LEXINGTON — Joanna Halfhill never set out to become the third-ranked graduate in West Point’s Class of 2025.

She simply wanted to keep learning, push herself and become a better leader.

That mindset carried the Lexington High School graduate through four demanding years at the United States Military Academy, where she graduated summa cum laude with a 4.237 GPA, earned six awards and finished third overall in her class.

“I never really cared about overall class rank,” Halfhill said. “I’m just naturally curious and have always loved learning and going to school.”

Halfhill graduated from USMA on May 24, 2025, as the academic class valedictorian with a degree in physics with honors.

(Story continues below. Photos show Joanna Halfhill from her time at USMA. Provided by Joanna Halfhill.)

Six awards recognize academic, athletic achievements

Halfhill’s accomplishments at West Point earned her six awards recognizing academic and athletic excellence.

  • Brigadier General John R. Jannarone Memorial Award for highest academic class standing.
  • Sewell Tappan Tyng Memorial Award for highest rating in Nuclear Engineering.
  • Brigadier General Gerald A. Counts Memorial Award for highest rating in Physics.
  • Colonel Herbert Bainbridge Hayden Memorial Award for highest standing in Basic Sciences.
  • Colonel Theodore S. Westhusing Memorial Award for third-highest overall class standing.
  • Kramer-Rumbaugh Award for outstanding graduating member of the Women’s Cross Country team.

But Halfhill said she cared less about the accolades than about the growth behind them.

“I am not very externally motivated,” she said. “I cared more about developing myself intellectually, physically and as a leader in addition to helping others develop.”

The Jannarone award holds particular meaning for Halfhill because Jannarone served as the sixth dean of West Point and represented the kind of soldier, scholar and educator she admired.

“I was honored to receive the award in his name because I see him as a role model,” she said.

West Point also challenged Halfhill beyond academics. Survival swim, a class she struggled through because she neither enjoyed the water nor considered herself a strong swimmer, came closest to making her quit.

It never gets any easier, you just get tougher.

joanna halfhill

“Everyone fails at something at USMA,” Halfhill said. “That class was the closest I came to quitting.”

She said passing the class became a developmental experience she will never forget.

The most meaningful part of graduation week had little to do with awards or class rank. She said it was having her family there, especially her parents and brother at the graduation banquet.

“I felt so blessed to have them there and to have made them proud,” Halfhill said.

Community helped shape her West Point experience

The people Halfhill met at USMA remain one of the most important parts of her experience.

(Story continues below. Photos show Joanna Halfhill from her time at USMA. Provided by Joanna Halfhill.)

“From my teachers, mentors and coaches to my classmates, company-mates and teammates, so many people at USMA shaped my experience and inspired me to chase greatness,” she said. “The women who went through the years of NCAA D1 Cross Country and Track alongside me were especially influential and just incredible ladies.”

Halfhill competed on Patriot League championship teams in both cross country and track and field.

During her junior year, her cross country coach asked her to step in as team captain after the existing captain suffered an injury. Halfhill continued in the role through her senior year.

As a freshman and sophomore, she had viewed the cross country captains as inspirational leaders and role models. She said taking on that responsibility herself showed her how much she had developed.

“Being thrust into that role myself made me realize how much I’d developed as a person and specifically as a leader,” she said.

“For my teammates and I, winning the Patriot League simultaneously meant ‘a dream come true,’ and ‘all our hard work has paid off,’” Halfhill said. “I was so incredibly proud of my girls.”

Most importantly, she added, the championships meant one thing to the team:

“BEAT Navy!”

(Story continues below. Photos show Joanna Halfhill with her Cross County and Track and Field team. Provided by Joanna Halfhill.)

Halfhill also credits professors and mentors such as Col. Diana Loucks, Maj. Orlando Martinez and Dr. David Kashinski.

Loucks taught Halfhill optics and served as her physics academic adviser. Martinez taught her Spanish and served as the cross country and track and field officer representative, while Kashinski taught her quantum mechanics and statistical physics.

“USMA gave me a plethora of role models and mentors,” Halfhill said.

Lexington roots helped prepare her for West Point

Halfhill’s path to West Point began in Lexington, where teachers and coaches fostered her interest in science, mathematics and athletics while encouraging her curiosity.

“I have always liked Math and Science,” Halfhill said. “Ultimately, I chose Physics because it is the ultimate expression of math in nature, and I think that’s beautiful. It also has lots of military applications.”

Her time on Lexington’s cross country and track teams helped build the mental toughness, drive and grit she would need at West Point.

“Having Coach Benson make me do push-ups prepared me for having Drill Sergeants and upperclass cadets physically ‘smoke’ me,” she said.

“The ladies of the Lexington Cross Country team, including Coach Benson, Coach Petrie, Halle Hamilton, Olivia Wolfe, Lily Weeks, Tessa Gerhart and Emma Wise, as well as several others, helped me hone my drive and grittiness that I needed every day at the academy,” she said.

Running taught Halfhill lessons she carried into her academic and military life, including self-discipline, personal accountability, adapting and becoming “comfortable with discomfort.”

From West Point to military service

West Point shaped Halfhill’s approach to leadership by teaching her she might never feel completely ready to lead.

Leaders, she said, must embrace the awkwardness, communicate effectively and show their followers that they care. The experience helped her grow from a follower concerned with her own performance into a leader invested in the well-being and performance of others.

“The academy throws dozens of real-life leadership situations at you and forces you to lead through adversity,” Halfhill said.

Halfhill said she sees military service as a way to put her skills, time and energy toward something larger than herself and toward what she called “the great American experiment we call freedom.”

That commitment now guides what comes next.

For the past year, Halfhill has attended Tufts University as a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in physics through the Draper Scholars program.

She has one more year of coursework and research focused on ionospheric effects on position, navigation and timing before attending Signal Basic Officer Leader Course and serving the nation as a U.S. Army Signal Corps lieutenant.

Her journey remains connected to the community that helped shape her.

Members of her hometown, especially her church family from the St. Peter’s/St. Mary of the Snows/Resurrection Tri-Parish Community, supported her throughout her 47 months at West Point.

“I loved receiving care packages and letters from them, it would absolutely make my day,” she said.

If the girl who graduated from Lexington in 2021 could see what came next, Halfhill said one accomplishment would stand out above the rest: her mile time.

When she ran a personal record of 4:47, she immediately texted her high school coach, telling her, “I never thought I’d run sub 4:50!”

“I’d tell my past self, ‘It never gets any easier, you just get tougher,’” Halfhill said.

For future Lexington graduates, Halfhill has a simple message: challenge yourself.

“Do it. Self-select by challenging yourself where you are now. Do hard things! The Village is supporting you.”

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