Holly Richardson, Mike Krackow, Jack Johnson, Chad Joyce and James Coale

Department of Physical Education, Virginia Military Institute

Teaching through Leading:The Virginia Military

Rat Challenge Program

Introduction

• VMI - state supported school• Citizen Soldier and ROTC• Graduate individuals with strong leadership

skills• Over 200 leadership opportunities

Leadership Opportunities

• Regimental• Athletics• Peer Counseling• Band and Glee• Search and Rescue• Pre Professional programs

The Rat Challenge Program

• Experiential-Ten weeks• Physical, mental, emotional• Supportive and positive• Reflective of the Regimental • Esprit de corps

Rat Challenge existing in anAdversarial System

Objectives

Determine value and worth of the program compared to other

leadership programs

Determine the extent participation contributed to development of leadership skills

Methods

• Post program evaluation– Qualitative-open ended questions– Quantitative-Likert type of questions

• Convenient sampling 57/80 (71%) Cadre

Results-Effectiveness

• How do you rank the effectiveness of the cadre role as a means of developing leadership skills?More effective 32.8%Most effective 58.6%

Results-Value

• Given the educational mission of the Institute, how valuable for the cadre is the Rat Challenge experience?

Very valuable 34.5%Extremely valuable 62.1%

Results: Ability, Skills, & Unity

• Percentage of responses that were a ‘great deal’ or quite a lot’– Leadership ability 91.2%– Decision making skills 87.7%– Communication skills 91.2%– Develop unity of spirit 94.7%

Cadre Comments

• ‘More PT (physical training)’• ‘More privileges’• ‘Better than even my Reg. staff position for leadership

development.’• ‘Taught me I should prepare before instructing’• ‘It helped me understand what I wanted my

leadership style to be.’

Conclusion

• Valuable

• Effective

Discussion-Why? How?

• Based on theory and practice• Supervised• Environment

Questions