Courtesy Photo | United States Military Academy Cadets participate in Wellness Day during Cadet Basic...... read more read more
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With trends and practices constantly shifting with every passing generation, the Army and West Point routinely expand their standards and procedures to adapt effectively to the changing times. With that, faculty and staff from the Character Integration and Advisory Group, or CIAG, continue to educate and lead the new generation of cadets through the ever-evolving process of character development at the U.S. Military Academy.
Since January, the CIAG has developed initiatives to implement holistic health and wellness into the Class of 2025 cadets character development program during Cadet Basic Training, or Beast. Character journals were among the methods used to help the cadets develop a firm sense of self and situational awareness, as they performed throughout Beast.
“The character journals were an opportunity to help cadets reflect on virtues, goal setting and to have small group discussions to talk about how they can better support each other, know each other, and hold each other accountable,” Dr. Jeffrey Peterson, the senior advisor of the CIAG, said. “The CIAG was able to bring some expertise on the design and content of the journal, and the training of the cadet cadre, to prepare them to lead those discussions with the Class of 2025.”
Peterson added the character journals were the first initiative. The second initiative was the Wellness Day event that occurred during the last week of Beast at Lake Frederick. During that week, the CIAG’s Holistic Wellness Integrator, Dr. Orin Strauchler, took the intent of the command sergeant major for the Corps of Cadets, Command Sgt. Maj. Ken Killingsworth, and turned it into an operational idea to help cadets make sense of their basic training experience.
During the last week of Beast, the cadets organized their equipment in preparation for their final Field Training Exercises, including Mountaineering, Leader Reaction Course, Combatives and the Long Gray Line starts here event.
Additionally, they took part in Wellness/Character Day where they participated in recreational sports, a rock, paper, scissors tournament, talent shows and an awards ceremony, among other events.
The implementation of the idea allowed cadets to have discussions on what they learned about themselves, how they developed character, and how to maintain the momentum of character development and team cohesion into the academic year.
“The problem we sometimes have is, typically, most cadets believe, ‘I just need grit,’ which is really important. Grit is super crucial, but it’s not the only element that leads to success and resiliency. Teaching the cadets that they can rely on each other and that seeking help will make them more resilient is essential to the character development process,” Strauchler said. “That support will help them thoroughly understand how they’re feeling, and it will show them how to express themselves in a way that allows them to deal with internal issues in a constructive, more therapeutic way. If we don’t talk about these underlying issues, then how can we ever hope to effectively address it and get more resilience out of the cadets?”
This was one of the questions churning in Killingsworth’s mind earlier this year as he thought of character development strategies to make cadets more resolute and adaptable during military training. The idea for character journals was sparked when Killingsworth began researching the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program retention statistics during the mid-to-late 2010s.
Between 2015 and 2017, RASP’s monthly graduations dropped from approximately 55% to 27%, Killingsworth said. During 2017, there were many voluntary withdrawals and the graduation rates continued dropping as low as 10%.
Furthermore, RASP enacted three sets of criteria to combat the lack of retention. First, increase the military rigor of the cadre selection; second, implement active feedback during military training, and third, publishing a coaching workbook.
“If you look at the character journals, it is broken down into three parts: the first part is the goal setting associated with the military training in Beast, and that aligns a lot with the coaching workbook that RASP used, and it’s directly related to active feedback on their performance during military training,” Killingsworth said. “Then the second part is the character piece: to generate discussions every day on character development. We’ve been talking about character virtues and how important character is to the profession of arms and developing into leaders of character. Afterward, the third piece was the concept of wellness.”
Preparation for Wellness Day began several months ago. Staff members from the CIAG held a meeting with Killingsworth to discuss how Wellness Day would transpire, Strauchler said. The objective was clear: every recreational activity or training event must teach a cadet a valuable lesson that strengthens their resolve as an individual and a team member. It was also imperative to incorporate lessons cadets learned from their character journals into Wellness Day.
“Command Sgt. Maj. Ken Killingsworth clarified that morale and wellness are two different concepts, and one of the guidelines we developed was clearly distinguishing the two so that cadets come away with a clear understanding of wellness. Boosting the cadet’s morale is nice, but that doesn’t necessarily teach them wellness and resiliency,” Strauchler said. “I worked closely with the integrators to brainstorm the fun activities that corresponded with the guidelines we had developed that would help cadets fully intuit what it means to live well and be resilient.”
Class of 2025 Cadet Alayna Washington said it was a relief to stop and reflect on her training experience during Wellness Day. The character journaling allowed her to understand the Army and West Point culture, and it also allowed her to create a balance between maintaining a regimented mindset while executing training missions and being resolute in her drive to succeed and remain supportive of her peers.
“It helps to just sit down and think about which virtues we enacted throughout the day, whether it’s staying loyal to the Army, being supportive of one another, or having grit and preparing our minds for officership when we join the Army,” Washington said. “I realized that having grit is important, but the journals made me realized that I need to get better with patience, too. My stepdad was in the Army and before coming here, he told me, ‘you’re going to do a lot of waiting, and some of it is going to be aggravating.’ However, he always told me there’s a purpose to everything. The waiting might not seem relevant right now, it might seem like a waste of time, but later in the future, when we become officers, everything will come full circle.”
