you pass it because without passing it you will definitely be.
Add a little more of an uphill battle for getting a scholarship because the physical fitness test is a a portion of it. You have to complete a face to face interview with the professor of military science and the cadet background experience form, which is an online survey usually takes about. I think 10 to 15 minutes.
Uhm, I will need a list of your activities for current school year and previous school year. That's all we can consider when we're looking at the campus based scholarships and then I will begin the process to get you scheduled for a physical an an eye exam with the Department of Defense contractors that do the physicals and eye exams. Once all of that is complete.
Then we conduct a local selection board, local being rate at CSU and we consider all of the applicants at CSU and UNC since it's our program.
Um, the professor of military science will create an Order of Merit list, ranking each of the candidates for scholarship from high to low, and then we compare that to the number of allocations we receive from our brigade and from Cadet Command, and we will send up.
Uh, all the top applicants until those allocations are filled.
No, what that usually means is there are folks that are passed or below the cut offline for allocations because we run out of allocations that does not necessarily mean you cannot get a scholarship because our brigade usually has scholarship money in the spring semester.
And you can, uh, apply for these scholarships anytime. First semester freshmen, second semester freshman. If you apply for a semester and aren't within the allocations, we submit additional requests to our brigade in the spring semester when there is usually extra money available and you may be able to get a scholarship then. Also, if you don't get one freshman year, you can also reapply during your sophomore year, so.
The only difference between scholarships is how many semesters you're going to get your college paid for. But even the shortest scholarship at two years?
Will pay half of your college, so that will still decrease the amount of out of pocket overall that you end up paying.
Scholarship benefits here is one of the things I really like to boast about, 'cause I think the army has one of the best scholarship benefit packages, if not the best. All of our scholarships are full tuition and mandatory fees, and it doesn't matter whether you are an in state or an out of state student. Your tuition and fees will be paid. The other thing is that the army gives an option to select room and board. Now room and board is a flat $5000 per semester, paid your account.
And individuals who usually look at that option are individuals who have other scholarships that bring their tuition and fees. Below 5000 a semester. Because since the army is paying your full tuition, they mandate that any other scholarships are paid first.
Now, if that happens in your scholarship bill is less than $5000. The room and board option is a great option because you will have enough money to pay the rest of your tuition and fees, and then whatever is leftover. You can put Tord room and board, tord, rent, Tord, whatever you need. It's because it's your money. You will also receive a $1200 yearbook allowance 600 each semester, and a monthly stipend from the first semester that the scholarship takes effect.
As long as you don't, uh, exceed your graduation date and that monthly stipend or living allowance is $420 a month.
Everyone wants to know. OK, if I do that, if I take the scholarship, what's that going to cost me? Well, once you sign a contract, whether it's scholarship or not, you will incur an 8 year service application. Now that seems like a long time, but let me explain because the Army offers you a variety of ways to fulfill that obligation. 1st way and the way that most cadets.
Want to fulfill their obligation is by going active duty becoming an active duty soldier.
If you go on active duty, you must remain on active duty for a minimum of four years, and that turns into five years. If you branch aviation because the army is looking to get a minimum of one full assignment out of you after you finish your bolik basic officer leadership course, training for whatever branch you're in. If you branch aviation, you're going to be in flight school for about a year and a half, so they're looking to get that full assignment.
After you finish flight school.
The remainder, once you have finished that minimum time on active duty.
You can request release from active duty and finish your time in either the reserve, the National Guard or the inactive ready reserve. The IR is essentially a manpower pool. You're not doing anything with the military, but because you do still have some service obligation left. You could be called back. Now let me try to relieve some of the fears about that.
Rack rates from the IR or extremely low because what that's used for is if there's a unit deploying, they're trying to fill a vacancy so there's they're looking for a specific.
Um Mo S and rank, uh so if you're in an infantry unit, they're not looking for a medical service officer. If you're in a signal unit, they're not looking for a an armor officer. If they're looking for an enlisted soldier, you're not even considered because because you're an officer rather than in listed, so the recall rates are extremely low. And chances are, although not guaranteed, chances are you will not.
See any more military time.
No, the other options you do not even have to go active duty. You can request reserve or National Guard time if you're a scholarship recipient, you have to be all eight years in either a reserve or National Guard unit because you're only serving part time. If you are non scholarship, you only have to be in those in an active unit for six years and then you have the IR option there also.
No, as noted in red, if you are AG RFD scholarship then it's mandatory that you go into the reserve or National Guard that you do not have an option there.
So let's talk a little bit about the other opportunities. I've talked about the reserve and National Guard quite a bit, so one of the aspects about reserve and National Guard is that there are students and we have cadets that will decide that hey, the reserve or National Guard is nice because it offers a part time job. I don't necessarily have to get a scholarship because I can go through their training and.
Come get tuition assistance or GI bill benefits I get to shadow Lieutenant because you are when you are an SMP cadet, whether it's scholarship or non scholarship your non deployable so even if the unit gets deployed you won't. You get to remain in school and finish your college degree. You get to shadow a Lieutenant and really start understanding the duties and responsibilities of an officer. So that part time job is attractive to a lot of people.
