Townsend serving in two state roles

Daleville High School's JROTC Senior Army Instructor Col. (ret.) Teresa Townsend is now serving her program and others in two state roles.

In July, Townsend was nominated by her fellow JROTC instructors and elected as the president of the JROTC section of the Alabama Career Technical Education Program of the Alabama Department of Education. She will serve a two-year term as president.

"Under career tech, there are 16 career fields," Townsend said. "They're called CTSOs, career and technical student organizations. JROTC is one of those."

Townsend said she oversees 16,000 cadets in programs at 105 schools across the state. These include students in Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine JROTC programs.

"My priority is Daleville High School JROTC," she said. "For me, that's the heart of it. Ever since I've been here, I've really tried to find opportunities for our students to get exposed to different things. Just because we're in a small school, doesn't mean our kids should be deprived of some of the good things that available to them in the state.

"Being in this role just gives me more oversight, number one, to do more for all cadets, but especially for the cadets here in Daleville."

She said her role also makes her a member of the Alabama CTE Committee, which allows her to meet state and national legislators.

"Really, my responsibility is to represent JROTC's interests to Alabama Career Tech," she said. "We recommend policy changes for JROTC and advocate for our program, as far as getting program budgets and opportunities for our cadets."

One project she and others on the JROTC committee are working on is establishing specific criteria for the JROTC curriculum.

"Every students who completes at least three years of JROTC earns a credential in government and public administration," Townsend said. "Basically, what that does for a JROTC cadet is, if they choose to enlist in the military, they get to go in at a higher rank.

"The main thing, right now, that we're trying to do is establish the criteria to earn the government and public administration credential. It shouldn't be that just because you're enrolled in JROTC that you get the credential because every child does not perform the same. What we're doing right now is identifying the specific criteria (for the credential)."

She said the JROTC committee has proposed 13-14 criteria, which includes participating in at least one service learning project over the course of the student's time in JROTC, maintaining at least a 2.5 GPA, passing the PT test, and more.

"(These are) all those key things that you would expect someone who was earning a credential to have done," she said. "So, the criteria that we have established as a committee has gone to the state."

Townsend also said she is personally working to inform all cadets throughout Alabama of the career and work opportunities available in the state.

"There are opportunities for good jobs in the State of Alabama," she said. "Everyone wants to grow up and they want to leave home. A lot of the time they want to leave the state because the perception is there are no good jobs in the State of Alabama, but there are, and they just have to be exposed to them."

She said this committee is also working to find more STEM opportunities for the JROTC students as well.

When she is not serving all JROTC students, she is serving the program's state officers as a mentor. In September, Townsend was also named president of the JROTC Advisory Board.

"The Advisory Committee is there to do just that, to provide guidance to our JROTC state officers," Townsend said. "We have a state JROTC student president, vice president (and other roles) for all the JROTC programs, just like the other CTSOs in the state. Their primary responsibility is to plan the agenda for the various meetings that we go to."

She said these "meetings" include Junior Leadership Development Course and other similar meetings and training retreats.

"The student leaders prepare the agenda for the other cadets that are coming to the programs," she said. "We provide guidance to them and make sure that when they do have to travel to represent JROTC, wherever, that the financial burden doesn't fall on them."

Townsend said both of her roles also allow her to bring visibility to smaller JROTC programs around the state, like the one at DHS.

"(Larger school programs) get a lot of attention because they're a big school, but we have smaller programs that are doing great things, too," she said. "I think a person, like me, being from a small school can show that smaller schools can perform as well as the larger programs.

"Both positions (have) very, very high visibility. For a person from a small community like this to be able to sit at the table with a person of influence... it's just positive. It's good for Daleville because I want people to know about us and the good things that happen (here).

"It gives me a good opportunity to sit at the table and talk about our cadets and our program here."

As both a JROTC instructor and state advocate in two new roles, Townsend said those who do not know about JROTC should know that it is not a program to train students for the military.

"I want people to understand mostly that JROTC really is not a program to prepare students to go into the military," she said. "It is not that. It is a good citizenship program. The model of the program is to motivate young people to be better citizens, and the curriculum that they teach and the work that we do in the program really does prepare students to be successful in an academic career... or if they decide to pick up a trade or pick up a job right after high school."

For Townsend, her two new state roles go hand-in-hand, which she calls an "added bonus."

"To me, it's an added bonus," she said. "I get to work with the state... to advocate for JROTC, and I get to provide leadership and guidance to the cadet officers as they grow and blossom into leaders."