Virginia Scenic Railway’s new Shenandoah Valley Limited proved just the ticket for seasonal leaf-peepers and train enthusiasts, drawing thousands of visitors to Goshen this fall.
The iconic Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611, known as the “Queen of Steam,” is one of the last extant mainline passenger steam locomotives built in the United States. It pulled the Limited’s 14-car train to Staunton and back Fridays through Sundays, from Oct. 6 through Nov. 5.
Roughly all 20,000 tickets were snapped up, drawing passengers from as far as Florida, says Steve Powell, president of Buckingham Branch Railway, which owns and operates VSR.
“For me, seeing a steam locomotive is truly a one-of-a-kind experience,” says Mark Turkovich, who traveled from Pittsburgh to photograph the train.
Local officials knew the Limited would shine a light on small-town Goshen, population 350, says Vice Mayor Steve Bickley. New welcome signs were installed, and the town published a brochure high-lighting area attractions. Riders filled two Airbnbs and the six-room Hummingbird Inn Bed & Breakfast. The Hummingbird is normally booked during fall, but rooms sold faster after Limited tickets became available in late August, says co-owner Sandra Shaffer. “More than anything, it’s given us exposure,” she says.
The Limited is VSR’s fourth excursion ride. Staunton-based VSR started with the Alleghany Special, Blue Ridge Flyer and Santa’s Scenic Railway last year. All three are round trips departing from Staunton — the Special heads to Goshen during its morning trip — and share a diesel locomotive to pull a 34-seat passenger car. The Special and Flyer run year-round; the Santa train runs through December. More than 17,000 passengers have taken trips on the three lines since August 2022.
The decision on whether to bring the 611 back from the Roanoke-based Virginia Museum of Transportation for another run will be made later, says museum Executive Director Mendy Flynn.
Lexington and Rockbridge Area Tourism says it’s too early to tell what impact the Limited had on the local economy. But VSR’s other trains are having an express effect in Staunton.
The Blackburn Inn and Conference Center in Staunton is developing a package that will include a discount on VSR tickets and other local attractions from January through March, says Katie Campbell, vice president of marketing and head of partnerships for Blackburn’s manager, Retro Hospitality.
“To have a new tourism product that we can market and sell to existing guests and get them as repeat guests that also attract new guests is really exciting,” she says.
With help in part from three state grants, Downtown Lynchburg Association is working to brighten the city’s scenic Bluffwalk for the holidays and fill downtown stores.
DLA combined a $75,000 Virginia Main Street Downtown Investment Grant with other funding to launch Bright Nights on the Bluffwalk, an eight-week event set to kick off Nov. 17 with a festival.
DLA received the funding as part of $2.91 million in Virginia Main Street, Community Business Launch and Virginia Business District Resurgence grants awarded in September for 45 projects across Virginia.
The association received a total of $310,000, the most of any locality. It included a $135,000 Virginia Business District Resurgence Grant for a microgrant program to allow small businesses to make storefront and beautification improvements and a $100,000 Community Business Launch Grant for DLA’s Launch LYH entrepreneurial support program and pitch competition, which begins its second program in 2024.
Bright Nights will transform the city’s four-block pedestrian walkway overlooking the James River into a wonderland of lights, large-scale installations and festive music, says DLA Executive Director Ashley Kershner. The organization had wanted to create a holiday experience to attract people downtown after Lynchburg’s annual Christmas Parade moved to midtown in 2016. The state grant provided the last piece of funding needed for the $210,000 celebration, she says.
“We anticipate that this event will draw families and new visitors to our vibrant downtown area, creating a significant boost to local businesses, hotels, and attractions, and enriching the overall holiday spirit of our community,” says Marjette Upshur, Lynchburg’s economic development and tourism director.
DLA serves a 73-block area that currently has a 23% vacancy rate due largely to an ongoing project to replace old water lines and install new sidewalks, according to Kershner. The first Launch LYH program, which launched in January 2023, is helping fill empty buildings, Kershner says.
Launch LNY received more than 100 applications, and selected 25 applicants to participate in an eight-week education course culminating in a pitch competition. Seven winners received cash grants to help with new venture costs. The grants ranged from $10,000 to $25,000 and could be used for rent, build-out, inventory, or other startup costs. They also received a prize package that included assistance with site selection, permitting and marketing.
Four winners have already signed leases and will open their businesses in the next few months. Among them is Tia Hancock, who is opening an indoor plant boutique, PREAM (Plants Rule Everything Around Me), at 409 Fifth St., where customers can create their own potting soil mixes.
Hancock says she gained a wealth of knowledge from Launch LYH about the back end of running a business and forged strong connections with her classmates and mentors. The program also helped her find her store location, which has large windows that let in lots of light for plants.
“Honestly, the most valuable thing I got out of this whole program was the people that I met in the class and the people teaching it,” Hancock says. “The four winners … have built a close relationship. We went through this process together, so not only am I not alone, but when things fall apart, I have at least three other people to call and vent to, and they know exactly what I’m talking about. I do have mentors that I can call for that same exact thing. A lot came out of this more than simply money.”
