Springboro High School Junior Air Force ROTC cadets recently completed their annual summer leadership program, the Ohio Valley Leadership School (OVLS).
The program is a Junior ROTC-sponsored camp that occurs throughout the nation at various locations. In total, 37 rising sophomore-to-senior cadets from SHS participated in this five day leadership camp held at Wright State University and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. OVLS was comprised of 9 schools and 156 cadets from Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Michigan.
Of the top 30 awards given out at OVLS, cadets from Springboro took home 15 of those awards. Rising senior, Paige Sullivan received the Commandant's Award as the overall #1 top graduate in the entire camp of 156. Paige also took home the Iron Woman Award as the top female for doing 99 push-ups in one minute and then 70 sit-ups in one minute.
Another rising senior, Tori Kenline was named the Top Squadron Commander. Further, rising junior, Elijah Barker finished as the #5 overall graduate and received the Top Flight Commander Award. Meanwhile, rising senior, Caroline Majors clinched the Top Bay Chief Award. Tori Chapman won the Top First Year Cadet Award, graduating #6 overall. Faith Bergeron was awarded the Top Second Year Cadet Award and was #7 overall. SHS also took home the majority of Distinguished Graduate (DG) Awards. The DG Award is given to the top 10% of graduates among the entire camp. DGs included rising junior – Kaylah Forland; rising sophomores – Samuel Parlett, Sarah Walowsky, Linus Kennedy, Anna Jones, and Megan Gibbons. Rounding out the SHS awards were Linus Kennedy who won the Male Fleetfoot Award with the fastest 1-mile run time of 5:51 among all male cadets. Lastly, Anna Jones was the fastest female, she took home the Female Fleetfoot Award with a run time of 6:37.
Of the top 25 graduates from OVLS, 13 of them were from SHS. OVLS is the culmination of a year in ROTC, where the cadets get to apply what they've learned in the previous year.