Sabrina Brown

(In the photo above, Boston’s Harvard Square becomes an outdoor classroom for students to ponder how public art impacts communities.)

Here at Longwood, we think nothing fits the description “experience of a lifetime” better than our Brock Experiences. This academic program takes students to locations throughout the United States to ponder and explore important issues of the day—all the while learning skills they can apply in their future careers.

Four programs will be offered in 2020, two of which still have spaces available. I’ve been told the Boston program is filling up quickly; applications for Yellowstone will be accepted through about mid-March.

However, applications are accepted throughout the year and are handled on a rolling basis. So if your student wants to take advantage of this opportunity this year or next, there’s no time like the present to submit an application.

The programs scheduled for 2020 are
—The Future of Puerto Rico, June 21-July 2 (filled)
—Water Access: Colorado River, May 25-June 6 (filled)
—Art and Culture: Boston, June 8-16
—Stewardship of Public Lands: Yellowstone, May 12-21

Other programs on the Brock Experiences roster that may be offered next year include
—Chesapeake Bay Stewardship
—Immigration: Arizona and Richmond, Virginia

Enrollment in Brock Experiences, which students take for academic credit, is kept relatively small, ranging from nine spots in the Colorado River program to about 40 for Yellowstone. Faculty members plan the curriculum for each course and accompany students to the study location, guiding them as they consider critical questions such as
—“Who owns water and how should it be used?”
—“How do the arts and humanities improve communities and enhance our understanding of our own roles as citizens?”
—“What are the responsibilities of the United States to its territories like Puerto Rico?”
—“How do we best manage our diverse natural landscape?”

In addition to the work they do while “on location,” students complete assignments when they return to campus.

Brock Experiences Director Josh Blakely emphasizes that the programs include “rigorous academic work” and are not field trips or a sightseeing tour.

“A Brock Experience is a transformative learning opportunity that will open students’ eyes to the ways people can work together to tackle complex problems in the world,” he said. “We’ve seen students come alive as a result of these courses, finding areas they’re passionate about and ways to enhance their future careers.”

Dr. Alix Fink, Wilma Register Sharp and Marc Boyd Sharp Dean of the Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars, heads up the Yellowstone program, which has been active at Longwood for 15 years. It was folded into the Brock Experiences when the program was created in 2016 with a $5.9 million gift from Joan ’64 and Macon Brock.

“These aren’t fun trips to some cool place,” said Fink. “Students come away more prepared to have challenging conversations, to ask difficult questions and to talk with fellow citizens whose view are very different from their own.

“Not only are those skills one uses in the workplace, but they are the very skills that citizens need to address challenges in our community.”

Costs vary by program, with the program fee covering housing in the field, transportation once the student arrives at the location, many meals and educational activities. The fee for the Boston program, for example, is $750. Students are responsible for their transportation to the program location and spending money.

Scholarships are available based on demonstrated financial need.

More information on Brock Experiences: http://www.longwood.edu/academics/brock-experiences/

Program applications: http://www.longwood.edu/academics/brock-experiences/

Separate scholarship application: https://longwood.academicworks.com

—Sabrina Brown

(In the photo above, student volunteers work with participants in the Free Family Workshop held at the Morton Museum in partnership with the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts.)

Longwood students were a very visible presence in Farmville and the surrounding area on Monday of this week.

Your Lancer may have been among the 120 or so students who headed out to lend a helping hand to several community projects as part of the Jan. 20 MLK Service Challenge. Projects ranged from giving animals at the Southside SPCA in Meherrin some much appreciated attention to sweeping, dusting and mopping at Madeline’s House, an area women’s shelter.

In all, 12 projects received some TLC from the Longwood students and a number of faculty and staff who also participated.

“The best thing about the MLK Service Challenge is that students from all walks of life, different backgrounds and different beliefs come together to uphold Dr. King’s legacy by serving their community,” said Quincy Goodine, a staff member in Multicultural Affairs at Longwood, who organizes the event.

