Alumni

Frontline Leadership Ethics Experience (FLEX)

The Department of Air and Space Studies, in collaboration with Study Abroad, is developing an intensive, hands-on leadership experience focusing on ethics, geopolitics, and cultural considerations surrounding significant military battles around the world. By exploring sites in-person and re-enacting key battlefield decisions, cadets will vastly enhance their understanding of military actions shaping our history. As future officers, cadets will be call upon to lead a globally engaged force where their decision could have wide ranging ramifications. Dubbed FLEX, the “Front Line Ethics Experience” will enhance the students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes as they prepare to be officers in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force

FLEX will be an additional offering of the Department’s spring semester Leadership Laboratory course incorporating focused study on a specified battle and the surrounding context along with a foreign travel capstone. Students enrolled in the course would be assigned at least one book providing regional and/or cultural context, along with several short readings providing additional background. Furthermore, students would meet for discussions on introductions of the country and military action, history and background, geopolitical context at the time of the action, leadership perspectives of key figures, ethical considerations and applicability, and cultural considerations. Finally, students will be assigned a specific leader whose actions they will study and recreate for the class while on-site. A reflection paper or briefing will encapsulate lessons learned by each student.

FLEX Overview