Norwich News & Stories Listing

In the fall, Bill McCollough ’91, 56th Commandant of Cadets and Vice President of Student Affairs, and Ed Hockenbury, Director of Athletics, teamed up to help teach leadership lessons to the captains of each of Norwich’s varsity sports.

The competition tested the cadets' adaptability and skillset with trials of essential winter survival techniques and a rigorous written exam, culminating with a 16-mile journey on Grandad Bluff at Fort McCoy.

Norwich University Commandant and Vice President for Student Affairs Brigadier General Bill McCollough, VSM, announced that Sophia M. Righthouse of Elizabeth, Colorado has been selected to serve as the 2024-25 Regimental Commander, the highest-ranking cadet of Norwich University's Corps of Cadets (NUCC) and the seventh female cadet to lead the Corps since the university’s founding in 1819. Cadet Master Sergeant Righthouse, a dual major in Political Science and English with a minor in Leadership Studies, is the NUCC 2nd Battalion Public Affairs Non-commissioned Officer in Charge. A General I.D. White and three-year Army ROTC scholarship recipient, Righthouse has held ROTC leadership billets as a platoon leader and platoon sergeant, and serves as the Mountain and Cold Weather Company's Public Affairs Officer contracted for photo coverage for training exercises.She will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in April 2025. Righthouse is a feature editor and staff reporter for The Guidon, Norwich's student newspaper, and founder and president of the Cover-to-Cover Book Club. She reintroduced the Norwich Cheerleading Club, is a Norwich Humanities Initiative Fellow Intern, a writing coach for the Center for Writing and a Summer peer academic mentor. Honors include the President's List for highest academic achievement, the Arthur Wallace "Pop" Peach Award awarded by the Norwich Department of Global Humanities, the Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award for completing more than 250 hours of community service, and a proclamation by the County and City of San Diego as Sophia M. Righthouse Day on January 23, 2018.   Prior to Norwich, Righthouse led as a battalion executive officer in her Naval JROTC detachment, receiving the #1 Distinguished Cadet for the State of Arizona. She rose to regimental sergeant major in Young Marines, where she served from age eight to eighteen.After announcing the selection, BG McCollough noted, “An extremely talented group of fifteen junior cadets competed for this assignment, and Cadet Righthouse rose to the top. Her maturity, determination, enthusiasm, and dedication to the success of all cadets shone through during the interview and evaluation process. The Corps of Cadets has again produced a blue-chip leader who will lead the regiment with an eye towards the future and faithfulness to the past.” Next year's cadet officers and NCOs will be formally promoted during a Corps of Cadets Review with Change of Command Ceremony on April 19. Weather permitting, the ceremony will be held on the Upper Parade Ground.Editor's Note: Pictured above is Righthouse with Commandant/VP McCollough. Credit Mark Collier/Norwich University. *** About Norwich UniversityNorwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in baccalaureate and graduate degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu