Youth Sync
Oak Ridge teen goes from ‘flunking’ to leading cadets After struggling at Northwest Guilford High School, Brandon Augsburger emerges as Oak Ridge Military Academy’s highestranking cadet by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE – Shortly after enrolling in Oak Ridge Military Academy (ORMA) in February 2020, Brandon Augsburger joined the drill team. When he mishandled his rifle, the barrel caught him above his right eye, leaving a cut and a jarring reality. Augsburger was no longer coasting along at Northwest Guilford High School (NWHS). By his own description, he had been hanging out with a bad crowd, skipping classes and ignoring his grades. After entering ORMA, he embraced the rules of the military school, which is rebuilding enrollment by recruiting students seeking discipline and camaraderie sometimes absent from public schools. Less than a year and a half after enrolling, Augsburger, a senior, rose to the position of battalion commander – ORMA’s highest-ranking cadet – and also serves as commander of the drill team. “He stepped up as soon as he got here,” said Sallie McCullough, the school’s senior Army instructor. As the
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first sergeant supervising the drill team, she’s watched Augsburger progress in handling his rifle and leading fellow cadets. “He’s made a 360-degree turn.” ORMA’s marketing is aimed at families such as the Augsburgers. “Are you satisfied with your child’s education?” reads a billboard on West Market Street in Greensboro. It touts the school’s offerings – academic assessment, leadership development, college preparation and on-campus, in-person instruction with small class sizes, a selling point during the temporary shutdown of public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Brandon was flunking at NWHS,” said his mother, Kim. She required her son to visit ORMA after her efforts to persuade Guilford County Schools to allow him to repeat the 11th grade failed. “I knew he needed a year to grow up,” she said. The academy allowed Augsburger to finish the second half of what had been his junior year at NWHS as a sophomore. “The turnaround in him was immediate and remarkable,” his mother said. “The fact he is now the battalion commander shocks me to no end.” As the top-ranked cadet, Augsburger, 18, is responsible for the whereabouts of the school’s approximately 100 cadets. He helps resolve discipline and other problems. Lower-ranking cadet leaders
COMI NG S OON
Photo courtesy of ORMA
Battalion Commander Brandon Augsburger leads a parade of Oak Ridge Military Academy cadets in September. report to Augsburger, who reports to McCullough and Sgt. Major Terrence Lewis, commandant of cadets. A month after Augsburger began attending ORMA as a day student, the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to decide whether to continue commuting to the school or move onto campus. He chose to live and study on campus with other cadets. If he had decided to study remotely from home, Augusburger said he knew he’d “find a way to cheat out” of doing
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his school work. Instead, living and studying with fellow cadets created camaraderie he hadn’t found at NWHS, which he described as “way too big” for him. The cadets “are all your friends,” he said. “They are there for you.” Smaller class sizes have helped Augsburger improve his grades to As and Bs from Ds and Fs at NWHS. “I realized I could change, and I took advantage of the opportunity,” he said. Augsburger also participated in optional leadership training that tested his physical stamina. That includes hikes of eight and 12 miles, with cadets carrying rucksacks loaded with bricks weighing as much as 40 pounds. He said he embraces the academy’s military training, down to details such as ironing creases in his pant legs. The military regimen “makes you feel different about things, more professional,” he said. “Looking really sharp and marching with a straight back, you get compliments. It makes you feel good.’’
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