2 Are First Female Graduates of VMI

Virginia Military Institute handed diplomas to two women, the first time in the school’s 160-year history that females have graduated. Female cadets shouted when Chih-Yuan Ho became the first woman to earn a VMI degree. Later in the ceremony in Lexington, Va., Melissa Kay Graham also graduated to cheers. Ho, 23, and Graham, 21, entered VMI in August 1997 as transfer students along with 28 other women who were freshmen. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1996 that the state-run school’s all-male admissions policy was unconstitutional.