Maria Escobar is just starting her third year in the Stanhope Elmore High School JROTC and she is already a leader.
Escobar, a junior at Stanhope Elmore, hasn’t nailed down her plans for the future but has ruled out the military. It’s all thanks to JROTC. She didn’t sign up for the program initially but is now a willing participant.
“I definitely thought it was a class that I was just going to be put into,” Escobar said.
She is the current battalion executive officer, a position similar to vice president. Just because it’s a position of authority doesn’t mean she gets to delegate tasks.
“You kind of have to just oversee everything and know how to do it and teach it,” Escobar said. “I’m currently on the Cyber Patriot team. I'm on the academic team, and I'm the overseer of the color guard drill team and all of the teams that are in the battalion.”
Cmd. Sgt. Major Nathaniel J. Bartee Sr. is no stranger to taking on a lot. He retired from the Army after 33 and half years where he served in 20 countries as a transportation soldier. Bartee worked with a JROTC program in north Alabama but wanted to get closer to home in Georgia.
But Bartee wasn’t ready to give up the ethos instilled by the military. He wanted to pass it on to the next generation.
“Our motto is one team, one fight,” Bartee said. “We are only as strong as our weakest link in the program.”
Although she’s a student, Escobar fits Bartee’s mold of building everyone up.
“I just love seeing overall improvement in everybody,” Escobar said. “I think that's really what just keeps me going. It's just seeing everyone improve and love it just as much as I do. It keeps me motivated to be a good role model.”
Bartee said not all the students in the JROTC will go into the military. In fact, less than 25% of the 163 in the program will. But it doesn’t stop Bartee and Escobar from building every student up.
“We bring them up slowly with the rest of the kids,” Bartee said. “That's where you really breed success. And then you don't leave anybody behind.”
It’s Bartee’s first year as a Mustang. He gave credit to the previous cadre of the Stanhope Elmore JROTC program.
“Col. Tony Bonasera and 1st Sgt. James Chambers took this program to the next level,” Bartee said. “Their relationship with the kids in this program was outstanding. Now my goal and my task is to build off what they did.”
Under Bonasera and Chambers, Escobar learned time management, leadership and more. She is currently practicing the skills under Bartee and SFC Wayne Kindley.
“It helped with my first job interview that I had this summer,” Escobar said. “I’m also learning how to communicate better with people.”
With help of Bonasera, Chambers, Escobar and SEHS principal Ewell Fuller, Barte believes the JROTC is primed to improve the student population regardless if they enter the military.
“At the end of the day we're trying to build young people to be better citizens,” Bartee said. “You're looking at the integrity piece. You're looking at the career pathways. We're trying to build a culture here.”
