High school students who participate in JROTC are challenged daily to juggle the demands of the program's high fitness and academic standards.

Local military association chapters want to make sure they do their part to acknowledge that hard work.

Each spring, local chapters of the Association of the United States Army, the Military Officers Association of America and the Military Order of the World Wars team up to present awards to local Army JROTC cadets to highlight their achievements in the months leading up to graduation.

"It is important to our chapter, and to us as individuals, to provide support in every way we can to encourage young men and women to recognize the obligation to serve our great nation and the fulfillment that comes from growing into leadership positions through the JROTC and ROTC programs," said Doug Kotrba, former president of the MOAA Mount Rainier Chapter. "Many of our greatest leaders are now coming through the ROTC programs and by far the greatest quantity of our junior officers are from the ROTC programs."

Chapter members team up with detachment commanders to select JROTC cadets from local high schools, which include Graham-Kapowsin, Bethel, Lakes, Mount Tahoma, Rogers and Lincoln. The selected students then get together and plan the awards ceremony at each of their respective schools.

The awards routinely honor the top graduate and another student in the program returning for his or her senior year, said Carlene Joseph, president of the Fort Lewis chapter of AUSA.

"It's kind of like a badge of honor for the students (who receive the awards)," Joseph said.

Although the cadets who achieve the highest academic success are usually selected, Joseph said chapter members ask that commanders also consider rewarding those in the program who work extra hard to overcome challenges.

"We want to make sure they get recognized also," she said.

After a short hiatus in the awards program a few years ago, the chapters worked hard to get the program back on track.

"It's very rewarding for us to be able to do this," Joseph said.

The program also lets cadets know that those who served before them are proud of the path they are on and the investment they've made in the program, Kotrba said.

"The JROTC and ROTC program structure is such that cadets are tested mentally, physically and emotionally with the result being a stronger person with much more confidence that a good solution will be found if you just keep at the task," he said.

"The structure also provides each cadet the opportunity to personally experience the wonderful accomplishments when a ‘can do' attitude is taken into the task at hand.  This is how ordinary citizens turn into extraordinary soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines."