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For more than 1,000 rising high school seniors, the
Summer Leaders Seminar, or SLS, was a week-long exploration
of the academic, athletic and military opportunities at West
Point. Established by the West Point Admissions Office in
1976, SLS is a total immersion experience into what life as
a cadet is like, led by the cadets themselves.
Class
of 2013 Cadet Michael Sands wanted to provide students not
with a sales pitch, but a real insider's look into the
academy.
“It's not about getting every student wanting to come to
the academy, but helping them to understand West Point and
letting them make the decision for themselves,” the SLS
squad leader said. “We're not sugar-coating anything here.
We tell them how it's like. Beast is rough. We're going to
tell them it is rough.”
During the week, candidates
ask cadets anything and can expect direct and honest
answers, from explaining what Beast (Cadet Basic Training)
is like to what kind of food is served at the Cadet Mess.
Class of 2013 Cadet Kramer Peak led the candidates of
6th Squad, 1st Platoon, and enjoyed the chance to transition
from taking orders to giving them.
“It's a huge
leadership role for me,” Peak said. “Because in the past
years I've been a member of a squad taking orders and doing
what I've been told to do. Now we're learning what
characteristics we have that make us good leaders, and
what's the best way we can lead.”
More than 50
percent of SLS candidates have historically returned to West
Point as cadets, so there's a good chance Peak may see these
students again. With that in mind, Peak said, it's important
not to give any false impressions about the academy.
“Hopefully I can accurately portray what West Point is all
about and its main mission -- to develop leaders of
character,” Peak said. “I also want to show them that it's
not all business all the time. You can have fun, meet great
people and make lifelong relationships, like with these guys
I'm with now, I'm extremely close with the cadre members
here and would do anything for them.”
Last summer,
he met the demands of Cadet Field Training and a Physical
Individual Advanced Development program with the Army
baseball team. Although not as rigorous a regimen, SLS can
take its toll on the cadets.
After the first class
graduated, the cadre had only hours to reset before
welcoming a new class the following day. For nearly all of
the cadets, that meant giving their hoarse and tired voices
a much-needed rest.
“It's not so much from
screaming, but having to be loud all the time and projecting
a commanding voice,” Peak said.
Maintaining that high
level of motivation for so long was a strain on the vocal
chords, but the SLS commander, Class of 2012 Cadet Pamela
Baker, said hers was conditioned from serving as a platoon
sergeant at Beast Barracks last summer for the Class of
2014.
Baker, a former SLS candidate, said the
application process to West Point is a long and tedious one.
Having a chance to spend time at the academy and get a
better sense of the environment, the people and its mission
has become an important part of that process for many
candidates.
“I remember being able to talk to the
cadets and ask them any questions I had,” Baker said. “It
didn't matter what the question was or how many, there was
nothing they couldn't tell us about West Point. It was the
opportunity I needed to get the real perspective from the
cadets.”
This cadet perspective is what swayed her
from possibly entering the Naval Academy, and it's what she
wants the cadet cadre to provide again this summer.
“If they leave here with questions unanswered, then we've
failed,” Baker said. “If they leave with a full
understanding about what the academy is all about and
knowing what it means to be a cadet here, then we've done
our job.”
Patrick Haffinger is a West Point Class of
2016 hopeful who resides in Moraga, Calif., and is attending
the College Preparatory School in Oakland. After several
classroom sessions, low crawling through the mud, 5 a.m.
wake-up calls, eating meals, ready to eat in the field
nothing has dissuaded him from wanting to join the Long Gray
Line.
“I want to go to West Point incredibly bad. I
love this place,” Haffinger said. “It's an understatement to
say this is my first choice.”
Haffinger said he has
meticulously combed through the service academy forums and
has learned as much as he can about West Point.
He
doesn't have a particular focus on any area of studies right
now, but Haffinger spent his classroom time learning about
the Civil and Mechanical Engineering program, Leadership and
Ethics, and Systems Engineering.
“The biggest thing
for me was learning that the cadets, with their honor code
and everything they do, are not robots. They have
personalities. They find ways to cope and deal with things,”
Haffinger said. “The way that they've interacted with us
this week only makes me want to come here more.”
To learn more about the SLS program, visit the
West Point Admissions website.
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