WITH GRATITUDE TO HER PARENTS AND PROFESSORS, YITAZBA LARGO-ANDERSON '19 FINDS “THE POWER OF MY VOICE”
Research
When deciding on a college, Yitazba Largo-Anderson '19 needed to look no further than her own family for sound advice. “My dad is a professor and my mom is a librarian, and they value education,” she explains. “They urged me to go to a liberal arts school because they knew it would help me round out who I am as a person.”
WITH GRATITUDE TO HER PARENTS AND PROFESSORS, YITAZBA LARGO-ANDERSON '19 FINDS “THE POWER OF MY VOICE”
Research
When deciding on a college, Yitazba Largo-Anderson ’19 needed to look no further than her own family for sound advice. “My dad is a professor and my mom is a librarian, and they value education,” she explains. “They urged me to go to a liberal arts school because they knew it would help me round out who I am as a person.”
The campus beauty and “a really strong creative writing program” are what Yitazba says drew her particularly to Hollins after living most of her life in Phoenix, Arizona. “I came here not knowing what I wanted to study, I’m interested in so many things,” she adds. After taking classes from several disciplines, she chose to major in English with a concentration in multicultural literature and a minor in social justice.
Entrepreneur Elizabeth Jose tackles initiatives ranging from organic farming in India to launching a global technology company.
Success Story
Born in India and subsequently a resident of Zambia, Elizabeth Jose '12 spent a considerable part of her childhood in places where trees and foliage are abundant and her family grew much of their food.
Entrepreneur Elizabeth Jose tackles initiatives ranging from organic farming in India to launching a global technology company.
Success Story
Born in India and subsequently a resident of Zambia, Elizabeth Jose ’12 spent a considerable part of her childhood in places where trees and foliage are abundant and her family grew much of their food. So moving to the urban landscape of Fort Lauderdale and later Chicago when she was still a girl was, she recalls, “drastic. The buildings were huge and sidewalks were everywhere. I used to tell my mother, ‘I’m going to take seeds and plant them in the sidewalk cracks, and trees will grow.’”
Jose never let go of that dream. Today, she is planting seeds both literally and figuratively that could have a profound impact not only in her native India but potentially around the world.
2018 Grad won Hallberg Award for creative nonfiction
Success Story
Rachael Walker '18 was named the recipient of the Fourth Annual Bill Hallberg Award in Creative Writing, presented by the Department of English at East Carolina University (ECU).
2018 Grad won Hallberg Award for creative nonfiction
Success Story
Rachael Walker ’18 has been named the recipient of the Fourth Annual Bill Hallberg Award in Creative Writing, presented by the Department of English at East Carolina University (ECU).
The competition was open to undergraduates at colleges and universities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and this year’s award was given for excellence in creative nonfiction.
Walker, who graduated from Hollins with a degree in English, was recognized for her essay, “A Small Seed of Fate Carried Inside Me.”
Hollins graduate returned to perform in Opera Roanoke‘s production of South Pacific
Success Story
Mezzo soprano Helena Brown graduated from Hollins in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music. Now, she’s returning to the area to perform in Opera Roanoke‘s production of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. The Roanoke Times’ Mike Allen talks with Brown about her musical career and how studying at Hollins “was one of the best decisions I made in the course of my life….”
Hollins graduate returned to perform in Opera Roanoke‘s production of South Pacific
Success Story
Mezzo soprano Helena Brown graduated from Hollins in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music. Now, she’s returning to the area to perform in Opera Roanoke‘s production of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. The Roanoke Times’ Mike Allen talks with Brown about her musical career and how studying at Hollins “was one of the best decisions I made in the course of my life….”
Peer-reviewed journal publication helps launch career in Marine Biology
Research
Natasha Bestrom '18, a Horizon alumna who double-majored in biology and environmental studies, is the lead author of a Hollins study on coral populations in the U.S. Virgin Islands that is being finalized for publication in the peer-reviewed journal, Caribbean Naturalist. The journal focuses on biological and ecological research related to terrestrial, freshwater, and marine organisms and environments in the Caribbean region.
Peer-reviewed journal publication helps launch career in Marine Biology
Research
Natasha Bestrom ’18, a Horizon alumna who double-majored in biology and environmental studies, is the lead author of a Hollins study on coral populations in the U.S. Virgin Islands that is being finalized for publication in the peer-reviewed journal, Caribbean Naturalist. The journal focuses on biological and ecological research related to terrestrial, freshwater, and marine organisms and environments in the Caribbean region.
A native of Greensboro, North Carolina, Bestrom loved the water as a child. Even “without knowing exactly what it meant,” she wanted to be a marine biologist someday. “But going to college right out of high school was very intimidating,” she recalls. She spent the next 11 years after completing her secondary education working as a veterinary technician. “I loved it, but I wanted something more.”
