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CENTER FOR EXPERIENTIAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
YOUR IMPACT
Midshipmen participated in National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) courses in Wyoming and Alaska during the summer of 2024.
External delegates from more than 75 schools attended the Naval Academy Leadership Conference (NALC), including 28 international cadets from 12 countries.
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Participants (staff and students) were involved in the inaugural WWII Battlefield Staff Ride to London and Northwest France in July 2024, in collaboration with Notre Dame University.
SUMMARY
The Center for Experiential Leadership Development (ELD) serves as the bridge between the Leadership, Education and Development (LEAD) division’s curricular programs within the leadership, ethics and law department and USNA experiential leader programs. ELD’s purpose is to draw connections between the behavioral science theory taught in the classroom and experiential leadership practice.
Colonel Maria “MJ” Pallotta ’94, USMCR (Ret.), Ph.D., has served as the director of the Center for ELD since 2017. Mrs. Chardell McCrory serves as education technician.
Highlights from the 2023-2024 academic year include the following:
NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL (NOLS)
NOLS provides field-based leadership practicums designed to support and complement classroom leadership theory by allowing students to execute and reflect on real-world decision making in austere, unpredictable and dynamic wilderness environments with immediate consequences. NOLS focuses on four types of leadership: directed leadership, peer leadership, active followership and self-leadership. During the summer of 2024, 84 midshipmen attended three types of courses in Wyoming and Alaska—backpacking, mountaineering and sea kayaking.
“NOLS was the most eye-opening leadership experience I have had at USNA so far. It tested my physical and mental limits while also allowing me to exercise and experiment with the leadership skills I already had. We were required to become proficient in new, complex and difficult skills very quickly because our lives literally depended on it. I found that to be very applicable in my future military career. This expedition developed me as a leader more in one month than I could have imagined.”
—MIDN LOLA LEONE ’25
OUTWARD BOUND SPRING BREAK HIKE AND SUMMER BLOCK TRAINING
The Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School (CBOBS) offers a field-based leadership practicum designed to support and complement classroom leadership theory by allowing students to execute and reflect on realworld decision making in austere, unpredictable and dynamic wilderness environments with immediate consequences. Courses meet the needs of midshipmen and USNA’s demand for small unit leadership experiences.
“I learned that the things I was worried about going into the trip were hardly a concern as the trip progressed. I found myself missing running water and my phone much less than I had thought I would, which proved to me that I’m capable of withstanding more rugged conditions than I had previously thought. What proved to be the biggest challenge was working efficiently in a team and accepting that I’m wrong after I’ve messed up. I gained important insights into my own practice of humility throughout the hike.”
—MIDN NILAH WILLIAMSON ’25
During the summer course, CBOBS promotes effective teamwork and leadership development by providing wilderness expeditions and training that emphasizes the ideals of character, leadership and service. This transformative learning experience, where students develop new technical skills as well as a sense of teamwork, self-confidence and a desire to make a difference, are designed and delivered by a community of the industry’s most skilled and dedicated educators and instructors. Additionally, during spring break, midshipmen participate in a five-day hike along the Appalachian Trail with veterans from USNA and the community in a oneon-one mentoring and leadership expedition. This year, 14 midshipmen participated in the spring break hike along with three USNA veterans, and eight midshipmen participated in the summer block expedition.
TRAVIS MANION FOUNDATION (TMF) SPRING BREAK VETERANS HIKE
During spring break 2024, 13 midshipmen and three USNA staff members joined TMF staff, hiking guides and fellow USNA alumni for the second annual USNA-TMF Spring Break Hike. The expedition lasted five days and occurred in and around the Shenandoah Valley, VA, trails and waterways. Similar to the Outward Bound hike, this veterans-midshipmen expedition challenged participants to negotiate leadership scenarios in a cold, austere and dynamic outdoor environment, often at high altitude. Guides taught trail behavior, survival skills, teamwork and leadership skills such as those practiced by Marine Captain Travis Manion ’04, USMC.
