US Army and SU Army ROTC host midterm tour

The U.S. Army and Southern University’s own Army ROTC program hosts THE TOUR, a two-day event located in front of the Smith Brown Student Union with a purpose to give the students a chance to have fun during midterms and recruit future ROTC cadets. The event took place on the 7 and 8 of October from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to interest Southern University students into a brief getaway from midterm exams and to inform high schools ROTC programs that attended what their program has to offer being a future cadet.
According to Southern University Business Management major and Computer Science minor, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Jordan Quinn, the US Army brought THE TOUR to the university to help ease the stressful minds of the hard working students with free gifts, strategic and upper body endurance exercises, student versus student gladiator battle and bike raffle. As well as to establish the Army ROTC presence on campus.
“It’s a great event for SU students to come and enjoy themselves. We’re also trying to recruit stellar students, collegiate and high school, to offer them a knowledge on what it takes be in the Army and benefits towards having a better stepping stone in life,” said Quinn. The TOUR also highlighted several students in the ROTC program receiving scholarship funds produced by the Army.
Graduate Assistant and Southern University Graduate, Brittany Price, and University of Louisiana-Lafayette Graduate and Program Coordinator, Cara Guilbeau collectively planned for this event. According to Guilbeau, THE TOUR is the ultimate, health-wise experience for students and promotion for health and wellness on campus. “This event is a stress reliever rather than going home to become overwhelmed by anxiety from the midterm exams students have taken. We want students to have fun during midterm and think of midterm week as exciting,” said Price. Guilbeau added that “THE TOUR is also sponsored by vendors such as Natures Valley, Zest, and products to win such as hair and body products, T-shirts, Army logo bags and so much more.” She also says that there was a bike raffle giveaway for students to sign up for. Uber had a booth set up for students that were interested and a of Army dog tags booth for customizing your very own dog tags. There was also a wheel spin booth to win the products from the sponsored vendors, push-ups and pull up challenges, and a couple of booths for student’s access information about the army and the sign up process for interested future cadets. In addition, they want students to be on the look out homecoming and Greek events to come.
The TOUR was a big success as a plethora students flocked towards the event to benefit and enjoys themselves. Some slugged it out against one another in the featured gladiator arena. Freshman Engineer Major Tyler Blackmoore says, “I really enjoyed myself, especially with the boxing and I expect more leadership like this moving forward.”