Allie Shmidt, a junior Psychology major and member of the Wake Forest Field Hockey team, was sponsored by the ACLC to attend the 2025 US Naval Academy Leadership Conference. Allie noted that she was honored to attend the conference and took away invaluable lessons that she will bring into her personal life and career path for the rest of her life. “I don’t know another time in my life where I’ll be in a room with as many amazing and accomplished individuals as I was.”
Allie was particularly moved by the opening keynote speech by former Navy Seal John Sanchez, where he told a story of triumphing over adversity. Allie was inspired by his “illustration of how sometimes things will get tough and it’s hard to see a way out, especially in leadership. You have to keep your calm as a leader, but you also have to learn to be resilient and embrace the challenges. Every single challenge that you go through is going to make you better at the end of the day.”
“The hotter the fire, the stronger the seal,” a quote by the longest standing Naval Academy graduate to still be on active duty, Stuart Munsch, was another key moment for Allie. She described how “you could feel the camaraderie in the Naval Academy and the pride to have someone of such amazing accomplishment to be speaking in front of everyone.”
“The theme of the conference was Authentic Leadership, Leading From Within and what really connected the dots with me was hearing every single speaker, all the adversity that they had endured in so many different situations, but there were common themes among them: connecting with others, which is a huge part of leading authentically. You have to be able to connect with others and figure out what’s most important to them in order to know how to best serve them through servant leadership. Also, with overcoming adversity, just embracing challenges. I think that’s leading with authenticity, because you have to take your personal story and your personal history into whatever leadership role you do.”
“I’ve been looking back at my notebook every day since the conference and I just feel incredibly grateful to have been granted the opportunity to attend and learn so much.”