For sophomore Cameron Brodene, he found himself doing the same thing every time he came home. Just playing video games and sitting at home. It wasn’t until his older brother told him about the Reserve Officers’ Training Corp through ROTC that he finally found something interesting.

“My older brother was in the program for, at this point, two or so years. He told me I could get a lot of stuff out of it… I was a little nervous about it. So I gave it a try and basically my brother is the whole reason why I joined because he kinda forced me to anyways,” Brodene said.

Being a sophomore at one of the highest ranks is very hard work. So, Brodene pushes himself hard in and out of school in order to become the best cadet he can be.

“Currently, my rank is cadet senior master sergeant and basically what that means is that I’m a senior enlisted leader in the program. It’s almost the highest rank that any freshman or sophomore could get and once you’re a junior, you go to a place called cadet leadership course, then you can become an officer,” Brodene said.

Watching his brother work hard in ROTC, he was inspired to work even harder and be the best he can be. He looks up to his brother not only in ROTC, but also in his day to day life.

“He’s had a lot of achievements so far. Earlier this year when he was still 17, he got his private pilot license before his actual driver’s license actually. So, he can fly planes before he [could] even drive cars, which is crazy. And then he got a scholarship to Embry Riddle, which is a university in Florida [and] he went to something called the Flight Academy, which is super competitive. That’s where he got his pilot’s license from,” Brodene said.

Bradene has put in the hard work to be where he is today. One instructor decided at the last minute at a honor ceremony that he saw the dedication that Brodene has put in and deserves to get ranked up.

“One of my instructors called me up and he was saying he felt a little bad and that I should have been ranked up because I’ve been showing a whole bunch of dedication to the unit. I’ve been putting in an effort every single day. So he decided to give me a step promotion even when it wasn’t a ceremony where you don’t give out step promotions. He let me have a speech every and at that moment, I just saw everybody around me smiling,” Brodene said