The University of Notre Dame Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) hosted its 20th annual Naval Leadership Weekend Seminar to promote the development of midshipmen into strong, ethical leaders, Feb. 26-28.

Keynote speaker Adm. Michelle Howard, vice chief of naval operations (VCNO), addressed the midshipmen in attendance at the closing dinner.

More than 250 midshipmen from 33 NROTC units attended the three-day conference.

Howard spoke to the midshipmen about the importance of courage, it's relevance to the military profession, and how it is the singular core value common to every armed service. She gave examples of courage from Frederick Douglass to the brave actions of enlisted service members.

"Courage takes many forms," said Howard. "As leaders, we need to be worthy to lead the men and women who serve our country. That is what you are preparing for in the NROTC program."

Throughout the weekend midshipmen had the ability to meet and listen to Adm. Michael Rogers, commander, U.S. Cyber Command and director, National Security Agency/chief, Central Security Service; Adm. Bill Gourtney, commander, U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command; Vice Adm. Jan Tighe, commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet; Rear Adm. Scott Stearney, commander, Navy Warfare Development Command; Sgt. Major William Sowers, U.S. Marine Corps Training command sergeant major; and Notre Dame professor Joseph Holt.

"What makes Naval Leadership Weekend special is that the number of speakers who bring a diversity of ideas and real-life examples from various war fighting communities," said Midshipman 1st Class Maxwell Brown, Notre Dame's NROTC battalion commander. "With representation from NROTC units across the nation, midshipmen provide unique insights from their different experiences at various studies and universities. These perspectives give midshipmen an opportunity to compare discrete views and develop their own decision-making style."

Stearney spoke to the midshipmen regarding entering into the "service of our nation in a complex and uncertain environment, the importance of creativity and innovation and finding solutions to complex war-fighting challenges." He encouraged the development of leadership through personal reflection, study and learning to create trust in high-performing teams.

"What it requires is full faith and confidence in your cause, in your training and ability," said Stearney. "Success depends on the competence of your character, the competence of your warfighting and your ability to understand the requirements for the future."

Throughout the weekend, between briefs, midshipmen had the opportunity to participate in ethical decision-making games. The exercise gave the midshipmen an opportunity to support and defend their decisions given a scenario and use the discussion to develop and amend the decision-making skills.

"Notre Dame's Navy Leadership Weekend has tremendous benefit for everyone who attends -- regardless of your participant status as a presenter or attendee," said Capt. Michael Ryan, professor of Naval Science and commanding officer of NROTC Notre Dame. For the midshipmen, there is benefit from interacting and learning from some of our most successful leaders in the Navy/Marine Corps family. For the senior leaders in attendance, they get to see first hand and interact with the high-quality young men and women that will be taking over the torch from them in the fleet and corps. There is an amazing amount of positive energy that surrounds this entire event."

For more news from Naval Service Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/.

For more information about NROTC, visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/. For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.