Courtesy of Harold Baquet
A member of the ROTC holds a flag after a ceremony. The ROTC commissions students to become officers in divisions of the military.
Some students at Loyola have experienced a full career protecting their country, and others are working on balancing school and military training.
Students at Loyola balance their military careers with rigorous class work all in order to pursue their life goals.
Sara Rodriguez, a philosophy pre-law sophomore, juggles the early workouts, Air Force ROTC classes, and work-study while maintaining A’s and B’s in all her classes.
Rodriguez is not only focused on academics. She is also in pursuit of surpassing the maximum expectations of her ROTC training.
Students in ROTC have the option to attempt to pass a field training class right out of high school to receive financial benefits or to wait until the summer between their sophomore and junior year of college to apply.
ROTC students who choose to train in college can enter officer training before entering their service in the military. This way, they start out on top.
“We have to pass, at least for women, it’s 18 minimum push-ups, 64 minimum sit-ups, and you have to run a mile and a half in at least 12 minutes,” Rodriguez said.
“That’s the minimum that you have to get in order to even be considered for officer training, but it’s a lot more than that. You have to go above and everywhere.”
Despite a reluctance to leave the traveling lifestyle behind, Aviles decided to work outside of the Air Force after his years of service.
When his time in the Air Force ended, he was offered a job at global security company Northrop Grumman Corporation. As Aviles began to climb the corporate ladder, his boss approached him and said he was concerned that Aviles did not have a degree.
“It was bad enough that I was managing people with degrees, and some of them master’s degrees. I didn’t have a degree, and he said, ‘I can’t promote you any higher if you don’t have a degree,'” Aviles said. “But I wanted to do