Leadership Conference Impressions

More than 200 students from nearly 50 military and civilian colleges come to the USNA Leadership Conference each year, and for most of them, it's their first visit to the Yard. Some of this year's participant's shared some of their thoughts.

Joelle Blas (far left), from Christopher Newport University, expected the prestige 

and structure at USNA, but actually being able to here and experience it firsthand, 

she felt the sense of unity that exists here. She said it has been great to get to 

know the people behind the uniforms.

Ellie Crowell, JD Whetsel, and Francesco Padulo, from Cornell University came 

to the conference as sports-oriented leaders, so being able to meet and interact 

with people who practice different types of leadership has been a great experience. 

They have found this to be a good, diverse group of people. As far as their impression 

of the academy, they've never seen tradition like this before and have enjoyed learning 

about all that we do here at USNA.

Christopher D'Urso (center) has been impressed by the hospitality here 

and has enjoyed  seeing the school and our USNA traditions.

Behind the Scenes of the 2015 Naval Academy Leadership Conference

By MIDN 1/C Danielle Abad

The Naval Academy Leadership Conference is a midshipmen-planned and executed event that has been around since 1984. Originally, the conference only included senior cadets and midshipmen from each of the service academies, but we got tired of hanging out with just Army and Air Force, so over the years we expanded it to include students from civilian universities as well.

The 2015 midshipmen officer staff began planning the event before the Class of 2014 could even walk across the stage at graduation. The first challenge: Who was going to speak at the conference? After making a list of 100+ names and a rough outline of what they wanted the conference to look like, the 2015 chairman and vice chairman brought their ideas, hopes and dreams to the Dant, seeking his approval.

The next challenge: How would they convince world renowned business and military leaders, basically famous people, to come speak at some midshipmen-run program?  It turns out that “some midshipmen-run program” isn’t all that the 2015 Naval Academy Leadership Conference is to people outside of the brigade. After hearing a lot of, “I would love to, but I am already booked” responses, the team received some yeses, and they were pretty impressive yeses, to say the least.

Keynote and panel speakers this year include military and civilian professionals from companies like Cisco, Pepsi, Pinterest, and Facebook – to name just a few. Prominent speakers include retired Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, publisher of Forbes magazine Rich Karlgaard, and Pentagon Press Secretary Adm. John Kirby.

The not-so-challenging challenge: what universities would want to attend? It turns out that many universities wanted to attend the 2015 Naval Academy Leadership Conference, so many that a waiting list had to be created.

The eight midshipmen officers on the staff had their work cut out for them.  Each midshipmen officer holds a different role in the planning and execution of the Conference.

This year’s conference theme is Leading in an Interconnected World, where the speakers and participants will explore the challenges of being an authentic leader in a world where technology can be beneficial to the leader and follower and yet hinder them at the same time.

Together the midshipmen staff plans and executes more than you will ever see, but that is for them to know and you to see the results for yourselves at the 2015 Naval Academy Leadership Conference beginning Jan. 25.

Learn more about the conference at http://www.usna.edu/LeadershipConference/.

National Society of Black Engineers Hosts Terror Zone Summit

By MIDN 1/C Whitney Morey

President of the USNA National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 

On October 18th my chapter and I had the opportunity to host the Terror Zone Summit, a mini-conference open to all members from chapters in Maryland and the District of Columbia.

The summit provided members with a variety of workshops, a lunch-and-learn session, community service, and networking opportunities to the local membership. Though our collegiate chapter has been active since the early 2000s, this was the first chance that our Naval Academy chapter has had the opportunity to truly showcase our school, Navy careers, and most importantly, our community outreach. 

Members arrived at the conference from the University of Pittsburgh, University of Maryland-College Park, and University of Maryland-Baltimore County, as well as the Potomac, Southern, and Baltimore professional chapters. The summit commenced with an opening session, detailing allowing members to introduce themselves.

The first sessions began separating the junior members from the collegiate and professionals.  The junior members were engaged and very interested in their College 101 session where collegiate members paired with junior members to provide advice on what to expect in college, the college application process, the pursuit of STEM majors, and participation in NSBE while in college in order to receive the support and mentorship to succeed and excel in their majors. 

Meanwhile, the collegiate students received information from the professional members on chapter empowerment. They discussed how to motivate and energize their respective chapters in order to decrease membership attrition and increase volunteer outreach, conference and convention attendance, and collaboration with other chapters in order to lend support.

Following the morning sessions, we took a break for lunch where I spoke about the community efforts of the Naval Academy, educated attendees on the Naval Academy lifestyle, and provided application information to the NSBE junior members to generate interest in applying.

The afternoon sessions consisted of collegiate and professional panels, as well as a professionals mixer and tours of the Yard.  The middle school-aged students and ninth graders were ecstatic to see the school and learn more about the academy and the opportunities afforded to its students.  While they toured, the high school and collegiate members separated into breakout groups in different classrooms where they were able to learn from the professionals about leadership skills, pursuit of STEM careers, graduate school application and selection, and transition from military to civilian sector jobs.

We ended with a closing session where much positive feedback was shared regarding the summit, including the professionalism of the midshipmen, the well-spoken public speakers who held panels and sessions, the informative tours provided by the midshipman escorts, the close proximity of breakout groups to the main Mahan Hall, and the beauty and organization of the buildings and classrooms.

The summit was an opportunity for the USNA chapter to establish itself to many of the regional chapters. Additionally, we made great networking connections with the professional chapters of Potomac and Southern who work with Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Air Systems Command as civilian contractors. Overall the event was a great success.