Freitas ’25: “Be Where Your Feet Are”

“Be where your feet are.” That’s what Cadet Julie Freitas ’25 says her parents always told her about the importance of staying focused and grounded in the moment. Today, with graduation just months away, Freitas is glad that her feet are on post.

A first-generation college student from a Brazilian family who’s now the captain of the Institute’s NCAA women’s track and field team, Freitas found VMI through her high school coach, Eugene “Gene” Scott Jr. ’80, now a former VMI Board of Visitors member. From freshman year on, Scott suggested that Freitas consider the Institute, but at first, she wasn’t sure if a military school would be her best fit.

“Then Covid hit, and I really started thinking about my future, and, thinking about what could really set me up, since Covid kind of set everyone back,” she noted. “And then ultimately, I just decided … I can start working out this summer and see if I can make it through, specifically the Rat Line.” She’d considered other schools, including the large public university her sister attended, but in the end, the power of the VMI network and the Institute’s vaunted discipline drew her in.

In August 2021, Freitas found herself in Cameron Hall alongside hundreds of other matriculants. “When I was sitting in the stands, I was really excited, but when they called us down, it was like, ‘OK, there’s no turning back.’ And I’m proud of myself for coming down,” she recalled. Going into New Barracks for the first time, Freitas had the same feeling of shock as every other rat, but she realized that her experience was far from unique. “So it was definitely a culture shock, but that’s every opportunity,” Freitas commented. “It goes back to how my parents raised me … you’re here for a reason.”

Freitas has found plenty of reasons to stay at VMI—among them, the accountability of mandatory class attendance and the necessity of strict time management to accomplish all her goals. “The challenges here are much more valuable and worthwhile because you’re getting so much more out of your day than at another college,” she stated. “You wake up early here, but we get so much done before everybody else.”

Freitas is majoring in international studies and political science with a minor in Spanish. Thanks to her fluency in multiple languages—Freitas speaks Portuguese and Spanish, as well as English—she’s considering working for a government agency after graduation. But with a mindset of “be where your feet are,” she’s sharply aware that the time to treasure the hours with her brother rats is now.

“It’s the end of an era,” she said. “We’re going to miss these struggles that we face … we’re going to miss all these moments in the day, and I’ve found myself like looking around a lot and just taking it all in, I guess, or just like walking through barracks … to have the privilege to do that and go here, and being able to just wear the uniform, I feel like that’s something that I’m going to really miss.”

She’ll also miss the energy of competition and the pride that comes from representing the Institute as an NCAA athlete. “We get another platform to represent VMI and compete for VMI and win for VMI,” Freitas stated. “So, I love having the spider on my chest when we’re competing and jumping. I feel like the athletes are all very supportive of each other, and the Corps is so supportive of sporting events.”

Engagement with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is another aspect of life on post that’s deepened Freitas’ appreciation of her time at VMI. “FCA is a huge part of my cadetship here, and it’s really been one of the biggest blessings because I’ve met so many people [who] just have helped me in my faith to really make it through here, and I feel like that’s one of the biggest things that has helped me push through is my faith,” she related. “And this place gives us so many opportunities to be frustrated or want to give up. But I feel like because of FCA and the growth that I’ve made with my faith here, I wouldn’t have made that at another school because you wouldn’t have the same challenges, and I wouldn’t be able to lean on God as often as I do here.”

As she prepares to complete her cadetship, Freitas is well aware that her VMI experience was made possible by a scholarship, and she’s supremely thankful for that. Today, she treasures the memory of the moment when she learned she’d received the scholarship and knew she’d be able to say “yes” to the Institute.

“I feel like all throughout the college application process, it’s always so stressful because there’s so many schools, and you just don’t know what the right place is for you,” she stated. “But when they told me [about the scholarship], I was like, I want to go there. Because the fact that someone’s going to give me something like that without knowing me, I was like, wow, they have no idea what they’ve just done. And it was definitely a weight off my shoulders and my parents’ shoulders, knowing that their daughter was going to go somewhere that was going to set me up.”