This week in Highlanders in the News: Graduate student Genevieve Weaver is already earning accolades for her teaching; Geoffrey Preudhomme ’19 reports to the president; lighting designer Rebecca Montero ’05 gets a curtain call; and country music sensation Morgan Wade, a 2017 graduate of what is now Radford University Carilion, is headed back to The Harvester.

Fresh out of high school, Julia Buccola didn’t know what to expect from her upcoming college experience at Radford University. Reflecting back on those anxious feelings now four years later, right before she is set to graduate from Radford, the senior physics major from Roanoke, Virginia, knows now her time here was all about the experience.

Two hundred and fifty students participated in Radford’s most recent Wicked Festival, held on April 11, 2024. Students showed their work through elaborate posters while also engaging in conversations about their extensive research with fellow students, faculty, university administrators and others who walked through the event in Kyle Hall.

“It’s been a journey,” said Rieder, a New Columbia, Pennsylvania, native who suffered devastating injuries in a car crash while in high school, but recovered and went on to study finance and accounting. Rieder will graduate from Radford next month. 

Radford University senior Troy Stallard is a busy man — and not just with his classes and fieldwork in the emergency services program. The Air Force veteran and first-generation college student sought out a variety of experiences while a Highlander with a larger goal in mind. Stallard plans on applying to medical school after receiving his diploma in May.