Collaborative Places: Partnerships Help Radford Build Sense of Community Beyond Campus

Radford University is committed to building successful partnerships throughout the New River Valley and beyond. Cultivating a strong sense of community with individuals and organizations beyond our campus boundaries — in collaborative places and virtual spaces — is key to this effort.

When Radford’s Department of Music Chair Wayne Gallops began assembling Radford’s University Community Symphony three years ago, he didn’t know if the effort would gain traction. He simply felt that such an ensemble would have value for the department and for students and recruitment and would be beneficial for area musicians, as well as local fans of the classics.

“For a university of our size and a department of our scope, it’s rare not to have a symphony,” Gallops explained. So, in late 2022, he got to work recruiting players.

“It surprised me how quickly it took off,” he said. “Immediately, we had enough of a core for a symphony. And then it got big.”

The group’s numbers have since risen to more than 70, comprising university students, faculty members, alumni, retirees, high schoolers and others, forming a web that spreads out from the campus to include Blacksburg, Roanoke, Giles County and beyond. A Wytheville, Virginia, mother and her two sons are members, as is a woman in her 80s from rural Riner, while a teen who plays the French horn commutes from North Carolina to take part.

The spring concert included performances of “The Light Cavalry: Overture” by Franz von Suppé and Joseph Curiale’s “The Awakening.”

“The folks are very conscientious because they’re dedicating their time to this,” Gallops said. “They don’t have to be there. They’re coming, they get the music and they practice it.”

Those efforts are paying dividends: In November, the University Community Symphony took the stage in the Douglas and Beatrice Covington Center for Visual and Performing Arts to a capacity crowd of about 350.

“Here’s what surprised me: Before the concert, I went out to my car ... and people were starting to arrive, and there was this whole group of high school kids coming in,” Gallops said.

They weren’t from Radford, he felt, or he would’ve recognized them, which suggests they traveled some distance to the campus, to hear classical music no less.

“That was kind of a surprise,” Gallops recalled. “I knew we were going to attract people from the community, but just to see it in that specific way was kind of cool.”

The University Community Symphony is just one of countless partnerships Radford has forged with surrounding communities and organizations -- in fields ranging from nutrition and social work, to tax preparation and community service.

Fostering empathy through VR

As the ranks of aging Americans continue to rise, an unsettling parallel workforce shortage is also coming into focus, spelled out in a recent project report by Radford University Assistant Professor of Sociology Mingyang Zheng.

“Overall, 4% of social workers, 2.6% of advanced practice registered nurses and less than 1% of registered nurses, physician assistants and pharmacists are certified in geriatrics,” Zheng wrote in his findings.

“We found that we don’t have lots of healthcare workers who want to work with older adults, and that was my experience with students, too,” he said in February. “I felt like it’s very much needed that we have a training for workers to work with older adults, especially those who experience cognitive declines.”

Zheng’s brainstorm merged the old with the new – specifically virtual reality (VR) simulations that support learning-by-doing and increase general levels of understanding of what it’s like to experience the hardships of old age.

“The primary goal was to increase knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease and social isolation while improving participants’ confidence and empathy in caring for older adults,” Zheng said.

Using a VR module and headset, he spearheaded a continuing education program from October 2023 through last year, providing staff training through the New River Valley Community Services, conducting exercises at the Roanoke Higher Education Center and partnering with the Virginia Society for Clinical Social Work.

About 100 subjects took part in the program, which involved simulating (through a “first person” lens) the experiences of an aging widower.

“This method fostered deeper empathy, as participants found themselves in the shoes of an older adult grappling with cognitive decline, sensory impairment and ... isolation,” Zheng wrote. “Post-training surveys showed that many left with a heightened sense of compassion and actionable strategies they could immediately apply in clinical or community settings.”

The project was presented at the Gerontological Society of America 2024 conference and this year’s Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy.

“With continued support and collaboration, we believe this VR approach to geriatric education can become a sustainable, impactful tool that benefits not only our local community but also sets a precedent for similar programs across the state,” Zheng wrote.

A fruitful approach

Imagine a prescription that provides some of the most fundamental forms of human sustenance – fresh fruits and vegetables.

That’s the concept behind a new effort that’s teaming Radford University with several local organizations to support a “food as medicine” program around the Roanoke and New River valleys.

In November, it was announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded $479,918 to the Southwest Virginia Produce Prescription Program (SWPRx), a regional collaboration that includes the Local Environmental Agricultural Project (LEAP), Carilion Clinic, Virginia Fresh Match and Feeding Southwest Virginia, with the university leading the program’s evaluation.

Starting this spring, the three-year initiative will operate in Radford and Roanoke, as well as Floyd and Franklin counties. It should serve about 300 patients who will receive prescriptions for produce while attending nutrition courses.

Local healthcare providers will refer patients who are at risk for or have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes and pre-diabetes. The goal is to encourage greater consumption of fruits and vegetables among eligible Medicaid patients, to enhance food security and to improve health outcomes.

“The Radford evaluation team will be tracking program delivery processes to learn what works best for the patients, providers, local farmers and communitybased food retailers,” said Associate Professor Sallie Beth Johnson, chair of Radford’s Department of Public Health and Healthcare Leadership (PHHL).

Kim Baskette, program director for Radford University Health Sciences graduate programs and an associate professor within PHHL, said the SWPRx “brings together the key players that represent all of the aspects needed to make this a viable and sustainable program for our community members.”

The project is part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP).

Many happy returns

Taxes are inevitable, of course, but three years ago, Radford University began a collaboration between the Davis College of Business and Economics and New River Community Action (NRCA) to provide free tax preparation services to residents.

Since 2022, through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, those making less than $56,000 can get their taxes done at no cost to them. VITA has locations in Christiansburg, Floyd and Pulaski, but because the university provides on-campus office space, city residents have gained closer and easier access to the services.

In 2023, VITA’s Radford location prepared 777 tax returns, which, against an average cost of $250, saved the public about $266,000.

It helps the collegiate community as well – that same year, about 100 university students and staffers filed returns using VITA, with much of the processing done by student volunteers who completed 347 returns, thus donating about 220 hours of service.

“We have a relationship with each other”

One of the most vital collaborations the university enjoys is through its relationships with alumni – a system of individuals that runs throughout the region, the state, the country and the world.

So many of the university’s graduates give support that it’s difficult to spotlight individuals, but one sterling example would be Denny Van Pelt ’94, a Highlander baseball star who’s joined the athletic program’s Hall of Fame and who was Radford’s Outstanding Alumni Philanthropist for 2024.

Although he lives nearly 500 miles from his alma mater, he’s remained active as a Highlander booster.

“I’ve promoted and supported a lot of efforts through the school, especially the ones where there’s a connection to me,” Van Pelt said, and he’s helped friends and former teammates through efforts like the Mike Ashley Scholarship in Communications, Media and Public Relations and by reactivating the Kevin Scott Memorial Scholarship.

Van Pelt also expanded his efforts beyond athletics through initiatives involving the school and the city, and this winter, he took part in Radford Gives Back’s backpack project.

“My feeling is, the community and the school feed off one another. As one does well, the other benefits,” Van Pelt said.

“The last couple of years in particular, especially with the joint efforts of the Radford community and Mayor [David] Horton and the council members and our RU administration. They’re recognizing that we have a relationship with each other,” he explained.

“We piggyback – the university and the city – and I want to see the place thrive.”