Cadets from colleges across the United States have the opportunity to travel to foreign countries and immerse themselves into the culture while becoming familiar with different military training. The Cadet Coalition Warfighter Program (CCWP), formally known as the Cultural Understanding and Leadership Program (CULP), has been described as a “paid vacation” by some, but these Cadets quickly dispel this notion. Thirty-one Cadets spent twenty-one days in Malawi, while another twenty-one Cadets spent twenty-four days in Romania. Each Cadet left the U.S. with impressions of the foreign land and excitement for cultural day trips; however, they returned with a completely different outlook. [...]

MALAWI, SOUTH AFRICA – A team of eleven cadets and one cadre member from around the United States were chosen to attend a CULP, Cultural Understanding and Language Profeciency, mission in Malawi, Africa. The cadets in the team had no idea what to expect for their first full day in country. They knew they were going to be training with the Airborne Battalion but that was about the extent of their knowledge for the first day’s agenda. “I went in having little expectations,” said Shyla Tibert, an International Studies major at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “I expected the [...]