Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership

Fall Semester in Conclusion! We wish our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and SOMS Students good luck with finals and a relaxing winter break. Thank you, students and staff, for your hard work throughout the semester. Thank you to all our partners, speakers, and special guests for sharing your time with us over these last few months. Happy Holidays! And students, BTHO Finals!

Thanks & Gig ‘Em!

Our Namesake, LTG James F. Hollingsworth. Put together by the Corps Center Guard, Dr. James H. Willbanks spoke to our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and guests about the life and leadership of LTG James F. Hollingsworth, also known as Danger 79er. LTG Hollingsworth believed in “leading from the front” and was known as a “soldiers’ general.” Thank you Dr. Willbanks for visiting with us and sharing about the life of our namesake. Thank you Corps Center Guard for helping put this event together and allowing us to partner with you.

Veteran’s Q&A at the Middle School. Last week on Veteran’s Day a few of our Hollingsworth Instructors went out to A&M Consolidated Middle School to speak with the 7th and 8th grade classes. The students asked our Veterans questions about the US Constitution, what it means to serve, and their careers and experiences while serving. Questions included favorite things about the military and their favorite MREs. Thank you, Reed Gerhart ‘14 for coordinating the day and giving us a chance to speak with your students.

“There is no pattern” or secret. Scott Halliwell joined us once again to speak to our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets about investment fundamentals. His presentation included investment choices, risk discussion, and discussion regarding steps to investing. For Halliwell, understanding your financial goals is the first and most important step. Determining how to achieve them is next.

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Intrusive Leadership. Marcus Canady with Canady Leadership Group and Adrian West joined us for a presentation over Canady’s Intrusive Leadership style. Intrusive Leadership is a leadership style focused on caring for the whole person. An intrusive leader is intentional in their actions to inspire, motivate, develop and support the whole person. This is only accomplished through a trusting relationship between the leader and their follower(s). Thank you Marcus and Adrian for joining Texas A&M Corps of Cadets!

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Service Outside of Military. Our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and SOMS students had a unique opportunity when a recruiter from the US Secret Service joined us for a Hollingsworth Center RU Ready event. The recruiter spoke to our students regarding career opportunities and path options to serve in the federal law enforcement agency.

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Our Mentorship Program kickstarted today! Check out some photos from today. Thank you Texas A&M Corps of Cadets for capturing the kickstart of our new program!

How are you perceived? John Frey ‘84 and Cole Humphreys ‘93 with Hewlett Packard Enterprise joined us to present job and internship opportunities for students. They also covered one of our twelve core competencies, Professionalism. Using real-world examples and situations, Frey and Humphreys engage our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets to think about professionalism, what it entails, and how some of their daily activities in the Corps helps to develop aspects of professionalism.

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Keynote for Kosovo War Dedication. On Monday, October 13, 2025, the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial dedicated a new statue to honor Americans who served during the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts. Our own Col. Wendy Woodard was selected to serve as the keynote speaker for the ceremony.

The statue depicts a female aviator in tribute to the first time women flew into combat after the policy change in 1993. This change allowed women, such as Col. Woodard, to fly in US combat missions. Col. Woodard spoke about the conflict, the growth and impact of female pilots, and shared a personal anecdote about being part of the first female pilot team to fly the B-52.

Photos by Mark Beal, City of College Station - Government

Entrepreneurship is a Rollercoaster! Blake Petty ‘98 from the McFerrin Center came to speak with our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and SOMS students about entrepreneurship. He provided examples of successful entrepreneurs and dived into the reality of entrepreneurship– spoiler, it isn’t all fame, money, and success, as portrayed in our current media. Petty also covered various programs offered to future, current, and former students through the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship.
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Ethical Decision-Making: How do we make decisions? Last week, Dr. Darin Paine led a workshop covering ethical decision-making. He explained how people make decisions and how individual values are implemented into decision-making. He also took our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets through scenarios to practice how they would make decisions. The focus was on ethical decision-making, and the scenarios consisted of difficult choices that challenged cadets to think ethically, critically, and introspectively.

“We need you, we need inspirational leaders.”

Last week Andrew Christjoy, PhD joined us for our Communication for Inspirational Leadership workshop event. Dr. Christjoy not only spoke to our Texas A&M Corps of Cadets about key communication takeaways for leaders, but he also had a few cadets volunteer to practice and provided them with feedback. Thank you, Dr. Christjoy, for delivering such an engaging and informative workshop covering one of our 12 core competencies here at HCEL.