Elizabeth Waggoner describes her first time swinging-by-choice as "sheer terror." Then, reliving the memory, she grins.
Waggoner, an instructor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Ball State University, joined 90 other educators from colleges and universities from around the nation in hitting the ropes alongside cadets at the Army ROTC-sponsored Leaders' Training Course held July 9-13 at Ft. Knox, Kent. to gain real-life military experience.
LTC was created for students interested in the Army to glimpse what real Army training is like through 28 days of rigorous activities, Timothy Cummins, instructor of military science and scholarship and enrollment officer for the Department of Military Science, said. The idea is geared toward helping students who are already halfway through their college careers or who are considering graduate school figure out whether or not the Army is a path they would want to pursue further.
"It is a program that, whether you are a junior in college or a graduate student, you can get into the program and do it [ROTC] in two years instead of the usual four," Cummins said.
"It gives you something to talk about," he said. "You can say more than, 'This summer I worked at Subway.'"
Cummins, who is in his second year at Ball State and who has been an Army member for around 25 years, said that the program has improved in past years due to a more standardized structure and an added military history course.
Educators are then invited to join the students for five of those days, participating in such activities as high rope climbing, combat water survival training and small boat training.
For the educators, the training course's finale occurs on the fifth day with the educators' graduation ceremony and a banquet featuring soldiers' period dress from the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq, Waggoner said.
Waggoner said she first "jumped on the opportunity" for personal reasons: a self-proclaimed "Army brat," she graduated from high school in Ft. Knox. It wasn't the nostalgia, however, that Waggoner
enjoyed most, she said.
"What impresses me most is the cadets," Waggoner said. "They are just amazing young people, with manners you just don't see anymore. It makes you feel like the country's in good hands."
For a similar on-campus experience, Cummins suggests that interested students take Military Science 101. While the class focuses on interactive events like paintball and helicopter rides, it also helps students plan their academic careers, effectively manage time and stay healthy through fitness and nutrition. Students who enjoy the class may then decide to participate in the Leaders' Training Course, he said.
For more information regarding the Leaders' Training Course, visit usaac.army.mil/acce.
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