As seen in Moultrie News by Ralph Mancini

Attendees at the June 5 Rotary of Mount Pleasant meeting were served with a snapshot of local senior military college, The Citadel, with regard to where it stands and where it’s going.

Guest speaker Brig. Gen. Sally Selden, who serves as The Citadel’s Provost and Dean of College, imparted the learning venue’s mission of developing principled leaders through the core values of honor, duty and respect.

“There are very few schools in America, I call tell you with confidence, where every single person on campus can tell you what its mission is and what its core values are. But at The Citadel you’re going to find that to be true, whether its faculty, staff, cadets or other students,” said Selden after being introduced by colleague and Rotarian Platte Moring.

Selden shared the “transformational” experience that cadets and students are benefitting from at the Charleston-based college in that they’re receiving more than an education. Young men and women, she added, are also developing their minds and character.

The journey that ends with 85-90 percent of graduates being job-ready, continued the chief academic officer, begins with freshmen learning about the core class system in year one, followed by sophomores holding high-level positions in their barracks (i.e. dorms). The third and fourth years see students fulfill their commitment to service by volunteering in the Lowcountry and beyond in the spirit of acquiring leadership traits.

During Academic Year 23-24, in fact, The Citadel’s students produced 23,000 hours of service learning and community engagement.

While offering Rotarians a rundown of the 31 undergraduate majors and 12 graduate programs available at The Citadel across the college’s five schools, Selden further mentioned the addition of its new sixth school, known as the Krause School of Leadership and Ethics.

Back in November, Bill and Gay Krause gifted the school $5 million that will unite the existing Krause Center for Leadership and Ethics with The Citadel’s Department of Leadership Studies as one academic entity.

“This new academic school is core to our mission, and it will really help us elevate The Citadel at a national level. There are very few colleges and universities that have schools of leadership and I can’t imagine a place we should have it more so than at The Citadel,” observed Selden on the learning venue slated to open in October of 2026.

The news didn’t stop there for the sixth-year provost, who apprised listeners of The Citadel’s ongoing integration of AI technology into the school curriculum. Specifically, the college is offering concentrations in engineering and cyber security within AI. In addition, The Citadel has funded a center in tandem with Clemson University focusing on AI-related issues.

To enhance its involvement and understanding of AI, The Citadel hired Dean Andrew B. Williams — a noted expert in artificial intelligence — as the Dean of the School of Engineering three years ago, per Selden.

As far as domestic and international projects down the pike, Selden highlighted semester-long opportunities for students — sophomores in particular — to study abroad in Ireland, Hungary and South Korea. Similarly, she spoke of an initiative to welcome scholars from the Netherlands to Charleston to study cybersecurity.

The school has also been actively collaborating with the State Department and federal legislators to host exchange students from Ukraine as part of the Fulbright Program. Along with receiving $300,000 in funding to continue the program at the undergraduate level, The Citadel was allocated $2 million for a Ukraine building initiative designed to bring 10-14 Ukrainian students to the college for four-year degrees in majors that will help those individuals rebuild their country.

“We are truly dedicated to our mission of educating and developing principled leaders, and we’re trying to cultivate the best environment for that to happen. We want to hire the best faculty, we want to make sure we’ve got the best facilities that give out students the best educational advantage that they can get as they graduate,” she said in closing.

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