Developments at Virginia Tech
The official Tumblr of Virginia Tech's Office of University Development, located at the Gateway Center on the corner of University City Blvd., and Prices Fork Rd., in Blacksburg, Va.
This website is maintained by the Development Communications team headed by Albert Raboteau, Gary Cope, and Chuck George.
Reco Charity is set to become the first member of his family to graduate from college. He’s already been accepted to Howard University to attend law school, and aspires to become a judge.
Charity has overcome a great deal in his life to get where he is today and he credits Virginia Tech’s Presidential Scholarship Initiative program for helping him achieve his goals.
Click on the photo to learn more about his story, the Presidential Scholarship Initiative, and see a video interview with the soon-to-be Virginia Tech graduate.
Look who stopped by the student calling center last week on reading day!
Even as they prepared for final exams, our student callers were hard at work reaching out to alumni, parents, their fellow students, and friends of Virginia Tech to share with them the importance of investing in higher education.
We’re not sure how many calls the HokieBird was actually able to make because, as any Hokie knows, the HokieBird doesn’t talk.
Thanks for stopping by, HokieBird!
The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech will offer a dynamic range of programming – from timeless classics and family-friendly offerings, to works with deep meaning and global themes, to events with a fresh and sometimes unexpected perspective – for its inaugural 2013-14 season in the new arts center.
Season subscriptions are on sale now for the lineup of 21 performances by international, national and regional touring performing artists and companies.
Virginia Tech recently named the performance hall within its Center for the Arts in honor of two couples – Nicholas and Fay Street of Bristol and William C. “Jack” and Sandra Davis of Blacksburg – in recognition of their philanthropic support of the center’s construction.
Click on the image above to learn more and see the complete 2013-14 schedule.
(Photo Caption: The Center for the Arts 2013-14 season will feature international and national touring artists, including composer Philip Glass, who will open the inaugural season with the Philip Glass Ensemble on Nov. 1, 2013.)
Good luck on final exams, Hokies!
What would you do for a free T-shirt?
Virginia Tech’s Health Education and Awareness Team’s (HEAT) Tobacco-Free Hokies Campaign will give out more than 1,000 “Tobacco-Free Hokie” T-shirts during the 2012-13 school year to Virginia Tech students and middle school students from the surrounding community who pledge to stay tobacco-free.
Annie Loyd, pictured above, is a junior at Virginia Tech and a member of HEAT. She and her fellow HEAT members visit local middle schools and talk with students about the dangers of tobacco products. The students are thoroughly engaged in the hands-on presentations, but it’s the T-shirts that help get their attention.
This public health outreach program is possible, in part, thanks to a grant from Pfizer, whose Vice President of External Medical Communications Stuart Sowder said:
“We at Pfizer are proud to support a wide variety of initiatives aimed at improving people’s health by helping them quit smoking or avoid starting.”
Click on the photo above to learn more about the HEAT program.
We’re at the 2013 CASE III conference in Atlanta. Here is one of our award-winning project entries. We’re very proud of the work we do for Virginia Tech and we’re especially proud to be representing Hokies everywhere!
im they happiest girl in the world !!!!! <3
Congratulations and welcome to the Hokie family!
Another beautiful #Blacksburg #sunset with Buruss Hall in the backdrop. This will never get old. #sky #clouds #night #virginiatech #vt #hokies
Sunset on campus.
As the sun is about to set on another week, we wish you a safe and happy weekend!
Written by PRISM Communication Member Erica Wiles
Going into college I knew without a doubt that I would be studying abroad. Skip to August of my sophomore year: I completed the study abroad application for Pamplin’s semester long Lugano Program and was accepted the following October. The year since crept up on me and before I knew it, it was time to board the plane at Dulles International Airport bound for Switzerland.
I said my goodbyes to my family and anxiously made my way through security and to the terminal we’d be departing from. My stomach was feeling a strange mixture of anxiety, nerves and pure excitement.
I’ve been in Lugano 24 days now and I can talk for hours about how this is going to be the one experience in my life that will change me forever. Every day I find myself doing something different: experiencing new foods, hiking up mountains, walking through small towns that resemble movie sets and seeing views I will never forget. I still have 80 more days here (I have the countdown app on my phone) and I can’t begin to imagine what still lies ahead of me for the next few months.
I’ve been to three countries in the first 17 days I was here and plan on going to many more already. I’m travelling to Africa to work for an NGO and visit two countries there. I’m taking 18 credits and I’ve already had two midterms. Studying abroad for a semester is an all-around consuming experience but I’m enjoying every second of it. All of the moments I’m experiencing here I know I would never have the chance to have if I didn’t study abroad, and my time here is already flying by.
For anyone considering studying abroad—go! And if you aren’t thinking about it then start thinking! Every day is different and I’ve had so many amazing experiences in Switzerland and all over Europe already. Studying abroad is the trip of a lifetime.
Lugano, Switzerland
Munich, Germany
Milan, Italy
Erica gives a great first-hand report of her study abroad experience. For many, to study abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they’ll remember and cherish always.
It’s also why donors like Winston and Marilyn Samuels, both Virginia Tech alumni, give generously to Virginia Tech’s study abroad scholarship program.
“Our commitment is to give to Virginia Tech such that students will go out and then be able to bring back,” said Winston Samuels. “They need to go to Africa, Brazil, Katmandu, Canada, and see what’s going on out there, because the world is big and we cannot see the world from Blacksburg.”
Have you studied abroad as a Virginia Tech student on scholarship? We’d love to share your story and see photos!
