Class of 2026: Mia Damiano named veterinary college valedictorian

Name: Mia Damiano 

Degree: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 

Hometown: Springfield, Virginia 

Plans after graduation: Damiano will move to Phoenix, Arizona, for a one-year mentorship program that rotates between general practice, emergency, and shelter medicine. She hopes to pursue a residency in emergency and critical care and potentially American Board of Veterinary Practitioners canine/feline certification before a career in academia. 

Baseballs bring her luck

Damiano will be the first to admit she is superstitious. 

She wore the same outfit for every single exam she took at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. She listened to the same two songs every morning on her way to each test. And baseballs, if someone finds one and gives it to her, are good luck.

So when a classmate she barely knew walked into the study room before their first veterinary school exam holding a baseball she had found in the parking lot, Damiano knew what she had to do.

"I was like, I need that," Damiano said. "Now we’re best friends, and it’s always in my backpack. I took it with me to take my North American Veterinary Licensing Examination. It’s my good luck vet school baseball." 

The find felt like fate. Damiano’s fiancé, a baseball player she had been dating since high school, had given her a baseball years earlier, which she kept in her car as a charm. Her lucky number has always been 43 — she is in the 43rd graduating class at the veterinary college. 

"It was a sign," Damiano said.

Damiano is the valedictorian for the Class of 2026 and the recipient of the Richard B. Talbot Award scholarship, an endowed award established in honor of the founding dean of the veterinary college. The college’s 43rd commencement is May 15 at the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech.

From Air Force roots to veterinary dreams 

Damiano did not grow up dreaming of becoming a veterinarian. Her father, a colonel in the Air Force, moved the family from base to base — England, West Texas, and eventually Fairfax County. She thought she would follow him into the military.

"I just remember so vividly the change of command ceremonies, where they have all of the men and women that he would be leading," Damiano said. "He is a very fantastic leader, and I really aspire to be like him."

Instead, she found her own path. A love for the family cats — "we’re a cat family," she said — plus a talent for science and a knack for solving problems converged in high school into a realization that veterinary medicine could combine all three. After studying at Clemson University, she came to the veterinary college at Virginia Tech.

Finishing at the top of her class was never the goal. Before Damiano started, Samantha Lannon — one of the 2025 co-valedictorians — gave her the final tour of the school and some advice that stuck: Work hard and don't let the difficulty of first-year scare you.

"I kept working hard throughout vet school, and that’s just what I did," Damiano said. "I told myself, I’m just going to work really hard and see where that gets me. And here I am."

Confidence grows

Damiano said she always felt confident in her ability to study and take tests. Physical skills were harder, especially because COVID-19 had limited her clinical experience before veterinary school. The turning point came during her second year, when she performed her first spay.

"That was a life-changing moment for me," she said. "I was very nervous, but Dr. [Michael] Nappier was with me, and he was very complimentary. I thought, OK, I can do this. I have done a surgery. I’m going to be a doctor."

That confidence kept building once she reached the clinics — largely because of the people around her. Licensed Veterinary Technicians Aubrey King and Steffany Swedberg in the ICU, where Damiano worked throughout her time in school, taught her everything from drawing blood to placing catheters.

"Most of my confidence is from them," she said.

Tail-wagging success

It was in the ICU that the case she remembers most unfolded. A German shepherd named Laika became critically ill and stopped breathing. Damiano was in the kennel checking on the dog when it happened. She called the code. The team converged and together got Laika breathing again.

When Laika's family arrived, Laika — still critical — started wagging her tail.

"She could tell they were there, even though she was so sick," Damiano said. "We spent a lot of time in silence just with them, petting her, but we connected in that way."

Weeks later, during Damiano's final rotation, Laika came back to the veterinary teaching hospital for an unrelated issue. Damiano got to see her again. 

"I like being there for people on their worst days and for animals," she said. "It's really rewarding when you are able to help them or able to get them answers."

It runs in the family

That instinct may be inherited. Damiano's grandfather was a prominent ophthalmologist who served as president of his professional society and spent his career in academia. He passed away from COVID-19 before she started veterinary school, but he was proud of the path she had chosen. 

Damiano sees a future that could bring her back to academic medicine — teaching and mentoring the next generation, much as the faculty and staff who shaped her did.

"I love to be a leader," she said. "I feel like it’s something I’m good at, and I love sharing that knowledge with other people."

Asked what will be going through her head as she walks across the commencement stage, Damiano laughed.

"Thank goodness I don’t have to do that again," she said. Then she paused. "And it’s going to be sad. I’m going to miss my friends a lot." 

If she could go back and say one thing to the nervous first-year student who walked into the veterinary college four years ago, it would be simple.

"Be nicer to myself," Damiano said. "It will all come in time, and you don’t have to have all the answers right away. There’s a reason it’s four years. You don’t need to be perfect the first time."