With the help of young military officers, three dozen high-school juniors throughout the CRSA talked about real-life issues that will continue to be a part of their lives.
They had been invited to attend a U.S. Military Academy Leadership at Ethics Conference, held at Silver Bluff High School on Friday.
"It's been awesome," said Avery Ifoje, a South Aiken High junior. She was impressed how her small group of teenagers could come together for serious discussions about ethics and morals - trying to determine what's right or wrong and working together as a community to figure that out.
Though ethics are built through laws, "morals are what you internalize, what through your own conscious you decided are correct," Ifoje said.
Such conferences are modeled on those at U.S. Military Academy, helping young people learn about ethical dilemmas.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Dan Ragsdale, a retired colonel, is a U.S. Military Academy graduate and former supervisor there during his career. He welcomed the opportunity to speak with the students through his interest in the value of ethical leadership.
"Leaders may drive people into the ground to get something done but, effectively, they have lost the war," Ragsdale said. "You have to make an investment in the people you work with."
He brought up other issues that may have surprised some of the students. How they act toward others can literally result in physical and chemical reactions in any context - from a combat situation or in an office.
Stress is not inherently bad, Ragsdale said, as it has to be part of any assignment or project. Yet a leader can bring positives to the work, that "You can make work a better place, one person at a time."
Three Naval Junior ROTC commanders - Midland Valley's Gary Seim, Silver Bluff's Ron Freeman and South Aiken's Larry Laughlin - teach such leadership qualities and appreciate the opportunities for their cadets to hear it from another voice.
Seim has watched especially those students who have put in the effort as cadets.
They have learned as Ragsdale said, that a successful project is about those who did the work, not the project itself.
The issues that come with any endeavor can bring situations where tough decisions have to be made every day, said Midland Valley cadet Adrienne Jordan. She welcomed the chance to learn how those decisions can be made effectively.
From the time she was a freshman, she understood that such actions "can be more complicated that I thought. It's all about dealing with situations in real life."