By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter
Students at Palisades Charter High School are trying to revive the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the school in an ongoing recruiting effort for the upcoming semester.
The charge is being led by Pali High student and program recruiter Ali Yaghtin Mirshekar, president of the Military Club.
Sponsored and taught by the U.S. Army, the course would be offered during the school’s seventh period and will not require students to join the Armed Forces.
Mirshekar said the benefits of being a part of the program are endless, including obtaining community service hours, first aid training and helping stand out on college applications.
“Colleges think really highly of this program, especially if you do really well,” Mirshekar said in an interview with the Palisadian-Post.
The program, which organizes students into a hierarchy similar to the military ranking system, needs 100 participants to be implemented. Mirshekar currently has 70 signatures.
Once their goal is reached, the program will come at no cost to students.
“We’re trying to get this started before December,” he said, in hopes of launching in the spring. “This program really emphasizes on real life situations and skills. The army officers are very professional, and they really do serve as amazing mentors.”
An effort in 2004 to implement a JROTC program at Pali High by the American Legion Post 283 was thwarted by community members who did not want a militarization of students. But Mishraker said he thinks that sentiment has changed, seeing support for the program during his time working with community organizations.
The program will be a bipartisan class, according to Mishraker, and welcomes students from all backgrounds and beliefs.
“We all come from all political standpoints,” he said. “It’s just patriotism and love and respect for one another in our country, that’s really the point of this program.”
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