An Evolving Global Scholars Experience
By Capt. Jamie McGrath '90, U. S. Navy (retired), Director, Major General W. Thomas Rice Center for Leader Development
Last year, the Rice Center for Leader Development assumed responsibility for the Corps’ Global Scholars Program. While a daunting task to carry on the decade-old legacy of Global Scholars, I was excited to lead the 2025 Global Scholars cohort to Normandy again and experience their excitement as they walked the ground where the Bedford Boys came ashore, where 1st Lt. Jimmie Monteith Jr. earned his Medal of Honor, and visit his final resting place among the white marble crosses of the Normandy-American Cemetery.
As in past years, the program selected two dozen cadets who spent the spring semester studying the planning and execution of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Northern France, from both Allied and German perspectives. Cadets learned and briefed the class on key leaders across a spectrum of roles, from the strategic to the tactical, gaining perspective on leadership under the stress of combat. We also took time to compare the circumstances of World War II with today and how the students might take lessons from Normandy and apply them to their own leadership development.
In addition to the standard itinerary, which included stops at places such as Pegasus Bridge, Omaha and Utah beaches, Pointe du Hoc, Sainte-Mère-Église, the Falaise Gap, and several cemeteries, including the Bayeux War Cemetery, each group got to experience a unique element unlike those of other cohorts who went before. Our first group met with Corps alum, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Eleanor Franc ’19, who was leading a recovery team from the Defense POW/MIA Accountability Office to recover the remains of three airmen who were lost when their C-47 crashed early in the morning of June 6, 1944 in the countryside outside of Sainte-Mère-Église.
Our second group had the honor of spending their day on and around Omaha Beach with one of Monteith’s relative, Anna Huth. The Huths joined us early that morning as we explored the battlefield where Monteith was killed, other parts of Omaha beach, and eventually ended at the Normandy American Cemetery, where we visited his grave together. These meaningful activities make our Global Scholars program successful and memorable for our cadet-scholars.
Global Scholar cadets also give back to the Corps by supporting the annual first-year cadet visit to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, which is another Corps program that now falls under the Rice Center. This was the fifteenth year that our new cadets have traveled to the memorial. The Global Scholars rode with the new cadets, sharing their experience in France and the important connections between the valor of those who fought and died in Normandy and the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.
As I write this, we have just completed selecting the cadets for the 2026 Global Scholars cohort, and we are excited to again have an incredible group of cadet-scholars to join the program. One of this year’s groups will start their journey in England and experience crossing the English Channel from Portsmouth to Normandy. The other group will get a chance to visit Belleau Wood, west of Paris, where our own alumnus, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Lloyd Williams, Class of 1907, famously exclaimed, “Retreat, Hell, we just got here.”
The Global Scholars program is a flagship activity in our effort to develop leaders who are prepared to lead and trusted to serve. And this fall, we are pleased to add the Olmsted Foundation as a partner in the Global Scholars program. Starting with the 2026 cohort, Olmsted Foundation funds will support seven contracted ROTC cadets’ travel to France to walk the grounds and experience the culture. This partnership will also help facilitate an expansion of the Global Scholars program to former conflict zones in Asia as we aim to alternate between European and Asian travel in the coming years.