“I learned that to be a more effective leader I need to really lean into my strengths, and being intentional about that is a good thing. Reflecting on myself, I realized I do not have a dominant leadership style yet, so I want to make sure to develop around my strengths in the future.”
—MIDN WILLIAM TRECHTER
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CLASS OF ’77 GETTYSBURG LEADERSHIP ENCOUNTER (GLE)
The Class of ’77 Gettysburg Leadership Encounter occurred for the Class of 2025 Brigade leaders over two days in June on the battlefield and at Gettysburg College. Varsity team captains and Brigade leadership learned about the responsibilities and challenges of command through lessons from the iconic U.S. Civil War battle. Midshipman leaders attended classes and break-out discussions covering the leadership tenets of loyalty, standards and action. The battlefield study enabled networking and team building through a cohesive network of peer support that facilitates critical professional relationships within the Brigade during the academic year. During the academic year, these leaders meet monthly before first period to discuss current leadership trends and challenges within the Brigade. In December each year, the second semester Brigade commanders spend one day in Gettysburg studying the same lessons.
“GLE helped me to understand my role in supporting the mission by placing me in an environment with people who are doing the same. It served as a great reminder of the team we have around us and the people in our corner ready to support us.”
—MIDN
NATHAN LI ’25
THE NAVAL ACADEMY WOMEN’S NETWORK (NAWN)
The Naval Academy Women’s Network empowers and equips midshipmen to navigate careers as leaders through increased opportunities for engagement, education and experiences with officers and graduates, cultivating an inclusive and diverse mentoring network of women and men from USNA and the fleet. NAWN typically involves 400-500 midshipmen annually and provides lean-in circle opportunities, as well as four to six networking events throughout the year to foster mentoring and future retention of women service members. During the 2023-24 academic year, five networking and mentoring events occurred in various venues on and off the Yard, including the annual Military Leadership Symposium, which occurred at the new Fluegel Alumni Center in March. Lean-in circles continued throughout the year.
“NAWN has afforded me the opportunity to connect, learn and grow through exceptional mentorship and networking opportunities. Our network has provided me with so many valuable conversations with seniors and juniors alike that have shaped my view of the fleet and will guide me as a future naval officer.”
—MIDN KATE KELLY ’25
ST. BENEDICT’S PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL
St. Benedict’s Preparatory High School provides select midshipmen an experiential leadership development opportunity in small-unit leadership and mentorship responsibilities in a diverse and unfamiliar environment. St. Benedicts’ Prep is a co-ed Benedictine Catholic secondary school in Newark, NJ, serving approximately 600 students, including females as of 2020, in grades 9-12, many of whom are underprivileged. Approximately 30 midshipmen per year participate, honing their leadership skills, developing mentoring relationships with the students that often continue for many years and gaining a better understanding of the vast array of social and cultural dynamics that they will likely encounter once they graduate and begin leading sailors and Marines. In May during Zero Block, midshipmen lead freshmen in their culminating event—a five-day hike on the Appalachian Trail. During third block, midshipmen spend one month with the incoming freshmen leading their indoctrination to the school. They spend the first week helping the staff and upper-class leadership team run an indoctrination period for the incoming freshmen. The following weeks are spent helping in the classrooms, mentoring students and executing an experiential leadership development course for St. Benedicts, similar to the plebe leadership course.
SISTERS ACADEMY OF NEW JERSEY
Sisters Academy operates on a 10-month, extended-day school year model and provides support for preadolescent girls (grades 4–8). The program helps students realize their potential by using education and mentorship as their tools for success. Two midshipmen are invited to participate in professional training in experiential leadership via a combination of practical experience and guided reflection, which includes teaching the students STEM classes. As mentors and role models, these midshipmen strengthen their creative problem-solving skills, enhance their innovative thinking and hone their ability to adapt to dynamic situations. Two midshipmen served as teachers and mentors at Sisters Academy in the summer of 2024.
