Anna Yemelianova ’25, an international studies major at Virginia Military Institute, has been named a fellow in the Iris Burton Bulls Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) Fellowship Program.

Antonio Ahanj ’24, an international studies major at Virginia Military Institute, has been awarded a Boren Scholarship to study Arabic in Jordan during the 2023-24 academic year in the Middle East: Jordan in Amman.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin has appointed Col. James Inman ’86, Lt. Col. Jim Joustra ’76, Rear Adm. Terence McKnight ’78, and Nancy Williams Phillips to four-year terms on the VMI Board of Visitors.

Capt. John E. “Ned” Riester Jr. ’78, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Virginia Military Institute, is retiring after 29 years.

Michael Piemonte ’16, an alumnus who majored in international studies and commissioned into the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award in international relations to Italy for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Virginia Military Institute has been rated a 4.5-star college in Money magazine’s Best Colleges in America list for 2023, just released today. Using a new system this year, Money assigns colleges a rating on a five-star scale, with five stars being the best. 

Col. Ryan R. Holston, professor in the Department of International Studies and Political Science and the Jonathan M. Daniels ’61 Chair for Academic Excellence recently published his first book titled, “Tradition and the Deliberative Turn: A Critique of Contemporary Democratic Theory.”

After over 40 years of service, support and leadership in information technology at the Institute, Col. Wes Robinson, chief information officer, is retiring.

Virginia Military Institute welcomes Dr. Melissa S. Krawiec (née Williams) ’01, as the new Institute physician, 25 years after she signed the matriculation book August 19, 1997, as a member of the first coeducational class.

Col. Robert “Bob” Phillips ’87, chaplain at Virginia Military Institute, is retiring after seven years of encouraging the development of interpersonal faith, and providing spiritual and emotional guidance to the Corps of Cadets.