I have spent two years at Longwood, and I am beginning my third and final year at this school. Overall, I would say that I’m glad I came to Longwood, and I think that my experience was overwhelmingly a positive one.
In my freshman year of college, I was not at Longwood, but rather, attending Reynolds Community College. I did not yet feel that I was “ready” to leave for university. I also realized that I had some maturing to do before I went out on my own (maybe I still do). I balanced Reynolds with a job at Kroger, but I ultimately yearned for something more. There were few things to do at Reynolds other than the chess club and the video game club.
So for my sophomore year, I came to Longwood, searching for adventure and new experiences. I think that I had trouble coming out of my shell at first, having left behind the video game club and the chess club of Reynolds and the theatre department of Atlee High School. I found more confidence through the Politics Club at Longwood as well as writing for The Rotunda. I also dabbled in LARPing, which I may or may not look back at negatively later.
At Reynolds, I had originally planned to study engineering, but I lost interest in that eventually. In my sophomore year at Longwood, I had decided to be a history major, but I realized that I might be limited as far as job opportunities if I did not earn a PhD. It was toward the end of my first semester at Longwood that I found a flyer for The Rotunda. I was soon writing for The Rotunda, and found that I enjoyed it far more than the majors I had looked at before. I made the decision to switch my major again, this time to communication studies. I now have attached a concentration in digital media to this degree.
In my junior year, I joined the resident assistant staff in Curry Residence Hall. In exchange for working as a resident assistant, or “RA,” I received room and board free of charge. Despite these generous benefits, I did not feel that this position was for me, especially since it forced me to stay up late before my 8:00 AM classes. My family told me that this work as a resident assistant was “isolating” me, and I decided that it was best to finish the school year as a RA before resigning ahead of the summer.
Over the summer, I worked in an internship at RVA Magazine, a small local publication in Richmond. This internship allowed me to also work at Wawa at the same time on a flexible schedule. This was one of the most memorable and important steps in my career path so far, I think, because it allowed me to network with people my age along with professionals from a wider range in the journalism industry than I would have expected.
I am overall very pleased with what Longwood has brought me so far, and I think that you, freshmen readers, will be as well. This school has given me much more than I could have expected in my education, and I am very grateful. Good luck!
