Brinkley ’27: “The Alumni Are Behind Us”

“Between the brother rat spirit and the honor system here, this place is untouchable.”

That’s what Cadet Adam Brinkley ’27 has to say about why he’s glad he chose VMI. Brinkley, who’s from Midlothian, Virginia, came to VMI because of his interest in serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, and as one of four siblings from a single-parent household, he’s extremely grateful for the multiple scholarships that have enabled him to attend the Institute.

During his senior year of high school, finances weighed heavily on Brinkley’s mind. With limited resources and no college savings, he wavered between enlisting in the military and trying to find enough scholarships and loans to pay for college. Reassured by what he’d heard at a VMI open house about scholarships and financial aid, he sent in his application to the Institute.

Several weeks later, overwhelmingly good news arrived. “I remember getting this email. … I just remember looking at it, and then looking at my mom, and then looking at it again, and then sliding my mom my phone, and being like, is this real?” Brinkley recalled. “She was in shock, too. … I didn’t believe it at first, either, that I had, I think, 85% of my tuition or something like that covered for rat year.”

At first, Brinkley was just excited about being able to attend VMI—he didn’t realize that the scholarships are given by generous individuals invested in cadet success. During his 3rd Class year, he attended the VMI Foundation Scholarship Banquet, and it was there he realized there were real people behind those dollars.

“I kind of walked in shy [to the scholarship banquet],” he commented. “I walked in with a few of my BRs, and we all just kind of looked around at each other—none of us had ever been to it before.”

Then, Brinkley found his assigned table and met his donors. “They were just so excited and happy to see a cadet reaping the benefits of what they’d given,” he said. “They just wanted to talk about my experience and learn about me. It was very personable, and I really enjoyed that. That really helped me realize this is a family choosing to give up some of their income to help somebody they don’t even know anything about attend VMI, just because they believe in the mission of VMI.”

For Brinkley, feeling the bonds of the alumni network has been instrumental. “Knowing that the alumni are behind us is what kind of makes VMI, VMI,” he stated. “The alumni know how difficult it is to push through academically and physically—the mental toughness it takes to go through this. And I think knowing, too, they were supported by their alumni makes them want to contribute to the current Corps of Cadets.”

With financial worries lifted, Brinkley has been able to plunge headlong into his cadetship. Academically, he’s an English major with concentrations in rhetoric and writing and literary studies, plus a leadership minor. This year, he’s on the S7 staff (cadet life) and serves as a cadet lifeguard. In previous years, he’s been a member of both the club climbing and club lacrosse teams.

But finding his place at VMI hasn’t come without challenges. Thanks to a pulled ligament during Matriculation Week, he wound up sitting out many traditional Rat Line activities, and there were moments when he thought the Institute wasn’t for him. “I was thinking a lot about quitting during that time, but my dyke … kept pushing me forward,” he related. Family support did, too, and he thought about the example he was setting for his younger sister. “Being that role model for my little sister, to push through and do well in the face of adversity, is kind of what keeps me going,” he stated.

Looking back, Brinkley can see a lot of growth since his rat year, much of which has come from overcoming adversity. “I was very ambitious, and I would still say I’m very ambitious,” he said. “And I think VMI amplified that ambition just because of the amount of stuff you can do here and the access you have to different things if you take advantage of it. But from rat year, I would say I didn’t have the mental toughness that I have now. I was very closed-minded and thought about quitting a lot and thought I wasn’t good enough or couldn’t make it, and now, being a 2nd [Class cadet], it’s like, I’ve done all these hard things before. That means I can just take on this one more hard thing and overcome that obstacle.”

Looking around at his brother rats, Brinkley senses a unifying spirit that encompasses the Corps. “Deep down, everybody is happy to be here, just maybe not in that exact moment because something they’re doing is probably a burden or annoying or inconvenient,” he said. “But I think those inconveniences are what set us up for great success after VMI. We’re so used to go, go, go, go, go, and being adaptable and just going with the flow that challenges and that kind of pressure don’t crumble us. We just push through that.”

At graduation, Brinkley plans to commission into the U.S. Navy and serve in that military branch before eventually transferring to the Coast Guard.