The effectiveness of squad leader communication was another crucial element in making sure cadets understood the importance of wellness. Class of 2025 Cadet Taylor Andrzejewski believed her squad leaders created a safe space for cadets to express their feelings in a healthy manner.
“It really depends on how your squad leader can organize the space and make sure that everyone feels comfortable sharing, but my squad leader has done an excellent job of it,” Andrzejewski said. “I know that a lot of us have benefited from being able to relax and resolve a lot of conflicts. We’ve actually had some really productive conversations about racial discrimination, equal opportunity and other topics related to the Army. I think it’s an awesome way for all of us to build rapport, trust each other and learn how to work as a team.”
Journaling is an activity that Class of 2025 Cadet Aidan Armstrong does regularly and was excited that West Point implemented character journals into Beast. Armstrong fully embraced the concept of character journals and believed it had qualities that made his basic training experience eventful. Armstrong understood it wasn’t merely about writing thoughts down on a page and tucking the journal under a pillow. The concept of character journals coupled with Wellness Day was laden with enough substance that allowed Armstrong to bring out the best version of himself during Beast.
“The journals helped me to understand that it wasn’t just about jotting down what you did during that particular training day. Instead, it helped me reflect on things like virtue,” Armstrong said. “It made me introspective to the point where I started asking myself internal questions like, ‘did I practice humility today, or was I empathetic toward others?ʼ Thinking of things from that perspective helps you understand who you are as a person, what your strengths are, and highlights the weaknesses you need to work on.”
While Armstrong enjoyed character journals, Class of 2025 Cadet Reed Dolph believed group discussions and regular interactions with his peers and cadet cadre made him introspective enough to where he didn’t use character journals as often as others.
“I came into Beast with a different mindset. I didn’t journal a lot. It took some time to see the point of it. All the group journaling sessions are definitely a different change of pace for me. But I think it benefits me more to be sociable around people. It felt more impactful for me when my cadre were criticizing me or my platoon mates were saying you need to do better,” Dolph said. “I feel I got more out of socializing and listening to people than just writing something down, but that doesn’t mean the character journals aren’t practical. It definitely helped most of my peers reflect and develop a growth mindset.”
Peterson, along with the rest of the staff at CIAG, understood the challenge that came with instructing cadets on the importance of character journaling and wellness. Typically, when West Point provides activities to over 1,000 cadets, there will always be mixed responses, Peterson explained. It’s challenging to get a concise level of consistency on a new initiative across every squad during CBT. The variability comes from the new cadets. They may not be ready, willing or open to the idea of character education and character development in a military training environment.
Furthermore, some cadets may be self-conscious or uncomfortable with reflection because it can be difficult, at times, to slow down and be honest about self-assessment and on issues related to character, Peterson said.
Another factor that comes into focus is the facilitators and the squad leaders having varying degrees of experience and comfort with leading discussions on character and wellness. With those considerations in mind, many variables may impact the effectiveness of character education.
“Even if a cadet doesn’t think that the journal personally benefited them, there is still an opportunity to get to know your teammates better. There is still an opportunity to better understand the language of virtue, and what the expectations are as a West Point cadet,” Peterson added. “There’s always contributions to building teams, to building cohesion and improving personal knowledge about character and how it impacts your life. Even those cadets that weren’t completely satisfied with the event itself, there were probably some positive impacts on those cadets as well.”
Another detail Peterson noticed in the informal feedback that he and his team received is the vast majority of the responses from cadets had, at least, some positive components. Throughout his interactions with cadets, he did not come across anyone who said the entire program was a waste of time.
Additionally, during the character development process, the CIAG often looks for incremental progress that can be achieved with relative efficiency.
“We’ve conducted some focus groups and we’ll be collecting some survey data, but the initial reports are pretty positive,” Peterson said. “So, there’s no question that character development, combined with military training, will be part of the developmental process moving forward, as long as West Point has its mission.”
Peterson added despite a formal journaling process being the new initiative this year, it is uncertain whether the character journaling will be a definitive or permanent part of the system going forward until he and his team thoroughly assess the results.
Indicators from surveys are positive, but the team needs to make sure that they have a more rigorous assessment before deciding its continuance.
“The current plan, absent any evidence that this was ineffective, is that we will continue it, at least for one more year, so that we can refine the process and improve it for the next iteration of Cadet Basic Training,” Peterson said. “We’ll also run a pilot of a similar program during Cadet Field Training so that the Class of 2025 would have at least two summer experiences of incorporating journaling and reflecting on character growth and building cohesive teams for two of their four summers here at West Point, so it will at least continue for that long. Beyond that will depend upon the assessments.”
| Date Taken: | 08.19.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.19.2021 11:13 |
| Story ID: | 403517 |
| Location: | WEST POINT, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 118 |
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