Interlachen High School Army JROTC Robotics and Drone programs seek to develop the cadets interest in STEM career opportunities

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Story by: SFC (Ret.) David Wettrich

At Interlachen High School the JROTC Cadets have new and exciting opportunities to explore.  Thanks to the Putnam County School District STEM directorate, the Interlachen JROTC Cadets have fully embraced the newly established Robotics and Drone Pilot (STEM) programs this school year. 

The Robotics team currently consists of 8 JROTC Cadets who work on designing, engineering, driving, and programming VEX V5 and Boe-Bot Robots. The Robotics program has required the cadets to learn many new skills that will help them be successful in other types of technology, from following flow charts, experimenting, troubleshooting, and teamwork. Ivette Malave, a senior cadet at Interlachen High School stated, “these programs are very interesting and I wished these programs would have been available to me the last couple years of being a cadet.”

The Drone team will compete virtually against other schools across the nation and against local drone clubs.  These programs are offered to JROTC Cadets in the second semester as after school activities and it is the hopes of Lieutenant Colonel Brown and Sergeant First Class Wettrich to offer these programs to all students within the Interlachen Junior/Senior High School Campuses in the near future.

The JROTC Robotics and Drone programs seek to develop the cadets interest in STEM career opportunities.

Top Photo Caption: Members of the Robotics team compete against one another by completing coding and a race around an object.