Simone Askew Shows Reese Witherspoon West Point Academy! | Celebs Up Close
It’s the most beautiful campus. Yeah. So, it looks like Hogwarts. A lot of people refer to it as I was going to say it looks like Harry Potter. Yeah, exactly. I’m very interested in in young leadership and I’m very interested in diverse leadership and female leadership. So, I’ve been interviewing women who are across so many different disciplines um being their extraordinary selves in every different area. And I find that, you know, so many of those stories don’t get told. So, I’m so happy to be here with you today because I’d heard so much about you, too. Um, you know, just breaking new ground as a female leader. It must be extraordinary. I It’s a lot of responsibility. I’m sure a lot of pressure. Yeah, I would say I didn’t really feel the pressure until later on in the year. Um, cuz in the beginning, just staying very focused on just doing the job. And I’m sure you’ve been in similar situations where you just want to do the job. Like, it’s not about you being a woman. who just want to be a good actor or a good boss or whatever, a good mom um without that categorization one way or the other. It’s it’s very humbling to be able to be in this role and it’s also a great amount of responsibility. As the first captain at West Point, I serve as the liaison or the bridge between the officer leadership and the cadetses. Everything that we do, all the operations, all of the missions are done at the cadet level. But there are officers here who really oversee that process and make sure that we’re headed in the right direction. I noticed you were saying that something’s challenging happened this year with leadership. Last year I was in charge of about 30 people and then this year I enter into a position where I’m now in charge of 4,400. My role now is a lot more visible. Uh so I would just say some of the challenges that I faced I have never even to a small degree um engaged with before. So that peer leadership aspect is is very hard is very hard. I can imagine working with people who are just as if not more qualified than I am at their jobs and are the same age as me and are really really really really good at what they do. like how do you provide feedback to someone who you look up to within West Point? I think there’s a lot of um just sort of wanting to be number one. Yeah. Right. Always. Because you were number one in high school and everybody here was number one in high school in every aspect athletically, academically, socially. Yeah. No, you did your You were the homecoming queen, weren’t you? Yeah. Wait, tell me your homecoming queen story. So, I actually um missed the the crowning at the homecoming game because I was here. Yeah. What were you doing? So, I was doing um a visit to West Point to see if this was the college I wanted to go to and this is the last time that I could do it before I had to decide and so I couldn’t come to the homecoming game where they were doing the crowning. Um but I did go to the homecoming dance. So, that was nice. My sister accepted the crown on my behalf. She did. Yeah. And the fun thing was that the next year when I was a freshman here, I went back to Fairfax, my high school, to crown the next queen. So Oh, that’s amazing. It was really fun. Yeah, really cool experience. I love what you said that, you know, I that you felt like leadership made you a queen. I think I was more proud of that and being accepted into West Point than I was about homecoming queen because do to a degree it is a popularity contest and um you know it’s fun and it’s flirty and it’s a great experience but I I was more proud for this. I’m proud of this too. I would be really really proud if I got into West Now I think I’m in West Point because I’m here. Yeah, you’re basically a cadet. They the the core has accepted you for sure. I’m so excited. The newest member. Um, but I’m curious because I have teenagers and they have their own dreams and desires and do you remember how old you were when you started to think I want to be a leader or possibly in the military and a life of service? Yeah. So, I mean definitely my initial attractions were very superficial in that I was at a football game and I thought the cadets of machim march on the field was the coolest thing ever. Well, it’s the coolest thing ever. It it is. But to say I want to be a leader in the military because of a parade. I mean it’s very it’s very ignorant. Right. Once you finish at West Point, then you go into military service for how long? Yes, ma’am. So 5 years active duty and three years reserve. My mom was in the reserves and my dad. Wow. That’s awesome. The Tennessee National Guard. So my mom went to boot camp. Really? I love it. I love it. I remember being a little girl. My mom went to boot camp and I was like, my mom wears combat boots. I thought it was so cool. Yeah. My mom actually was a single mom growing up and that was the same thing. Like something I’m really proud of is that she worked and I think sometimes you say your mom was a big inspiration to you. Oh, huge. She actually develops low-income housing in southeast DC which is a very impoverished region of the DC, Maryland, Virginia area. I grew up as one of two. I have a younger sister. My mom worked. So when we would come home, my mom wasn’t there. is very much kind of like the mother figure for my sister. And I would say that environment definitely taught me a lot about maturity and personal responsibility at a very young age. Another thing that my mom really harped on was not being a victim. And in situations where I failed, the response should not be to blame it on others, but to take responsibility for my role in it. And that’s why I credit my mom with a lot of the success that I’ve had at West Point. My mom’s awesome. We’ll head this way. I want to show you a formation. And And wait, that’s a formation. [Music] How many times a day do y’all do that? Twice a day. Morning formation at 6:55 and then lunch formation at 12. Wow. Primarily it functions as like an accountability method just to make sure that everyone’s here and if people aren’t here, we know. Hi, sir. So, our special guest, Mrs. Witherspoon. Hi, Reese Witherspoon. Such a pleasure to meet you, sir. Good, sir. Company. I’ve never seen this before. First, take charge. The hardest part of my day is definitely waking up at 5:20, 110%. At 6:55, we have formations. Then we start class from 7:30 to 12:00. Then we have lunch. And from 1400 to600 we have class, regular academic courses. Usually at 1600 I’ll go work out and then after that dinner and then meetings and then 10:00 to 1 or 2 a.m. I’ll be doing homework. Um and then take a little nap and wake up the next day. Because you’re a history major, do you have somebody in history that so inspires you? Like anybody you’ve learned about or Yes, ma’am. I would say Abraham Lincoln is is my favorite. I would say celebrity crush or historical figure. I mean, allin-one. I’m a I’m a history major, so celebrity and historical figure kind of the same thing. And for me, it was really his calmness. And in a time that was very contentious, not only socially, but militarily, he was able to to remain calm and level-headed. And that’s something I really admire as well. I’m a work in progress. So I’m have not mastered the art of being calm under stressful environments. But that is an approach I would like to be good at one day.
Simone Askew takes Reese Witherspoon on a tour of the US Military Academy, West Point.
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