Beyond the Measure Episode 4: Cadet Madison Evans

Beyond the Measure
Episode FOur: Cadet Madison Evans

April's episode of Beyond the Measure is all about service and how Sam Houston State University's ROTC program prepares future Army leaders to have fulfilling careers in both the military and as civilians. To learn about how the university's program accomplishes this, our hosts sat down with Cadet Madison Evans, the Battalion Commander for the Bearkat Battalion. The following lays out the discussion in a convenient Q&A format. For the full Beyond the Measure experience, watch the full episode below or on YouTube.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to Sam Houston State University?

I am a senior at Sam, I am a criminal justice major and I am the Battalion Commander of the Sam Houston State University Bearkat Battalion ROTC program. Out of high school, especially in the tail end of my high school career, I became kind of enthralled with criminal justice and the law program. Sam Houston State obviously is a top CJ program in both the state and also the nation. And I had kind of considered UT Austin, A&M, Baylor, the big universities and all it took was one tour of Sam Houston and I knew I needed to attend.

Can you tell us what is ROTC and like what inspired you to join?

ROTC stands for the Reserve Officer Training Corps, it's a nationwide program and you can do Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps. But specifically at Sam Houston, we are an Army organization. I enlisted right outside of high school, and I actually didn't plan on joining ROTC initially. It was kind of at the end of my initial training that I had spoken to some non-commissioned officers and officers about what paths I had, and I knew I wanted to go the officer route because I love leadership. I like to try to be a leader in any program I'm in with my peers, etc. and I already wanted to go to Sam Houston and I heard that the program here was really really good.

ROTC is the only organization on a school campus that promises you a job after school, which is awesome, especially in today's world. It's kind of scary to get out of the job market, so whether you go active duty, National Guard, or reserve, you have a career that you know you're promised. So, it led me here and I joined initially in January of 2023; it was the spring semester after my training and immediately after I joined. We're a pretty small program, so you make relationships pretty quickly and immediately I fell in love with it and I got involved with absolutely all I could get involved with.

How has this shaped your leadership and your personal growth?

A lot, and in a lot of different ways. I think that being in a military organization in the first place, you're challenged both mentally and physically. Your leadership is a huge part of that because we do a lot of challenging things in ROTC, but the main topic that they focus on and develop you in is your leadership.

I volunteered to do a lot of extracurricular things within the program, and I placed myself in positions of leadership to challenge myself. I think one of the most beautiful things about the Army is that you work with a really diverse group of people from not just the nation, but all around the world. People come and join the Army, and I think working with different people and understanding how, as a leader, you need to work with them in ways that work for them. It's challenged me, but in the last three years I have probably developed more than I did throughout the rest of my life due to ROTC.

I wanted to ask what for the future after you graduate, what are your career goals?

Initially, I wanted to go to law school, which it's not out of the picture, but I kind of decided that I would rather go into the workforce initially. I'm considering doing paralegal work because I still like the idea of getting into law but not necessarily being an attorney. So, I want to do paralegal work, see how I like it and then later on down the road, I'm considering going into victim advocacy. I really like working with people.

And then for the Army-wise, I'm commissioning into the reserve. So, I'll have a civilian career and an Army career, and I want to go into military intelligence. That opens a lot of doors, especially in criminal justice, and then if I wanted to go into a federal career path later on, I could.

If a student came to you and they were thinking about joining ROTC, what advice would you give them?

I would say try it out. One of the cool things about ROTC is you can get two free years, that's what we call it. So you can do ROTC for two years before signing a contract and signing your life to the Army. I say by joining ROTC and trying it out, you only have something to gain. Even if you don't want to stick with it, you're going to gain leadership development and, I think, become a more well-rounded person. Having some sort of military experience and training looks really good on a resume and it also interacts with other aspects of your life in your civilian and personal life. You're going to become stronger and fitter, mentally tougher. So, I absolutely encourage anyone and everyone to at least try it out.

Can you talk a little bit about how ROTC lives out the motto, "The measure of a Life is its Service," and the things you do on campus and in the community?

We are heavily involved in the university. If you go to the majority of university events, we're heavily involved with the color guard and you know presenting ourselves in any way that we can. Also, a huge aspect of ROTC is community service; usually in our syllabus we're required to get out and be involved in the community.  We’re usually designated a certain amount of hours to complete, and the goal of ROTC is to join the United States military, obviously, and to volunteer your time and your livelihood to serve your country. So, I think that all of the training that we do is directed towards making an impact not just on our campus, not just on our community, but our nation as a whole.