Following their successful competition against more than 5,000 teams from around the world, four cadets from Gig Harbor’s Peninsula School District’s Naval Junior ROTC Tidehawk Company will be attending the JROTC Leadership & Academic Bowl Championship at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C, June 12-16.
In order to qualify for the highly competitive championship, which is exclusive to JROTC, the four cadets — John McDaniel, Enrico Shein, Sydney Gardner, and Derek Liu — passed two fast-paced online rounds of testing.
The tests questioned cadets on subjects like math, science, language arts, current events, and financial literacy to challenge their critical-thinking skills.
In total, 108 teams from 98 high schools across 43 states, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Japan will be advancing to the national championship in June.
“This accomplishment reflects months of disciplined preparation, intellectual rigor, and true teamwork,” said Command Master Chief Robert Stockton, naval science instructor at Peninsula High School. “Our cadets competed against thousands of teams across the globe and demonstrated that Peninsula students can perform at the highest level. We could not be more proud of their work ethic and commitment to excellence.”