A third year for VA-821 cadets

The Virginia board of education has told unit VA-821 that they can only have cadets in the program for four years. Now, this is an issue because our unit is double blocked which means one calendar year counts as two years of JROTC. Furthermore, if second-year cadets can not return for the third year it would be very detrimental because our unit is going through many changes in the coming year such as transitioning from an Air to Space Force program and adjusting to a new single blocked schedule. VA-821 is one of the best units in the state of Virginia and the nation last year it was ranked in the top 5% of units overall for community service and has been a distinguished unit for the past 10 years and was recently selected as one of the first 10 Space Force JROTC programs all of these accomplishes stem from the leadership o the third and occasionally fourth-year cadets. Cadets from this unit that have spent 3-4 years in it have gone on to amazing things both in the military and civilian worlds, many of them have cited VA 821 as one of the main factors in them accomplishing their goals. Having three years of JROTC and a top leadership position in the unit looks amazing on college applications which greatly contributes to the success of some of our former cadets. If we lose the option of cadets to have a third-year this unit will lose arguably the most important asset it will have going into the next year, with your support we could help keep some of VA-821's outstanding leaders and keep it on track to be one of the best units in the nation. Thank you for your support.

John Bowman VA-821 executive officer    Contact the author of the petition