The Army West Point football team gets the headlines in the fall, but when the U.S. Military Academy hits the road during the season it is not all about Saturday's game.
In recent years, the academy has been leveraging the away football games to host Leadership, Ethics and Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math workshops throughout the country.
The workshops are hosted by the West Point Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity. Typically, the first time a workshop is hosted in a city the event is a STEM-focused workshop for middle school students in the area. Then the second year in a city, the program works with high school students and talks about leadership and ethics with them. The third year, a full LEADS is hosted which brings together middle and high school students to learn about all facets of STEM, leadership and ethics.
The goal, USMA Chief Diversity Officer Terry Allbritton said, is to reach not just students who may attend the academy, but to make a lasting impact on all the students who attend the workshop by instilling the principles of leadership and helping to spark their interest in STEM.
Along with the LEADS workshops hosted during football season, the diversity office also hosts events in the spring in cities the Army has designated as priority cities. This academic year a total of 14 LEADS will be hosted from coast to coast.
"This is planting the seed early to the youth about not just West Point, but also about leadership, ethics and maybe looking at getting into science, technology, engineering and math," Allbritton said.
This past weekend, a LEADS event was hosted in Shreveport, Louisiana, for the first time. Shreveport is one of 22 Army priority cities, but the initiative behind hosting a LEADS there came from the city's mayor Adrian Perkins, a member of U.S. Military Academy's Class of 2008.
After serving his time in the Army, Perkins earned a degree from Harvard Law School and then was elected Mayor of Shreveport in 2018. He returned to the academy last year for Projects Day and while in town he pitched Allbritton on the idea of hosting a LEADS event in his hometown.
Bringing a LEADS event to Shreveport was a chance to bring together two major parts of his life-West Point and his community-in the hopes they could impact each other positively, he said.
"To have that prestigious of a school right here in our community meant a lot," Perkins said. "I wanted our young people to be exposed to that. It gives the community some background about the academy and me as the executive of the community right now. Seeing those (cadets) in those uniforms and talking about leadership and ethics and how they go about their lives at such a young age and the implications that has down the road, I think it gives that exposure to West Point and shows the rigors of West Point and the value the West Point."
Although it was the first year in Shreveport, the diversity office hosted a leadership and ethics seminar for high school students. More than 100 students from schools throughout the district attended the event and had the chance to learn about ethical decision-making in the technology field from West Point cadets.
They were divided into eight groups of about 20 students and taken through different scenarios forcing them to make ethical decisions.
"I think it impacted (the students) in a big way," Perkins said. "Before I was recruited by West Point, I had very little knowledge, or any, of West Point and what exactly it entailed. It gives them that exposure so students who don't know what it is or have questions about what it is can have face-to-face contact with cadets."
Perkins gave the welcoming remarks at the start of the event. He said he used him remarks to introduce his community to the cadets in attendance and to tell the students about the academy.
Following the event, Perkins and Allbritton agreed that the goal is to return to Shreveport next year and hold an even bigger LEADS workshop to impact more students.
"Seeing those two major parts of my life come together and not just for my own sentimental value, but for the greater good and benefit of Shreveport and West Point meant a lot to me," Perkins said.
During their weekend in Shreveport, cadets were also able to visit the veterans hospital in town.
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