Photo By Sgt. Alex Kouns | Mr. Terrance K. Kerrigan, director, Marine Corps College of Distance Education and...... read more read more
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“As our commandant has said repeatedly, and included in his latest fragmentary order, ‘In the future fight, our capable non-commissioned officers and staff non-commissioned officers (SNCO) must and will assume leadership responsibilities that were the purview of officers,’” said Cosmas Spofford, the Regional Director with the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer Academy (SNCOA). “To carry out the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ intent, we modeled our enlisted seminar courses after the officer distance education seminar programs.”
On Oct. 20, 2017, after 14 weeks of critically thinking about real-life situations based on extensive reading, working on both individual and seminar assignments, sergeants from various units aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii graduate the first ever Sergeant Course Seminar (SCS).
The SCS was created for those sergeants who cannot afford to leave the shop for a month to attend the resident course due to being needed at work or any other reasons, Spofford said.
“Sergeants Course is mandatory for sergeants to be promoted or even compete for promotion,” Spofford said. “This is another option for Marines to complete their professional military education (PME).”
“At 6 p.m., when nearly every Marine on base was home with their families or in their barracks room, these Marines were sitting in a horseshoe-shaped seminar classroom for three hours,” Spofford said. “As each of the graduates would testify, and anyone who has ever gone back to adult night school, that while they only met one night a week, they all spent at least one, if not two, more nights in seminar prep time completing homework, quizzes, and essays.”
Steven Collier, the Enlisted Professional Military Education Regional Chief Instructor with the SNCOA, says that the prerequisites for SCS are the same as Sergeants Course but the way the course is run is different.
“They collaborate amongst their peers and me to talk about the material and information that they read,” said Steven Collier, the Enlisted Professional Military Education Regional Chief Instructor with the SNCOA. “The students have to read, do quizzes and do online optimization.”
Sgt. Ivan Arias, a combat engineer with Marine Forces, Pacific, Headquarters and Service Battalion and the SCS honor graduate, said the seminar is not for sergeants who are looking to do the bare minimum.
“In this course, you cannot be the guy who sits in the shadows,” Arias said. “Everyone is talking and giving their opinion. It’s pretty much a debate on the topic.”
Arias says working with sergeants from various units and military occupational specialties (MOS) made him think from many different point of views on situations and issues.
“This course makes you a well-rounded sergeant, not just so much MOS driven,” Arias said. “I never think of the air wing side so it’s definitely good to see what other MOS’s do and get their perspective on different tasks.”
Collier said it is all about one-on-one collaborations with the instructors and students.
“We look to make these sergeants into ethical leaders, professional war fighters, and decision makers while using critical thinking in every essence,” Collier said. “We try our best to develop them into critical thinkers by the end of the course so they can go back to there for their Marines in the sound of war when their staff non-commissioned officer or officer is absent.”
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2017 01:42 |
| Story ID: | 252728 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 587 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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