Appointment with history at R-MA

View larger image Thirty-six years after Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal began accepting female cadets, Allyson Doran became the first one to be selected as corps commander. Dennis Grundman/Daily

Seventeen-year-old to assume prestigious leadership position

By Ben Orcutt - borcutt@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL - Allyson Doran is the first female cadet to be appointed as corps commander at Randolph-Macon Academy.

As corps commander, Doran will have a lot of responsibility, including managing the cadre, or the cadet leadership, giving commands "and making sure everyone does their jobs and everything runs smoothly," she said during a recent interview, a day after she was appointed to her post by an R-MA selection committee.

Doran said she applied for corps commander "because I feel that my leadership style would be good for the school and I really want to make a difference. I saw some things last year that I wanted to fix and make better and I really want to have a say in what the history is."

A 17-year-old senior who is entering her fourth year at R-MA, Doran has already made history at R-MA by becoming the first appointed female corps commander since the Front Royal military school began accepting girls in 1974.

Celeste Brooks, director of public relations at R-MA, said the school was founded in 1892 as a college prep school and added the National Defense Cadet Corps in 1918. R-MA became affiliated with the U.S. Air Force in 1975, Brooks said.

The school has had other female corps commanders who assumed the rank after their male counterparts lost it during a school year, "but we've never had a female student appointed as a corps commander from the start of the year," Brooks added.

Doran had mixed reactions when her named was called Aug. 24 as the corps commander.

"I was a bit shocked and happy, but I was really nervous as well like when it hit me, 'Oh my goodness, I'm in charge of the whole corps,'" she said.

While acknowledging that somewhat of a daunting task lies ahead of her considering that about 70 percent of the expected 284 students in grades 9-12 at R-MA are male, Doran feels that with the help of her cadre, she will be equal to the task.

"Maybe it'll be tough to earn some of their respect, but I will try to do it as early as possible to avoid problems later on," she said. "It's not like I have to be like a man to get this position. I don't have to have a gruff voice or be like super strong. I'm not a huge person either. I try to be intimidating when needed, and I feel that not everyone needs to be screamed at all the time, either."

Sporting a grade point average that's usually around the 4.0 mark and competing for the Yellow Jackets in volleyball, swimming and softball, Doran feels she has the right mix of attributes that will help make for a good corps commander as she strives to achieve a number of goals.

She said one of those is "just more respect among the cadets, not only for the leadership, but for each other. Also, I'd like to raise the equality between males and females, like especially being the first female commander. There's not any corps commander's privileges I guess for females and I want to start that, not only for me but for all the future female corps commanders since I know there will be more."

Brooks said that one of the things that Doran was referring to was the lack of an apartment for a female corps commander, which her male counterparts have enjoyed as one of the benefits of the rank.

Doran said that it's kind of "surreal" that she finds herself the top-ranked cadet at R-MA, but she's looking forward to taking the reins.

"I'm glad to be here and I hope that I'll do a great job," she said.