Highlanders in the News: Week of Aug. 26, 2024

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.

Gift of a lifetime

After her mother's death in 2009 from liver disease, Blair Hoke '10 searched for a way in which she might memorialize her.

An Aug. 12 profile by Cardinal News explains how she ultimately did just that - by donating part of her own liver to a child in need of a transplant.

Hoke, a mother of two, has worked in professional baseball for a dozen years and is currently assistant general manager and vice president of ticket sales and service for the Salem Red Sox.

According to Cardinal News, last September she underwent an eight-hour surgery in order to help an anonymous pediatric patient. Neither Hoke nor the recipient know each other's identity, but Hoke has been told the child "is doing very well," and last fall, Diamond Baseball Holdings - which owns minor league franchises that include the Salem team - presented Hoke with its "Hero Award."

"I didn't do it for that reason," she explained in the article. "I want the spotlight to be more on the education piece of it than my act individually. It gave me the opportunity to tell more people about organ donation."

You can read Hoke's story here.

Volunteer information

Students on break can spend their summer any number of different ways, but Sela Beatty, a junior who's double-majoring in communications and psychology, chose to use part of her time off volunteering with Family Service of Roanoke Valley (FSRV), a private nonprofit organization. Earlier this month, FSRV returned the favor by giving her a social media shoutout on Facebook and on X, formerly Twitter. Beatty's work, she said, "gives me a chance to apply what I'm learning in school in a professional setting."

Going "Mobile"

"Beans and Rice" started back in the late '90s as a community outreach project under Nelda K. Pearson, a former Radford University professor of sociology and anthropology. Twenty-seven years later, it's still around and stronger than ever, with offices in Radford and Pulaski. It offers affordable food, career preparation, loans and, in the wake of COVID-19, a mobile food market that helps distribute fresh fruits and vegetables. On Aug. 5, The Roanoke Times documented the history of the New River Valley nonprofit and recounted how the organization found a way to add its food truck in order to help others.

"Move-in" and groovin'

Last week's wave of arrivals for Radford's fall 2024 semester included more than 2,000 new students - which, on a year-to-year basis, represents the largest growth in the school's history - and it's estimated that nearly 3,000 Highlanders are now residing in on-campus housing. All in all, the move-in was quite an operation, with returning students getting back first and the freshman class hitting the dorms on Aug. 23.

If you want a sampling of what that was like (without having to apply sunscreen or being asked to grab the other end of a mini-fridge), you can check out the coverage by Roanoke's WFXR-TV, which was picked up by Yahoo.com, or an Aug. 21 package by WDBJ7. This semester's class also returned to a full line-up of things to do: from now through most of September, Radford Welcome Weeks offer a slate of more than 110 activities on the main campus and another two dozen in Roanoke.

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