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The Cadet Programs have so many opportunities to offer

June 16th 2022
CPO1 Caitlin Taylor
The Cadet Programs have so many opportunities to offer

 
Passion is hardly enough to describe the burning flame CPO1 Caitlin Taylor has for the Cadet Program. From a young age, she found self-expression through sailing and has grown to explore the unification between Sailing and Leadership responsibilities.
In this edition of Awesome Cadet, Caitlyn Taylor, 2021 National Legion Cadet of the Year expresses her excitement about the Cadet program and the many opportunities that the Navy League has to offer.
 
Tell us the story of how you joined the Cadet Organization. What motivated you to initially join and what has kept you engaged and involved in the program?  What advice would you give to encourage others to join and/or continue in the Sea Cadet program?  What have been the highlights of your cadet career?
 I first heard about the Cadet program from my older brother who was studying in the International Baccalaureate program and looking for ways to obtain service credits for CAS (creativity, activity, and service). After he decided to join the local Air Cadet Squadron in Bedford, my parents asked me if I wanted to join the cadet program with him. I was immediately excited to join, although I had a particular affinity for Sea Cadets. While in England we were members of a sailing club and I participated in an annual sailing week hosted for the youth of the club. As a result of this, I missed sailing and wanted to get back on the water to continue developing my sailing skills, so I had my heart set on the Sea Cadet program. After researching the local Sea Cadet Corps, we found one that coincidentally trained at the same time on the same night as the Bedford Air Cadets squadron, so I joined 305 RCSCC, Sackville, in September 2016.
Sailing has kept me the most involved in the program, however, I have also really enjoyed instructing and taking on more leadership-heavy positions in the corps. While I enjoyed the leadership roles once I felt more comfortable in them, I know it can dissuade some cadets from joining or staying in the program. We are all nervous when we start in these positions, but learning and making mistakes in them helps us grow and become more comfortable in them. Take a leap! The two highlights of my cadet career were sailing for the Atlantic region team at the National Sea Cadet Regatta in 2019, as well as being the coxswain of 305.
 
One of the goals of the Sea Cadet program is to develop future leaders and active citizens with a genuine interest in their community and country. What experiences within the cadet program have helped you develop your leadership and citizenship and what skills do you currently find to be the most useful for you in your community and Corps?   How do you think that participation in the cadet program has set you up for success as you are faced with challenges in the future?
Communicating! Communication is a huge part of day-to-day life for me with professors, teammates, other students, and members of the community. I’ve practiced and developed my communication skills a lot through the Sea Cadet program and my involvement with various campaigns, activities, and mostly instructing. Carrying on all that I’ve practiced during cadets is very helpful as I’m navigating my way through university and aspiring to join various initiatives on top of my courses and varsity swimming, while also maintaining contact with the community around me every day.
 
How did you feel winning the 2021 National Legion Cadet, and what advice would you want to share with those who might be on the fence about joining the Cadet programs?
Winning such a prestigious award was huge, I was shocked when I heard that I had won it and it took a while to feel real! Winning the award also definitely helped me to become more confident in myself and proud of what I’d accomplished. The biggest piece of advice I would give is that it is alright to be scared. When I joined I didn’t know anyone in the program and I didn’t know what to expect. But after only one night I had many friends, I knew a lot more about what I was doing, and I had a lot of fun. The Cadet Programs have so many opportunities to offer, it’s okay to be apprehensive at first but that won’t last for long!
 
If you were to address the national partners in the Leagues and DND/CAF, what advice and recommendations would you provide on how to make the Cadet Programs more attractive to young people and how to rebuild the program after the restrictions of the past two years?
The biggest attraction in my opinion would be the opportunities it presents. The bigger opportunities are fantastic; options like summer training, deployments, national competitions, and glider training. But the smaller things such as going bowling or watching a movie with the corps/squadron are also great because they help build lifelong friendships. It’s awesome to be able to go and have fun with friends in cadets and have a break from school and other things. Hopefully, as the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic are lifted, it will allow for more training and bigger opportunities soon. On top of the more exciting opportunities, I have also noticed through my experiences and those of my peers that many of us have benefited significantly from the leadership opportunities presented to us as we moved up in rank and gained more skills. We were very nervous to take these roles at first, but as we learned and grew into them, we started to enjoy them. Becoming more confident and watching all my friends do the same was a highlight of the program for me. Starting to reincorporate all these opportunities into the program will definitely help to rebuild it after the pandemics restrictions of the past two years.
 

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