The 18:83 Speaker Series proceeded with guest speaker Lt. Col. Jared Budenski, a professor of military science, last Wednesday, November 13, at the Memorial Union’s Social Staircase.
Originally from New Elm, Minnesota, Budenski moved to Great Lakes, Illinois, to enter active duty in a Navy boot camp in May of 2000. Seven years later, he enrolled in Officer Candidate School in Fort Moore, Georgia. Budenski continued his education until the Military Police Captain’s Career Course in December of 2011.
“In the southern part of Minnesota, as a young kid, everybody wanted to play army,” Budenski said. “Lo and behold, a few years later, here I am.”
Before becoming a professor of military science at the University of North Dakota and senior officer of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, Budenski served in a variety of military assignments and obtained an array of awards.
Throughout his speech, Budenski referred to attributes that comprise leaders and how those qualities are relevant in context to his background. The first of which being character.
“One of the attributes I have to talk about is character. Well, what does character mean? To me, it’s values that were developed when I was a young child,” Budenski said. “When I was enlisted in the Navy, I had three core values: honor, courage, and commitment. Fast forward, I’m in the army. So, we use that acronym, leadership: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal care. Those values continue to remain dear to my heart.”
Concluding with character, Budenski continues his presentation with a new attribute, presence. In Budenski’s context, presence refers to how behavior influences others.
“In presence is fitness, [and] in the ROTC program, we do a lot of fitness. Specifically, what I like to do is being engaged,” Budenski said. “When we’re running around on the track, I always wear my identification or dog tags. One reason I wear them is when I run, they hear them dangle so they know I’m behind them. Hopefully, that provides motivation to have them run faster. Sometimes, that’s motivation for me to run faster as well.”
However, presence is not limited to the track, it is also present in relationships.
“Within fitness, we also talk about relationships. I assume everybody here has a relationship with parents, a professor, [or] with an employer, and how do you develop that relationship?” Budenski said. “Respect for one another because within our culture and program that’s huge.”
As Budenski lists and describes these qualities, they begin to compile and build upon each other.
“I want to talk to you about the foundations of those characteristics, trust. I assume everybody in here at some point has been given trust in something that you have done for a task, no matter the assignment,” Budenski said. “With that, building trust, [the] definition is the ability of leaders to influence subordinates and have effective command control.”
For more presentations on leadership and development, the 18:83 Speaker Series happens almost every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. on the Social Staircase of the Memorial Union. In the coming weeks, Mara Jiran, CEO of Spectra Health, and Anna Kinney, UND’s coordinator of the University Writing Program, will deliver their speeches next.
Dylan Campbell is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
