Highlanders in the News: Week of July 3, 2023
Every other week, our Highlanders are using their education to do extraordinary things. Here, we’ll highlight some notable mentions from local, regional, national and international news media. Whether our students, alumni, faculty and staff are featured as subject matter experts in high-profile stories or simply helping make the world a better place, we’ll feature their stories.
Training “Camp”
Camp Carilion, which was sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic for the past three years, bounced back into full swing June 20-23.
The Roanoke-based event, which began in 2006, is open to local ninth- and 10th-graders and offers them hands-on experience in hospital and clinical settings.
This year, more than a dozen students took part and visited Radford University Carilion (RUC), Carilion Clinic and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
“Camp Carilion is sort of an all-encompassing week’s worth of exposure to healthcare careers,” Karri Proctor, student services manager for visiting student affairs and medical education at Carilion Clinic, told WDBJ-7 in a June 21 news story. “We learn about over 60 careers during our camp.”
Student Cora Houston also spoke to WDBJ-7 about her experience as an attendee.
“It really just allows the students to see what truly is out there and what truly you can get into, and it just goes beyond the classroom,” Houston said.
The event was covered by WFXR, and through a segment by WFIR News Talk, which contrasted the camp’s progress against growing shortages in the ranks of healthcare professionals and deemed the event “an important way to get kids interested in the field.”
RUC Director of University Relations Mark Lambert also covered the event extensively, and his report was carried by the Montgomery News Messenger and the Radford News Journal.
“State” supported
Every summer, they arrive on campus in the hundreds, often traveling in numerous small flocks that are easy to identify, even from a distance, based on their distinctive seasonal colors.
They’re not birds or bugs; they’re the rising high school seniors who participate in the American Legion Boys State of Virginia, typically about 400 young men all sporting white T-shirts and navy shorts.
Summer 2023 marked the 80th session of the event across the state, as well as the 10th year it has been hosted locally by Radford University. It ran June 18-24.
Tapped to attend for their academic achievements, leadership abilities, citizenship and civic engagement, the guys spend a week on campus learning about state and local governments, holding mock elections and legislative sessions and taking part in other activities.
One particular undertaking by the Boys State ranks has a local impact – on June 18, 2023, Father’s Day, they donated time, effort and well over 1,000 cans of food to Radford-Fairlawn Daily Bread. That’s a nonprofit that offers hot weekday lunches to anyone who’s hungry, and it also provides the Meals on Wheels program for local seniors.
The Boys State team’s work was covered on June 26 by Heather Bell in The Radford News Journal, and that story later ran in the Montgomery News Messenger and on July 2 in The Roanoke Times.
“It was an awesome day for Radford-Fairlawn Daily Bread,” Peggy Taylor, an RFDB board member, told Bell.
“Thanks to all the amazing boys and to our volunteers and board members and families who worked hard on campus and at RFDB and helped make it so successful again! Our pantry is looking good,” Taylor said.
Nursing musical ambitions
County singer Morgan Wade’s career got a big “A Star is Born”-level jump-start after a 2018 appearance at FloydFest – held in her hometown of Floyd – but a recent People.com profile reveals even more local ties to her origin story.
According to the piece, Wade suffered romantic woes during her freshman year at Jefferson College of Health Sciences, now Radford University Carilion.
She translated her angst into a breakup song, found a group to play with via Craigslist, and with that, she was off and rolling. Relations with her ex ultimately improved.
“I ended up getting him back, and then the band stuck,” Wade told People. “… and people were like, ‘Oh, OK … you can sing!’ And I just started going with it.”
In early 2018, Wade released the album “Puppets with My Heart” with the band The Stepbrothers, and her second, “Reckless,” arrived in 2021.
Her latest record, “Psychopath,” is currently due out Aug. 25.
In June, she appeared at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and next month she’ll perform at Lollapalooza at Chicago, Illinois’ Grant Park.