Army ROTC Scholarship Award Ceremony

Trackswagggg

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Hey! I was just curious.... I see all these pictures and hear all these rumors about the Army ROTC Scholarship being awarded. Some say they come to your school, bring a giant symbolic check, and give it to you with your certificate...and some say your JROTC instructor presents it at the end of the year award ceremony at your school. Can anyone enlighten me on how they award it formally? Thanks!
 
Usually high schools have something like a Senior Awards Night. I think I've read out here where previous scholarship recipients have had the check presentation made to them at that event. I would contact your guidance counselor for direction on this.
 
Future is correct it varies school by school. The GC will know the answer. Also, don't be surprised if they don't show up with a giant check. Our kids went to two different hs in two states, and they never came with the check. They came with an official certificate for picture purposes.

You also will get paperwork asking if you want someone to do the presentation, at least our DS did. It asks if you have a specific person in mind or do you want them to send anyone. If you live in an area with a lot of hs send that back asap because many of the schools do it at the same time, and the presenter maybe already taken by someone else at a different his. You can ask your JROTC instructor to do it at the ceremony.

Although this is about you, a large reason that they make a show out of it is for recruitment purposes. The audience is filed with parents that have younger siblings. The fact that some, especially kids going to high cost schools, have 160k scholarship, books, stipend and a job upon graduation makes the folks sit up and take notice. At these ceremonies inevitably at the end of it, they are swarmed by parents asking about the scholarship. At our DS's they even came up to Bullet and I asking specific questions.....basically stats and his major.

Have a great day, and congrats.
 
My son did get the BIG check from the Army ROTC at his senior awards ceremony. It was very nice and they actually let him keep it too! The ironic part was that several months prior he had declined the AROTC scholarship in favor of an AFROTC scholarship. They were aware of it but came anyway. The AF representative also showed up! We talked to him (Army) after the ceremony and like Pima said above, they use it as a recruiting tool for the other students (ceremony held during school) and parents that attended. My son actually got to experience TWO awards!!
 
Congrats Trackswagggg!!!!

DS received the 4 yr AROTC scholarship second board January 2013. He didn't have everything ready by first deadline by 2 days. Ughh. Anyway, we were so thrilled. He's now a MSI second semester and loving it:shake:

When it came time for senior award night at his school, a teacher's husband, who is Army national guard, offered to present the award to him. So I contacted his future battalion to see if this was ok. (I wanted it to be a surprise). They said "absolutely not"! THEY would be there! And they were! In fact they sent 3 guys all in dressed blues. (LTC, MAJOR, AND MSG) Impressed to say the least!

They presented a framed certificate at the awards banquet. I uploaded 2 pics last year in the ROTC pic forum. Look there and you can see what this battalion did. As stated in all of these forums, all schools are different. You need to call and ask. Or email your contact there. As Pima said, this a great night for PR for them.

Finally, DS was so impressed that the head haunchos were there. It was a great way to establish a relationship with them.

Best of luck to you. And welcome
 
I doubt VMI will drive 10 hours to present me with anything, so I'll have to settle for just knowing in my heart I won a scholarship lol :biggrin:
 
They will probably send someone from a nearby unit if you request it.
 
You may want to verify that you've cleared DODMERB before you start dreaming of a glorious recognition ceremony. Some of us remember the unfortunate story of a kid who was presented with a whopping check in front of an adulatory crowd, only to find out a short time later that the promised waiver he expected had been denied.
 
You may want to verify that you've cleared DODMERB before you start dreaming of a glorious recognition ceremony. Some of us remember the unfortunate story of a kid who was presented with a whopping check in front of an adulatory crowd, only to find out a short time later that the promised waiver he expected had been denied.

That would suck....
 
In our area, it's not an automatic thing. My son's presentation was at the all-school awards ceremony. It wasn't a giant check but it was a very nice certificate in a fancy folder. :smile: The officer came from the ROTC unit at a near-by college (DS's college is several states away). It was a complete surprise for my son. The school had not done this in prior years even though there were other ROTC scholarship winners in the past. The guidance counselor was the one who set the whole thing up.
 
The first thing you need to do is check with your school to see how they handle scholarship awards. Some have an awards night, some do not include scholarships except as a side note to a school award.

Believe it or not, some schools do not allow the Military to make awards at the school. That was the case at my son's school, no military was allowed at school to present any awards. Our school had two SA and two ROTC scholarships, neither were mentioned at awards night. The only thing that was allowed was being listed in the graduation program as receiving the scholarship.

So bottom line, no Big Check, no Certificate, no mention at all. Neither son minded, everyone who was important to them knew anyway.

I agree with a previous post, don't have a big award presentation unless you are 100% cleared with Dodmerb first.

Also, keep in mind, as much as this has all been stressful and exciting, this is the easy part, the real work is soon to come and never ends. Enjoy the moment but start getting prepared for the hard work ahead. Your award letter and that Big Check are fun now but the real prize is 4 years and a lot of work away, that framed certificate confirming your Commission.

In reality, the scholarship is just about the money (Nothing wrong with that), it has nothing to do with your success in ROTC or college, that will be all on you from this point. Of the three National scholarship awardees in my younger son's class, only one remains in the program today, it's a hard and bumpy road.
 
