Meet the New Corps Leadership

Meet the Leadership

Brian Pritchard ’25 | Elijah Alberti ’25 

Brian Pritchard ’25, Regimental Commander

“I have an opportunity to actually make a difference for other people, and so it’s exciting.” That’s what Cadet Brian Pritchard ’25, the 2024–25 regimental commander, has to say about being chosen to lead the Corps of Cadets. Pritchard, an English major from Thornton, Colorado, plans to commission into the U.S. Marine Corps.

With a lifelong desire to serve in the military and a special attraction to the Marine Corps, Pritchard decided to attend Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, for high school. When a fellow Marine Military graduate matriculated at VMI and later told Pritchard, “Oh, it’s hard!” Pritchard knew he’d found his school.

“I chose to come to VMI because of the challenge,” said Pritchard, a recipient of a four-year Marine Corps scholarship. “I wanted to do something harder.”

After taking a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pritchard matriculated at VMI in August 2021, over a year after his first very brief visit to post for an admissions open house in early March 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

Even on the worst days in the Rat Line, Pritchard never thought about abandoning the uncommon path he’d chosen. “There were a few times in the Rat Line [when] I wanted to enlist, but it was either VMI or that was it,” he stated. “I didn’t want to go to any other school.”

During his cadetship, Pritchard has been a member of both the club ice hockey team and the jiu-jitsu club. He’s been deepening his academic interests, earning concentrations in art history and visual culture, literary studies, and rhetoric and writing, all of which are offered through the Department of English, Rhetoric, and Humanistic Studies, and he’s been climbing through the leadership ranks in Company I.

Pritchard credits VMI with instilling a structure and discipline that will serve as the basis of his future Marine Corps career. “There’s a lot of things in life that nobody wants to do, but we still have to do them,” he commented. “I think VMI is giving that structure—it makes you more disciplined, doing the little things, shaving every day, shining your brass and your shoes, and making sure your uniform actually looks good. I think those little things build discipline.”

In spring 2024, just a few weeks after being named regimental commander for the upcoming academic year, Pritchard outlined his plans for leading the Corps. “I’m looking forward to being regimental commander because I’m not doing it for a resume or for anything else,” he stated. “I’m doing it so I can actually serve the people here and work for the Corps and help them. That’s how I see the position—I’m there for them and there to help them, the entire Corps, whether it be to go to bat for them at different things or explain why certain things are happening.”

Pritchard also wants to increase the Corps’ esprit de corps and pride in the Institute, as VMI’s cohesiveness is one of its biggest strengths. “You’re all in it together,” he said. “You’re all doing the same things. Nobody’s really above anybody.”

He believes the Rat Line effectively introduces that concept from the moment new cadets march into the barracks to meet their cadre. “Everyone’s coming from all different places, but then the second you get taken into barracks, what you’ve done and where you come from—nobody cares. You’re all on the same playing field. … It’s what you do here that matters. You can build yourself up from here: It’s a new start.”

And just before he departed post for the summer furlough, Pritchard was anticipating his own new start as the Corps of Cadets’ servant leader, setting the standard for all cadets. “I’m very excited to lead my peers and just work for them, to serve them in any way that I can, and help them.”

Elijah Alberti ’25, Honor Court President

Cadet Elijah Alberti ’25 came to VMI as a first-generation college student seeking a U.S. Marine Corps commission. He’s on track to fulfill his goals of graduating and commissioning—and this year, he’ll fill a revered role, as well: Honor Court president.

“Being elected as the Honor Court president was very humbling,” said Alberti, an international studies major with a Chinese minor who’s a member of VMI’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu club. He was first elected to the court in the spring of his 3rd Class year and named an assistant prosecutor in the spring of his 2nd Class year. Today, Alberti can remember his surprise when he was elected as a guardian of something fundamental to the cadet experience ever since the Institute’s founding.

“I was excited and a little bit surprised to think that I was associated with something that so many cadets hold dear,” he stated. “I was definitely surprised because I look up to a lot of my own BRs and kind of have reverence for them myself, so to think that they associate with me with something like that is pretty impressive.”

As a 1st Class cadet, Alberti can look back on his rat self and see an evolution, especially regarding honor at VMI.  “As a rat, it’s kind of this almost ethereal thing that kind of hangs over everyone, and everyone subscribes to it, and it’s what we hold dear,” he said. “But I viewed those [cadets] on the Honor Court then as giants, and to think that myself and my other peers on the Honor Court get to fulfill those roles and kind of lead in a different way through the Honor Court is really special. It’s something I’m excited to do.”

Immediately after being elected Honor Court president in spring 2024, Alberti set a goal of educating the Corps. “I think that’s the Honor Court’s main effort in all facets, from the president down to assistant prosecutors,” he stated. “I think education is the primary reason why we do what we do and educating the Corps on different facets of the honor system, and not just the processes, but carrying the spirit of the honor code into their daily lives, and not just here while they’re at VMI, but something that they can take on into their careers.”

Education, he believes, is the most important job the Honor Court has. “It’s a court-wide effort, and then I’d say below that, it’s a Corps-wide effort because it’s the responsibility of the dykes to educate the rats, and then the 2nds to educate the rats, and it’s just a trickle-down system that works its way down from the Honor Court,” Alberti explained.

And according to Alberti, that trickle-down system is working as intended. “I would say that the current state of the Honor Code is very strong,” he stated. “It’s just as strong as it’s ever been. … I think what you’ll find is that cadets are abiding and living by the Honor Cade. Those tenets of being honest and having integrity are just as prevalent as they were 30 to 40 years ago.”

Growing up, Alberti didn’t know anyone who’d been to VMI, but he was aware of the Institute, and because he’d always wanted to be a Marine, VMI was a natural fit. His grandfather, whom Alberti describes as “the biggest VMI fan, other than myself,” served in the Marine Corps, and in a wonderful coincidence, Alberti’s acceptance letter to the Institute arrived in the mail on the same day as his grandfather’s retirement party.

“To be able to show that to him on the day that he retired was a really proud moment for me,” Alberti noted. “It was a pretty emotional moment for both of us, just because of how big it was just to be able to go to college, and then something as unique as VMI was even bigger.”

Coming to VMI, Alberti was “taken aback by the initial experiences” during the Rat Line, but the thought of leaving never crossed his mind. As the oldest of seven siblings, he also knew that he needed to set an example for his younger brothers and sisters.

“I stuck it out because I knew the end result would be much better,” Alberti said. “I wanted to be a part of this thing that everyone else was a part of, and going through the Rat Line and seeing what everyone else has accomplished prior to me, I think, was a big reason for me sticking it out, especially through those first 5 to 6 months. … You have your BRs to push you through.”

In May 2025, Alberti will complete his cadetship—and, hopefully, commission as a Marine Corps officer. “I look forward to that day, specifically, like seeing my BRs [and] how far we’ve come, and then that final moment of knowing I completed a journey that’s … revered by so many,” he said. “I think that’ll be a really special moment for [me].”