How to Be Successful at the Virginia Military Institute


Book Description

Maybe you've already been accepted to VMI and you're starting to prepare. Maybe you're still waiting to hear back and want to be ahead of the game. Or maybe you're still considering VMI as a college option! In this guide, Colin Smith, Class of 2019, reveals everything that played into his success at VMI, identifying the big issues cadets encounter, and providing insight on how to work through those tough situations.




Virginia Military Institute


Book Description

In 1839, the Virginia Military Institute became the nation's first state-sponsored military college when the state arsenal in Lexington, Virginia, adopted an additional duty providing a college education to a small group of cadets. This humble experiment became the nation's model for educating the citizen-soldier. Today cadets live a military lifestyle while pursuing an undergraduate degree and may choose to accept a commission in any branch of the armed forces upon graduation. Noted alumni include Pony Express organizer Ben Ficklin (1849), Nobel Peace Prize recipient Gen. George Marshall (1901), Polar explorer Adm. Richard Byrd (1908), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark (1921), and actor Dabney Coleman (1957). Numbered among the alumni are over 260 general officers, 13 Rhodes Scholars, and a saint in the Episcopal Church. The Post, as the campus is called, is a National Historic District with its distinctive Gothic Revival architecture surrounding the central parade ground.




Twisted Tales from VMI


Book Description

Praise for Twisted Tales from VMI "I laughed till I stopped " Dave Hagemann, '80 "Me, too." John Cooper, '83 "Written proof my roommate was in serious need of some psychiatric help." Matt Waring, '83 "The funniest thing I have read since the last funny thing I read." Tom Hathaway, '72 "That boy is nuttier than pecan pie " Lynn Seldon, '83, author Virginia's Ring "I'm now convinced my Brother Rat was dropped on his head as a youngster - many, many times." Scott Belliveau, '83...




Breaking Out


Book Description

On July 26, 1996, the United States Supreme Court nullified the single-sex admissions policy of the Virginia Military Institute, the last all-male military college in America. Capturing the voices of female and male cadets, administrators, faculty, and alumni, Laura Brodie tells the story of the Institute's intense planning for the inclusion of women and the problems and triumphs of the first year of coeducation. Brodie takes us into the meetings where every aspect of life at VMI was analyzed from the per-spective of a woman's presence: housing, clothing, haircuts, dating, and the infamous "Ratline"—the months of physical exertion, minimal sleep, and verbal harassment to which entering cadets are subjected. Throughout the process the administration's aim was to integrate women successfully without making adjustments to VMI's physical standards or giving up its tradition of education under extreme stress. No other military college had done so much to prepare. But would it work? With everyone on the Post, we hold our breath as Brodie takes us through Hell Night, the unrelenting months of the Ratline, the fraternization, hazing, and authority issues that arose, the furtive sexual encounters, the resentments and, for the women, the daily difficulties of maintaining a feminine identity in a predominantly male world. Despite the challenges, we see the women ultimately making a place for themselves. Though new problems continue to arise, Brodie's lively and inspiring account makes it clear that VMI's story is an important and timely one of institutional transformation.




Ghost Cadet


Book Description

Twelve-year-old Benjy, in Virginia visiting his grandmother, meets the ghost of a Virginia Military Institute cadet who was killed in the Battle of New Market in 1864 and helps him recover his family's treasured gold watch.







United States V. Virginia


Book Description

Presents information about the Supreme Court case which questioned the Virginia Military Institute's male-only policy and which refueled the debate regarding private, single-gender schools.










Handbook of Research on Character and Leadership Development in Military Schools


Book Description

Military academies have served youth for more than a century with proud traditions of producing graduates who are scholars, leaders, and athletes who adhere to a code of honor and ethical principles as they take the knowledge, skills, and dispositions gained at those academies into higher education, the business world, military service, civic endeavors, and the broader workforce. There is a current gap and need for research that explores the various components of a K-20 military school/college education and how those components successfully produce leaders of character for our military, civic, academic, and business worlds both in the United States and abroad. The Handbook of Research on Character and Leadership Development in Military Schools synthesizes research on the impact of military academies by providing a singular compendium of current academic studies on the graduates of military academies and the communities of which they enter after graduation. The chapters will explore the academics, leadership, character development, citizenship, athletics, and other dimensions of both global and national, and both private and public, military academies. This book is ideal for current leaders, staffs, governing board members, and alumni of military academies both in the United States and internationally along with policymakers, government officials, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the implications of character and leadership development on individuals enrolled in or graduated from military schools.