RHS Senior Receives Marine Legion of Valor Award

Editor's note: The following is a press release from . 

Senior Daniel Quan has been awarded the prestigious Marine Corps Legion of Valor Bronze Cross for Achievement, an honor accorded to only six of the 35,000 Marine Corps Junior ROTC cadets throughout the country.

Quan, who was promoted to the rank of Cadet Colonel at the end of last school year, will serve as the RHS Marine Corps JROTC Battalion Commander during the coming school year.

“He’s a very impressive young man,” said Maj. (USMC Ret.) Mark Placey, the new JROTC Unit Commander at RHS.

In nominating Quan, RHS JROTC faculty member GySgt. Rachele Miller (USMC Ret.) called him “an exceptional role model to his fellow cadets as well as others in the school and community,” adding “his outgoing personality and organizational skills are hallmarks of his character.”

Quan has been part of the JROTC unit since entering RHS as a freshman.

“It just got my attention when I came here,” said Quan, whose older brother, Zachary, was involved in JROTC as well. “I knew it was all about leadership education and I wanted to become a better leader.”

An honor student, Quan has been President of RHS Student Council for two years, a position he hopes to keep this year as well.  He is also a member of Student Leadership Club and National Honor Society, and competes on both the cross country and track teams.

Within the JROTC program, he competes on the Drill Team, serving as a captain on several of the competition groups. He also holds an Order of the Purple Heart medal for exceptional leadership.

Quan says he will “most likely” pursue a career in the military but wants to obtain a college degree first, possibly at a military college like The Citadel or West Point.

He is the son of Donna and Sherman Quan of Romeoville.

“I enjoy helping people so I think probably something like a corpsman or a field medic would be a good career,” he said. “But I definitely want to go to college first so I have that degree by my name.”

Quan, whose philosophy is “go for it,” isn’t resting on his laurels however. He’s right in there helping to recruit incoming freshmen and convince them that JROTC is for them.

“They need to know it will help them become a better leader, especially if they’re on the quiet side,” he said. “Plus you meet new people and become a better person.”