Corps Review Spring 2018

V P I B A T T A L I O N

TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE By Jason Oberoi ’09, assistant director of the Citizen-Leader Track/VPI Battalion Stuart Meese, executive director for Student Advancement and Career Services in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, was among the guest lecturers this past semester for Citizen-Leader Track cadets.

While many cadets in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets spend Tuesday afternoons simulating battle drills, learn- ing navigation, and marching, the Citi- zen-Leader Track cadets in VPI battalion receive training to help them succeed in the workplace. The cadets still learn about leader- ship, communication, and integrity, but they also receive training on ideas they can talk about during interviews with employers, such as Lean Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, and project man- agement. We want our cadets, many of whom end up going into business, to be exposed to these ideas prior to graduat- ing so they are better job candidates and

then better employees. Theory of Constraints solves prob- lems by finding and reducing obstacles that stand in the way of mission ac- complishment. In teaching the theory, Commandant of Cadets Maj. Gen. Ran- dal Fullhart uses the example of how he stood up an Air Force wing in Egypt just before the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He attributed the unit’s success to the can-do attitude, to the profession- alism of its men and women, and to the use of Theory of Constraints to inform work priorities each day. Lean Six Sigma is a business effi- ciency methodology that reduces com- mon inefficiencies through data analyt-

ics. This year, VPI seniors learned its fundamentals and the common sources of inefficiencies in business. Then they applied that knowledge to in-processing for New Cadet Week. Their recommen- dations to make it more efficient includ- ed asking new cadets to arrive with their hair already cut and having a survey that the cadets take be administered during the school year. The project management classes also are new this year. Cadets are introduced to the fundamentals of project manage- ment, what project managers can do, and where cadets can go for more educa- tion. The cadets then choose a project to complete in groups, and each group

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