As Michele sat in her chair at the military ball, she couldn't help but feel a little bit envious of the other girls. Sure, she was sitting next to a new boyfriend. But that didn't change that she was right across the candle-lit table from his ex-girlfriend and her date, a fellow male battalion member. And unlike the ex-girlfriend, dressed in a black, form fitting, low-neck, low-back gown, Michele was wearing her uniform that she says
made her look like a nun. But as the University of Kansas Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) members and their dates began eating their cheesecake, the guest speaker, an Air Force General, stood up to give a speech. He told the members that they were sitting there that night in uniform because they were leaders and because they were there to serve their country. He said they had made a noble decision to pursue the military as a career.
"Itmade me sit up a little taller," Michele says smiling, "because then I knew that it wasn't about the dress anymore — it was beyond that — I thought I'm just going to be proud to wear this uniform."
At 5-foot-3 with blond hair and blue eyes, Michele Dierks, Colorado Springs, junior sort of resembles a Dixie Chick. She likes going to parties with friends and loves to dance. She's athletic too; she likes running,
playing lacrosse and has a black belt in karate. "I'm just a normal girl," she says. But if all goes as planned, in just more than a year, Michele will be attending flight school in Pensacola, Florida as Ensign of the United States Navy training to fly F/A-18 Superhornet jets. She would be called an aviator. "Like in Top Gun," she explains.
Michele knows that when she is officially sworn in as an officer after her graduation, she will have to serve seven to nine years in the military. But that is why she's a part of ROTC.
More than 200 students are a part of the ROTC program at the KU.The program which includes 31 women is sponsored by the United States Military and works to recruit and train college students to become U.S.military officers.
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