JENNIFER BOENSCH
Virginia Beach

"I'm just the little goofy one," said the 5-foot-2 psychology major, who managed to escape press coverage for almost her entire four years at VMI.

Only 17 when she enrolled, she was "kind of blind" to the media attention she and her classmates would face. "I didn't know it was that big of a deal."

But she was well-known among her classmates as the diminutive but tolerant rat who senior mentors would stuff into a wall locker or dangle out of their barracks window.

"I was a heat shield for my company," she said. Because she laughs when she gets nervous, she often drew the fire of the training cadre away from her cohorts.

Boensch, 21, made the dean's list, served on the cadet counseling staff and studied abroad at Oxford University.

After graduation she'll head home to Tidewater, where she'll be an account representative for Bradley-Morris Inc., a post-military job placement firm.