Center for Enhanced Performance

Center for Enhanced Performance

The Center for Enhanced Performance (CEP) is West Point’s comprehensive student success center, providing all cadets with a variety of individual and group programs and services focused on helping cadets further develop as self-regulated learners and leaders of character. The CEP helps cadets achieve excellence in West Point’s four developmental pillars – academic, physical, military, and character – through targeted education and training on specific strategies and intangible mental skills that underlie elite human performance across all domains.​ The CEP is open to ANY cadet at any point in their 47-month experience!

Academic Excellence Program

The Academic Excellence Program is a team of dedicated professionals supporting academic achievement and excellence across the four classes of cadets.  AEP offers a variety of courses and services aimed at developing cadets across all 4 pillars through individualized support or group instruction.

Meet the team

AEP Courses

The Student Success Course offers cadets an opportunity to engage with learning science and performance psychology strategies to enhance their academic, character, physical, and leadership performance at USMA. Strategies presented include effective thinking, goal setting, time management, self-regulated learning, concentration, test taking, memory, note taking and energy management. Through academically engaging activities, this course will assist cadets in developing personalized skills and attributes that support thriving and help facilitate a successful transition to the Academy. 

NOTE: RS100: USMAPS graduates only

Through academically engaging activities and an innovative computer program, this course will assist cadets in increasing their current reading speed/words per minute(wpm) while maintaining and/or increasing reading comprehension. This course develops cadets' ability to apply, monitor and adjust a variety of reading strategies for increased comprehension and metacognitive awareness. The focus of this course is to develop the reading competencies necessary for success at the Academy and beyond.

RS103 will introduce cadets to the idea of education as the pursuit of truth. The course will also begin to equip them with confidence, tools, and role models, all designed to equip cadets to act as agents of their own education during their time at West Point.  

The course includes practical lessons covering a range of topics such as time-management, and close reading and discussion of challenging texts from the humanities and natural sciences. Cadets will also meet people from around the Academy representing different resources available to assist with selecting majors (and minors), research, AIADs, internships, and possible scholarship opportunities later in their cadet careers.  

AEP Services

Any cadet can access the AEP through individual appointment at any point of the 47-month experience. Cadets can set up a meeting anytime of the academic day to meet with a staff member to develop goals, manage weekly schedules, discuss majors, or just have a safe space to discuss life at the Academy.  

Current Cadets: Please click here to sign up for an appointment with AEP

The mission of the CEP tutoring program is to educate, train, and inspire cadets through individual and group peer tutoring to develop  innovative and curious mindsets. Cadets in the program volunteer their time to offer numerous study session throughout the academic year across the core curriculum. 

As cadets transition into their first year, AEP offers specific programs and advising that support cadets as they adapt to the West Point environment. AEP professionals provide individualized support to introduce cadets to useful resources and help them develop effective and efficient study skills. We help cadets overcome challenges and increase their support network so they can navigate their first year with confidence and lay a solid foundation for academic success. 

To cultivate a diverse community of inquiry that inspires cadets to actively engage in scholarship opportunities and research during their first two years at the Academy. The Scholar Enrichment Initiative seeks to proactively help high achieving cadets develop across the four developmental pillars by providing information and connecting cadets to resources as early as possible in their 47-month experience. 

Current Cadets: Please click here to go to the SEI homepage

AEP is a member of a multi-disciplinary team aimed at supporting cadets as they recovery from a concussion. AEP specifically educates cadets on the recovery process, offers academic accommodations, and helps cadets to develop strategies to manage their recovery and academic workload.

Performance Psychology Program

The Performance Psychology Program’s mission is to educate, train, and inspire cadets and those who support them in the psychology of human performance to foster their mental readiness and development as leaders of character and commissioned officers in the Army. The team achieves this through individual appointments, courses, and group training.

PPP Courses

Cadets learn the intangibles mental skills that allow them to perform at their best, in academics, physical, military, and leadership when it matters most! The course covers such skills as: Performance mindset, confidence and effective thinking, stress, nerves, and energy management, attention and focus, mindfulness, goal setting, and imagery. In just 10 lessons cadets who have taken RS104 have significantly improved their mental toughness and resilience scores!

