Tinian team wins regional JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl

  The Tinian Junior and Senior High School JROTC team won first place in the regional Junior Leadership and Academic Bowl, an online competition conducted simultaneously among member schools in the 8th Brigade.

The five-member group earned the slot to compete in the national event to be held in Washington, D.C. where they will face off with 39 other teams in the JLAB Championship slated from June 22 to 26.

The champion squad is composed of team captain Marquina M. Hofschneider, Veronica Borja, Samantha Wedding, Josue Cruz, and Noelanie Santos who serves as an alternate.

Saipan Tribune learned that the group took the online competition on Feb. 8 together with other schools in the 8th Brigade, which includes schools from Washington, Arkansas, Montana, California, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii, American Samoa, Korea, Japan, Guam, and the CNMI.

The Tinian cadets emerged as one of the four first place winners in the regional event, along with San Diego High School and Oaks Hill High School teams, both in California, and Seoul American High School in Korea. All four teams will represent the 8th Brigade in the national event for both leadership and academic categories.

Hofschneider, a first-timer to the regional and national event, is looking forward to the nationals. The 16-year-old cadet admits that their win in the regional contest was unexpected.

“When I found out that we won, I cried.because I never expected it. It feels great and I am now excited to be in the national for this team and for our school. Because we performed well in the regional, I think we can also make it in the championship because we made it this far. We will do our best,” she said.

Right now, the group is just awaiting more information from the national level about the presentation and project that the team is expected to do.

Seventeen-year-old Veronica Borja, a junior cadet and also a first-timer to the competition, vowed to do her best at the nationals, saying she expects to learn a lot from the experience.

Tinian Junior and High School principal Julian Hofschneider said that this is the second time for Tinian students to participate in the national competition. The first time was in June 2008 when the school team won in the academic category of the regionals. This year, the group made it under the Leadership category of the JLAB.

“We are proud of the accomplishments of our students. The long after-school and weekend meetings really paid off. I guess the real message is, with hard work, perseverance, and dedication, there is always a great pay off, and for this team, it is the national competition in George Mason University in June,” Hofschneider said.

Hofschneider also commended the contributions of Tinian Jr. and High School JROTC mentors Richard Basa and Roger Thompson for the success of the winning cadets.