Believe it or not, some schools do not allow the Military to make awards at the school. That was the case at my son's school, no military was allowed at school to present any awards. Our school had two SA and two ROTC scholarships, neither were mentioned at awards night. The only thing that was allowed was being listed in the graduation program as receiving the scholarship.

So bottom line, no Big Check, no Certificate, no mention at all. Neither son minded, everyone who was important to them knew anyway.

Even though those closest to your family knew about your son's accomplishment, I just think it's beyond sad that the school chose to take such a hard stance on that issue.
 
I can see points for either announcing it at awards night and receiving the big check or a certificate in front of everyone, however, when all is said and done, many students receive substantial, very competitive scholarships (non Rotc or Academy) to the college they will be attending - some even include full tuition or full ride (case in point, our valedictorian 2 years ago - full ride to a major private), so I guess if they make a big deal out of ROTC and academy awards, they should also do so for every student who receives a full tuition scholarship of any kind.
Not sure what our school does - I seem to remember sitting through an awards ceremony (our school/community give about 100 scholarships a year, plus non-monetary awards at our awards night) several years ago and a military person presented a big check to a student - but I don't remember what it was for, I actually think either AF Academy or AFROTC. I don't know what I personally want for my DS - I will tell him to think about it and speak with his GC. They can decide!
 
Remind me again the proper etiquette for how long to hold onto an ROTC scholarship if you've got an academy appointment. I would assume it would be awkward if you had two different officers at an awards ceremony, one to present an ROTC scholarship and one to present a service academy appointment. I remember a thread on it, but can't remember what was the proper timing to turn down the ROTC scholarship.
 
Remind me again the proper etiquette for how long to hold onto an ROTC scholarship if you've got an academy appointment. I would assume it would be awkward if you had two different officers at an awards ceremony, one to present an ROTC scholarship and one to present a service academy appointment. I remember a thread on it, but can't remember what was the proper timing to turn down the ROTC scholarship.

I don't know the direct answer to your question, however, it clearly states on my son's NROTC paperwork that "If you enroll in any other U.S. military officer accession program prior to reporting to the NROTC unit, you automatically forfeit your NROTC scholarship. (Example: If you receive an appointment to, enroll in, and then drop from the U.S. Naval Academy or other service academy, you cannot reclaim your NROTC scholarship, even if you were enrolled for only one day.)"

It's impossible to hold on to both indefinitely, should one be that fortunate. And since Senior Award Ceremonies occur after the deadline for SA acceptances, I don't think you would have TWO officers showing up to present you with multiple awards.
 
Even though those closest to your family knew about your son's accomplishment, I just think it's beyond sad that the school chose to take such a hard stance on that issue.

Living here in the great Pacific Northwest (West of the mountains) a lot of high schools tend to lean heavily to the left when it comes to the Military. Recruiters can visit the school by appointment only, no uniforms can be worn, parents must sign a permission slip for their kids to meet with any recruiting presentation. This included representitives from the Academies and ROTC. The school does have an assembly on Vetrens day but again no uniforms are allowed.

In the end I think my son's were ok with no presentation given the response from some of the teachers and even students when they heard what they were going to do.

All is good, they both went on to do well and never really looked back, thank goodness both of them had the character to make their own decisions.
 
I second jcleppe's opinion that as much as you are proud....trust us....nobody next year will give a rat's arse. In fact, very few cadets knew which kid is scholarship and which isn't. The real tell is if the stipend doesn't arrive in their bank account, and how they are all of the sudden not broke like every college kid on the 1st and the 15th :shake:

IOWs the scholarship is not a sign or guaranteed success as a cadet. I am not trying to burst the bubble or rain on your parade by saying this. I am trying to make sure you will succeed.

If you look at threads that occur @ Aug/Sept. Posters and parents get a very rude awakening from a PFT perspective. You cannot contract until you pass the test. That means keep working out. If it is slightly raining, run. If it is 90 degrees, run. If you stayed up until 1 a.m., get up at 6 and do the test. Trust me there will be nights you will have little sleep, even if you try, because dorms are loud, papers are due, studying will occur. Most importantly get used to making sure it is proper form. They are not going to be like your PE teacher that is staying late to give the test and wants to get home. They are going to be adamant about the form when they count it.

Again congrats on the scholarship, enjoy the down time for a few weeks, but get your nose back to the grindstone so you can shine on your own merits as a cadet those first few weeks, and PT is one of those ways to shine.


Andzgirl.

You can hold onto that scholarship until I day. Many do. Typically what happens is if the student has both an appointment and a scholarship for the same service branch, I.e. AFA and AFROTC, the ALO does the presentation and acknowledges both. It is uncommon to have someone hold a ROTC scholarship to one branch and an appointment to another. I am sure it occurs, just saying in all of my time here I have never seen it discussed. On the other hand I would say that on this site the holding on until I day is always a topic of discussion, and my guess would be 50-50 on the amount that hold onto it. Main reason is many of these kids are athletes, Break a bone playing LAX, Track, Tennis,Baseball, softball in May, and they maybe on the cusp for I day, since the SAs will do a physical upon arrival. There was a poster here years ago. DS fell off the bus before taking the oath. He was a medical tutnback that afternoon. His folks paid the safety net deposit, and he attended college in ROTC for a yr. On a ROTC scholarship. Came back the next summer.
 
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