This course provides cadets an opportunity to examine the essential psychological components to elite performance with a deep focus on current theoretical and empirical research in the area. Cadets are challenged to examine their current use of these components, apply the implications to leadership, and develop a comprehensive individualized program in which these skills can be developed for use in all performance contexts.

The PPP offers two AIAD opportunities to cadets interested in an immersive performance psychology experience. Cadets can complete an AIAD internally at USMA in our state-of-the-art Performance Psychology facility or externally with Olympic WCAP or Military performance populations. The AIAD offers cadets elite performance experiences that directly impact their ability to facilitate peak performance in their own lives and in those they lead.

PPP Services

Performance Psychology Program staff work with cadets one-on-one to develop their mental performance within the individual’s specific performance contexts. For example, corps-squad/club-squad athletics, the IOCT or survival swim class, academic performance, leadership positions, or any of the many other experiences at USMA. We help cadets develop skills such as mindset and confidence, focus and attention, stress and energy management, mindfulness, resilience, and goal-setting. Cadets may seek this support to thrive, survive, or just get better wherever they are! 

Current Cadets: Please click here to schedule an appointment with PPP

Performance psychology program staff lead workshops for interested USMA clubs/groups/companies and corps-squad teams. Workshops are typically designed around the PPP curriculum described and aimed to develop mental readiness and an ability to perform their best, while being individually designed to the objectives and goals of the group requesting them. 

PPP staff support the mental readiness of cadets throughout their physical and military development at the academy. Helping cadets develop and maintain productive performance mindsets while tackling challenges such as Survival Swim, Military Movement, Boxing, the IOCT, the ACFT, BRM, or the Water Confidence Course lays the groundwork for adaptive thinking that can guide a lifetime of development and success.

On the fields of friendly strife, cadet athletes compete on the highest collegiate athletic stage. The PPP helps athletes mentally prepare, perform, and reflect at the highest level. Mental processes developed become critical to sustained success when taking on opponents, beating Navy, or accomplishing missions after commissioning.

Mental Skills Training Lab

The Center for Enhanced Performance also houses the Mental Skills Training Lab, a state-of-the-art mental performance training facility. Cadets can train mental routines and skills that tangibly improve focus, stress and energy management, self-talk, and other mental skills critical to momentary and sustained success. Cadets have drop-in privileges to use the various Mental Skills Lab tools and appointments may also be made with a performance psychology instructor to get individualized, one-on-one training. The Mental Skills Lab is also the home of the Alpha Chambers, lovingly called the “Egg Chairs” by our cadets. These Egg Chairs paired with autogenic training recordings help cadets recover their physical and mental energy efficiently and are a cadet favorite.

Athletic Academic Support Coordinator Program

Athletic Academic Counselors understand that Cadet Athletes must balance their academic and athletic requirements, and provide skills necessary for success in the USMA environment. The goal of the AASC program is to academically prepare, support, and inspire cadet athletes in order to meet the academic, physical, and military requirements of USMA. 

AASC Services

Academic counselors work with cadet-athletes to devise an action plan to succeed during the semester. Plans help cadet-athletes balance the rigors of Division I athletics and a world class academic program. They are revisited frequently and adjusted as the semester progresses.

Current Cadets: Please click here to schedule an appointment with an AASC

Study hall is offered to all teams and cadet-athletes during the Evening Study Period. Rooms are provided and monitored, offering a quiet and studious environment. Study sessions are offered in study hall prior to select major graded events.

As cadet-athletes transition out of their sport and begin their life after sports, they have opportunities to participate in workshops and work with counselors to lay the foundation for a happy and healthy new chapter in their lives.

 Athletic Academic Support Coordinators consistently monitor and advise cadets on their continuing NCAA eligibility. Personalized plans and projections are developed throughout the semester and eligibility is certified before the start of each semester.

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