Anecdotal Lead
Being the president of any university is a lot of work and your time is limited when it comes to doing stuff outside of the normal duties. Not for Radford University President Brian Hemphill, he is being selfless and taking time from his busy schedule to personally connect with a few students and teach a class spring 2018 semester.
He will be teaching a class within the School of Communication and the course name is Communication and Leadership. President Hemphill is more than ready to take on this new adventure since he has been a professor for many years before his next step into the Presidents chair, along with his many degrees ranging from Communications to Science and Technology.
The selfless act his is taking truly shows what a great person he is, President Hemphill is constantly busy with different things to make our university better, but has no problem taking a step back and teaching his fellow students also.
President Hemphill is showing us and others outside of Radford University what true leadership looks like. He shows positive attributes of leadership skills, communication skills, working with others and many more. There is no better person to teach a class about leadership and communication than our very own University President.
Personality Profile: Ashley Vollrath
A 10-year-old girl sees an orange tabby on the side of the road and it looks very scared and cold since it is a chilly fall evening. The cat has a bright blue collar, along with a flea collar so the little girl knows this cat has a family and is loved. However, it did not have a tag on the collar to inform her where the cat lived. This orange tabby was so kind and purred as she held it. The little girl knew she had to find the cats family because it is probably very missed. She puts the cat inside her jacket to warm him up and begins to walk up and down the streets of her neighborhood to find out where this sweet kitty lives. After about 20 minutes of knocking on doors she finds the owners on the cat. She finds out the cat’s name is George and 5-year-old girl was miss her best friend deeply and was so excited when he was brought back. The little girl was happy she could return the cat to his family and have a nice warm place to sleep.
Ashley Vollrath from a young age was willing to help out anyone or anything. She has been selfish for as long as anyone can remember and all she wanted to achieve in her life is making other people’s lives better. In her short 22 years of life she has done so much for other people and everyone knows that will not be stopping anytime soon. “The joy I feel from helping someone and watching their face light up is something I do not want to stop feeling, its truly an honor to give my time to help others” said Ashley Vollrath.
Ashley attends Virginia Tech and is a senior there this year, she studies Multimedia Journalism and her many goal after graduating is to report on sports. Even though she has always been a selfless and caring person when it came to others, she did not start getting very serious about it until her internship with WSLS 10 News. This news station is based in Roanoke so she learned a lot about the area around her school and saw first-hand some people who are in need. She also had internships with WFXR based around the Blacksburg area and NBC Sports Boston based in Chicago. “These internships have been great since it gives me and insight into my future job and I can see first-hand what community outreach does.” Her internships are what really opened her eyes and really showed her how much she wanted to get involved with her community.
Ashley also started to do pageants about her senior year of high school, this also was a big part when it came to her community service due most pageants require some type of community service before competing. She recently just won Miss Virgina a few a week ago and next year will be competing at Miss USA. “Winning Miss Virginia has been the best experience so far, I get to be out in my community so much more and share time with people and help out as much as I can.” She has already done many events from raising money for an animal shelter and her community service with Boys and Girls club of Roanoke. Ashley’s mom, Elizabeth Freeman, could not be any prouder of her daughter and all the accomplishments she has achieved in her life so far. “She has always had an eye for helping people, and for her to be the most involved with her community right now makes me so happy and proud to call her my daughter.”
Being Miss Virginia is a lot of work, between going out to events to help out in the community and training for Miss USA. Ashley makes it look like a breeze, between her Miss USA duties, internship and her college school load. Ashley’s best friend, Skylar Flynn who is a Junior at CNU says Ashley is her role model between balancing her massive school load along with just being a down to earth person. “Ashley and I have been friends since we were little and she has never been a selfish person and would always make sure everyone felt welcomed and were happy.” Ashley says with her new duties have made her daily routine a lot more hectic but it is so worth it and the smile that gets put on her face when she’s making better in her community. “Even though I have been Miss Virginia for only a few weeks now it has really made my life a lot more vigorous and I am constantly going but it also has brought so much joy into my life already and I am excited for this next year.”
On the stage, with the lights shining bright on the stage with five girls wondering which one of them would be crowned the next Miss Virginia. As the judge slowly calls girls names and it gets to the final two girls and they are holding each other’s hands while waiting for judge to call one of their names. The judge pauses for a few seconds to build the anticipation and the judge says Ashley Vollrath. She cannot help but cry from the joy she feels over her and this amazing thing that just happened to her. Her outreach in the community is about to get so much greater and her journey in helping people is about to begin as Miss Virginia.
Kayla Covert 