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For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
411-050 Rebecca S. Halstead: Steadfast Leadership
2
coach and planned to attend Ithaca College after her high school graduation in 1977. Halstead reflected:
Sports were my thing, especially in high school. In fact, the first time I ever felt like I was a leader—and I won’t say a very successful one, but a leader—was in high school playing sports and running for class office. Especially playing sports, because our coach was killed during my junior year and we really needed to bring the team together because it was such a great loss. It was hard for me personally, very hard. But I felt I owed it to the team to keep things going, too. So I think I experienced what it means to be a leader at a fairly young age, in high school.
Halstead had never considered a career in the military until her mother read about West Point in the local newspaper. It was 1976 and West Point had just begun accepting women. That year, President Gerald Ford had signed into law legislation mandating the admittance of women to the U.S. service academies. BJ Halstead encouraged her daughter to apply. Halstead recalled her mother’s reaction to the newspaper article and its discussion of what West Point was looking for in female cadets “This sounds just like you, Becky, very well-rounded.”
The application process to West Point was an arduous one. In addition to having to meet high expectations for scholastic achievement and demonstrated leadership ability, there were strict medical requirements and a fitness test. Furthermore, a congressional nomination was required: every candidate to West Point must be nominated by his or her congressional representative or one of her U.S. senators, or by the vice president of the United States. Obtaining a nomination was challenging and highly competitive: each member of Congress has only five cadetships at the Military Academy and can nominate up to 10 candidates for each vacancy.1 Willseyville lent its full weight to Halstead’s candidacy. Her teachers, coaches and church and youth-group leaders supported her and many provided the letters of recommendation that helped her obtain the congressional nomination necessary to her candidacy.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point
Halstead was one of 104 women and 1361 men admitted to the Academy’s second co-educational class. Four years later she would be one of the 63 women and 961 men to graduate. Halstead’s parents accompanied her to campus. The evening before her first day, Halstead shared a room with three of her new classmates. Halstead recalled that evening:
I shared a room with three other women: one who wanted to be an astronaut, one aspired to be a politician and the third spent the entire evening talking about wanting to party all the time. I remember thinking to myself: what am I doing here? I have nothing in common with these girls! The next morning, feeling scared to death and very anxious, I went to my parents and said, “Take me home.” But my mom said, “Becky, let’s go for a drive.” And while we were in the car, she encouraged me to not quit before I started and to give it at least a year.
Halstead’s parents had always encouraged her not to quit, to give everything she took on a fair try. And so she heeded her mother’s advice. She also felt a strong sense of patriotism, fostered by her maternal grandfather, Raymond E. Stevens (who every day raised and lowered the U.S. flag at his home) and gratitude to those who had believed in and supported her:
My parents had instilled a strong ethic in me to not quit in life, and I did not want to be a quitter. Nor did I want to let down everyone who had supported me—my family and hometown. All of these people had helped to raise and develop me into the young adult I had
1 United States Military Academy: West Point Admissions http://admissions.usma.edu/prospectus/step_02b.cfm.
For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
