Honor • Duty • Respect - The Citadel

“The sophomore seminar was created to provide cadetswith a common understanding of principled leadership at TheCitadel,” said Carter. “As emerging rank holders, sophomoresbenefit from this formal coursework and service learningexperience that set the stage for their leadership developmentin the Corps of Cadets.”Through the class, the sophomores watch videos depictingthe lives of and lessons shared by the Medal of Honorwinners, then learn from professors who incorporate theirown examples of leadership.“After teaching us that through courage, commitment andcaring, we all can be outstanding leaders and make significant,needed cultural changes, Dr. Hemingway taught us effectiveways of setting goals and developing plans to reach thosegoals,” said Cadet Lance Braye about Chemistry ProfessorRon Hemingway, who taught one of the classes.Putting leadership into practice in the form of servicelearning, the sophomores are also required to participate in10 hours of community service. To fit the time constraintsof the cadet’s 24-hour schedule, the service component wasdesigned to be completed in one day or in several differenttime periods.Initially, sophomores complained about this additionalrequirement of the seminar, but once they got into theservice learning portion of the course, most of them came torecognize the value of leadership through service to others.“We learned that leadership is always service, even ifservice is not always leadership,” said Cadet Payton McVey,who participated in a project with the Lowcountry FoodBank. The project took place on a day that cadets weregranted leave, but several sophomores, including McVey andBraye, decided to use their free time stacking and sortingcans at the food bank’s warehouse. Without the lessonslearned in the Sophomore Leadership Seminar, these cadetsmay not have considered using a free day to help others sortapproximately 10,000 pounds of canned food.Cadets in the sophomore seminar participated in otherleadership projects such as volunteering at Ronald McDonaldHouse, a home-away-from-home for the families of childrenwith serious illnesses. They also built homes for low-incomefamilies with Habitat for Humanity and tutored localelementary school students.The seminar’s service requirement showed cadets theimportance of helping others, while the Medal of Honorlessons taught them that leaders come from all walks of life.After listening to the story of Crawford, the class discussioncarried over into cadet lives and how they could deal withproblems on campus that needed a response based onintegrity, accountability and responsibility, which are themain focal points of the class. The students concentrated onthe accomplishments that earned Crawford the Medal ofHonor, then applied the teaching to their own lives.On Sept. 13, 1943, in Southern Italy, Crawford actedalone and under his own initiative, personally wiping outthree German machine-gun emplacements. He rescued mostof his company from the firefight, risking his own life. Asa result of his selflessness, Crawford was captured by theGermans and presumed dead. As inspiring as his actionswere, what is unbelievable is that Crawford survived hisimprisonment. In fact, the president of the United Statespresented the Medal of Honor posthumously to Crawford’sfather, believing that Crawford had not survived his capture.Crawford’s story was a fitting model for the first class ofcadets in the Sophomore Leadership Seminar. His strength,determination and sacrifice moved the class while his humblebackground illustrated a valuable lesson—heroes come fromall walks of life—and, perhaps someday, a similar class ofcadets will be inspired by the heroic deeds of one of thesophomores who attended the leadership seminar.The Citadel 2011 19