Meredith Peters '11
Alumna finds strength, comfort in President's message of hope
By Chad Osborne
There is magic living at Radford University.
Those seven words came directly from Meredith Peters ‘11, a physician assistant in Student Health Services, amid and despite all the uncertainty happening on campus in the spring.
When the coronavirus forced the University into a new reality of physical distancing and online-only courses, Meredith, like many in the campus community, felt inspired after watching a video message in March from President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D.
So inspired that she sat down to craft a letter to the president, “so I can express to you that I’ve never been prouder to be a Highlander,” she wrote.
In the video, President Hemphill spoke directly to the Radford community.
“Lead by example with compassion, patience and understanding in all that you do and say. Help others understand that we do not have the ability to control the situation, only the manner in which we respond to it.”
“That means a lot,” Meredith says. “It goes a long way.”
Months later, Meredith reflected on the letter.
I kept telling patients and students at the time, ‘you need to watch this video of the president sending us this really strong message,’” she says. “It honestly brought me to tears. I’ve thought to myself, ‘YES! This is exactly what it means to be a Highlander!’ Afterward, I felt compelled to thank him for it because it was a strong and unified message.”
The president’s message, delivered to the University community via email shortly after campus closed, “embodied the community I see at Radford, and that is how it has always been.”
President Hemphill’s message conveyed what people needed to know in the early stages of the global pandemic, Meredith says, and he did so with uplifting confidence. His tone conveyed a sense of expectation from students, faculty, staff, alumni and the Radford community to push through the fear with the responsible and resilient strength of a Highlander.
“I think that he has high expectations for himself,” Meredith says, “and for the people who work at Radford and for the people who go to school and have gone to school here.”
Those expectations, she asserts, build and enforce the Radford University story.
Meredith’s personal Radford story is sprinkled with delightful details. She grew up in nearby Giles County and always had Radford on her college radar. Meredith earned a bachelor’s degree in athletic training in 2011 — she’s an avid athlete, who always knew she wanted to work in healthcare — and her husband, Ben Peters, has a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and a master’s degree in special education, both earned at Radford.
“Our love for the University runs deep,” she pronounced to the president.
Meredith’s story within the University doesn’t begin and end there. It weaves back to her grandmother, who attended Radford when it was a women-only college, and to her grandfather, who, as a boy, delivered newspapers by bicycle on campus. Gratitude for his early-morning hard work came each morning in the form of a fresh warm biscuit from a college dining hall cook.
“The way he smiles when he tells the story shows me what kind of experience it was,” Meredith wrote, about her grandfather, in the letter to President Hemphill.
Those stories are just a few of the many that make up the spirit of Radford University, Meredith maintains. “There is magic here, and the magic is in the people. It’s the way we treat one another, and care about one another and the community around us in good times and tough times.”
