EWU Army ROTC Cadets Receive Citizen-Soldier Scholarship

In honor of Veterans Day, InsideEWU would like to recognize the hard work and determination of EWU’s Army ROTC
Program. At the beginning of the academic year, 10 members of the ROTC Fighting Eagles Battalion were awarded the
ROTC Citizen-Soldier Scholarship, a new scholarship made possible with a generous donation from an anonymous donor.

• Kylie Crooks
• Hunter Smith
• Valentino Olmstead
• Samantha Knight
• Caleb Geringer
• Taylor Stich
• James Dutton
• William Chamberlin
• Destin Garcia
• Thomas Luce

In total, $18,000 in scholarships were awarded. Recently, the donor who established the ROTC Citizen-Soldier
Scholarship increased his gift to the fund, which will benefit even more students for the 2021-22 academic year.

Learn more about the scholarship at the EWU Army ROTC Program in the article below.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on June 17, 2020.

Donor support for Eastern students—especially during this challenging time—continues to have a tremendous impact on
student success. Now a new scholarship will assist top students training to become service leaders in the ROTC
Fighting Eagles Battalion.

A donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has funded ten Army ROTC Citizen-Soldier Scholarships for the academic years
2020-21 and 2021-22. At the behest of the donor, cadets awarded the scholarship will be selected on the basis of
need, merit and potential.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Stafford, professor of military science at Eastern, says he is thrilled to see the success of EWU’s
Army ROTC program recognized via the donor’s financial support. It’s the hard work of the cadets, he says, that was
key to the donor’s decision to establish the citizen-soldier scholarship.

“We have a number of cadets and cadre who have displayed a high amount of individual excellence,” Stafford says.
“Just last week, Maj. Nicholas Carbaugh was selected for the U.S.
Army Cadet Command Officer Instructor of the Year Award out of all 274 ROTC programs across the country. We
also had a student selected as the top
overall cadet, and another selected as the top
nursing cadet in the 8th ROTC brigade, which is the headquarters unit responsible for all 30 Army ROTC
programs across the eight state West Coast region.”

These are significant accomplishments, adds Stafford, considering EWU Army ROTC is competing with much larger
universities such as UCLA, Oregon, WSU and the University of Washington.

There are currently 88 cadets in the Fighting Eagles Battalion. The top major is nursing, with 19 cadets enrolled in
the program.

“Our high number of nursing cadets makes us the largest ROTC nursing program in Washington state and the Inland
Northwest,” says Stafford. Closely behind nursing, engineering is the second most popular major.

Multiple training facilities and support from the university make Eastern an attractive choice for students looking
to consider public service by seeking a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army. The ROTC program has its own
building, shooting range, gym and ample land to facilitate cadet exercises. The university also allows the use of
athletic facilities like the Fieldhouse, Reece Court, Roos Field and the intramural fields to conduct physical
training.

“We have also regularly flown helicopters onto campus for training with no issues,” adds Stafford. “The excellent
facilities and support we receive from the university are definitely things that set our program apart.”

Learn More About EWU Army ROTC

The first EWU Army ROTC Citizen-Soldier scholarships will be awarded in September at the discretion of the
scholarship selection committee. Eastern ROTC students with a ranking of MS-II or higher can apply.

The Eastern Washington University Foundation would like to thank the donor for recognizing the dedication of the EWU
Army ROTC cadets and their potential to become leaders in their communities. To learn more about scholarships and
other ways to support student success at EWU, please visit the website below.

Giving to EWU