Life of leadership: Zeeland Junior Madeline Harmon finds opportunity to lead through ROTC
Coming out of high school, Zeeland native Madeline Harmon was looking for a way to separate herself from her peers. ROTC was that unique experience that she needed. Harmon learned about the organization during her senior year of high school and won a national ROTC scholarship before coming to Central Michigan University.
ROTC prepares students with leadership opportunities and instills the seven army values into its members: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.
“ROTC has opened many doors for me and has greatly prepared me for my future career,” Harmon said. “Both as a civilian and an army officer.”
Harmon is now considered an MS3 and is the face of leadership within the program. MS stands for Military Science. The levels of leadership within ROTC corresponds with their MS rank. Her responsibilities include teaching labs to the other cadets and making sure younger MS1s and MS2s understand the material.
“It’s our major leadership year,” Harmon said. “They throw us into all the leadership positions throughout our battalion and we do our best.”
A junior in college, Harmon is engaged to her fiancé Aaron. The two have been together for a little more than a year.
“I had not planned on being engaged this early in life,” Harmon said. “Mostly because I didn’t think I would find someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with by this time.”
Harmon’s fiancé was working in Texas for construction and just recently moved back to Michigan.
Harmon plans to pursue a career in Biomedical Sciences, and she said she can use what she learned in ROTC and apply it wherever she goes.
Junior Madeline Harmon waits outside of Finch Field House at 6 a.m. for PT (physical training). CMU's ROTC meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for training.
