Combating Terrorism Center
The Combating Terrorism Center held its first movie lunch of the semester on Monday, 31 August, drawing a standing-room-only crowd of over 30 cadets from the Terrorism Studies minor, officers, NCOs, and civilian faculty to watch the Vice News documentary on the Islamic State. The group, which enjoyed a pizza lunch as well, engaged in a lively post-movie discussion about the current situation in Iraq and Syria and the strategic trajectory of the group. The next movie lunch will be held on 9 November.
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership
Excel Scholars & Elevation Program host Mr Rajiv Ball Session on Leader Development: On Friday, 28 August 2015, Mr. Rajiv Ball, partner and Leader Developer at THNK, School of Creative Leadership, met with cadets from Excel Scholars and Elevation Programs for a two-hour leader development session that took place at the BS&L conference room. Mr. Ball shared his passion for leadership development, institution building, and his scholarly as well as experiential understanding of international environments. Cadet Christopher Monroe wrote of his experience, "Mr. Ball's leader development session was awesome. He kept us engaged and really challenged us on being self-aware leaders. He taught us the trust equation (Trust=(Credibility+Reliability+Intimacy)/Self-Orientation) of good leaders. I took away great notes from his tips on improving the factors that equate trust, and I will begin to implement these ideas within my platoon to improve trust of our organization. " LTC Frederick Black, one of the Officers in Charge (OIC) of the Excel Scholars Program added, "Everyone walked away smarter for having attended, and it was definitely time well spent for cadets and faculty alike." Mr. Ball, formerly a partner at McKinsey & Company, has also served as an analyst at Arthur Anderson. He is currently a lecturer at University of California at Berkeley.
On Friday, 28 August BSL hosted a visit from University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Dr. Angela Duckworth. Dr. Duckworth holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard in Neurobiology, was a Marshall Scholar through which she completed her master's degree in Neuroscience from Oxford, and she holds her Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Duckworth is a 2013 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, and was selected by the Association for Psychological Science as a "rising star" in psychology. The purpose of the visit was to discuss with West Point's senior leadership how grit, a construct developed by Dr. Duckworth to predict high achievement of difficult goals, and related concepts may be leveraged to enhance cadet performance across the academic, military, physical, and character domains of development. While here, she also met with PL100 faculty and researchers interested in continuing research into grit and its role in cadet development.
Department of Foreign Languages
German: SAP (16-1) in Germany: Six USMA cadets – CDT Bryce Wilberding, CDT Christian Sitarz, CDT Tyler Holderby, CDT Galen McCarver, CDT Tyler Brians, and CDT Steven Musholt – began their SAP experience on 23 August 2015 with language training at the Dresden German Language School with some additional military instruction at the German Officer School (OSH) in Dresden. The cadets will complete an intensive four-week language and culture immersion in Dresden and the OSH prior to beginning studies at the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich and Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering
Lieutenant-General Hogg Lectures Cadets on the Esoterics of Africa. LTG David Hogg, United States Military Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Military Committee, lectured to the students of EV 375, the Geography of Africa on 31 August. He drew on his experiences as the former Commander of US Army Africa in order to highlight the challenges of operating in the diverse environment of Africa, explaining the US vital interests and explain how they influenced his role in developing the US Army’s strategy on the continent. The lecture included an informative Q&A that allowed students to correlate how the geographic underpinnings of operating overseas may influence their future experiences as military officers.