Where Music Meets the Mission

Future leaders are drawn to The Hill — whether by chance, the JROTC-ROTC pipeline, or legacy connections, young students find their way home to Norwich. For C/CPT Sydney Brown ’26 and her family, spending formative years in Northfield has become something of a family tradition.

“My parents met here — my mom actually heard about the school from her twin cousins that went here a couple years before her, and then my mom and her three sisters all went here,” she says. “Then she met my dad here, and they had my brother and I. My brother goes here and now I’m here as well, alongside my cousin in the same year.”

Brown has dedicated herself to the Norwich motto, “I Will Try,” during her time on campus. She is heavily involved in the campus community, with her responsibilities ranging from those typical of a cadet in the Corps to extracurriculars like leading the Regimental Band in the absence of a director and performing as the go-to singer for national anthem performances around campus.

“I’m a non-pursuing cadet and I really wanted to challenge myself coming here in the first place,” she says. “I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing things that I saw as uncomfortable. The Corps has been able to provide that.”

“Being in the Corps of Cadets gives you so many opportunities to explore working relationships with people,” she says. “If you want to develop your people skills, I would tell you to take a leadership position in the Corps. It’s going to force you to analyze and look at relationships in a different way, and I think that’s a super transferrable skill.”

Brown sees the connections she has made among her peers as one of the most valuable benefits of her time in the Corps. “As a non-pursuing student, I really appreciate living in the same quarters as my whole company,” she says, highlighting the fact that the amount of time they spend together encourages personal growth among the group. “If there are problems, we’ll try our best to fix them because they can be a huge deterrent. When everyone knows everyone’s business, there’s a lot that you have to think about even just walking down the hallway or speaking in it.”

While it can sometimes present difficulties, Brown knows that the accountability and responsibilities held across the company yield positive results. “I love the relationships that I’ve been able to build,” she says. “Having to be vigilant of your surroundings and aware that what you say or do affects everyone is a unique leadership opportunity, that if you’re a non-pursuing individual, you wouldn’t get anywhere else.”

Education with a Purpose

Brown has not only kept the family tradition of attending Norwich but has also chosen the field of nursing like many in her family. “My mom’s a nurse, my aunt’s a nurse, and my grandma’s a nurse; we do a lot of things in common. In my immediate family, my brother and cousin — who will graduate with me this year — are going through the nursing program,” she says. “I applied for my senior practicum in a NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. I really fell in love with the babies when I did my obstetrics clinical rotation.”

“I think one thing that’s very unique is the major itself. In not many programs do you go out and start doing practicals in your sophomore year,” she says. “I’ve always had an appreciation for the hands-on kind of learning when it comes to conceptual things, and once you make me sit in a classroom for too long, I start to struggle.”

Not everything is easier in action, though. “I think the most difficult part about the hands-on learning is learning through your mistakes. In a classroom and didactic kind of setting, you’re not getting your performance evaluated, you’re more so just sponging it up,” says Brown. “But in the hands-on setting, the way you learn is through your mistakes. That can be harsh mentally, but also harsh on the actual mission and command climate, because your learning experience is accomplishing the mission, but you’re going to make mistakes.”

“If you’re not careful about tearing yourself up about it, or if you’ve got some really tough critics in your corner, then you know the hands-on experience is definitely unique, and that’s part of why I came here.”

Investing in Passion

Outside of the Corps, Brown has continued investing in both herself and her fellow students. What began as indulging in her passion for performance has evolved into leading Band Company as company commander. “I’ve always been drawn towards performance, so it’s definitely something I was seeking out, especially in a very performance-based arena such as Norwich and the Corps of Cadets,” she says, remembering when she discovered Band Company during Demo Day in her first year on campus. “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve always loved music.’ I’m a vocalist first and didn’t have any kind of formal musical training, but they said they needed people on percussion.”

