Naval Reserve Officer Training Corp Midshipman Micaela Espinoza has gained confidence as a female leader in the University of Mississippi unit. The junior biomedical engineering major currently serves as Navy ROTC executive officer, performing administrative duties and planning all unit activities and physical training exercises.
“My freshman and sophomore year, I was not as involved in NROTC because my major is so intensive. The officers gave me a lot of grace to focus on school,” Espinoza said. “Now that it is my junior year, I felt that I did not have as many leadership opportunities as I should have. I reached out to my lieutenant, and he put in a good word for me. He gave me the chance, and here I am.”
A rigorous course load was not the only difficulty preventing Espinoza from taking charge in ROTC earlier. Being a woman in a male-dominated unit posed its own challenges.
“I was the only Navy female my sophomore year. My freshman year there was one other female midshipman, but she was a senior,” Espinoza said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go this high up (in leadership) because I was afraid the guys would not listen to me. Putting myself out there was hard.”
At times, everyday activities made Espinoza feel like an outsider. This motivated the Madison, Miss., native to stand up for herself and the freshman female midshipmen who later joined the unit.
“It was little things, like when we ran (physical training) tests. The officers would never read out the female requirements, like what mile time we needed to make. They would forget,” Espinoza said. “It was little, but it meant a lot to me. It made me realize I wasn’t making myself present enough, and that needed to change.”
As Espinoza grew her connections in the unit, she soon realized that being a woman should not stop her from being a leader in ROTC. Many of her male colleagues were welcoming and helped her gain confidence to be a role model, she said. This, combined with some hands-on work experience flying planes, inspired her to change her career aspirations.
“Going in, I was 100% going to try to do a medical field job in the Navy. After a whole summer doing aviation on a summer cruise, I decided I did not want to be a doctor just yet. I came home and did research for two months and missed the thrill of the plane,” Espinoza said.
Each summer, Navy ROTC midshipmen embark on cruises with the Navy. Before her sophomore year, Espinoza attended Career Orientation and Training for Midshipmen (CORTRAMID). The month-long paid opportunity allows midshipmen to spend one week shadowing each operational community in the Navy and Marine Corps.
Espinoza experienced aviation life for the first time at CORTRAMID in San Diego.
“(Flying) is like a dream. We were going over the San Diego Bay, and the pilot let go of controls. I was doing it by myself and thought, ‘Wow, I want to do this the rest of my life,’” Espinoza said.
Summer opportunities set Navy ROTC apart from other military branches, Espinoza said.
“The most rewarding part has been traveling all over the world. I think it’s good to learn from different cultures and people,” Espinoza said. “I got to meet officers that have been in the Navy for 30 to 40 years from all over the world. You come back with a totally different perspective.”
Espinoza, also a Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College member and Luckyday Program scholar, has had an impact on both the ROTC and the university community as a whole. Espinoza went beyond the ROTC community service hour requirement by becoming co-founder of Caring Companions her sophomore year, an organization that assists residents of The Pinnacle of Oxford assisted living facility.
“My friends and I realized that not many people knew they could go to Pinnacle and spend time with the residents, so we decided to start Caring Companions. We began with five girls, and now we have over 500 members,” Espinoza said. “My mission with this club has been to learn from those older than me and spread love to them from students at Ole Miss.”
Caring Companions is currently partnering with UM’s NROTC and plans to partner with the Ole Miss Baseball and Track and Field teams.
UM ROTC has helped Espinoza find her confidence, her passion and her career goals. While she still dreams of a medical job in the future, Espinoza hopes to pursue an aviation contract after graduation and stay in the Navy beyond her required five years of service.
“It’s a learning process, but nothing is impossible,” Espinoza said. “Take the risk. You learn more about yourself and the world around you.”
