JROTC coming to JCHS this fall; program focuses on leadership
By Field Manley Millen News Summer Intern

Jenkins County Public School Superintendent Joan Blackwood stands beside a check from Planters EMC that will help with costs for the JROTC program at JCHS. The check was presented as part of Planters' "Operation Round-Up" program designed to help with community, youth, educational and environmental projects. (Photo by Field Manley)

Their goal is to help motivate young people to be better citizens, and they are now doing it at Jenkins County High School.

The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, U.S. Army, is coming to the high school starting this fall and it is the first program of its kind to be implemented in Jenkins County.

The program focuses on promoting citizenship, developing leadership and many other aspects that will help students in their day to day lives.

A major objective of the program is to increase the number of students who graduate from high school.

The Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Department of Defense have provided the funds for the program at JCHS.

The Jenkins County Board of Education has been doing some preliminary work to see who is attracted to the program. "We wanted to see if we had some students interested before we went ahead with the course," said Joan Blackwood, superintendent for Jenkins County Public Schools.

The JROTC will be instructed by two U.S. Army officers who have a combined 10 years experience with the curriculum. Sgt. Renee McClinton is the noncommissioned officer and served as a JROTC instructor in Charleston, S.C., last year. Col. Kenneth Wade is the commissioned officer and served nine years at Ware County High School in Waycross. The JROTC started with the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916 and has changed greatly over the years. It was first viewed as a source of enlisted recruits and officer candidates but has since developed into a citizenship program devoted to the moral, physical and educational encouragement of young Americans.