CE390 Total Station Familiarization Training. Cadets from CE390 (Civil Engineering Site Design) conducted familiarization training on a total station in preparation of an upcoming surveying lab. The total station is a surveying instrument used to determine information such as the distance (line of sight, horizontal, and vertical) and the horizontal azimuth between two points. CE390 focuses on site selection and the associated land development for civil engineering projects. Several types of surveys such as boundary, topographic, and construction are important aspects of the overall land development process and CE390 provides an overview of those surveys, along with some hands-on training. The Course Director and instructor for CE390 is LTC Brad Wambeke. The POC is LTC Wambeke at brad.wambeke@usma.edu.
EP367 Drama Students Participate in Workshop with USMA Band. On 1 October, students in EP367 Drama participated in a workshop with the USMA Band on the subject of American musical theatre. This interactive presentation, led by Dr. Marc Napolitano and SFC Carla Loy Song, encouraged cadets to think about the narrative possibilities of the musical as a theatrical genre.
Over the course of the two-hour workshop, students discussed ways in which music can manipulate time through sung discourse (consolidating several years into a two-minute song, or stretching out a momentary glance into a five-minute ballad).
The cadets also contemplated the power of music to define individual characters’ personalities through specific rhythms, vocal parts, and orchestrations. SFC Loy Song encouraged students to consider how American musicals have addressed important and controversial social issues, from racial prejudice in “Show Boat,” to gang violence in “West Side Story” to the AIDS crisis in “Rent.” Throughout the workshop, students were given the chance to sing songs from “Newsies,” “West Side Story,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Frozen,” while SFC Loy Song performed powerful numbers from “Big” and “Miss Saigon.” SGM Scott Arcangel accompanied them on the piano. POC is Dr Marc Napolitano, DEP, marc.napolitano @usma.edu.
Support of Cadet Competitive Club Competition. On 5 October, Sensei Reno and DEP’s LTC Joe Wyszynski led eleven junior members of the cadet judo team to participate in the Princeton Shiai. During the tournament, cadets faced collegiate and open competition; opponents ranged from Ivy League students to former service members and veterans of OIF. All the while cadets developed critical thinking skills and the courage to face an individual opponent on the mat. Eight members of the team placed with four cadets taking top honors. The POC is LTC Joe Wyszynski, DEP, joseph.wyszynski@usma.edu.
Cadets in the Studio Arts Forum conduct outreach to Garrison Rehabilitation Home. On 6 October, MAJ Lay Phonexayphova, OIC of the Studio Arts forum, led three cadet artists to the Walter Hoving Home in Garrison, New York to teach women at the home how to paint, shade, and draw portraits. Over 20 women, enrolled in rehabilitation programs participated in the event and learned about the plastic arts.
Army Debate Wins at James Madison: Army debate won the Novice division of the JMU Debate Tournament this past weekend. CDT TJ Collins and CDT Matt Watts followed up their second place finish at Rutgers last week with a dominating victory and 1st place prize at JMU. TJ was also awarded the top speaker prize in a crowd of over 50 novice debaters. CDT Ian Holbrook took home a 3rd place speaker award and 2 other novice teams (CDTs Matlack and Collins / CDTs Gulbis and Hickey) and 1 JV team (CDTs Reed and Oakley) made it to the round of sixteen.
Army Debate Engages with Bard College: Army Debate participated in the opening event of Bard’s Hannah Arendt Conference on the Unmaking of American Values last night. CDTs Aaron Spikol, Theo Lipsky and Will Oakley teamed up with 3 Bard students and 1 Bard professor to publicly debate in front of an audience of over 75 students, faculty and community members whether or not individualism is still an American value worth fighting for. The team represented themselves, the Department and the Academy with distinction. In many cases the Cadets were the first Army Soldiers any of these students ever met and left the event impressed with the professionalism, intellectual curiosity, and communication skills of Aaron, Theo and Will.