Armstrong ’25: “Pressure Makes Diamonds”

“Pressure makes diamonds.”
That’s how Cadet Eleyah Armstrong ’25, Keydet track and field star and team captain, describes her perspective on VMI cadetship. The psychology major from Hampton, Virginia, who plans to commission into the U.S. Army, has thrived under the challenges of the Institute and credits them for the bright future ahead of her.

Armstrong, the first of her siblings to attend college and the first of her family to attend VMI, received offers from many different schools, but something stuck out about VMI: The support it offered her and the challenge. “I chose VMI because VMI chose me,” she said. “I decided that I wanted to sacrifice now versus later and think about the opportunities that life will have after college.”

In balancing the demands of academics, practices, cadetship, and ROTC, the going can get tough quickly, but giving up on VMI was never an option for Armstrong. While she never thought about leaving VMI, she wondered how she would get through during the Rat Line. But Armstong prevailed. “I don’t really have a quitter mindset—I like challenges. I like to be pushed. Pressure makes diamonds … I always knew I was going to be here to the end,’ she said.

Spring of Armstrong’s 3rd Class year brought Armstrong’s “light bulb moment” when her perspective shifted from the Rat Line mentality of making it through the day-to-day to looking toward the future and utilizing all the opportunities VMI has to offer. She began to take advantage of the resources available to her, and, in return, Armstrong’s whole cadetship was enriched.

“The population is small here, so I get a lot of intimate relationships with my teachers as far as I can go visit them in the office. They have open-door policies. I can ask questions. They know who I am. I know who they are. I have the Miller Academic Center. We have the Writing Center. We have CADO [Cadet-Athlete Development Office] for student-athletes. I have my BRS that’s peer tutors,” said Armstrong.

All the while, Armstrong has continually excelled on the track. She was named Southern Conference Female Most Outstanding Athlete in 2023 as a 3rd Class cadet and SoCon Female Field Athlete of the Month in May 2024. And she continues to break school records, including the 100-meter record last year.

Being a cadet-athlete isn’t without its unique challenges of keeping up with the demands of ROTC and cadetship. “Being a cadet-athlete is definitely harder than being just a regular student athlete because we have to balance the physical portion of the military waking up every morning,” said Armstrong. “But when you leave here, you’re going to know how to balance things better than anybody because you’ve done the hard part.”

Armstrong says the other key to her success has been the alumni network who have supported her throughout her cadetship and on the track. She recalled being moved by alumni watching her from the bleachers at the indoor conference championship and them introducing themselves and connecting with her after her race.

As an athletic scholarship recipient, Armstrong feels honored by the encouragement of the alumni investing in her future. She describes the financial relief of her scholarship as being “a weight off her shoulders” but also a major motivator. “[The scholarship] gave me the mindset that I still need to work hard because of other people around me who do not get the same opportunity as me. So, I need to take advantage of this opportunity and give it all I got, academically, physically, and mentally, all three stools.”

To Armstrong, embodying the pillars of VMI’s Three-Legged Stool—athletic, academics, and military/leadership—means “being strong in the classroom, which encourages me to be strong on a track, which encourages me to be strong on a hill, and causes me to be strong down in ROTC, so they all balance out,” she said.

Upon graduating, Armstrong will commission into the Army—a vocation she felt called to because of VMI—and from there, she knows her future is promising in the military and beyond. “I feel like VMI has prepared me for anything that comes to me; I feel like I can handle any problem that comes my way … I’m going to be able to know how to handle it either way,” Armstrong stated.