Cadet Life
Army ROTC students spend time in the class room each week learning about leadership. The applications for this training range from leading soldiers to helping your team win a game to knowing how to get a group to finish a project on time. The first-year students spend time learning how to succeed, and they also learn how to help peers and subordinates accomplish difficult tasks. They have the opportunity to observe the leadership styles of both cadet leaders and Army instructors who bring an incredible array of leadership skills and life experiences to the classroom.
Second and third year students focus class time on how to be successful in intermediate positions of leadership. As practical exercise, they receive directions from cadet leaders, and they must translate that input into instructions for their subordinates and actions that will accomplish the desired ends.
During the summer prior to the final academic year, students travel to Fort Lewis, Washington to participate in the Leader Development Assessment Course (LDAC). This is a 32-day period of instruction where students are asked to put the knowledge acquired on campus to use in a field environment.
Fourth year students are in the home stretch of the leadership curriculum. The head of the department provides advanced instruction in organizational and group dynamics to this class. The senior cadets are also asked to draw on their earlier course work to plan training events for the junior cadets and to run the cadet battalion.
In addition to classroom instruction, students spend about 4 hours a month outside the classroom learning practical skills. Starting with a quick introduction to military drill and ceremonies, these leadership labs move on to cover subjects such as land navigation, terrain analysis and tactical movement.
Once each semester, the students and cadre travel to Camp Atterbury in central Indiana to spend a weekend learning basic soldier skills and leadership in the field. Students learn small-unit tactics, rappelling, land navigation and field craft.
