LEXINGTON, Va. Sept. 29, 2023 — Louis Wiltenmuth ’25, a mechanical engineering major, wanted to get ahead in classes this past summer, while also gaining some cultural experience. What started as a study abroad experience in Rome, turned into him becoming the cadet in charge of the program.  

It took a simple question to Patricia Hardin, associate director in global education, on how to attain bus passes for her to hand off the torch of communication to him. 

 “I made the mistake of asking the question, ‘How are you going to get them to us?’ and she says you're in charge,” he said. “I would make sure that everyone knew what was happening for upcoming classes, specifically the global engineering [classes] because for that class we did a lot of excursions out to cultural sites.” 

Patricia Hardin said the cadet in charge position depends on the program and program director. Col. Jon-Michael Hardin, professor and head of the mechanical engineering department, hadn’t had a designated cadet in charge for his summer study abroad program in Rome.  

“It’s always helpful to have a cadet in charge so that they can assist with crowd management,” Patricia Hardin said. “Cadet Wiltenmuth’s role as the cadet-in charge evolved naturally at the beginning of the Rome engineering study abroad program.”  

Wiltenmuth became the key point of contact when it came to the program. He decided he’d make it a little bit more fun, rather than just passing messages along. Instead, he turned the correspondence to the VMI Rome News Station.  

“We went to Pompeii, the Vatican Museum, the Colosseum, and a lot of other places that we would all need to meet up at a certain time so we could catch a shuttle that we had scheduled,” he said.  

The correspondence he did was an effort to create coordination between the other cadets participating in the five-week program. His “radio program” was actually messages sent to them through GroupMe, a chat application that can be used on your smartphone.  

He started each “broadcast” with “Good evening and welcome back to your VMI Rome News Station” followed by a rundown of the day's events and upcoming excursions. 

“If we went to any cultural site that day I tried to end each message each night with a different fun fact or a different way to call Rome. So usually somewhere in the last paragraph, it would go like this, ‘and that is all for this evening's news. Thank you once again for joining us. We hope you enjoy your stay here in the Eternal City of 1,000 fountains.”  

He would send out a message each day from Sunday until Thursday.  

“Sometimes the messages were a lot longer than others. But what helped was the Hardins had given us a schedule of roughly when we would go to our excursions or cultural sites. I would republish that … and I would put more information out as I got it,” he said.  

Patricia Hardin said the way Wiltenmuth disseminated information was effective, yet creative. It was also a way for someone to learn leadership skills — something Wiltenmuth did successfully.  

“I believe this approach was effective since the information came from one cadet to the other cadet participants, rather than from a professor to cadet participants,” she said. “I also believe that Cadet Wiltenmuth’s way of imparting the information provided cadets with something to look forward to every evening.”  

As the co-program director of the VMI Engineering Summer Study Abroad program, Patricia Hardin tries to get to know each cadet participant in order to learn their strengths and talents, and then provide an outlet for them. 

“Wiltenmuth has a knack for telling stories and disseminating information in a very creative way, so I nurtured his talent and provided him with the opportunity to hone in on his talent,” she said. 

Laura Peters Shapiro
Photos submitted by Cadet Louis Wiltenmuth ’25
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE