MOUNT DORA, Fla. — Shaping the lives of those who help protect our freedom can begin in high school, and Mount Dora High is preparing its students for life — by instilling military discipline.

What You Need To Know

  • Cadet Peyton Scott helped recruit 80 cadets to this year’s Mount Dora High School JROTC's freshman class

  • Scott also led his fellow cadets to increase their community service hours.  His efforts helped him earn the honor of Air and Space Force JROTC Cadet of the Year

  • Father and lead instructor Major Andrew Scott says JROTC’s goal is not to recruit high school students for the U.S. military, but to provide the students a discipline they can apply to their life and whatever career path they decide

On the annual picture day for the Mount Dora High School JROTC, every piece of the cadets’ uniform had to be perfect.

Cadet Peyton Scott helped lead the attention to detail. Taller cadets moving to the back for the picture required a military formation. 

“Building citizens is all about attention to detail, helping others, paying attention to those little things because the little things matter, and if you can trust yourself to do the little things, you can trust yourself to do the big things later,” Mount Dora High JROTC Lead Instructor Major Andrew Scott said.

Cadet Scott, Major Scott’s son, helped recruit 80 cadets in this year’s freshman class, increasing the size of this year’s corps. 

“Perfection is what we’re always striving for,” Peyton Scott said. “It’s really hard to obtain, but we can always strive to be that perfect group.”

Peyton Scott, a senior who plans to enroll in a U.S. Air Force academy next year as he embarks on a career in the military, also challenged his fellow cadets to do more community service. His efforts led the corps to carry out 8,000 hours of community service in the past year.

“Giving up those hours of my life just to make someone else’s life way easier is worth it to me and every other cadet in this program,” he said.

Andrew Scott said JROTC’s goal is not to recruit high school students for the U.S. military, but to provide the students a discipline they can apply to their life and whatever career path they decide.

“Every single day, they’re going to do accountability. They’re going to make sure everybody’s in the room. They’re going to make sure everything is in the right place. They’re going to report that accountability to their instructors. They’re going to take accountability for their own success,” Andrew Scott said. “Those are life skills, and all we create is a platform for them to begin to build on those life skills.”

“High-schoolers, teenagers can get into some stuff they will later regret,” Peyton Scott said. “But through this program, I learned that none of that stuff is really necessary.”

Peyton Scott’s combined efforts helped him earn the honor of Air and Space Force JROTC Cadet of the Year.

“It’s such a mind-boggling number to be one out of 17,000, but after that, my mind went instantly to how much of an impact this could have on our program,” Peyton Scott said.