Fostering New Generations of Leaders
Over the last four decades, ROTC has been fully reconciled and reintegrated into faculty culture with the assistance of faculty members over the years. Faculty members such as Ward Elliott and others devised an academic enrichment program in international relations and strategic studies, keyed to ROTC programs throughout the country, that would further supplement the education of ROTC students considering a military career. In 1982, the Secretary of the Army invited President Jack Stark to serve a two-year term as a member of the Army Advisory Panel on Reserve Officer Training Corps–a fellow member of the panel was then-Brigadier General Norman Schwarzkopf. On May 13, 1984, George Benson gave the ROTC commissioning ceremony speech stressing the value of an ROTC commission as preparation for success in the civilian world.
Endowed with generous scholarships and living allowances, the ROTC program continued to thrive. ROTC appealed to students who wanted the practical and leadership training involved in becoming an Army officer. Lieutenant Colonel Peter Simoncini, a Ranger Airborne Infantry veteran of two tours in Vietnam, headed the ROTC program in the early 1990s. As the decade opened, ROTC alumni such as captain Carl Giles '86, an aviation officer in an armored cavalry regiment of the First Armored Division, found themselves in the Persian Gulf in yet another war. As a helicopter pilot and battle captain for his squadron’s administrative and logistical operating center, Giles came home from Desert Storm with a Bronze Star, the air medal, and a pair of captain’s bars. All in all, however, to have participated in the largest tank battle since World War II proved a sobering experience. “I am not a peacenik,” Giles told Profile. “I believe that a strong military and political force is a deterrent. But I have seen the cost of war.”
(Read Captain Carl Giles' full article in Profile Magazine here)
Student cadets contemplating a career commitment to the military took heart in the fall of 1994 when President Bill Clinton advanced Lieutenant General William W. Crouch ‘63 to his fourth star and named him commander in chief of the United States Army in Europe, with headquarters in Heidelberg. Commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduating from CMC with a major in government, Crouch, an Armor officer, had served two tours in Vietnam, where he won the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star. Later, while moving steadily up the ranks, he had completed the course at the Foreign Service Institute. At the time of his promotion to four-star general, Crouch was serving as chief of staff to the United Nations command in Korea. As the only CMC ROTC graduate to reach flag rank, Crouch offered a parallel paradigm in military terms to the CMC alumni who had distinguished themselves as CEOs in the private sector.
Over the years, the ROTC program has expanded with the enrollment of students from several local colleges. Extension centers were established at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (1980), San Diego State University (1980), California State University, San Bernardino, and California State University, Fullerton (1983). San Diego State University was granted host battalion status in 1981, and California State University, Fullerton in 2000. Claremont McKenna College assumed full support for the ROTC program in 1995. Cross-enrollment agreements are currently in effect with several other educational institutions in the four-county areas served by this battalion. As of 2005, the ROTC program had commissioned 4,872 Army Second Lieutenants. In 2018, the ROTC program celebrated its centennial in Claremont and looks to remain a cornerstone of the CMC campus. Coupled with CMC’s liberal arts program that promotes critical thinking, adaptability, problem solving, interpersonal communication, and ethical leadership, the ROTC program continues to instill its cadets with skills and training to become successful officers and leaders.
Explore: "One Hundred Years of Soldiering" (CMC Newsroom)
Explore: Images from the ROTC centennial celebration (Photo gallery)
Jordan Venglass '21
While on stage at the Kravis Leadership Institute’s 25th Anniversary in March 2020, Jordan Venglass ’21 shared how he applied for 100 internships as a sophomore. All 100 companies turned him down. Deflating? Sure. But turning rejection into opportunity has been Venglass’ charge since arriving at CMC as a transfer student. Yes, even the college at which he grew up (“I have baby pictures on the CMC track,” he said) didn’t accept Venglass the first time he applied—another tough pill to swallow. But when the big lecture halls at UC-Berkeley weren’t working for him, he found his way back to his first choice. After all, real leadership comes from dusting yourself off and persevering, Venglass said. Or, as he learned as a U.S. Army ROTC cadet, humbling moments can help identify weaknesses and lead to improvement. “Sometimes you don’t get a straight path toward your goal. But I have tried to embrace my challenges,” Venglass said. “I definitely struggled coming in to CMC. At a bigger school, I knew I could just be a face in the crowd. Now, I had to have a voice and know what I stood for and where I could fit in. It was a lot to overcome.”
With a deep family legacy of military service dating back to his great-great grandfather, Venglass was drawn to ROTC’s servant leadership style—"serve others before serving yourself; lead for others, not for personal gain,” he said. Most important of all: People are your most valuable asset. “You learn quickly by leading a battalion that you cannot accomplish a mission if the left and right side aren’t working together to achieve a common goal,” Venglass added. Coupled with his ROTC tool kit, Venglass said his leadership studies sequence at CMC has helped him develop and improve upon a personal style that can adapt to multiple situations. Part of the magic, he said, is how the coursework encourages vulnerability and self-growth through real examples. Venglass recalled one of his favorite leadership seminars with Professor David Day from his junior year, a roundtable-style class largely led by students. Discussions sometimes lasted three hours. The more peers opened up about their personal hurdles and triumphs, the easier it became to adapt those same lessons to everyday life, Venglass said. “It’s been a unique intersection for me: I can take several courses on leadership philosophy, gain perspective through the classroom work with my peers, and then apply it directly to leadership through ROTC, where I’m tasked with leading others,” he said. “It’s gone so much further than following a simple chain of command. You get to really see the impact on a personal level.”
And about those 100 internship rejections from his sophomore year? Venglass hasn’t forgotten them, either. During the pandemic, he partnered with students from CMC and other colleges to launch the Kampus Group, a networking resource to bring together peers virtually to learn more about internships and job opportunities. Students seeking real world experience were paired with small businesses affected by COVID regulations—for example, those needing technology services to adapt to the new service climate. “I remember my rude awakening moments, but I also know what it’s meant to be at CMC and have so many opportunities open to me,” said Venglass, who coupled his Kampus Group mentoring with a full-time Goldman Sachs internship. “I felt a calling to do my part. It was an opportunity to utilize all the leadership lessons I had learned during my time here and give back.”
Please join us again in January 2022, as we continue our archival exhibitions celebrating Claremont McKenna College’s history. Our next exhibit will continue CMC’s story with a focus on College athletes and the history of the CMS Athletics Program.