The drive from Virginia Beach to Emory & Henry University’s campus is just under 6 hours: 5 hours and 55 minutes, to be exact, if you don’t stop along the way.
It’s a drive Stephen Smith knows well.
The junior at the private school in Emory knew that going to college in rural Appalachia would be different from where he grew up on Virginia’s urban coast. But one of his fall semester classes helped him see the region around his college in a new light — and spurred a deeper appreciation of his homes, both old and new.
“I never realized how fortunate I was to grow up where I grew up,” Smith said during an interview in November. “Not that growing up here is bad, or growing up where I did was better.” He said professor Theresa Burriss’ class with the vague name “Core 200” helped him realize that the opportunities and resources he enjoyed don’t exist in every community in the commonwealth.
Over the course of 15 weeks, Burriss’ two dozen students learned about the history of Appalachia, including the long-ranging impact of the opioid epidemic on the region. But this was far from just a history class. The students also learned the ethics of conducting interviews for academic research. They designed a detailed questionnaire, then sat down with residents of Glade Spring to learn how a new YWCA resource center could serve their community in northeast Washington County near the Smyth County line.
The student research was funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission’s annual Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative. At the end of the semester, a handful of students, including Smith, traveled to Arlington to present their findings to ARC administrators alongside students from 14 other schools that also got ACRI grants this year.
About the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative
The Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative is an applied research training program for college students attending schools in Appalachia. Each project focuses on economic development in the college’s local community and allows students to develop their leadership skills beyond the classroom.
There are nearly 600 higher education institutions in the Appalachian Regional Commission’s area. East Tennessee State University administers ACRI grants, which are awarded to up to 16 colleges and universities each year.
Virginia Tech was awarded a grant this year for students to participate as co-researchers in Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia and learn how the creation of monuments can contribute to racial justice efforts.
Radford University received a grant for students to work with the city of Radford to develop proposals for the redevelopment of the foundry site now known as West Radford Commerce Park.
Emory & Henry has increased its emphasis on student engagement in the working world, said Dirk Moore, director of the Appalachian Center for Civic Life at E&H. “An important part of that is how they’ll understand how they have to engage with the communities where they will work.”
By gaining exposure to and interacting with the local community, Moore said students will have a deeper context that will help them prepare for the opportunities and challenges they’ll face in their careers, regardless of where they live after graduation.
Research class provides intimate look at Appalachian history and health
Emory & Henry has a history of partnering with the YWCA of Northeastern Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. The nonprofit’s new community center, called the Powerhouse, provides health and wellness services and support for people affected by drug addiction or poverty.
Programming in the Powerhouse’s first few months has included fitness classes, teen workforce preparedness programs and first aid training, all provided via the YWCA’s vast network of community partners. The Powerhouse is not a drug treatment center but instead seeks to support the people around those in addiction: family members, friends and coworkers, explained director Jessica Lawrence.
About 19% of people in Smyth County and 12% of people in Washington County live in poverty. That’s higher than the statewide poverty rate of about 10%. A previous study funded by an Appalachian Regional Commission grant found that substance use disorder was the primary health and wellness issue facing the community. Mental health and access to care also topped the list of concerns.
That previous study clarified the need for a resource center like the Powerhouse in Glade Spring, but as the center prepared to open in 2024, the YWCA knew it would benefit from more granular information about residents’ needs and preferences. Burriss’ ACRI grant proposed helping the YWCA by conducting listening sessions with locals while giving undergraduates real-world research experience. E&H received $8,000 and passed $1,000 of its funding along to the Powerhouse.
Emory & Henry was one of three schools in Virginia that received an ACRI grant for 2024; projects at Radford and Virginia Tech were also selected. This is not Burriss’ first ACRI grant. She previously served as director of Appalachian Studies and director of the Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center at Radford University before joining Emory & Henry in 2023 as assistant vice president of community engagement and economic development.
Student skills include increased self-awareness
The two dozen students in Burriss’ class come from assorted programs of study and various parts of North America near and far.
Anna Norton, a sophomore from Charlotte, North Carolina, took the class in part because she had heard good things about working with Burriss and also because she was interested in learning more about Appalachia. The equine studies major admitted she wasn’t a confident writer before the class, which fulfilled a requirement for graduation. But in less than a semester, she could identify how much she’d grown, both as a writer and as a person.
She hadn’t been aware of the opioid epidemic’s ripple effects on the area. Now she is. And she now recognizes that some residents might be resistant to new programs and ideas. She said older residents interviewed for the project were more likely to react to the Powerhouse with resistance, with an attitude of, “Oh, we don’t need your solution. We’re just fine.”
Norton said the training she got during class has helped her be more culturally aware of the different views she might encounter in tight-knit communities like Glade Spring. “Being aware of what you say and how you say it is very important,” she said.
Smith, an economics and accounting major, is used to interviewing people. He has spoken with area business people for school projects to learn about their company procedures and processes for school projects. But these interviews went deeper, he explained.
“You’re trying to find the balance,” he said. “You want [interviewees] to know the Powerhouse is here and has resources. But then again, you don’t want to take away from anything they’re already doing or that they’re already used to.”
The students’ major finding from their 12 in-depth interviews was that the Powerhouse would need to continue consistent marketing efforts to make residents aware of the center and its variety of resources. In addition, offering options for residents to submit feedback anonymously may help surface needs and concerns people might be too anxious or ashamed to bring up otherwise.
Lawrence at the Powerhouse said marketing and visibility is a major focus as the Powerhouse establishes itself, though she’s been impressed at how Glade Spring has embraced the center so far. She said it’s important to make sure everyone in the community feels welcome and invited to use the Powerhouse. In a late November interview, she talked about an upcoming parenting support group for grandparents and other adults caring for children who are not their own. But expanding the sessions to all caregivers, she said, may help amplify support and solidarity around the various challenges of raising children.
Burriss said she was proud of the work her students had produced and how they’d represented the university at the ACRI conference. During an interview a month earlier, she had already praised their growth over the course of the semester as they learned about Appalachian health history and conducted their interviews.
“You need to be self-aware, especially when you are conducting interviews so that there’s a sensitivity and compassion and an understanding that what you’re hearing is valid,” she said. “It might be drastically different from your lived experience, but it is just as valuable.”
“I’ve seen changes in attitudes,” she said.