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cadets to attend the oldest state supported military college in the nation.
Greg Weaver now serves the State of North Carolina as Telecommunications Specialists in the Courts Service Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts. After going through four years of military, academic and athletic training together the VMI cadets hold a pretty tight bond. Hearing of a newly created program to use the influence of the historic college to help inner-city kids, Greg jumped at the opportunity. COW or College Orientation Workshops is a 4-week program to introduce these rising juniors and seniors in high school to a new part of life, the discipline of a military school.
Created by the VMI Foundation, the program accommodates approximately forty students per year. At first they are treated like the world famous "Rats" or "Rat line", as the newly arrived first year cadets are known at the school. Then care is taken to build academic and self-confidence as the program progresses. Each student is required to hike up a mountain, paddle a canoe and learn other confidence building skills.
This year Weaver invited two role models from the Raleigh/Durham area to participate in the program and speak to the students. Traveling to the campus in Lexington, Virginia were Raleigh News and Observer columnist Barry
Saunders who told the kids of his rise from a tough background to newspaper reporter and book
author. Also attending the sessions was Durham Public Defender Bob Brown who spoke of the court system and how he had seen so many tragic cases of young black men come before the courts.
"You have to start somewhere to make changes in today's society," said Weaver,"
and I am so proud that we can use a school that has done so much for me and use it to reach out to youngsters needing a little extra confidence and attention"
The Virginia Military Institute program is expanding each year and even hopes to include young women next year.
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