Bestrom was long drawn to the women’s college environment, and when she moved to Roanoke in 2013, she enrolled at Hollins. “I met with the Horizon program, toured the biology department, and walked away immediately saying this is where I wanted to go. It was just that friendliness. I loved how Horizon wasn’t an adult program that was separate from the rest of the community. I could experience a traditional college education and learn from students who were younger than me.”
Finds her calling during Peruvian disaster
Success Story
Florida, Puerto Rico, and Texas are not alone this year in coping with the overwhelming impact of a natural disaster. During the early months of 2017, Peru’s annual rainy season morphed into a climate event nightmare, particularly in the country’s northern region.
Finds her calling during Peruvian disaster
Success Story
Florida, Puerto Rico, and Texas are not alone this year in coping with the overwhelming impact of a natural disaster. During the early months of 2017, Peru’s annual rainy season morphed into a climate event nightmare, particularly in the country’s northern region.
“Ten times the usual amount of rain has fallen on Peru’s coast, swelling rivers which caused widespread flooding, and triggering huge landslides which tore through shanty towns,” The Guardian reported last April. “More than 100 people have died, nearly 158,000 are displaced, and 210,000 homes are damaged, according to Peru’s emergency operations centre. The country’s infrastructure took a big hit: 260 bridges collapsed and nearly 3,000km of roads are unusable, cutting off hundreds of villages and towns.”
Goal is to open a maternal health education center in Jamaica
Internship
Two summers ago, Roshaye Graham ’18 returned home to Jamaica to face a family crisis: her grandmother, a woman she considered to be her “second mother,” was terminally ill with cancer. For the biology major, the experience was both heartbreaking and infuriating.
Goal is to open a maternal health education center in Jamaica
Internship
Roshaye Graham ’18 returned home to Jamaica to face a family crisis: her grandmother, a woman she considered to be her “second mother,” was terminally ill with cancer. For the biology major, the experience was both heartbreaking and infuriating.
“I witnessed firsthand the critical need for healthcare providers to not only devote time and care to their patients, but to also adequately and accurately inform caregivers of their loved one’s condition,” she recalls. “I had presumed the doctors would have informed my family about my grandmother’s condition, but found that they knew relatively little except that her body was rapidly deteriorating. When I finally heard from a doctor, I learned that her oncologist had continued chemotherapy irrespective of the fact that after each treatment my grandmother showed significant and continued decline of memory and overall physiological function, and the appearance of her ulcerating tumor grew worse.”
Told there was little more the medical community could do, Graham and her family were advised to take her grandmother home. “So that’s what we did. Every day for the next nine weeks, my grandfather and I fed, bathed, dressed, and comforted this beautiful woman until she passed. While I felt liberated to know I was helping her, I was frustrated that I had not been given any clear understanding of her treatment and continued to be concerned that she had not received the best medical care.”
Hollins enjoys double presence at Women's Theatre Festival
Success Story
The works of two Hollins playwrights were recently showcased at an event that champions gender parity, diversity, and inclusion in the American theatre.
Hollins enjoys double presence at Women's Theatre Festival
Success Story
The works of two Hollins playwrights were showcased at an event that champions gender parity, diversity, and inclusion in the American theatre.
She Made Space, written and performed by Meredith Cope-Levy ’12, M.F.A. ’18, and And Then the Moon Swallowed the Sky by Rachel Nelson ’07 were featured at the 2019 Women’s Theatre Festival (WTF), held July 12-14 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The WTF stages productions and readings that are written and directed by women and feature casts and crews that are at least 50 percent women.
Dance major taking commitment to artistry and social justice to L.A. and London
Success Story
Epitomizing Hollins University’s enduring slogan artistically, geographically, and academically, Paris Williams '18 is definitely going places.
Dance major taking commitment to artistry and social justice to L.A. and London
Success Story
Epitomizing Hollins University’s enduring slogan artistically, geographically, and academically, Paris Williams ’18 is definitely going places
The dance major, who hails from New Orleans, is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in choreography at London’s University of Roehampton, whose international status draws students and dance artists from around the world.
Discovering her passion at Hollins, Mary heads to grad school at Vanderbilt
Internship
She describes it as “kind of a running joke” between herself and the Office of Admission, but no one can say Mary Daley '19 wasn’t diligent in researching Hollins before enrolling at the university.
Discovering her passion at Hollins, Mary heads to grad school at Vanderbilt
Internship
She describes it as “kind of a running joke” between herself and the Office of Admission, but no one can say Mary Daley ’19 wasn’t diligent in researching Hollins before enrolling at the university.
“I first found Hollins during my sophomore year of high school when I was just starting to look at colleges and I visited about once a month for the rest of the time that I was in high school,” she recalls. “I also did the Hollinsummer creative writing program. Everyone I met – students and faculty – I loved.”