Other projects and organizations on the receiving end of Longwood students’ help included
*Andy Taylor Center for Early Childhood Development
*Free Family Workshop at the Moton Museum in partnership with the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (LCVA)
*South Virginia Street Community Garden
*Clean Virginia Waterways roadside cleanup
*Southside YMCA

“We definitely could not have done this [Free Family Workshop] without the volunteers,” said Kristen Mosley, an LCVA staff member. “They were so engaging with the community and made the event joyous for all of us.”

More than 200 members of the community turned out to make “Dream Big” hats and wall hangings at the workshop, which also included poetry readings and the premiere of a hip-hop video.

Goodine said the students’ efforts have a significant impact on the community—and on the students themselves.

“It shows our students are thinking outside the box and that they are aware of areas and issues outside campus,” he said. “People are very grateful, and they often want students to come back—whether for an internship or another service opportunity.

“They say the Longwood students are a pleasure to work with and eager to get involved.”

I often say that Longwood students are the best young people around—helpful, considerate, positive and hard-working. The MLK Service Challenge was a perfect example of that. You can be very proud!

—Sabrina Brown

(The photo above is from this year’s Campus Safety Walk, a joint initiative of Longwood students, LUPD and the Office of Residential and Commuter Life. The walk’s goal is to identify areas on campus where safety can be improved, especially after dark.)

Nothing is more important to Longwood’s administrators, faculty and staff than the safety of your student.

The resources we devote to personnel, programming, planning and communication; the high standards we set for our campus police department; and the attention we pay to the safety concerns of students are just a few indicators of how seriously the university takes this responsibility.

“In the last 10 years, we have nearly doubled the security budget on campus, including growing our law enforcement staff to more than double the national average for a population our size,” said Dr. Tim Pierson, vice president for student affairs, who oversees the Longwood Police Department. “That kind of commitment from the top down … is a real testament to the values and forward-thinking practices put in place over that time.”

The Longwood Police Department is recognized as one of the best college police department’s in the nation. Over the last 11 years, Longwood has consistently outperformed Virginia’s other colleges and universities in the higher education category of Security magazine’s annual rankings. LUPD’s latest top-20 ranking, which was announced in late 2019, is the department’s eighth in the last 10 years.

In addition, LUPD is accredited by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission, a distinction held by less than a third of the law enforcement agencies in the state.

Below are a few of the university’s efforts, initiatives and services. You’ll see that some of the safety measures available require you and/or your student to sign up or take another action. Please encourage your student to take full advantage of every service Longwood offers to help them stay safe.

Alerts.Longwood.edu
Anyone with an interest in campus safety can sign up for email and text alerts at this website, which provides up-to-date information about any situation that could affect the safety of Longwood students. Students’ automatically receive emails through this alert system, but they must go to the site and sign up to receive text messages.

In addition, alerts.longwood.edu provides information about Longwood’s inclement weather policy, a list of emergency phone numbers and links to additional safety resources.

#SafeAtLongwood
Encourage your student to use the hashtag #SafeAtLongwood on their public social media accounts to let you and others know they’re safe in the event of a major emergency. During a major crisis, cell service might be down.

Emergency Phones and Security Cameras
More than 300 security cameras keep an eye on the campus and university-managed housing complexes. In addition, more than 100 emergency area-of-rescue photos placed inside buildings and 60 emergency blue-light phones placed at strategic outdoor locations provide direct communication with the Longwood Police Department.

Safety Programming
The Longwood Police Department provides a range of programming designed to help keep your student safe. Here are just a few examples:
 —Personal Safety Seminars
These seminars are designed to improve students’ safety habits. Topics include alcohol awareness, residence hall security, personal safety habits, reporting illegal or suspicious activity, crime on campus and police services. This program allows the student the opportunity to address safety concerns and to receive an appropriate response.
—R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense)
The Rape Aggression Defense system is dedicated to teaching women defensive concepts and techniques against various types of assault by utilizing easy, effective and proven self-defense/martial arts tactics.
—Code Red
This program is designed to make participants aware of their surroundings with an all-hazards approach. Participants also learn the appropriate actions to take to protect themselves and others in an active threat situation. Severe weather safety measures are also covered.

