Mathew Barr and Kristen Bauer know that people have certain assumptions when they hear the term ROTC.

Folks might picture uniformed kids running around while being barked at by a stern-faced officer. Jumping jacks and rifle drills. Maybe a few crisp salutes. That sort of thing.

But down at Kinglsey High School, Barr and Bauer are eager for everyone to see that northern Michigan’s first Naval Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) program is much more than those stereotypes.

First, the program goes far beyond physical fitness and military training. It’s not a recruiting tool for the Navy, and the vast majority of kids that participate won’t end up there. Instead, it’s designed to combine a broad, largely-science based curriculum (areas of study include oceanography, meteorology, robotics, engineering and more) with essential life skills like financial literacy, college preparation and leadership.

“The goal here is to build an informed, responsible citizen that is a leader within their community, and to be able to do that you have to overcome your fears and build leadership traits,” Barr, who leads the program, tells The Ticker. “In the Marine Corps and Navy we have leadership traits like justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, loyalty, decisiveness, tact, enthusiasm. And building on those at a young age gives these kids endless opportunity.”

But beyond the broad curriculum, it’s something that breaks the traditional high school mold by putting students in charge of many aspects of their instruction.

“I love this program. I believe in this program maybe more than I have believed in anything in the educational world,” Bauer, who has taught at Kingsley for 20 years, tells The Ticker. “This lives and breathes a student-led philosophy, and you see the kids rise to that, and how hungry they are for it and how much they take advantage of it.”

Bauer was responsible for bringing the program to Kingsley. She was inspired by an uncle who took an NJROTC program years ago, and it’s something she wanted to bring to Kingsley for some time.

“The idea just kept circling back to me over and over again,” she says. “And after 20 years, you see holes in the education system where we can do better, especially in terms of students’ self-confidence.”

She heard of Barr’s program at Belleville High School near Ann Arbor and went to observe it. Barr is a Cheboygan native and U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. As it turns out, he was looking to move closer to home anyway. Barr launched the program at Kingsley when the 2024-25 school year began.

“Right out of the gate, it was just perfect. It was meant to be. The engagement level was exactly what I wanted it to be, and here we are not even at the end of November, and he’s done such remarkable things,” Bauer says. "It’s everything I could have wished for.”

There are 48 kids participating, with demand expected to increase.

“It’s been going extremely well. To be honest, it’s been much more well received than I expected,” Kingsley Schools Superintendent Josh Rothwell tells The Ticker. “I thought we would have to really work hard to build the program since it’s new to the community, but it’s been very well received and kids have jumped in with both feet.”

Barr tells the kids to “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” as they overcome their fears. These fears aren’t things like snakes or spiders, but instead items like public speaking and socialization. And students are put in charge of various initiatives, something that Bauer and Barr say build tremendous self-confidence.

“My nature, having done this for a while, is to step in and say 'How can I help, what can I do?,' and the beautiful thing that slaps me in the face repeatedly with this program is that (I’m told) we’re going to have the kids do that,” Bauer says. “They’re doing all the things that teachers would traditionally do. We often forget that they can do these types of things, we just don’t let them. This gives them that platform.”

Exposure to the many items included in the program’s curriculum gives kids a “huge head start” coming out of high school, Rothwell says. Bauer agrees.

“These kids can take off in a million different directions and do things that they're interested in and have the roots and the confidence built in high school,” she said. “They don’t have to wait until they get to college to start thinking about those things.”

Finally, the JROTC program just might the thing that keeps kids engaged in the classroom, school leaders say.

“Kids have to find their niche, what they enjoy and what they're passionate about, and outside of TCAPS, I think it's hard for some of our smaller schools in northern Michigan to really provide those different opportunities,” Rothwell says. “We have a lot of kids to go into the arts or extracurriculars and athletics and such, but I think this ROTC program just opens up a whole new world for some of those kids that are not super excited about those other activities.”

“I’ve been told several times, and not just here but when I was at Belleville, that the only reason my kid comes to school is your class,” Barr adds.

Right now, the school and Barr have funded everything for the new program, but that’s likely to change.

“It’s a two-year probationary period. Once the Navy sees commitment from the community and from the school, then they'll take it on and certify you,” Barr says. “At that point, the Navy pays for everything.”

Students tell The Ticker that they feel the program is particularly enriching.

"I'm a captain in a lot of sports, and some of the values line up with stuff we learn in sports. I think that's really cool,” says Isaiah Cosgrove, a junior. “And for kids that have been in sports and some kids who weren’t doing as good in their classes, I think this helps them get more disciplined and get on top of their work more. It helps them improve their grades and their lives.”

Freshman Katelynn Leatherman said she now feels a “special connection” to other students in the program, and she’s impressed by how broad the curriculum is.

“The program is super fun and exciting, and we have a lot of opportunities,” she says. “It’s exposing us to a lot of things and helps us expand our knowledge on certain things.”

Photo: Barr and students at a recent ceremont. Inset: Barr and Bauer.