Miss Army ROTC and Mister Army ROTC, Alyssa Hamilton and Devin Myrick, pictured together after coronation.
Photo Submitted by Gabrielle Bolden
Florida A&M University is not only known for “excellence with caring” but its royal courts.
It gives students the opportunity to show faculty members and the community that the student body has an opinion and someone to represent that opinion. FAMUs Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps held its coronation on Thursday, but it’s not your typical royal court. The FAMU ROTC bases its royal court positions on who puts in the most work effort and chooses the top-ranking person of each class.
Former 2017-2018 Miss FAMU Army ROTC Alelee Figueroa, a junior criminal justice major, does not think their royal court is there just to have a face, as she describes the significance of the ROTC royal court:
“The ROTC court is the representation the ROTC has in the school and in the community, it’s an important part at FAMU and it should be represented as such,” she said, adding, “This event is very special and important to the Rattler Battalion itself. It’s bringing in a new reign. We’ve had a queen every single year for 70 years. It’s a very special occasion for us and we would like to share that with everyone at FAMU.”
Former 2017-2018 Mister FAMU Army ROTC, Tevin King, a senior theater performance major, explains that this royal court serves to create exceptional students and remarkable leaders. “Our ROTC court is to shape people for a better future, our Mister and Miss are our top cadets, to implement the culture of the actual royal court we are going to place in order which steps to take to get to the top.”
The ROTC royal court system serves to lead students in the right direction, allowing them to push themselves to their full potential.
“I think it affects it tremendously, the fact that every year people are trying to strive to get to the top,” King said. “Last year we did not have it, this year we do have it. MS1s are fighting to get to the top which means, best PT scores, best range scores, best on the history tests, they are actually trying to get a scholarship.”
By choosing the top students in each class to serve as representation, King believes it allows the purpose of the ROTC to be spread. “I think it’s an awareness, it’s the exposure for the ROTC to have a royal court and now people won’t see us as the people who just go outside and get in the dirt. We are more than that, we do more than that and it takes a lot of brain power to do this.”
The 2018-2019, Miss FAMU Army ROTC, Alyssa Hamilton, a junior industrial engineer, says that she’s looking forward to “show the community that the ROTC is not just here, they are there to work.”
The 2018-2019 Mister FAMU Army ROTC is senior interdisciplinary studies major Devin Myrick.