—Sabrina Brown

 

 

 

 

Here at Longwood we recognize that your student’s college education is a major investment for your family. Longwood’s president, W. Taylor Reveley IV, has said many times that Longwood is committed to keeping costs as affordable as possible. This year’s tuition freeze and several previous years’ lower-than-average tuition increases are evidence of the sincerity of that commitment.

But that’s not all Longwood is doing.

This fall the university announced a scholarship initiative that aims to create 90 new endowed scholarships (25 each in Longwood’s three main academic colleges—arts and sciences, business and economics, and education and human services—and 15 in athletics) through a matching program established by several key donors.

The Family Scholarship Program is already well on its way with 18 new scholarships at some stage of being created as I write this. Each $15,000 scholarship gift will be matched by the key donors up to a total of $375,000 in each of the colleges and $225,000 in athletics.

And there’s more good news. In addition to the endowed scholarships, the Family Scholarship Program was structured to create some additional $1,000  scholarships that can begin to be awarded right away.

These new scholarships will be administered by the Longwood University Foundation, which already awards in the neighborhood of 300 scholarships a year to Longwood students.

There are scholarships available for all Longwood students—including all current undergraduate and graduate students as well as incoming transfer students and freshmen.

In fact, most Longwood students meet the criteria for an average of five different scholarships. A description of these scholarships and the application can be found here: https://longwood.academicworks.com/?page=2

All it takes for your student to be considered is about five minutes to fill out the application and, for a few scholarships, the time required to write an essay or two. The deadline to submit applications for scholarships to be awarded for the 2020-21 academic year is March 1, 2020. So let your student know there’s no time like the present to get started on the application.

The university expects to notify recipients no later than July 1, 2020.

Here’s hoping your student is on the receiving end of one of these Longwood University Foundation scholarships!

—Sabrina Brown

Longwood-managed housing reopens at noon on Saturday, Jan. 11. If you happen to be bringing your student back to campus in person, you might want to consider hanging out in Farmville for the weekend.

Farmville may not be a big city—but don’t let that fool you.

There is plenty to do, from art exhibitions to live music to hiking and biking. And don’t forget the shopping, especially if you’re in the market for new furniture, rugs or accessories. Take Green Front Furniture, for example, where you’ll find 900,000 square feet of showroom space filled to the brim in 12 different buildings.

If you want to spend the night, accommodations abound, including Hotel Weyanoke, which offers a luxurious boutique hotel experience right across from campus (on High Street) and right around the corner from Main Street. For the 10 percent discount available to parents, just mention LU10 when you make a reservation.

Here are just a few of the other places you might want to explore in downtown Farmville…

The High Bridge Trail: a hiking and biking path with a history and one of the most spectacular views in this part of Virginia

Longwood Center for the Visual Arts: Rural Avant-Garde: The Mountain Lake Experience exhibition is not to be missed

Moton Museum: an exploration of the genesis and history of the civil rights movement

An impressive selection of noncorporate restaurants offering eclectic and imaginative cuisine, including: North Street Press Club, Effingham’s, one19, Uptown Coffee Café, The Brew House and Charley’s Waterfront Café, to mention a few

The Virginia Tasting Cellar: live music and a sampling of Virginia’s best wines

Three Roads Brewing: handcrafted beer and live music

If you’re looking for a fun weekend, Farmville is a sure bet. Hope to see you around town soon!

—Sabrina Brown

Longwood is officially closed for winter break. Offices will reopen on Thursday, Jan. 2. The first day of spring semester classes for undergraduates is Tuesday, Jan. 14.

I hope your holidays have been filled with love, laughter, good food, family, rest and relaxation—maybe with a little snow thrown in for good measure.

Thank you for entrusting Longwood with the education of your student. We take that responsibility very seriously, and we look forward to helping your Lancer continue that journey with the start of the spring semester.

All the best to you and your family in 2020!

–Sabrina Brown

 

Longwood received three great pieces of news recently that are a testament to the growing stature of our university. If you’re out visiting family and friends over the holidays and there’s a lull in the conversation, consider using one of these points of Longwood pride to fill the gap!

The Short and Sweet Version…

1. Biology Professor Earns Statewide Honor

Dr. Amorette Barber, associate professor of biology and director of the Office of Student Research, received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recognizing her impact both in and out of the classroom. Only 12 of these awards are given each year, with more than 100 faculty usually nominated for the honor.

