Peter Lagerberg introduced our speaker who he met and worked with while he was a Rotary Member in Springfield, Virginia and part of Rotary District 7610. Ms. Pat Locke (pictured above) was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and enlisting in the U.S.Army at West Point in 1980, Pat was among the first class of women to graduate from the academy. By Order of Merit, she is the first African-American woman to graduate from West Point. Commissioned as an Air Defense Officer, Pat embarked on a career in the U.S. Army giving her opportunity to command, work in the Army’s Human Resource Command, and serve on the Army Staff in the Pentagon. Pat retired from active duty service in 1995. Ms. Locke’s post-military accomplishments centered around education. Pat founded the Seeds of Humanity Foundation, incorporated to assist the training and development of underserved and underrepresented students and their influencers, specifically with STEM education, ethics and leadership. She established Life Plan Services, LLC. Its mission is to train and develop core life skills for those in transition and on their “ascent to excellence.”
“Today I want to share three topics,” Pat Locke began. “What led me to Rotary?, What led me to Leadership Ethics? and What is my passion?”
After her 1995 retirement from the US Army, she was disheartened by civilian behaviors and began looking for something that shared the values she learned and practiced in the military. She continued to work with the West Point Leadership and Ethics Conference and was a presenter at the conference in New Jersey, sponsored by the local Rotary Clubs. When she returned to Springfield, Virginia, she “wandered in the door” of the Springfield Rotary Club meeting, heard the membership reciting the Rotary Four Way Test and immediately knew the Rotary values aligned with her values and wanted to become a Rotarian.
The National Conference on Ethics in America was created with the intention to develop a national awareness of ethical behavior in middle school and high school students. Helping them tackle the questions of right vs wrong, better choices, and good decision-making and providing students with a model to follow. The Leadership Ethics and STEM Workshop, sponsored by the Springfield Rotary club will be held virtually on April 26, 2021 for JROTC and Interact members.
Pat is a faculty member of Thayer Leadership/West Point, training individuals to better themselves and their organizations. Ms. Locke’s passion for the last 20 years has been the study of the human condition, working to understand how and why people do what they do. Her goal is to work with people and organizations who want to be a significant influence in their own lives and the lives of others.
Ms. Locke shared the acronym P.R.I.D.E. with the group. P is for Positivity, R is for Respect, I is for Integrity, D is for Dedication and E is for Excellence. Positive people spread positive energy and negative people spread negative energy so for the good of the community, we need to be positive. Respect is what we owe and we can’t wait for someone to earn it from us. Integrity challenges us to be dedicated to complete a task by doing what is right, with courage and as an outward profession of our values. Dedication gives a purpose to our lives, to serve others and be disciplined. Excellence is a virtue that should be in every part of our life.
Pat closed her program with a “self-talk” message we can recite at the start of each day: “I am attractive because I am positive. I am respectful because I am responsible. I am trustworthy because I have integrity. I have complete dedication to my own purpose in life. I experience excellence in my life because I am a change master. I am committed to staying ready for the change that will embrace me endlessly.”
A question-and-answer segment afforded several members to ask follow-up questions and thank Pat Locke for sharing her passion with our club.
