D’Ambrosia ’26: “1,000% the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made”

Just weeks before she was to begin her 1st Class year at VMI, Cadet Skyleigh D’Ambrosia ’26, a first-generation college student, got devastating news: There wasn’t enough money to pay her out-of-state tuition bill.

A native of Massachusetts and the child of a single mother, D’Ambrosia had been able to cobble together enough funds in years past, but in summer 2025, the money had run dry, and D’Ambrosia faced the very real possibility of having to leave the Institute, a place she’d come to love. Scared and unsure what steps to take, she confided in a small handful of people on post she’d come to trust, and they encouraged her to speak with the staff at the Office of Financial Aid. Soon, she headed down Letcher Avenue to the financial aid office, dread building with each step because she feared a judgmental reaction.

What happened next was the exact opposite. “They let me cry,” she related. “It was very emotional. It was a really high-stress environment. And they were just like, ‘What we want you to worry about right now is this: You’re about to start Cadre Week, and you’re about to start prepping for when rats show up soon. Worry about that. We’ll take care of the rest.’ And that is exactly what happened. And that was probably one of the most miraculous moments of my life.”

With financial worries lifted almost by magic, D’Ambrosia dried her tears of relief and plunged into her 1st Class year with confidence, picking up with an array of activities that would exhaust anyone. This year, she’s a lieutenant on the S5 (public relations) staff, a member of the cadet EMT staff in charge of the 2nd Battalion EMTs, a cadet chaplain, and the cadet-in-charge of the VMI Alumni Agencies’ cadet call center, where cadets are charged with making outreach phone calls to alumni. A biology major who wears academic stars, she’s fallen in love with research under the mentorship of Col. Ashleigh Smythe, Ph.D., Department of Biology head, and plans to go to graduate school in that field.

As an incoming rat, she’d chosen a biology major because she thought medicine might be her calling but instead found her niche working with parasites and other invertebrates in Smythe’s lab over the summer.

“I loved being in a lab every day. I loved running trials. I loved messing with all the stuff and keeping the colonies happy because we raised a lot of colonies of bugs. And it just kind of clicked in my head. … This is what I could do for the rest of my life. And I think a lot of [cadets] have that experience with whatever on the hill is their thing, whether it’s military or academics or some kind of profession or sport.”

Coming out of high school, D’Ambrosia knew she wanted something different than what her peers would be experiencing, and thanks to an uncle who’d served in the military, she thought a military college might be her best fit. She considered both VMI and another senior military college, and an overnight stay in barracks confirmed that the Institute was the place for her.

“When I was in the room … it was a very filled room with a lot of people in it, and I loved the way everybody talked with each other, and I loved all the friendships I was seeing, even though everybody was still a rat,” she remembered. “I loved the camaraderie, and I just remember leaving [post], and I was like, that is what I want from my college experience.”

Once she matriculated and began the Rat Line, D’Ambrosia found that the brother rat spirit begins early and sustains rats on even their toughest days.

“I had two rat roommates, and I got to know them very well during Matriculation Week, and the first Sunday we were here, so the day after we matriculated, we went to service, and it had been the first time I’d been to church in a very long time,” D’Ambrosia recounted. “And after the service, my roommate looked at me, and … was like, ‘I know you’re supposed to be here, and I know I’m supposed to be here, so please don’t leave, because I need you to hold on so I can hold on.’ And the whole rest of the week, that’s all I thought about.”

That feeling of mutual dependence sustained D’Ambrosia through the Rat Line, even though, as a self-described klutz, she struggled to acclimate to VMI’s culture, which was so different from the laidback, non-military environment she’d grown up in. “I love to tell people, VMI teaches you how to fail very gracefully,” she noted. “It was a mess at first, but I really did figure it out, and I’m really proud that I’ve been able to pull off [academic] stars. It’s like the biggest achievement ever.”

Today, D’Ambrosia strives to give back by uplifting others, just as she was once uplifted, and she sees this as related to her S5 role, which involves new cadet recruitment. Retention, too, is just as important, she believes. It’s a lesson she’s learned from personal experience.

“The middle part of my cadetship, 3rd and 2nd Class years, was a little bit of a rough patch for me,” she said. “I had just gotten rank, and I was kind of figuring out how to balance everything at VMI, and I was far from home, and it’s sometimes hard to deal with all that stuff on top of it, and I stayed [at VMI] because when I fell into that deep hole, it was my brother rats who pulled me out, and really, who kind of surrounded me with the support I needed,” she stated.

“It was probably the first time I realized … VMI teaches you how to fail, but it’s the people from VMI who are the first people to pull you back up and say, ‘No, you’re going to keep walking.’ And they give you the nice push, and they dust off your nice whites, and they send you on your way.”

As she prepares to head home for the holiday season, D’Ambrosia is filled with gratitude not only for her brother rats, professors, and the VMI staff who’ve helped her continue her cadetship, but also for the generous alumni working quietly behind the scenes to make sure she and others like her can complete their cadetships. Having met some of these individuals at the Institute Society Dinner, the VMI Foundation’s annual celebration of alumni whose leading support does so much for the Institute and Corps of Cadets, D’Ambrosia is in awe of their philanthropy and has set a goal to emulate their example by giving back to VMI herself someday.

“If those people didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be here right now, and a lot of my BRs probably wouldn’t be here right now, and the Corps would look a whole lot different because people from all walks of life get to come to VMI, and it’s that support that brings those kinds of people here,” she stated. “I think it’s absolutely wonderful.”

Occasionally, D’Ambrosia will think about the simple things—like a quick run for fast food—that would be so much easier if she’d chosen a civilian college, but that thought is quickly replaced by thankfulness for all the Institute has given her.

“I am so happy—easily, 1,000% the best decision I’ve ever made was coming to VMI,” she commented. “I can’t imagine myself anywhere else. I see the person who I’m becoming, and I see the people I’ve surrounded myself with, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”