The deputy executive director of the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families was one of 57 scholars in the program’s 10th annual class.
Standing before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, surrounded by his peers in the 10th annual class of Presidential Leadership Scholars, Ray Toenniessen ’06 felt clarity, focused by the stillness and weight of sacrifice around them.
In that moment, three of his classmates and the program’s retiring co-director Mike Hemphill—all fellow veterans—laid a wreath at the tomb. Watching them, the deputy executive director of the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families felt the lessons of everything he’d learned, questioned and wrestled with throughout the program—and through lectures and meetings with two former presidents—coalesce into one realization. Leadership is about responsibility.
“It’s hard to put into words, but it was a very deep moment of connection and reflection amongst the class,” he says.
The cemetery visit was made during the six-month program’s final module. During a block of free time, Toenniessen and the handful of other veterans in the cohort arranged to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
But the entire class ended up joining the group.
With the evidence of the ultimate sacrifice made in service around them, following months of lessons on leadership, Toenniessen says everyone was overcome with emotion.
“We had all formed deep connections, deep relationships by this point,” he says. “Arlington and the tomb, to many of us who served, holds a very personal meaning. And so seeing the class gathered around the tomb was really powerful.”
What It Was Like Participating
Over the course of program, Toenniessen and his 57 classmates gathered for six modules, starting in Philadelphia and ending in the nation’s Capitol, visiting the participating presidential centers in-between: the George W. Bush Center in Dallas, the Clinton Center in Little Rock, the LBJ Library in Austin and then the George H.W. Bush Library Center in College Station.
During each module, the class went through the lessons and learnings from the presidents.
“We did a lot of reading around that specific president, key legislation, oftentimes key speeches, looking at their actions,” Toenniessen says. “Then when you were on site, you were really looking at, ‘Well, what led them to those decisions? Why did LBJ need to be so persuasive? Why was it important to President Bush to build coalitions and partnerships? How is President Clinton such an effective communicator?”