4 minute read
Economic Drivers
From his first day in office, President Bret Danilowicz has made clear that one of his top priorities is to promote economic interface between the university, the City of Radford and the greater region.
Last fall, he established that goal as one of the pillars of the university’s 2024-2025 strategic plan.
“The next two years will see a significant increase in university-business partnerships that provide work-based learning opportunities for our students,” Danilowicz said during his homecoming address in October 2023.
Since then, an array of awards, initiatives and people have come together to help that plan coalesce.
Grants open doors to work-based learning
Back in February, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) presented Radford with a $100,000 grant from the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP).
That money went into the Highlander Works Grant program to supplement work-based learning opportunities – primarily covering expenses that full-time students incur during internships, like transportation and housing.
“We funded 25 students who had internships in a variety of industries, including the arts, financial services, technology, manufacturing and health care,” said Lee Svete, director of Career and Talent Development at Radford, which administers the program.
The SCHEV V-TOP funding provided those Highlanders an average of $3,000 each, amounting to competitive pay of about $20 an hour, as they held summer positions with companies like Brown Edwards, Regal Rexnord and the Salem Medical Center.
The remaining $32,000 assists student interns this fall.
Another grant, facilitated by The Division of Economic Development and Corporate Education and bestowed by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), will support about 22 honors student researchers as they explore the best uses for the Radford Foundry, the West Main Street industrial site acquired by the city in 2023.
“The goal will be to develop an interdisciplinary approach ... with an eye toward how the city can make the most of the foundry now and in the future,” said Jason Davis, one of the professors leading the project.
“We’ll be making general recommendations, based both on the unique qualities of this property and rehabilitation projects from similar sites, and presenting that to city council.”
Internship experience on campus leads to bigger opportunity
MacKenzie Wallace, a native of Mappsville on the eastern shore of Virginia, came to Radford last fall to earn her master’s degree.
Over the summer, she interned with Radford’s Enrollment Management and Strategic Communications division and, through that position, took part in the NRV Experience –essentially a supplemental internship for local interns.
Hosted by Onward NRV, an economic development nonprofit, NRV Experience offers participants career development sessions and networking opportunities and it exposes them to the region’s businesses and unique attributes.
This year’s NRV Experience interns included students from the area in addition to natives of Illinois, New York and Tennessee.
From May into August, they attended sessions led by representatives from Radford, Virginia Tech and New River Community College and toured sites like Mountain Lake resort, the Floyd Center for the Arts and Claytor Lake.
Wallace will complete her studies in May 2025 and now intends to remain in the valley.
“I never thought I would want to work in higher education until I did the internships, and it has given me more of the will to stay here,” Wallace said. “And I realized I also like the area.”
Alumni help pave the way for internships, full-time employment
Radford alumni have also helped open the door to full-time employment for other Highlanders by offering internship experiences. Allison Felix ’01 is a prime example of this.
Upon graduating, she got a job as assistant to the president of Cassaday & Co., the McLean, Virginia, wealth management firm.
Felix, a New England native, is still there today, now serving as chief operating officer and a managing partner.
She’s also a Radford University Foundation board member who has hired other Highlanders, such as Thomas Truluck ’19, an advanced strategies analyst, and Robert Blankenship ’20, a senior research associate.
“Robert was an intern here, and we ended up saying, ‘Don’t go back to campus, stay here and work,’” Felix said, recalling that Blankenship completed his senior year remotely while an employee.
The company’s president and CEO, Stephan Cassaday ’76, is a past member of Radford’s Board of Visitors. Cassaday has a staff of 86, roughly a dozen of which are Radford alums, including Alex Karkeek ’11, an Exeter, England, import who, last spring, became a U.S. citizen and remains a Virginia resident.
Other Radford alumni who joined Cassaday as interns include Christopher Young ’99, Sean Gallahan ’08 and Thomas Wagaman ’17. “It’s nice to feel that we partner in the life cycle of students, pushing them out into the workplace where they can give back not only to society but to the state of Virginia and Radford as a whole,” Felix said.
