Passing It Down

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY your son asks you to have your photo taken with him in matching outfits.

Cindy Eggleston Robertson ’81 recently celebrated five years of working at the Boys Home of Virginia in Covington. Initially a houseparent, she currently serves as a reading specialist, putting her Longwood elementary education degree and her master’s degree in reading education from the University of Virginia to work for her students. “I see myself in the students I serve. When I was young, I struggled with reading and comprehension. I had to discover a way to learn that worked for me. I meet the students on their current reading level and help them progress.” Prior to her work at the Boys Home, she was a teacher in the Roanoke City Public Schools for 30 years.

Jody Gilbert ’83 joined the Rockbridge Area Health Center in Lexington, Virginia, as a licensed clinical social worker specializing in providing behavioral health counseling to patients 14 years of age and older. In addition to her degree in social work from Longwood, she earned an MSW from Virginia Commonwealth University. Gilbert has more than 30 years of experience as a social worker in multiple settings.

So MELISSA LAKE BOYLE ’94 didn’t hesitate to say “yes” to her son, Nathan Boyle ’23, when he asked her to come to campus for his senior photo shoot, even though she didn’t have the outfit she needed: graduation regalia from her own Longwood commencement. She was confident someone in the Longwood network would come through for her.

“I didn’t have my original, so I put out a request on the Longwood Alumni Facebook page. I heard from five people from my class offering to let me borrow theirs,” said Melissa.

That’s just one example of the kind of support she knew Nathan would get from the Longwood community if he decided to enroll at Longwood. Combined with the many opportunities Longwood offers students to get involved and to be a leader, it’s no surprise that she encouraged him to choose her alma mater during his college search four years earlier.

“He needed a place that would be full of opportunities to be involved,” said Melissa, who has taught at Cedar Point Elementary in Bristow, Virginia, for the last 21 years. “He needed a place where professors would be welcoming … [and] encourage him to be in class, do his best and expand his wings.”

Nathan did end up choosing Longwood, and he responded to the experience just as she hoped he would: Student Government Association: executive treasurer, executive secretary, freshman class representative; Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity: president, vice president, secretary; Mortar Board: honorary spirit leader chair; peer mentor.

“Being a peer mentor for three years has been the most fun I’ve had,”

Nathan wrote in a graduating senior questionnaire just prior to receiving his degree in criminology this past May. “Getting my own group of up to 20 mentees to mentor for a year was breathtaking. I was able to show them all my love for Longwood and help them in any way I could.”

Melissa said watching her son thrive at Longwood filled her with pride—both as a mom and as an alumna. “This is a connection no one could understand except fellow alumni.” —Sabrina

Brown