The Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership planned and hosted the 4th annual McDonald Cadet Leadership Conference (MCLC), which welcomed 83 student leaders from around the world from March 30-April 3rd 2016. This transformational leadership experience sponsored by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Bob McDonald, and his wife Diane, encouraged students to explore the theme of “From Failure to Inspiration and Change.” In addition to the 22 USMA cadets selected to attend, 37 domestic student fellows attended and 24 international students attended, representing a total of 22 countries. Senior Fellows included notable world leaders Ms. Elizabeth Birch, Dr. Daniel Polisar, Mr. Don Yaeger, Ms. Maria Contreras-Sweet, Mr. Xiao an Ji, Ms. Sheila Khama, Mr. Anshul Arora, Mr. Dominic Barton, Ms. Rosanne Haggerty, Sir John Hood, Mr. Mike Maddock, Mr. Ray Jefferson, and Mr. Tom Tierney.
This conference is unique given its student-centric focus and active participation, MCLC is able to develop students’ leadership skills using the framework of assessment, challenge, and support. Four panels were developed to explore the guiding question from the lenses of Vision, Governing, Adversity and Learning. After engaging panel members, student fellows participated in four “break-out” sessions where they explored topics in more detail with smaller groups. The Senior Fellows served as mentors who helped students to challenge their own assumptions and to explore areas of uncertainty. Outside of the conference panels and sessions, student heard introductory remarks by LTG Caslen, saw the highlights of the West Point landscape, experienced The Core of the Corps by the USMA Band, and heard keynote addresses by Mr. Mike Maddock and Secretary McDonald. At the conclusion of the event, student fellows collaborated on a group Opinion Editorial. These final 12 OpEds will be published in the New York Times this summer.