A 17-year-old Indian-American girl leads nearly 300 cadets in her school’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Unit (NJROTC) as a battalion commander in the United States.
Ridhi Chauhan, an Indian American student at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, received the program’s top ranking. Her daily responsibilities as battalion commander include overseeing battalion operations, training, and cadet welfare.
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What is NJROTC?
NJROTC is a leadership program supported by the United States Navy and operated in high schools throughout the United States. It is designed to build character, discipline and teamwork. Riddhi says she joined the program to hone her leadership skills and find a meaningful way to contribute to her school. She says, according to news agency ANI, that this experience developed into a broader ambition to become a naval officer.
Preparatory school preparation for the United States Naval Academy
Ruchika and Dilip Chauhan’s daughter, whose family roots trace back to Jaipur in Rajasthan and now resides in New York, is preparing to enter the Naval Academy Preparatory School, a stepping stone to the US Naval Academy.
Prior to becoming the battalion commander, Riddhi served as academic commander, STEM commander, platoon commander, and inspection commander. As an Academy Leader, she has helped her school team reach the second round of the Leadership and Academy Championships two years in a row and placed first in a national Academy competition.
As a STEM leader, she led students in building the unit’s first SeaPerch underwater robot from scratch. Along the way, she has also mentored more than 200 fellow students.
Riddhi says her approach to leadership has been influenced by a strong spiritual and cultural foundation rooted in the teachings of BAPS spiritual leader Swaminarayan Mahant Swami Maharaj and her involvement in the organisation’s youth training programmes.
(with ANI inputs)