2. Prestigious Grant for Core Curriculum

The prestigious Teagle Foundation, known in philanthropic circles for its commitment to strengthening the liberal arts at the college level, awarded Longwood a major grant ($100,000) to support implementation of the university’s new Civitae core curriculum. Other institutions receiving grants this year include Yale, Brandeis, Columbia and NYU–so Longwood is in very good company.

3. Police Department Makes Top 20 in National Ranking

Longwood University’s Police Department was again ranked among the top 20 in the nation by Security Magazine. The department has been ranked in the top 20 eight times in the last 10 years and this year is the top-ranked police department among Virginia colleges and universities.

A Few More Details…

1. Biology Professor Earns Statewide Honor

It’s hard to imagine anyone more qualified for an Outstanding Faculty Award than Dr. Amorette Barber, who joined the Longwood faculty in 2011. Barber balances her research with a heavy teaching load and her responsibilities as director of the Office of Student Research. She is known as an engaging teacher who challenges her students while keeping the classroom environment lively and captivating.

Barber’s work in her research lab has broken new ground—in 2018, she earned a patent for developing an immunotherapy treatment for numerous cancers. That came as she has mentored dozens of students who have gone on to medical school and some of the top graduate programs in the country, including Dartmouth and the University of Chicago.

2. Prestigious Grant for Core Curriculum

President W. Taylor Reveley IV said the $100,000 grant from the New York-based Teagle Foundation should “serve as a powerful reminder that what we’re doing here is truly distinctive, noble, important for the country, and a model for others to follow.”

Specifically what Longwood has done is develop an innovative core curriculum, named Civitae (pronounced SIV-i-tay), that is designed to prepare students for 21st-century careers while developing them as citizen leaders equipped to serve their own communities.

Unlike many general education programs, Civitae courses are taken throughout a Longwood student’s four-year tenure. Longwood launched Civitae in fall 2018, so current freshmen and sophomores are the first to take these classes.

Civitae builds from exploratory Foundation classes in rhetoric, citizenship and different liberal arts and sciences disciplines to Perspectives classes that form connections between areas of study to broaden horizons and foster scholarly inquiry. Civitae culminates in a Symposium for the Common Good, an intense, semesterlong study of the campuswide theme E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One), taught from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

The Teagle grant will fund a program to help Longwood faculty across a range of disciplines to develop Symposium courses for the new curriculum, bringing in recognized scholars and making use of founding texts of American democracy.

3. Police Department Makes Top 20 in National Ranking

We know campus safety is a top priority for you and your student, and that’s why Longwood invests in a top-notch police department that has drawn national recognition.

“The Longwood University Police Department is a real point of pride for the university, and we hear from parents and students each day that they have a lot of confidence in the safety of our campus,” said Dr. Tim Pierson, vice president for student affairs, who oversees the department. “In the last 10 years, we have nearly doubled the security budget on campus, including growing our law enforcement staff to more than double the national average for a population our size.”

The police department has adopted community-policing practices focused on building connections with the community and utilizing proactive, student-focused crime-prevention strategies that include free security-focused training and making police officers available to students in nonenforcement capacities.

—Sabrina Brown

You see it on our street banners. You hear our students talking about it. It’s a part of Longwood from one end to the other. What is it?

Citizen leadership—which is the idea that everyone can be a leader in whatever circumstances they find themselves. In other words, you don’t have to be a CEO or a senator or a school principal to have a positive impact in your corner of the world. We instill this belief in your Lancers in numerous ways, but I want to share one example with you today that has a little bit of a twist.

It’s an English class titled 9/11: Loss and Redemption, where—along with writing assignments—students this semester planted, tended and then harvested a “victory garden.” You may have heard of these gardens, which helped supplement the nation’s food supply during World Wars I and II, but the purpose of the garden at Longwood is philosophical as well as practical.

Dr. Michael Lund, a professor emeritus of English who teaches the class, and his students have taken three loads of vegetables to Farmville’s FACES food pantry this semester. But even more important, working in the garden serves as a way to help the students connect to a time when Americans were more personally invested in the military, and attitudes toward service and citizenship were different, Lund said.

