This is a picture of Wing Staff and other 
cadet leaders. Gloria Lin (R2)

A typical scene from an Air Force ROTC Leadership Lab (LLab) is of an older cadet giving a speech about teamwork to younger cadets. In this scene, the older cadet is practicing leadership skills while the younger ones are learning them. The four-year Air Force ROTC program seeks to create future leaders for the Air Force and better citizens for America. Cadets in their first two years of ROTC are like eager teenagers waiting for the day they get their driver's permits so they can learn to drive; they learn by observing. Then the cadets attend Field Training (FT) for four weeks to learn about military leadership nonstop, the way teenagers attend driving school and practice driving for hours on end. But there is still a period of time between the end of driving school and getting a driver's license, which is not unlike the last two years of ROTC. Armed with FT experiences, cadets treat these 2 years as a practice period for developing their leadership skills. 

Just as people learn to drive a car by driving, cadets learn to lead by leading. I never learned real leadership from the management course I took, because the course never put me in a situation where I could practice what I learned. In ROTC I reported to a higher ranking cadet who assigned me projects and deadlines. Likewise, I learned how to manage people when there was a staff of cadets who reported to me. I learned how to delegate tasks and counsel people who were not performing up to standards. These were not mere exercises but real situations. The most practice I had in my management course was writing a paper about hypothetical situations. 

Upperclassman cadets have hands-on leadership practice each week at LLab. At LLabs, they teach underclassmen marching skills, teamwork and professionalism. While underclassmen have generic rank based on their academic year in school, older cadets are assigned rank based on their position in the cadet corps. (Cadet rank is meaningless in the real Air Force.) There is a mock hierarchy in the cadet corps modeled after that of the Air Force. The cadet corps is called a Wing and is headed by the highest ranking cadet, the Wing Commander. Responsible for the entire corps, he or she reports to an ROTC officer who oversees everyone's progress in ROTC. The Wing Commander works with a group of 6 cadets who comprise the next highest ranking cadets, called the Wing Staff, to plan, execute and evaluate the LLabs. Cadets must compete with other top cadets in the corps for these positions. The highly coveted position of Wing Commander is assigned to only one cadet each semester. 

Upperclassmen not in leadership positions hold supportive jobs that are not directly related to the planning of LLabs, such as director of personnel or information manager. As an underclassman, I looked at all of the positions within the wing and decided I wasn't capable of handling a leadership position. I was afraid of public speaking and hated having the spotlight on me. Before I headed off to FT, I applied for a safe position that required no public speaking. As an Information Manager, my most challenging task was re-writing the cadet guide. By the end of the semester, I wanted to tackle a job with more responsibility. I saw my peers' accomplishments and realized I could easily do what they were doing. Clearly, if I remained hidden in the shadows, I would be left there forever. After all, I could afford to make mistakes during these two years, but once I ‘m in the Air Force, mistakes would not be acceptable. 

I got onto Wing Staff as the Support Group Commander and oversaw people who held jobs that included personnel and public affairs. It was good practice for me to become comfortable with having people report to me while I reported to higher-ranking people. The position had a lot of responsibilities and was a great opportunity for refining my leadership skills, but it wasn't as rewarding as I anticipated. Support Group Commanders from years past had established the way things worked, and I felt there was little room for innovation or need for improvement. In retrospect, it was a mistaken perception, because there's always room for improvement. Conversely, my most rewarding job was cadet Safety Officer, a newly created position which allowed me to be very innovative. I created a weekly safety tip and gave a speech on drunk driving. Before Safety Officer became an official job, volunteers among the underclassman cadets gave safety briefings for the corps. When I was a freshman, an older cadet suggested I volunteer for a briefing to practice my public speaking skills, but I was too scared to try and adamantly refused. I never thought I'd find myself giving safety briefings a few years later.

I applied my ROTC skills every where, as a result, I received compliments on the professionalism of my classroom presentations. I gained enough confidence to take on leadership positions within extracurricular organizations. As a co-coordinator for the Chinese New Year Festival (CNYF) executive board, I leaned on lessons learned from ROTC to guarantee CNYF was a success. Held annually, CNYF is a cultural event with over 200 participants who portray the Chinese culture through dancing, singing and acting. I would never have even thought about applying to do it if I hadn't been in ROTC. 

During my first two years in ROTC, I marveled at the professionalism and confidence shown by upperclassmen. Once I stepped into their shoes, I discovered being upperclassmen didn't make us any different from the underclassmen; we only had an edge because of our FT experiences and opportunities to perfect our skills at LLab. Cadets don't come out of the ROTC program knowing everything there is about leadership, but at least we have the foundation to develop into great leaders and citizens for our country. I certainly hope that will be the case for me.