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Kate Taylor, a Virginia Military Institute cadet who is majoring in civil engineering and minoring in Chinese language, was recently presented with the Three-Legged Stool, an award given annually since 2001 by the Keydet Club to the top cadet-athlete who excels academically, militarily and athletically.
Academically, Taylor, who is on track to graduate next year, has maintained a dean’s list cumulative grade point average her entire cadetship. Two years ago, she won the John Bowie Gray 1867 Award for first standing 3rd Class cadet in civil engineering. Last summer, she conducted research titled “A Study of Stagnation: Understanding How Water Stagnation Affects Drinking Water and Artificial Intelligence Systems Can Improve Water Quality” through the Summer Undergraduate Research Institute program, and presented her findings at the WaterJAM 2023 conference in September. Maj. Rebekah Martin, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, admires Taylor’s strong character. “Her work reflects her convictions, beliefs and passion for people and engineering. She is a leader in the classroom, encouraging her classmates to complete their best work and keep an optimistic outlook on life at the institute,” said Martin.
Engineering professor and diving coach, Col. Thomas Timmes (Class of 1992), agrees with Martin’s assessment of Taylor. “Kate has learned how to achieve and sustain a critical balance with her academics, NCAA swimming and corps executive officer leadership role. She looks for opportunities to expand her knowledge beyond the classroom and invests in herself by taking challenging electives,” he said.
Militarily, Taylor has held many regimental leadership roles. As a third-class cadet, she was a supply corporal, the following year she was a supply master sergeant, and this year she is VMI’s first-ever cadet chief of staff , serving as third in command of the corps of cadets. As COS, Taylor is the regimental commander’s principal assistant for directing, coordinating, supervising and training the staff. She frees the RCO from routine details and passes pertinent information and insight from the staff to the RCO and from the RCO to staff. The COS must understand the RCO’s intent, personality and style. “It is an honor to have been selected to fill this role. My initial excitement has shifted to having a profound sense of gratitude and duty. I was drawn to VMI because of the disciplined structure it offers. What has been most rewarding and fascinating to me has been navigating a substantial new role that has no instruction manual,” said Taylor.
Athletically, Taylor was recruited from high school for the VMI women’s swim team, and has competed for the team all four years of her cadetship. According to Scott Thacker, head coach of the women’s swimming team, she is a key contributor to the team. “Kate is a multiple time team record holder. She swam key legs on the 400 freestyle and 200 medley relay team record setting performances at the 2023 America East championships, and ranks fourth all time in program history in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Her love and gratitude of VMI pours out into all she does here on post. Whether you find her leading our team’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle, or in the midst of her duties as chief of staff, or her efforts in the pool, Kate thoroughly sets a standard of excellence that we all can be proud of, and be inspired by,” he said. Taylor won the Female Performance of the Year award, as well as the WORKHORSE award for exceptional attitude and work ethic the 2021-22 swimming and diving season.
In addition, Taylor is a member of the Cadet Superintendent Advisory Board, an esteemed group working with the superintendent to creatively seek to resolve issues to improve everyday life at the Institute. She was elected by her peers to serve on the Student Athletic Advisory Committee as a liaison between athletic staff and cadet counseling to develop a plan to improve and support wellness of cadet- athletes. She served as facilitator at VMI’s 2023 Leadership and Ethics conference, and is a member of the mess hall committee. Last year, she served as chair for the Ring Figure ball. She is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and president of the Society of Women Engineers.
Taylor considers winning the Three-Legged Stool a blessing. “I had to keep pinching myself. It didn’t feel entirely real. It was a great day of celebration. I truly thank my parents for being my support system, their depth of love for me and the support I’ve always felt is something that’s unmatched. My coach as well is someone who has been there for me in a support role, especially as I end my VMI swimming career,” she said.
Taylor is from Newton, Mass., and graduated from Newton South High School where she was a member of the record-holding 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay swim teams, served as team captain, earned the Award of Excellence, the Coach’s Award, Rookie of the Year, and the 110 Percent Award. She is the daughter of Bob and Anne Taylor.