The class is part of Longwood’s new core curriculum, Civitae (pronounced siv-i-tay), which has a strong focus on creating citizen leaders. (Click on this link for more about Civitae and an explanation of the name and its Latin roots).

“I certainly connect [the class] to the idea of citizen leadership,” said Lund. “I thought I could put in place something that is a gesture to the veteran community and also educates my students about civilian involvement during the world wars,” he said. “I think they should know something about the cost of what the military does.”

Timothy Eppes ’22 said he had taken photos of the garden to help detail the changes in growth along the way. “Looking back to the first photo, it was empty. And now it’s full,” he said. “We’re giving food to people who need it. This is a way to help give back.”

Ashley Rebehn ’22, who has volunteered with FACES through another class, agreed that it’s nice to know that’s where the food they are harvesting is headed.

Although the students in Lund’s class were most directly involved with planting and harvesting the garden, the project was a community effort. Members of Longwood’s ROTC program helped to move dirt into six raised garden beds. Lund worked with facilities management staff to have the beds made, and the soil was amended with compost from the university’s biomass facility.

Aside from the three types of lettuces and leafy greens, the victory garden produced other cole crops, including turnips, beets, broccoli and daikon radishes.

Lund plans to continue the garden in the spring with another section of English 215.

—Sabrina Brown with Lauren Whittington

 

Depending on when you’re reading this, your Lancers are just about to sit down to—or have recently enjoyed—Longwood’s traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Dorrill Dining Hall. The turkey dinner with all the trimmings—including Longwood’s famous baked Alaska for dessert—is one of students’ favorite yearly events.

Many of them would have worked up an appetite by presenting their research and other academic projects at the Fall Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry held today from 3:30-6 p.m. With more than 500 students presenting in just 2.5 hours, it’s an exciting event. Included in the showcase are poster and oral presentations, theatre and music performances, and a photography and haiku display.

With the holidays right around the corner, I thought it might be helpful to provide some information about housing, transportation and the university closing dates, which is below.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends.

—Sabrina Brown

UNIVERSITY CLOSING
The university, including all administrative offices, will then be closed on Wednesday, Nov. 26, through Friday, Nov. 29, with classes resuming at 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 2.

HOUSING DURING THE BREAK
*Residential communities close at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, and reopen at noon Sunday, Dec. 1.
*Residence hall rooms and apartments may be entered by staff during the break to complete work orders and for safety inspections.
*Students who want to attend or participate in the Grand Illumination of the holiday tree on Tuesday, Nov. 26, from 5:30-8 p.m. should register to stay. Anyone who has not registered to stay won’t have access to their residence halls/apartments beginning at 6 p.m. that day.
Registering to Stay
*If your student lives in Longwood-managed housing, they can arrange to stay on campus during the Thanksgiving break, in their current hall/room, by filling out the required online form before the pre-deadline of midnight Monday, Nov. 25. Here’s a link to the form: Thanksgiving break housing form. Filling out this form by the deadline assures that your student’s ID card will continue to provide access to the residence hall and that, as a safety measure, the Longwood Police Department knows that your student is on campus during the break. Students must fill out the form themselves (but you can remind them).
*If your student does not determine that they need to stay on campus until after the online registration process closes at midnight Nov. 25, they should contact Housing and Residential Life at housing@longwood.edu.
*Please keep in mind that Housing and Residential Life will close at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, and will not be available after that time to answer email or take telephone calls. After 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, contact the Longwood Police Department for assistance at 434-395-2091.

FARMVILLE AREA BUS
Farmville Area Bus (FAB) service will end at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26, and will resume at noon on Sunday, Dec. 1. During this time, no bus service will be available for travel to or from Lancer Park or Longwood Village.

SHUTTLE SERVICE
If your student needs transportation home for the break, shuttle service (Virginia locations only) is available from a private company not affiliated with Longwood. Breakshuttle offers service from the Longwood campus to northern Virginia (Springfield), Richmond and Hampton Roads. Basic information is summarized below. You can get additional details and buy tickets at the Breakshuttle website: https://breakshuttle.com/collections/longwood-university