FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Staff Sgt. Stephanie Rojas, who performs career counselor duties for Soldiers with the 3rd Chemical Brigade here, will represent the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Career Counselor of the Year competition, happening next week at Fort Eustis, Virginia.
The three-day competition, which begins on Tuesday, consists of four events: the Army Combat Fitness Test, a written exam, a board appearance and a mystery challenge.
According to Master Sgt. Claire Wood, MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood Command Career Counselor, Rojas is an “absolutely awesome” career counselor and a great representation of the MSCoE team.
“The command team loves her; the Soldiers love her; and we love having her on our team,” said Wood, who described Rojas as intelligent, driven, ethical and hardworking. “I’m absolutely excited for her. Nobody likes going in front of boards — it’s stressful — but I think she’s going to be a great representation of our field.”
Rojas, who grew up in San Antonio, Texas, began her Army career in 2011, when she attended Military Police One Station Unit Training here.
“I always wanted to be in law enforcement or something that would challenge me,” she said. “I thought I’d gain some experience by joining the military, so that’s what I did.”
She said she originally only planned to serve out her first five-year contract, but a supportive command team changed her mind.
“I was really lucky with the leadership I had,” she said. “So, I thought, ‘why not do another three years?’ And then it was, ‘let’s do another three years,’ and then another and here we are. The Army has given me a home and I know how beneficial it’s been for me, so I feel like it can also be beneficial to a lot of our population.”
Rojas, who was awarded the Early Bird Career Counselor Award in November for being the first MSCoE career counselor in fiscal year 2022 to complete her retention mission, said finding ways to take care of Soldiers while also meeting the Army’s needs is key to being an exceptional career counselor.
“Taking care of Soldiers — I know that sounds super cliché, but at the end of the day, every Soldier is different,” she said. “They have different needs.”
Her proudest moments at work these days — Rojas reclassified into the career counselor military occupational specialty about two years ago — are when she can help keep families assigned together.
“If you’re with your family, or you’re in a location where you and your family are happy, then, for me, that’s success,” she said. “If they’re not in the same location, getting them together is always something that makes me proud.”
To help prepare herself for the competition, Rojas said she’s been studying all things career counselor related for months.
“I’m not the type who remembers everything on the first go around,” she said. “I have to constantly be looking at flash cards or reciting the career counselor creed. My schedule is busy: I’m a full-time wife; being here takes most of my day; and I have to take care of my son, but I take 30 to 45 minutes out of my day to look over some questions, or recite the creed while I’m driving to work or picking up my son — he knows the first paragraph by heart at this point.”
This will be Rojas’ first time competing as a career counselor at TRADOC, and she said she is in it to win it — and if she does win, the overall Army career counselor competition takes place in April in Washington, D.C.
“I want to prove to myself that I can do it,” she said. “I also want to make Fort Leonard Wood proud and make sure my command knows that I’m taking care of business.”
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