EBONY MCELROY
San Diego, Calif.

As her classmates prepare to leave VMI, McElroy will be on a cross-country trip in the 1988 Mazda she calls "Tomato," headed back to the institute.

She is one of two of the first 30 women to matriculate at VMI who will be left there. She's spent the last year suspended from the school because of poor grades. McElroy, always bubbly, puts a more positive spin on her predicament.

"I'll be the first female fifth-year cadet," she said. The 4-foot-10, self-described "midget" also boasts of being the first VMI woman to suffer a bloody nose in boxing class -- the result of a stiff jab from Megan Smith, who went on to become one of VMI's first female cheerleaders.

McElroy, 24, was "crushed" over having to leave VMI, "but it was really for the good," the transfer student from New Mexico Military Institute said. She had been "too lackadaisical" in her studies, she said.

For the past year, she has shared a house with her two younger sisters and the two young children of one of them. Their mother, a project manager with Lockheed-Martin, was transferred to Washington, D.C. McElroy has the only car, so she has carted everyone around between work for an engineering firm and classes at University of California at San Diego.

"It was like being a single mom," she said.

She missed what proved to be some advantages of military life. People cook and iron for you at VMI. "There's nothing better than a uniform most days . . . you never have to think about what to wear."

McElroy is returning to VMI with more focus and a cash incentive. For every semester she makes the dean's list, her boyfriend will give her $250.