“The Sisters Academy summer program changed my whole life. Coming from Chicago, I grew up around impoverished areas and always felt helpless. This was my chance to make a difference. I realized that despite being in an impoverished area, the school and faculty dedicate an immense amount of hard work and time to the young girls who come from a variety of tough backgrounds. It was truly inspiring and propelled my leadership skills beyond where I thought they could go.”
OUTDOOR ODYSSEY
Founded by Major General T.S. Jones, USMC (Ret.), Outdoor Odyssey in Western Pennsylvania pairs area youth with high school mentors, providing these teams with a unique wilderness experience at the 500-acre Laurel Highland camp. Incorporating leadership skills, high adventure and team-building into each week-long curriculum, Outdoor Odyssey sets the stage for a year of follow-on activity between the mentors and their teams. Individual and team resiliency lies at the core of everything they do. Midshipmen spend the first week leading high schoolers from Florida, serving as counselors and platoon commanders, concluding with a military-style crucible experience. The remainder of the time is dedicated to training high school seniors to be mentors for younger at-risk middle schoolers who spend summer days at the camp. Approximately 25 college-age counselors work at Outdoor Odyssey each summer, several of whom are NROTC students. Eleven midshipmen were selected to serve as counselors and mentors at the camp in the summer of 2024.
—MIDN GRACE KOCH ’27
“There was never a day that I did not learn something new about leadership, whether it was from the staff, the other counselors or from the campers themselves. I saw many campers overcome their anxieties and fears to achieve things they never thought they could ever do.”
—MIDN JAMES REDMOND ’26
NAVAL ACADEMY LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (NALC)
From 21-24 January 2024, the midshipmen NALC team hosted 354 external delegates from more than 75 schools for the annual conference, including 28 international cadets and midshipmen from 12 different countries. One hundred midshipmen additionally served as delegates. The theme for NALC 2024 was Learning to Lead: The Lifelong Pursuit of Service. Panels included Humility as a Small-unit Leader, Sticking to your “Why” and Leading with Responsibility: The Continuum of Learning. The Forrestal Lecture was given by Vice Admiral Collin Green ’86, USN. Other speakers of note included Admiral James “Sandy” Winnefeld, USN (Ret.), Lieutenant Brad Snyder ’06, USN (Ret.), and Dr. Katherine Graw Lamond, director of the Center for Bariatrics Surgery at Johns Hopkins.
“The Naval Academy Leadership Conference allows me to hear from world-renowned leaders, authors and speakers while simultaneously facilitating engagement with international and civilian delegates. What is most rewarding are the conversations and exchanging of ideas and experiences with the other delegates, where I have been able to share my own leadership dilemmas and figure out how to lead my underclassmen based on these insights.”
—MIDN BELLE NESET ’25
NL425 ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP COURSE
Engineering Leadership (NL425), is offered by the aerospace engineering department as an upper-level humanities course to better prepare students for leadership and project management roles in a more technical and experiential environment. During the practical application projects, which seek to replicate a technical environment, students are expected to display project management and technical leadership skills while working in teams. In order to achieve this objective, NL425’s curriculum addresses three areas: leading engineers’ teams, leading engineers’ work and leading engineers’ innovation. The course provides instruction using lectures, reading assignments, classroom discussion, group projects and various experiential learning activities with content that focuses on the following themes: communication, team dynamics, leadership styles, creativity and project management. The course is currently taught by Captain Ken Reightler ’73, USN (Ret.), a former NASA astronaut.
COMBINED IPO–ELD LREC BATTLE SITES
Combined IPO–ELD LREC battlefield trips provide select midshipmen an opportunity to interact with foreign overseas cultures and the history of U.S. diplomatic and military involvement before, during and after various conflicts in order to instill broadened understanding of cross-cultural dynamics within a conflict setting.
