Cadets participated in the annual three-day Appalachia Regional Model Arab League debate recently at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. MAL helps prepare students to be knowledgeable, well-trained, and effective citizens as well as civic and public affairs activists.

Christopher M. Hulburt ’22, valedictorian of the Class of 2022 at Virginia Military Institute, spoke during commencement, of what brought his fellow cadets and himself to VMI, and what kept them at VMI, and the importance of attributes like honor, duty, excellence, and integrity.

Christopher Hulburt ’22 researched contributions of 19th Century African-Americans at VMI in senior thesis “Unearthed Contributors: African-Americans at Virginia Military Institute, 1839-1851.”

This year's Honors Week showcased research and scholarship across all disciplines by 34 cadets who presented their research to the wider VMI community. The annual event also saw a large number of cadets inducted into academic honor societies.

In his senior thesis “Unearthed Contributors: African-Americans at Virginia Military Institute, 1839-1851,” Christopher M. Hulbert ’22 argues that enslaved African-Americans and free people of color in Rockbridge County were equally influential as Smith and Preston.

Has the Army improved since the Vietnam war? Has it acknowledged and corrected the mistakes made? Michael M. Hoffmann ’22, who commands the 1st Battalion within the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Military Institute, believes it has and defended his thesis during Honors Week.

Fourteen 1st Class cadets got a taste of life in southeast Europe as they traveled to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina over spring furlough. The trip was sponsored by the Olmsted Foundation, an organization that provides cultural immersion opportunities for cadets planning careers in the military.

Maj. Sarah Patterson and Maj. Blain Patterson from the Department of Applied Mathematics had the privilege of accompanying 11 cadets as they presented their research on a variety of topics, ranging from identifying glycans with neural networks to women in counterterrorism.

Every picture tells a story, and this picture from an alumni reunion this fall depicts the VMI legacy of the McCown family. Originally from Lexington, Virginia, members of the McCown family have attended VMI since the 1920s.

Her senior year of high school, Claire Lee '22 attended an open house to see what post was like, and as she put it, “The parade really got me. I fell in love with the whole system of VMI: the brotherhood, the discipline people are required to learn, the structure."