With the help of a school administrator, Houston Can Academy, Southwest students have formed a student-led military troop similar to a JROTC program. They paid for their uniforms through fundraising and participated in exercises with neighboring high schools. Houston Can Academy advisor, Terrance Jeanisse, who is a National Guard Active Reservist, guides the troop. 

The troop’s main objective is to expose the students to potential military career options in order for them to gain leadership skills, learn to work as a “unit” or team, practice self-discipline and respect for all others. Currently, there are 22 Houston Can students in the troop that is primarily self-led with their advisor’s oversight. 

“The program is important because being a member of the group presents the students with a positive environment along with future career options,” said Jeanisse. “Once they graduate from Houston Can they are more aware of the option of a military career if that is of interest to them.“

The troop will be visiting Rice University later this month for a campus tour and to visit a university level ROTC program so that they may understand what being a member of a college-level military troop is like.  They will experience first-hand options of entering the military after graduation or joining a college ROTC program.

Troop members will take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test with army recruiters. The ASVAB measures developed abilities and helps predict future academic and occupational success in the military. It is administered annually to more than one million military high school and post-secondary students.