During July and August 2024, ELD and IPO took eight midshipmen on a battlefield and cultural study to the Solomon Islands, focusing on Guadalcanal. Topics of study included WWII history, Solomon Islands culture, the current security and political environment and the national security implications of sea-level rise and climate change.
NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2023–2024:
CIVIL RIGHTS STAFF RIDE
Together with cadets from the other service academies, the Civil Rights Staff Ride is an intense and immersive interdisciplinary learning experience for midshipmen integrating classroom lessons, films and a staff ride to the important locations of the Civil Rights Movement. This staff ride focuses on the study of current-day civil rights and the law in the context of history. The staff ride begins with classroom instruction focused on the legal issues and cases regarding a broad range of civil rights, from the Constitutional debates on slavery to Brown vs. The Board of Education and beyond. Midshipmen then embark on an approximately two-week trip to a number of locations that bring these discussions to life by visiting historical sites and through on-going discussions with leaders and scholars of the Civil Rights movements in America today.
“The Civil Rights Staff Ride gave me the opportunity to explore challenging topics such as slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the continuing fight for civil rights. Traveling throughout the south immersed me in a rich and unique culture while allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of marginalized individuals during the last two centuries. Speaking with death row prisoners and inmates serving life sentences at Louisiana State Penitentiary gave me further insight into what the criminal justice and prison systems actually look like today.”
—MIDN MAXX THALMANN ’26
HARRIET TUBMAN STAFF RIDE
February 2024 saw the first group of 15 midshipmen travel to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to visit Harriet Tubman’s hometown and rural farm area where she fearlessly led her family and other enslaved people north to freedom, first to Pennsylvania, then across the Ohio River and later across the Canadian border after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850. Sites visited include the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center (part of NPS) and the locally owned Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge, MD. The group stopped for lunch and discussion at Portside Seafood Restaurant in Cambridge. Future visits will expand to include a stop at the Bucktown Village Store, where Harriet was struck in the head with a two-pound weight, cracking her skull and likely leading to her later seizures. The Center for ELD will work in concert with the Stockdale Center’s Influence the Influencer program to grow the staff ride in future years.
“At least once in your life, you will be tapped on the shoulder with an almost impossible journey. Harriet’s call was fighting for freedom and bringing other enslaved people to freedom as well. She courageously answered the call to an almost impossible task, and not only did it once but 13 times. She knew the risks, which was most likely death if caught. This inspires me to be a better leader and midshipman because whenever I am tapped on the shoulder with my calling, I have faith that I can answer that call and complete it successfully.”
NORMANDY-UK WWII STAFF RIDE WITH NOTRE DAME
Colonel Pallotta and Captain Frank Franky joined Mr. John Crowley ’90, USNA Foundation board member, along with staff and students (including NROTC students) from Notre Dame University on an inaugural WWII battlefield staff ride to London and Northwest France in July 2024. Sites visited included Churchill’s Underground HQ; Bletchley Park; Portsmouth; Pegasus Bridge; La Fiere Bridge; Point du Hoc; Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; and Dunkirk. Each of the 39 participants, staff and students alike, studied and performed a first-person account of a character from one of the historic sites visited.
“When faced with almost certain death, from the top of Point du Hoc to the jumps into Normandy, these warfighters time and again put themselves in harm’s way to serve a greater American purpose. This fills me with a profound sense of patriotism and reminds me of the many sacrifices I must be willing to make for our country in my future service. I can think of no better country to give my all for, and I am humbled to follow in the legacy of so many great Americans.”
—MIDN TOM SAMIT ’27
THANK YOU!
Donor-funded ELD programs are crucial in providing transformative experiences that prepare midshipmen for contemporary leadership challenges. Your generous support enables the Naval Academy to cultivate strong leaders, guiding midshipmen as they develop into dedicated future officers. We deeply appreciate your commitment to shaping their growth and success.
ELD WEBSITE: https://www.usna.edu/CELD/ELD_Programs/index.php
INSTAGRAM: navy_eld