Leadership

Personal Growth in Leadership Skills

     Our cadets learn a great deal about the importance of leadership through appropriately authored books, hands-on activities, and experiences of their own. The cadets are provided with the Learn to Lead books that help them throughout their Cadet Program. They take multiple tests on the information learned in the 16 different lessons of the “Learn to Lead” books, going over personal leadership, small team leadership, indirect leadership, and strategic perspectives.

     The cadets go through multiple character lessons and are taught about the different character traits to become influential leaders. They are provided with case-by-case scenarios from real-world leaders and are exposed to leadership theories. The cadets go through hands-on situations, such as role play, enacting a leader or a follower, and learning to conduct themselves appropriately. Through these scenarios, they are set up to be influential leaders.

     The final step that allows cadets’ personal growth is the leadership opportunities they can receive in the Squadron. Cadets can lead in various areas, whether within the Chain of Command for the whole Squadron, in teaching aerospace and STEM, or in leading teams to upkeep the Squadron’s infrastructure. The positions start small, but over time, the opportunities grow and grow, and cadets will be allowed to enhance their CAP experience and learn so much along the way. They will learn information related to organizations, leadership in general, and mentoring the cadets they lead. 

Branches & Opportunities

     A lot of the popular leadership roles in our Squadron go under the operations branch. As you go up the chain, you start to lead more and more cadets and even staff for some positions. It begins with the elements leader, the first leadership position in the operations branch. In this, one would lead a few cadets in a flight. The Flight Sergeant and Flight Commander then lead, teach, and mentor an entire flight in the Squadron. The NCO mentor mentors the Flight Sergeant and Flight Commander. The first sergeant mentors two flights, the Assistant Deputy Commander assists the Cadet Deputy Commander of Operations, and mentors the first sergeants. The CDC of Operations works directly with the Assistant Deputy Commander so that the Operations branch can run smoothly.

     In our squadron, cadets have a lot of interest in STEM and Aerospace, one of Civil Air Patrol’s main focuses. That’s why we have our Aerospace/STEM branch. In this branch, cadets get the opportunity to teach various STEM and Aerospace lessons and participate in competitions, and even make educational aerospace videos! This time, we will explain from the top down. First, the Cadet Deputy Commander of Aerospace and STEM, followed by the Deputy of Aerospace. These two cadets work together to make sure that the overall branch runs smoothly. Then, there is the STEM leader, Aerospace leader, and Video Task Force leader. These three cadets lead and meteor various cadets who are leaders and teachers. These cadets teach classes and make videos for our Wing level. All of the cadets can affect our squadron in these aerospace/stem programs and affect the NJ wing.

     The 3rd and final branch in our squadron is Support. In this branch, cadets are allowed to go behind the scenes and help out our squadron to make sure that everything runs very smoothly in the Squadron overall. This branch is split into three sections, Operations Support, Personnel Support, and Community Engagement. Each of these sections has its leaders, who mentor and leader the other leaders. The other leaders lead the actual teams who perform the specific tasks.