Two groups of Fresh Meadows high school students are heading to the nation’s capital to flex their leadership and academic skills this summer.
In April, Francis Lewis High School announced that members of their Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) team qualified for the 2019 U.S. Army National Leadership Bowl and Academic Bowl Championships. From June 21 to 25, the students will go head-to-head against dozens of other teams in Washington, D.C.
The high school’s JROTC Leadership Team advanced through two levels of online competition to qualify for the National Leadership Bowl in June. Members Syed Abbas, Gregory Steward, Matthew Shinh and Alvin Ma outranked 1,350 Army JROTC team from across the nation with their knowledge of current events, leadership values and leadership skills.
According to FLHS, the group is only one of 40 teams in the U.S. to advance to the final competition, which includes an all-expense paid trip to The Catholic University of America campus in D.C.
Four Francis Lewis students also qualified for the JROTC Academic Bowl Championship, which will also be held in Washington, D.C. Ivy Zheng, Ethan Kim, Christopher Li and Joyce Huang made it through two preliminary rounds of competition, earning top scores among 1,411 Army JROTC teams in the competition.
The team is one of 32 to make it through to the final competition, which aims to prepare students for exit and graduation exams as well as college entrance exams like the SAT and ACT. Team members were tested on a range of topics including the JROTC curriculum, English, math and science.
Following the final competition, the winner of the U.S. Army JROTC Academic Championship will advance to the JROTC Join Service Academic Bowl Championship where they will be pitted against the winners of the Marine Corps and Navy JROTC Academic Bowls.
U.S. Army Cadet Command, JROTC Headquarters sponsors the event, which is conducted by the College Options Foundation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to enriching the academic development of high schoolers and preparing them for higher education.
Both competitions are slated to take place from June 21-25 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
