ROTC Army/SOIS graduate focuses on military intelligence and public affairs

As a graduating Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet, Ryn Pease combined experience in military science with a BS degree in military and political communication in the School of Individualized Study.

Pursuing a part-time pathway to national service, Pease will be commissioned as a military intelligence officer in the Army Reserve. Her unit will be in Fort Meade, Md., where she will drill for eight years, at least one weekend per month and two weeks per year.

ROTC appealed to Pease for its physical training, leadership development, scholarship, and the possibility of a job after graduation.

“All those things together sold ROTC to me,” said Pease, from Uxbridge, Mass.

ROTC instilled in her a sense of confidence in her leadership ability, Pease said. A six-week intensive field training program last summer at Fort Knox, Ky., made her appreciate the quality of her RIT cadre and military education.

“Going to training and having people I don’t know come to me for advice on how to run a mission or how to read an OPORD (operations order), which is the document we get in a mission environment, made me realize that I know more than I thought I did,” Pease said.

Cadets from across the country are evaluated at the ROTC Advanced Camp for leadership, problem solving, and fitness.

“The assessment is one of the last major milestones that feeds the Army job-placement process that determines how cadets will fulfill their mandatory service obligation,” said  Michael Sim, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, professor of military science and department chair of Army ROTC at RIT.

The Army ROTC detachment consists of 60 cadets from different colleges in the area. Forty-eight of them are RIT students.

“RIT’s Tiger Battalion will commission nine cadets this May—six students will graduate from RIT, and three will graduate from the University of Rochester,” Sim said. “Outside of Cadet Pease, six cadets will enter Active Duty and two cadets will serve in the National Guard. These new officers will serve in the following branches: infantry, field artillery, cyber, logistics, and military police.”

An interest in military communications, led Pease to enroll in the individualized program offered by the School of Individualized Study and build her own curriculum.

“SOIS helped me synthesize what I actually want to do because of the freedom to take a lot of different courses that worked with my degree,” she said. “I had also come to RIT to do a Chinese minor, and I completed it last semester.”

Pease had visited China during high school and knew she wanted international experiences while at college. She went abroad twice during her time at RIT, spending 10 days in Taipei, Taiwan, through RIT Global, and traveling to Riga, Latvia, through an external organization. During spring break, she attended an immersive class at Media Hub Riga, a non-profit organization that supports independent journalists working in exile.

“It was about media literacy and the Baltics, specifically, but also media literacy in conflict zones or places that have seen conflict,” she said.

Pease is seeking public affairs or policy advising positions that enable her to use the security clearance she received as an ROTC cadet. Eventually, she plans to relocate to Maryland to be closer to Fort Meade and continue her education in international relations or law.