In efforts to create a bigger presence on campus, TCU’s Army ROTC program allowed cadets to bring a buddy to their Thursday morning physical training.

Asia Smith, senior Cadet Captain and future operations assistant, came up with the idea to allow students who are not in ROTC to experience a morning physical training.

“A lot of my non-ROTC friends ask what it’s like to be a cadet, so I thought it’d be a fun way to give them insight,” Smith said.

Skylar Black, a senior cadet and public affairs officer, said that students seemed to be intimidated by ROTC members, which is why the program wanted to host an event to break the stigma.

Heidi Lemelin, a sophomore communication and educational studies double major, said she has a lot of ROTC friends and wondered how the program prepared them for the army.

The morning consisted of three laps around the field inside the track, eight rounds of 20 ranger-partner pushups, 40 meters of walking lunges and air squats followed by another three laps around the field.

“I liked the range of workouts we went through because it worked out different muscles and parts of our body,” Lemelin said.

Lemelin said that despite the intensity of the workout, she was able to keep up and enjoyed it.

“It was a cool atmosphere to be a part of because even though they were waking up early, they enjoyed it because they were all doing it together,” Lemelin said.

Ryan Kaylor, a junior cadet, said seeing the ROTC members push themselves is what he thinks motivated the buddies to keep up and do well.  

TCU’s ROTC program currently has 96 cadets enrolled in the program, 82 of which are on a contract and/or scholarships. Eighty of those on contract or scholarship have full scholarships and nine cadets have pending scholarships for the fall of 2019.