Liberal Arts ROTC student marshal serves country and looks to the future

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After completing U.S. Army basic training and graduating from Pennsylvania Highlands Community College with an associate degree in liberal arts and sciences, Mia Jordan has spent the last three years as a Penn State student exemplifying military and academic leadership. This, in addition to her extracurricular involvements, is why Jordan will represent the College of the Liberal Arts as its ROTC student marshal at the spring commencement ceremony on May 4.

Jordan will graduate with a bachelor of science degree in economics, which will support her future career goal of entering corporate law as a lawyer following her time in the U.S. Army. Jordan, who is from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, initially chose Penn State due to the College of the Liberal Arts’ “diverse class selection,” which allowed her to pick classes focused on skills and competencies necessary to her growth as a professional.

“I knew coming into Penn State that after graduation I wanted to go to law school. Typically, pre-law school students major in political science, some form of business or writing. However, I already understood that I wanted to go into corporate law specifically, so economics fit that need of specialized understanding,” Jordan said. “The economics program has given me a corporate business knowledge background regarding how businesses and large-scale governments work and how money fluctuates and moves. It’s been a great choice, and I love the Department of Economics.”

Following graduation, Jordan will be commissioned into the U.S. Army, where she will finish her combat training for a year and then enter the U.S. Army Reserve to pursue her law studies and military service simultaneously. She is confident in her ability to juggle the workload due to her involvement with the Penn State Army ROTC (the Nittany Lion Battalion) and her previous Army involvement before attending Penn State.

“ROTC has given me more experiences and lessons than I can count. The overwhelming one is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and being in an environment where you’re never going to know everything that there is to know,” Jordan said. “I think that has prepared me for what I'm taking on in the U.S. Army but also in life in general. I have done things in ROTC that I’ve never even thought about doing, and they've pushed the limits of my comfort zone.”

For Jordan, commissioning into the U.S. Army means more than just serving her country — it means staying close to family.

“My dad has been in the U.S. Army since 1990 and is still serving. When I was around seven, he was getting deployed to Afghanistan, and I really wanted to go with him. I would not take ‘no’ for an answer — I really needed to go with my dad. He told me I couldn't go, and the only way I could go, he said, was to wait until I was 17 and to join the Army. Then I could join him,” Jordan said. “I decided right then that I was going to join the U.S. Army and go wherever my dad went, and I did just that when I was 17. I find more meaning with my service the longer I continue to serve, but the overwhelming reason why I serve is my dad.”

Jordan joked that despite her unwavering dedication to eventually joining the U.S. Army, many of her friends and family did not see her as the “perfect candidate to join the military” because she didn’t “look or act like a soldier” to them. However, with her current success and commissioning, Jordan said she hopes to be an example to all that the military is for everyone who wants it.

“I’ve heard people say so many times that the U.S. Army isn't for them or they're not that kind of person or something along those lines, but that reality is that the Army is a place for every different personality and individual quirk,” Jordan said. “Everyone comes together and works so beautifully together. It can be intimidating, but don't be afraid to do it.”

Pushing others to succeed in the military is a role Jordan is fond of. Last fall, she was assigned the role of battalion command sergeant major, where she helped oversee and plan training for the entire Penn State University Park ROTC. This semester, she holds the same role but is focused on expanding and improving the first- and second-year student experience.

“In my position, I get to see a broad scale of the entire ROTC program and weigh in with influence through interactions with others, which has been a great learning experience of how to lead big groups of people,” Jordan said. “This semester, I’ve been a mentor to the underclassmen. I support them during training, like how upperclassmen helped me when I first entered ROTC.”

Jordan’s favorite part of mentorship is building comradery and supporting and celebrating an individual’s development, she said.

“I love being able to help others and embody our motto of ‘See one, do one, teach one,’” Jordan said. “Being able to teach others has been great, but it has also increased my understanding of our traditions and their importance.”

Outside of ROTC, Jordan is involved with Volé, Penn State University Park’s largest co-ed student dance organization. The organization offers dance classes, dancer strength and conditioning workouts and semesterly showcases. Jordan joined Volé her first year because of a love for dancing she’s held since she was 3-years-old. Finding Volé at Penn State “mended her heartbreak” that stemmed from believing she couldn’t pursue dance after high school, she said. Now, Jordan uses her dance passion as a technique teacher and choreographer for Volé. 

“I became a teacher for Volé in my second year. I found that I stepped up in my dancing when trying to teach because I got to share my passion with so many people and it's really rewarding,” Jordan said. “I get to teach a dance or song that I choreograph, and girls just come out wanting to learn. I love seeing the work that I do come to life in other people. They make my dream a reality in that kind of way.”

Jordan is also involved in pageantry, an activity she picked up during her fourth year of high school after she won a local pageant in her hometown and was crowned Cambria County’s Outstanding Young Woman in 2021. Most recently, Jordan competed in Miss Pennsylvania USA 2023.

“I love the girls I met. I love the competition being very intense, and I enjoy that it is high risk, high reward. I wanted to do the Miss Pennsylvania USA pageant because I missed doing dance competitions and competing in the Outstanding Young Woman pageant in high school was very fun,” Jordan said. “Miss Pennsylvania USA was fun, and although I did not win, I loved it. Dressing up and showing my girly side outside of the uniform — and the connections as well — brings me a lot of happiness.”

In her free time outside of ROTC, dance and pageantry, Jordan volunteers at St. Therese parish in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, teaching school-aged children about faith during vacation bible school.

“I am very involved in my faith. It’s something near and dear to my heart, and I love being able to help kids find the difference between right versus wrong and learn about biblical stories that are centuries old,” Jordan said. “I love being able to share a passion in my faith with them and help them build that passion, and I love seeing how their relationship with their faith grows, in any ways that it manifests.”

Whether those she interacts with are as young as the children from her parish, or her own age, Jordan said she hopes she can continue helping to better her community and her country.