This Thursday, the Longwood Leadership Forum will officially begin and the Longwood University community can expect a lot more “friendraising” in the coming months.
According to the Office of Commonwealth Relations page on the Longwood University website, the Longwood Leadership Forum is a speaker series featuring “outstanding examples of leadership in the arts, education, literature, sciences, technology, business and philanthropy.”
The purpose of this new initiative is to encourage alumni and community members to return to Longwood University and potentially monetarily benefit the campus while doing so.
Vice President for Commonwealth Relations Brenda Atkins described the term, “friendraising,” as an “old” and often-used term.
Atkins said, “You have to have friends in order to accomplish anything, and friends are your supporters. They may not support you with money, but they support you and the university as you move forward, and over time you hope you can move that to a donor type relationship.”
The idea for the Longwood Leadership Forum originated from President W. Taylor Reveley IV who brought back his own influence as previous managing director of the Miller Center, a nonpartisan institute of the University of Virginia that focuses on the understanding of presidency, policy and political history.
The Longwood Leadership Forum was modeled after the Miller Center American Forum, a speaker series that brings more than 60 speakers each year to the University of Virginia.
With this new speaker series, the potential growth in philanthropic funding is hoped to benefit retention and graduation rates.
Atkins said, “Most people don’t realize that even after six years, only about 60% of our students graduate, and that sounds bad but we’re at the high, above the national average. So, it’s not just Longwood, all the institutions are in this boat. So, we’ve been increasing our retention rate every year by about 1% ... but we’re hoping to increase that considerably over the next few years, and with that, increase our graduation rate.”
Director of Major Programs Diane Easter stated that the making of the Longwood Leadership Forum involved communication with various deans and department chairs on campus as well as a partnership with Friends of the Janet D. Greenwood Library.
Doing so, Easter stated that she hoped for the speaker series to appeal to a wide range of interests.
Easter said, “It’s not Commonwealth Relations Speaker Series. It’s the University Speaker Series and Presidential Speaker Series. So, we want it to be something that the university is really supportive of and something that they feel like they’ve played a part in making successful.”
Atkins said, “I’m excited about all of that because they’re new and different things that will get people to campus, get people more involved.”
According to the Office of Commonwealth Relations page on the Longwood University website, all lectures in the Longwood Leadership Forum will take place at 7 p.m. in Molnar Recital Hall of Wygal Hall, unless otherwise stated. All programs are open to the public and free of charge.
Below is a list of the speakers for the Longwood Leadership Forum, taken from the Office of Commonwealth Relations page on the Longwood University website:
Jeff Schapiro
Richmond Times-Dispatch political reporter and columnist Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014
Jeff Schapiro has covered Virginia elections and the state Capitol for 30 years. He will reflect on the recent governor's race and what we can expect from the new governor of Virginia. A light reception open to all audience members will follow this program.
Meg Gruber
President, Virginia Education Association
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Meg Gruber is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Virginia Education Association, a 56,000 member group which is the largest and oldest professional organization serving public schools and public school educators in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Gruber, an earth science teacher in Prince William County, will speak on challenges and opportunities for today’s public school teachers.
Dean King
Author: “The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys, The True Story” Thursday, March 27, 2014
Dean King is an award- winning author of nine non- fiction books and is based in Richmond, Va. His book “The Feud” was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal as "Marvelous ... popular history as it ought to be written," and USA Today gave it four stars. He is serving as the co-executive producer of an upcoming History Channel Hatfield-McCoy reality documentary series based on his research. A book signing will follow this program.
This presentation is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Janet D. Greenwood Library.
Teri Kanefield
Author: “The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement”
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Teri Kanefield is an author of books for young people and an attorney in Sacramento, Calif. Her newest book on Barbara Johns, published in Fall 2013, has been chosen as a Junior Library Guild Selection and was researched in Farmville. She is pleased to return to the area to discuss the finished work. A book signing will follow this program.
This presentation is presented in partnership with the Friends of the Janet D. Greenwood Library.
