By Hussein Ali Rifath
Many students enter college intending to pursue white-collar careers. Mina Fofana, a junior health sciences major, originally sought to attend medical school and serve the country as a combat medic. Participating in the US Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program inspired her to take a different path as an army officer.
ROTC programs allow students across the country to pursue a college education while receiving military training to become officers in their chosen branch of service. Those who participate without entering a contract to serve have no obligation to do so; contracted students are offered academic scholarships that cover either their college tuition and fees or their room and board costs.
On account of the size of campus, Adelphi University does not have its own Army ROTC unit. Hofstra University Army ROTC’s Culper Battalion hosts students from Adelphi, LIU Post, Molloy University, Nassau Community College, St. Joseph's University, Suffolk Community College, SUNY Farmingdale and SUNY Old Westbury who are interested in participating as crosstown cadets. Students from these visiting institutions take the same military science classes and receive the same training, but any credits earned from this are usually not factored into their grade-point average. For Fofana, this has meant waking up earlier than most Adelphi students living on campus and spending a lot of time at Hofstra’s campus early in the morning.
“I go [to Hofstra] on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays around 5 a.m. Around that time, it’s like an eight-minute drive, there’s no one on the road. It's not a hard commute. There are even people in the program who will give you rides if you need anything. If you have no transportation, they'll bring you there–they'll help you out,” Fofana said.
But undergraduates aren’t the only ones who can both serve the country and attend college as a Panther. The university began as an all women’s college, but became coeducational after World War II, when many veterans began studying at Adelphi using the G.I. Bill. This tradition continues today: the University offers a tuition discount to veterans, their spouses and dependents and the Center of Professional & Continuing Studies houses a veteran student lounge at Levermore Hall.
According to Francesca Romagno, an academic advisor at the Veteran Support Department in the College of Professional & Continuing Studies, there are over 40 veteran students and close to 90 spouses/dependents of veterans at Adelphi pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees.
Meanwhile, undergraduate students can join an ROTC program anytime between the beginning of their college career and the end of their sophomore year. Fofana began during her second year at Adelphi. The commitment has encouraged her to adopt responsible working habits.
“I always do my homework like the weekend before so I don't have to worry about doing work the night of,” she said. “I don't have any late classes so I’m always in bed by 8:30 and I wake up around 4. I still get a good eight-plus hours of sleep.”
Throughout her experience, she has enjoyed camaraderie with her fellow cadets.
“You meet a lot of new people and they're like my closest friends,” she said. “Most of them live in New York and I live in Massachusetts. A lot of them have driven out to Massachusetts just to see me. I’ve driven down here on breaks just to see them; they become your family.”
Fofana continued, “You’re with them three days out a week. Sometimes we have three-day weekends where we're sleeping in the woods together and you just get close to them. The people at the program will help you if you need anything. I know a lot of people; they’ll stay in our [Hofstra ROTC] lounge over there for hours helping you study for chemistry or any classes you need help with.”
At the same time, she said she feels closely connected to the Adelphi campus. “I still go to classes. I still have normal friends. And I still do normal things every other college student does. I just wake up earlier than most college students do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” she said. “But then I just go back to my regular life. I’m only there [at Hofstra] early in the morning and it’s before any of my friends on campus even wake up. There will be times that I’m leaving to go to ROTC and they’ll just be going to sleep.”
There are times when ROTC activities might conflict with a student’s academic schedule. Fofana has found her Adelphi professors supportive during such circumstances. “You just let your professors here know you need a break or anything like that or an extension. They’ll give you a break and they’ll help you,” she said.
Reflecting on her time studying at Adelphi while participating in Army ROTC, Fofana said, “I just love the program. It’s with good people, you’ll have fun and it’s a good opportunity.”