Maybe not everyone, and that's OK, um, but it's an option for someone if if it seems to fit, uh, what you would like to do and where you might like to go after college?
Specialty training once you are a contractid cadet and this is targeted typically at the sophomore class, the summer following your sophomore year, you can compete for Airborne Air Assault Mountain warfare. A lot of the army specialty schools and we get slots each year for those schools. It's a small number of slots because there's 270 three programs nationwide in each will get a couple of slots.
And you'll be there with active duty soldiers, West Point Cadets, cadets from other programs, but they are available. There's connect troop leader training. That's typically after your junior year, because when you go to advanced camp, which is a commissioning requirement, there's an opportunity following advanced camp to go to an active duty post and actually shadow a Lieutenant and get paid to do that for another three weeks. So that's another opportunity.
So there are some specialty training options there for you. A little bit down the road if you're interested in any of those non classroom activities. I've talked about leadership lab, our field training exercise or FT X is a once a semester exercise where we are typically gone from campus to military post or facility. Sometimes we go to the Jacks Valley Training Area at the Air Force Academy, sometimes to Fort Carson.
Uhm, but some place that is a little bit away from campus. So to avoid those distractions and to give our cadets a little more realistic training than we are able to do on and around campus.
There's also things like Ranger challenge, so if you're.
Like competition, that's like our varsity team.
Ranger challenge activities are based on physical fittness and.
Infantry skills primarily, and we compete against Ranger Challenge teams from.
Universities in our geographic footprint, which is the western half of our brigade.
The western half of our brigade covers Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah in Arizona, so we compete against the universities within that geographic area. We also have a cannon crew which fires are 75 millimeter howitzer at home football games. That's probably our most popular, uh, extra activity. Volunteer activity. We have a push up crew also at football games doing pushups to the home teams.
Which is also kind of popular, and if you're a workout fanatic, that's right up your line. UM, zero week. That's what are zero week is is essentially new cadet orientation.
Primarily, it's focused on freshman, but we do have transfer students, so it's really any new cadet can come to zero week. We are in the process of planning it because, but because of COVID-19 right now we're not exactly sure what the activities are going to look like this year because we will be under some constraints that are dictated by the University. So I will send out more information on that later in the summer. Once we get a little better guidance on what we can.
Um language scholarship program. There is actually extra pay for some.
Foreign languages, so if you are a student that is interested in learning a foreign language and it happens to be a Middle Eastern or Asian language, there are there is extra pay for taking those classes and getting a B or higher.
And then I quite frequently get asked about study abroad, whether or not that's even a possibility. It's not only a possibility, but when it comes to the a sessions process, which is the army making plans to assess you into the army, you get extra points for that, because that is all again merit based, and the points you have accumulated through your GPA, your leadership performance is your physical fitness. All those things.
You add some points by knowing more about another culture so it is something that is a possibility and anyone who wants to know more about that. I can talk to you about it or answer questions, but I will say is due to the way that the ROTC program is structured. If you are considering study abroad, you should plan for that. Your spring semester of your sophomore year.
So with that you'll see my contact information here. My phone number that is listed as my office phone. I'm actually going to give you my cell phone number because we are still teleworking until the University allows us back. My cell phone is 970-988-0174. You can email me. You can phone me. You can go to our website which is also listed here and my contact information is there. Or you can click on the more information.
Request more information button that will generate an email directly to me so you have a number of ways of contacting me. If you have questions or issues or just wanna know a little bit more.
If you do decide to register for the class, which I would really encourage because it's going to give you elective credit tored your major anyway, and it's a great way without any risk of learning more about the army and becoming an officer, the class you would register for is mercy. 101 is a two credit hour class. The Leadership Lab is mercy 196, and that's a one credit hour lab, and for freshman.
There's no outside work or preparation, so it's just attendance based. So um, by going to lab every week, that's an easy A.
let's move on to questions. Let me see if we've gotten any questions typed in here yet.
Interesting, so either I've been very thorough or no one wanted to take the time to type questions while I was talking, which is fine. I will provide another minute or two to see if any questions do pop up.
While I'm waiting to see if anything does pop up, I would like to thank you for your time this afternoon and I really hope to see most or all of you in the program as we start classes and get back to campus this fall. Really from my perspective, it's an awesome opportunity, but.
The ability for you to find out if it's a good fit for you is probably one of the best features of the program. That way you're not committing to something earlier, then you're ready to do so.
Do you have any questions?
OK, I don't see any questions, so I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting you. Hopefully seeing your names show up on our class lists as orientations progress and you start registering for classes and again ioffer my services at anytime.
Uh, that you're available, so please let me know what questions you have whenever they come up, whether it's tomorrow or two weeks from tomorrow and with that.
Thank you for your time and have a great day.
Peter Bleich
02:44:47 PM
Thank you all for attending the Army ROTC Webinar!