Hundreds of eighth graders from across Killeen middle schools attended a student leadership conference Friday hosted by U.S. Rep. August Pfluger at Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

Pfluger, who represents a House district stretching from Killeen to Midland, sat down with III Corps commander Lt. Gen. Kevin Admiral for a dialogue about leadership and to answer questions from students.

Middle school student leaders also took the stage to participate with their own presentations.

Also included in the event was a static display of military vehicles by the Army’s III Armored Corps, a presentation on space travel by personnel from NASA.

“It’s a critical conversation — we were able to sit down and hear about some of the priorities that Fort Cavazos is going through that the U.S. Army and our military need,” Pfluger said in an interview after the conference. “We have some more work to do when we get back to (Washington) D.C., to follow up on things that are important, to make sure that we have the right people in the right places here to support the base and support the mission.”

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who will take the reins of the Texas A&M system as chancellor later this year, also spoke to students at the conference. He summarized his comments to the Herald after the event.

“I think one of the things for students, regardless of what they want to pursue in careers, continue to be open minded,” Hegar said. “Don’t be afraid of failures — we all have them as human beings — Try to pierce through them.”