If someone had told me a year ago that I’d spend countless hours debating Cana-dian defence policy, joining a war gaming club, and lacing up hockey skates after a decade-long break, I’m not sure I would’ve believed them. But here I am, looking back on the Joint Command and Staff Programme (JCSP) at the Canadian Forces College with a bit of disbelief at how much can happen in just one year.

I arrived in Toronto from Germany with no idea of what exactly I was getting into. I believed the course would be demanding, with long reading lists, tight dead-lines, and an ever-dynamic environment. What I did not expect was the richness ofthe experience: intellectually, professionally, and personally.

The academic side hit early and hard, with studies in leadership, military theory,and international relations. There was no shortage of complexity. But what kept it from becoming overly abstract and theoretical was the constant connection to real-world developments that evolved throughout the year. We were digging into issues that mattered and would help us master our future challenges. The college environment allowed us to ex-plore and delve deeply into subjects like leading in high-stakes environments, thinking beyond doctrine, and working across cultures and services.

I leaned into the programme. I wrote essays on logistics in contested environments, the ethical limits of force, and China’s Anti-Access/Area Denial strategy, a subject that is only growing in importance. That paper forced me to connect policy, doc-trine, and experience. Writing for a master’s degree intensifies the learning experience enormously. It is helping to make sense of past, present and future uncertainties.

More than anything, though, this year was about people. The real value of JCSP was beyond the lecture slides or readings (as good as many were). It were the conversations in syndicate rooms, over lunches, and after class in the evenings. I was lucky to work with officers from all over Canada and many other countries, people with very different perspectives and backgrounds, but with a shared commitment to learning. We all came from different environments: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and SOF. I came from the medical side, and though I wasn’t always sure my input would fit, it felt that every contribution mattered.

Those conversations turned into debates, jokes, late-night planning sessions, and in more than one case, real friendships. There’s something about working under pressure, with serious people who don’t take themselves too seriously, that builds real trust. That sense of camaraderie, forged in syndicate rooms and strengthened on the war game battlefields, was one of the most unexpected and rewarding parts of the year.

I also got involved outside the formal program. I helped run the War gaming Club, which became a fun way to apply operational thinking without PowerPoint presentations. Dur-ing our design studies, I guided a syndicate through a weeklong problem-framing project dealing with security challenges in the Arctic. Helping to present the results of a demanding recruitment and retention design project to the Canadian Armed Forces Surgeon General was also nerve-wracking, but worth it. It showed me how much we could accomplish when we took a step back from doctrine and thought creatively.

Along the way, I tried to contribute where I could, shar-ing operational insights from my own deployments, asking questions in plenary for more insights, and just trying to be a solid teammate. The intent was always to support the group and represent our efforts properly. We can only win together as a team. I didn’t expect to be recognized for that, so receiving the Royal Canadian Military Institute’s Dr. Robert Farrelly Award, nominated by my peers, was a very meaningful moment of the year for me.

There’s no way to sum up this experience neatly. It wasn’t perfect. At times, the pace was intense, the topics dense, and the lectures long. But it worked because the community worked. Because people showed up prepared, with open minds and a willingness to challenge themselves.

Now that the course is over, I feel better equipped for what comes next. Though I now have more academic tools in my kit and a clearer sense of what kind of leader I want to be, JCSP has also helped me to think differently, more broadly, more critically, and more jointly. That is not something you can get from just reading a book or articles. That is something you get from being part of a group of people who are all trying to get better, together.

I will miss this time; the conversations, the camaraderie, and even the occasional chaos of trying to prepare an “impromptu”-last minute briefing. But mostly I’m grateful. For the opportunity. For the people. And for a year I will never forget.

All results will be made freely available to museums, scientific institutions, universities, schools, media, and the public—honouring the service and sacrifice of those who have served in the Royal Canadian Navy.

For more information, visit https://www.hmcscanadaexpedition.org/

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