More Than a Campus Visit: Inside the Leadership Challenge Event

The Leadership Challenge Event (LCE) and Open House came together over one weekend, giving prospective students two ways to experience Norwich: stepping into Corps life on Friday and exploring the wider University on Saturday.

What is Corps life like day to day? Who else is considering it? And what does it feel like to step into this kind of environment and try it for yourself?

On Sept. 25-26, 2026, Norwich brought its Leadership Challenge experience and Open House together for the first time.

Organized by Dennis Pollicino ’20, director of admissions, ROTC recruitment and leadership camps, Friday’s LCE put prospective students alongside current Norwich cadets and student leaders for a hands-on introduction to Corps life and leadership.

Step Into the Experience

On Friday morning, Shapiro Fieldhouse filled with prospective students from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Florida, New Mexico, and beyond. Some had already been accepted to Norwich. Others were seeing campus for the first time.

They came with different levels of experience and different reasons for being there. Some had participated in JROTC. Others were new to military-style training. A few said they wanted to see Norwich for themselves and get a better feel for whether the experience matched what they had been hearing. One participant called the morning “really well put together.”

Bailey McShane, who is interested in the Air Force, had a straightforward reason for coming. “I honestly just wanted to do PT,” she said, referring to physical training, “but I came so that I’d know if Norwich was for me.”

Caitlin Bardorf, a senior from Wellesley, Massachusetts, had heard good things about Norwich and was interested in ROTC. She came to the Leadership Challenge Event wanting a taste of the experience.

Students changed into Norwich-issued fatigues, met the cadets who would lead them through the day, and got started. The day included physical training, drill, leadership activities, a Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE), and time to ask current cadets about the parts of Norwich life that mattered to them.

First came the climbing wall.

Many participants had never climbed before. Of the three routes, the hardest quickly became the most popular. Some students reached the top. Others didn’t. The encouragement from below continued either way.
For a while, only male participants had attempted the hardest route. Bardorf noticed. “Only males have done this.”

Then she stepped up, made her way through the route, and hit the bar at the top to mark the finish.
 

Leadership at Norwich

Later that morning, BG Mark A. Denton ’97, VSM, Norwich’s 57th Commandant of the Corps of Cadets and Vice President for Student Affairs, joined the group. In 2026, after 35 years of U.S. Army service, BG Denton returned to the University where he had once been a cadet.

He introduced himself as a member of the Class of 1997 and spoke about the expectations that come with choosing this kind of experience. “You guys don’t do average. You don’t do ordinary. You do extraordinary.”

Find Your Footing

Drill required a different kind of attention from the students.

Some arrived with previous JROTC experience, but student leaders told them to set aside what they had learned before and treat the drill as something new. Not knowing everything yet was part of the point. Students had to listen, accept correction, and try again.

They practiced lining up, responding to commands, addressing their student leaders, and moving together. At times, students were pulled out of line for extra practice before stepping back in.

“Stop anticipating and listen to the words coming out of my mouth,” one student leader told the group.

The learning wasn’t all coming from the front of the formation. Before lunch, Trey Abrams, Jacob Stewart, and Nick St. Louis were practicing drill together, stopping to coach one another through the movements.

C/SSG Rori Meyer was among the student leaders working with the group. As the day went on, she said participants became more disciplined in their bearing, began to understand the purpose of the training, and grew more confident in physical training, drill, and public speaking.

The day also included a more direct look at leadership. Students considered the qualities of good and poor leadership and drew on their own experiences as they talked about what those differences look like when people are working together.

Ask What Matters

Questions were part of the learning.

Student leaders encouraged participants to have one ready when someone turned to the group and asked if there were any questions. The expectation was simple: listen, respond, and speak up when you need to know something.
There was plenty they wanted to know.

Students asked about scholarships and majors, military branches and contracting, the first week at Norwich, and what everyday Corps life is like. One wanted to know whether Norwich offers artillery training. Over lunch, as the group tried MREs, someone wanted to know which one was the worst.

Sofia Juarez, one of the cadet leaders working with the participants, is from San Diego and contracted with the Navy. She said Norwich felt like the right place because it offered a balance between a traditional college experience and a service academy.

Her advice to prospective students was simple. “Do what you are really interested in.”

For Juarez, that interest led to the Navy. “I love ships. I love the ocean, so I joined the Navy.”

Asked what student life at Norwich is like, Juarez told the group it is really what they make of it. Student leaders also talked about the community that comes with Corps life, including built-in friendships and relationships some described as “Corps siblings.”

Juarez encouraged students to come back in the spring for either the Women’s Leadership Challenge Weekend or the Leadership Challenge Weekend.

What Corps Life Feels Like

Later, participants split into male and female groups for more specific conversations about Corps life. In the female group, students had space to ask current cadets about rules, expectations, and what the experience is like for women at Norwich.

McShane learned things she hadn’t known before. One was that female Rooks could not wear makeup, she said. But one of her bigger surprises had less to do with regulations.

“The instructors were a lot nicer than expected.”

C/SSG Meyer saw the participants becoming more comfortable with what was being asked of them, too.

“I think the students now understand the difference between being a student in the Corps at Norwich compared to a regular university,” C/SSG Meyer said, “and that coming to Norwich is about challenging yourself.”

For McShane, challenge was only part of what mattered. She knew she wanted a college where students formed connections with one another.

“Norwich certainly does. They make sure no one is left behind.”

There had been examples of that throughout the day: encouragement at the climbing wall, Abrams, Stewart, and St. Louis coaching one another through drill, and current cadets making time for questions that ranged from military careers to MREs.

C/SSG Meyer hoped one idea in particular would stay with the group.

“I hope a student takes away the Norwich motto ‘I Will Try’ and not give up.”

See the Whole Picture

Friday’s Leadership Challenge Event was one part of the weekend. On Saturday, Open House gave prospective students and families a broader look at Norwich.

The day included academic sessions with faculty, opportunities to learn more about Corps and civilian life, admissions and financial aid, ROTC, athletics, and campus tours.

Together, the two events offered different views of the University: Friday focused on stepping into parts of Corps life and leadership, while Saturday broadened the picture to academics, campus life, and the wider Norwich experience.

For McShane, it came back to the question that brought her to Norwich in the first place.

“I know what I want to do with my life. It was just figuring out how I’d get there.”

A weekend like this gives students more to work with as they make that decision.

They leave knowing more about the people, the pace, and the expectations, and whether this is the kind of challenge and college experience they want to choose.

Experience Norwich for yourself

The next Leadership Challenge Event and Spring Open House take place March 19-20, 2027. Learn more about the Leadership Challenge Event and Spring Open House.