FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
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Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
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Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. We're having the second part of a two-part series talking about Seneca Valley's junior ROTC program. We heard from a couple of the instructors, but today I'm with high school junior Nina Buggan, and we want to hear from the student perspective. Thanks for joining us, Nina.
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Nina Buggan: Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
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Jeff Krakoff: So, again, you're a junior in high school. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
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Nina Buggan: So, starting off with personal interests, when I was very young, I had a very large interest with helping the environment, helping animals, anyway I could. I watched a lot of Animal Planet if you couldn't tell. Going back to what I'd do in the program, maybe, um, I'm the executive officer, so I manage all staff, which would be planning all events we have and just making sure the programs all organized, everything like that. I'm also in the Seneca Valley Choir, so I'm kind of involved in a lot around school. I try to be.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So, you mentioned you manage the staff of the junior ROTC program. How many people are involved there?
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Nina Buggan: So, there are five main officers in charge of each section. And I hopefully this year I want them to have a system. So that'd be 10 people total. But really, I'm just speaking directly to five.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay, Got it. So, when and how did you first get involved with Seneca Valley's junior ROTC program?
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Nina Buggan: My older brother was in the program for three years of his high school career. The last year he went cyber. That was 2020, unfortunately. And I had gone to the events with him a lot of the time; kind of was his little sister, he had to babysit me. Um, but I really enjoyed all the events. I like seeing all the cadets in their uniform and seeing all their athletic events they do as well. It seemed really cool. I guess at the point of like, how old I was, I guess. Um, and I decided to join my freshman year kind of to be like as good as my brother was, as good as thought he was in the program. And I think I've exceeded that, honestly. Um, it's been really fun. Yeah.
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Jeff Krakoff: So that's interesting. You first saw it through the eyes of a younger sister to a student involved in it. Now that you've become involved in it, is there anything that's different from what you thought it was when your brother was involved?
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Nina Buggan: It's a lot more work than it seems like it is, that's for sure. It still is as fun as it looks. But being the manager of all staff, you see exactly like each little detail of every single piece of work that goes into every single event we have, which can be a little overwhelming at times. But then again, that's just one of the positions in the battalion and not a very common one for people to like. But it's very fun when you actually get it functioning and moving.
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Nina Buggan: It's also just. I guess it's more fast paced than it seemed. In a way, the curriculum itself, however, is very helpful. I can say that it's very different than what I would have thought it was because no one really considers the curriculum. When you joined RTC, you just see the uniforms and the events and all this stuff like that. But the curriculum, you actually learn a lot. I know we had a secondary education unit which taught us all about how to go through FAFSA, different things like other than college, what other options do you have and exactly what kind of options do you have? And like, it's really good for you as a student in high school to take as a class.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. What kind of a time commitment? I'm curious, how much time do you spend? I don't know, in a given week or a month with junior ROTC activities.
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Nina Buggan: So as the executive officer once a month or hopefully twice a month, we would stay after and organize stuff or stay after for events. I know yesterday I spent the entire day at the middle school teaching gym classes for the middle schoolers just to get them interested in the program. They really enjoyed that. We make it fun for them. Um, other things we do are parades. We spend a lot of time with parades and during football season, every football night we will go out just to guard the gates, kind of just keep people off the fence, minor stuff like that. But it. To me, it's not a lot of time, but I realize to other people that it can be a lot of time you're spending in it, but it's not wasted, I can assure that.
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Jeff Krakoff: Yeah. So, if you had to think about the most impactful experience or experiences you've had in the program, what would you say those are?
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Nina Buggan: There are a lot. I think probably the most impactful one would be when we go up for promotion boards. So, to get to a position, you need to go in front of a board which includes the top three students in command and our SAI or AI which is the Army instructor, senior army instructor. And it's kind of nerve wracking like more than a job interview. I already had a job at the point when I had my first promotion board and it was a little more nerve wracking. Like I can remember shaking. I ended up doing really good. My first time though, that was when that was last year when I became a platoon officer. But this year I was more relaxed, but I didn't do as well. So, it's kind of like it teaches you how to handle yourself in stressful situations, I guess, which has helped me a lot because I tend to get involved in a lot of fast paced and stressful stuff.
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Jeff Krakoff: Well, that's a great skill to have for the rest of your life, right? So if you were talking to another classmate who's thinking about joining the Junior ROTC program, what would you tell them? What advice would you give them?
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Nina Buggan: Think would first talk about the curriculum, especially because I know a lot of high school students are still struggling with college and stuff like that. Especially being a junior, I'd bring up how helpful the instructors can be during, you know, like and when you're considering college, I definitely bring that up. I'd also bring up our teams and how they can even lead to scholarships. I know our marksmanship team has scholarship opportunities and a chance to win money if you get far enough. I would also bring up how it just honestly and I'm not saying this just to be funny, it really does feel like a family when you get far enough into the program because you're around these people for so many different events and you start to see the same cadets at every event. And it's really nice to see these people having fun and just bonding together like an actual friends. Like we're not forced to be friends. They actually want to be around each other. So that's a big thing.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. By the way, for any listeners wondering what that background sound is like, we can hear the choir practicing from time to time while you're talking. So, I guess we're making history. This is the first Voices podcast with background music.
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Nina Buggan: Yeah, they have to practice for graduation coming up.
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Jeff Krakoff: They sound pretty good. So, Nina, is there any other information you'd like to share about Seneca Valley's junior ROTC program?
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Nina Buggan: I'd definitely say speaking directly to freshmen to at least check out some of the events. Maybe. Maybe ask a cadet, like how they what they feel about it. Because if you're on the fence, you definitely want to talk to more people who know about it. It's very beneficial. I know we also have a personal development class in the school and it's like on the same level as that when you actually look into the curriculum. Um. The events. Also, they give you kind of like an organized, like a sense of like, I don't know, organizational culture, kind of like a standard. Yeah, they give you a standard to kind of put up to and it feels nice to like hold up to that standard that you're in when you're within a group like that, and it makes you feel more organized in yourself. I know that I this is just one little thing in my life. I used to have a very messy room and kind of going through the standards and dealing with them. I've held myself to a higher standard individually, so my room I know is clean now. I also dress a lot differently than I used to. Not in a bad way. I just feel more put together, I guess.
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Jeff Krakoff: So that's awesome. So, you're learning a lot of really lifelong skills that have nothing to do with the junior ROTC program. That's great to hear. Uh, is there anything else that we haven't covered, do you think would be important for students or their parents that might be considering Junior ROTC?
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Nina Buggan: I definitely would consider the teams a lot more because I know a lot of people who want to join because of the teams, but they don't like the uniform. So, I would kind of just you got to deal with that aspect of it. It really isn't as bad as it looks. But the uniform, I promise, isn't as uncomfortable as it looks. And it is really worth it to join.
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Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, thanks for your time again. We're speaking with high school junior Nina Buggan. Thanks again and have a great day.
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Nina Buggan: Of course. You, too.
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Jeff Krakoff: Take care. You, too.