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Pasadena ISD’s own Sam Rayburn High School Army JROTC program has marched its way to victory.
The school placed second out of 1,700 teams in the U.S. and abroad at the 2014 Academic and Leadership Bowl, a prestigious national competition designed to challenge and prepare students for college entrance exams.
Hosted by the College Options Foundation, the competition uses a fast-paced, internet-based program, designed by i.d.e.a.s. at Disney-MGM Studios to test students on their knowledge of high school math, science and language arts, as well as the JROTC curriculum. As teams successfully advance from Level I to Level III of the competition, the questions become progressively more difficult. Teams that fail to advance to the next level are eliminated.
Rayburn’s first taste of success in the competition came in 2007 when the JROTC advanced to Level II. Since then they have consistently advanced to Level III but had not finished among the top three national JROTC winners – until this year. “This undeniably classifies the Texan Battalion as not only a formidable, national-level contender but also a clear front runner for the 2015 JROTC Academic and Leadership Bowl National Championship,” Alan Mooneyham, Rayburn's JROTC teacher, said.
Meanwhile, the Texan Battalion will conclude the 2014 school year in June with its two Cadet Leadership Camps, the first in San Antonio at Camp Bullis and the second at Sam Houston State University’s Gibb’s Ranch.