The only requirements for the role were the ability to keep time and passion. “Percussion is the easiest thing to hack it on if you don’t have any experience,” says Brown. “I play the bass drum and other percussion; you have to know how to count, so I was able to join.”

Her commitment to trying and pure passion for music would coincidentally end up providing an opportunity to explore her first love: singing. “I was in band rehearsal my freshman year and they needed somebody to sing the national anthem because somebody couldn’t make it. The band director put the opportunity out there at the end of rehearsal,” she says. “I waited for a few seconds because I was a freshman and didn’t want to just shoot my hand up, but there were crickets, so I shot my hand up and said, ‘Sir, I’ll do it. I would be honored.’”

Brown’s first performance on The Hill quickly earned a fanbase on campus. “General McCollough called me into his office to congratulate me,” she says. “He said his wife was very pleased with my performance, and he said it deserved recognition.”

The short-notice opportunity to sing the anthem to a Norwich crowd quickly evolved into a regular gig. “Since then, my email has been filled asking if I can sing for our games,” says Brown. “Hockey games are my absolute favorite. The way it sounds in the hockey rink with the mic and acoustics is really, really nice.”

Leading from the Front

Brown’s commitment to the band and performance was noted when the staff position of band director opened. Her role as company commander quickly morphed into something more than she had originally bargained for. “We weren't expecting a new hire in the middle of an academic year — so, no one until later. We’re going to adjust fire accordingly.”

She credits her fellow cadets for the work they’ve done alongside her to keep the band running smoothly. “My first sergeant and XO [executive officer] have been working really hard. They obviously have more musical experience than I do,” says Brown. “Often, what I’ll say to my command team is that I was not chosen for this job because of musical superiority. When it comes to not having a band director, his role was to make sure our music quality was high — that’s naturally where we might take the biggest hit.”

“My XO is the one who runs our concert music, and my first sergeant — who’s also our drum major — holds the mace and commands the formation when we’re actually marching,” she says. “They’ve been working together to tackle it.”

Brown’s lessons in leadership have quickly proven beneficial — which is a good thing, because she will soon graduate a year early as the Class of 2026. When speaking with freshmen during Spike Night, a tradition named after the band’s historic ties to a railroad spike, she wanted them to embrace resiliency.

“It was very much heavy on my mind. I’m super proud of the resilience that we’ve been able to show through abrupt role changes,” she says. “It’s definitely a bigger hit to us emotionally, losing our mentor — but as far as the chain of command, that has been okay, though he was like our walking encyclopedia. Instead of Googling it, he would almost always know the answer — and if he didn’t, he would take it upon himself to find it.”

Consistency and formalities have proven the biggest challenge, but the challenges have been met with determination and effort. “A lot of ceremonial rights and wrongs are learned through experience. If you’ve run a certain ceremony 50 times, it won’t stick out like a sore thumb if someone slightly messes up,” she says. “We are always striving for perfection, though we don’t want to kill ourselves trying to achieve it — but we get as close as we can.”

Into the Future

“I’ve said this a few times now, but I never thought that I would almost regret graduating early,” says Brown. “I love it here and a lot of people from my first year are going to have that last year without me, and that makes it even more bittersweet.”

She plans on continued investment into passion following graduation. “I would like to learn a wind instrument because I haven’t had the time with school and everything else,” she says. “Vocally, I would like to continue because singing is a huge passion of mine. I don’t have any formal plans, but I will probably join up with my church choir and sing in community groups.”

The University’s motto, “I Will Try,” is something that Brown will continue to carry with her long past graduation. “I wanted to quit the band freshman year at the beginning of training — now, I would tell myself not to quit,” she reflects. “I was super wishy-washy about joining the Corps. I absolutely would tell myself, ‘This is something to grow you. It is going to be uncomfortable, but you will develop grit and prove to yourself that you can do difficult things going forward. Past school, this is a way to prove it to yourself, and your confidence will thank you for it immensely.’”