Teens got their first jobs and couples experienced their first kisses at the former Dixie Theater in downtown Staunton.
Now the vacant building, which opened in 1913 at 125 E. Beverley St., is a step closer to becoming a community cultural center, thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the state Industrial Revitalization Fund, which encourages economic development through the renovation of vacant and derelict structures.
Staunton received the funding in August on behalf of the nonprofit Arcadia Project, which formed in 2017 to revamp the building into a theater with event space, classrooms and a small café.
“It’s definitely going to be a vibrant and wonderful addition to our community, not only for locals but also visitors downtown,” says Greg Beam, executive director of the Staunton Downtown Development Association, which is promoting Arcadia’s fundraising events and wrote a recommendation letter for its grant application.
Arcadia’s board was set to begin advertising for a contractor in late October for the $3 million renovation, which is expected to begin in early 2024 and be completed by early 2025. Two-thirds of the cost has been raised so far in money and in-kind donations, including a $30,000 in-kind donation of surround-sound movie theater equipment from George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. The rest will be in hand by opening day, says Executive Director Pamela Wagner.
Board members reached out to the community to determine the activities people wanted to see offered in the building, which closed in 2014.
“We envision this place to be a building that will hold programing relevant to everyone’s life,” says Vice President Abena Foreman-Trice.
One of the theater’s two auditoriums will be converted into a 90-seat theater and lecture hall that can host themed film festivals, including the Music at the Movies series the nonprofit has been hosting with Visulite Cinemas in Staunton, says Arcadia President Tom Wagner. The other auditorium will hold up to 260 people for conferences and events.
When open, the theater will likely employ five to eight people, says Pamela Wagner.
“From the city’s perspective, a project like this generating activity in our downtown area is fantastic,” says Amanda DiMeo, Staunton’s economic development specialist. “The Arcadia Project is something the community is excited about, and we see it as a positive to have a longtime vacant building restored and occupied with ample opportunity for growth and engagement.”
A French nuclear power company with its United States headquarters in Lynchburg is ramping up hiring to meet a growing global need for clean, low-carbon energy.
Framatome North America is recruiting for 200 positions in the U.S, about 125 of which are in Lynchburg, and it anticipates a “significant” number of additional openings in coming years, says CEO Katherine Williams.
Some of those employees will come from the 20-year-old Framatome Nuclear Technology Academy at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, which in May saw a major revamp after realizing its enrollment, which was limited to employees, had dwindled from a high of 25 students at a time to as few as five. The academy, a pathway to an associate degree, produces nuclear technicians who monitor and help maintain nuclear plants.
Nationally, about 600 openings for nuclear technicians are projected annually during the next decade.
Framatome has been in Lynchburg since 1989 and has about 1,320 employees in the location. It designs and provides equipment, services and fuel for nuclear power plants around the world. After noticing a skills gap in its entry level applicants, the company donated $1 million to CVCC to establish the academy in 2004. More than 100 employees have graduated from it, and 70% still work at Framatome, says Williams.
In May, Framatome announced it was donating $400,000 over four years to revamp the academy, adding equipment and condensing classroom instruction into semesters instead of two, five-week sessions annually for four years. (The rest of the time, Framatome’s students work at nuclear plants globally.) Employee pay was also made more competitive for students enrolled in the academy, which is tuition-free. Enrollment has reached a company goal of 30, says Marci Gale, head of CVCC’s mechatronics and electronics faculty.
The academy also is now open to the public; 16 non-Framatome employees have enrolled. Those who don’t work for another company that might cover academy tuition are likely to get an interview with Framatome.
L.A. Wills, 24, worked for a Framatome subcontractor when he learned about the academy. He’s in his third year now and works on steam generators for Framatome. He’ll graduate next year with a degree in applied nuclear mechatronics.
“Personally, it gives you an opportunity to show the company that you’re willing to put in the work to better yourself, so that way you can grow with the company,” Wills says.
Leaders of a regional engineering firm figured finding office space in the Town Center of Virginia Beach would be a breeze. Newspapers were reporting that demand for offices was down nationally.
But that isn’t the case in the Hampton Roads area, where the office vacancy rate was 8.1% for the first quarter of 2023, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. That’s about half the national average of 16.1%, and in some markets, the vacancy rate has hovered around 30%.
“It’s not that there’s not available inventory, it’s that what they want has already been snapped up because everyone wants the same kind of space,” says Rob Wright, a senior vice president at Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer in Virginia Beach who’s helping the firm — whose name he’s keeping private — find a location.
The pandemic upended employees’ expectations of working 9 to 5 in an office, and executives have found they need to provide the right incentives and environment so their staff sees a reason to come to the office, he says. They want them to be collaborative, see the benefits of teamwork and then be able to walk someplace nearby for lunch or an afterwork drink.
“Dollar Tree did that at the Summit Pointe project when they merged with Dollar General,” says Wright. “Their CEO basically said, ‘If we’re going to stay in Chesapeake, Virginia, we’re going to build a city within a city. We’re going to build perks for our employees. We’ve got to have space for them to have multifamily apartments right there on our campus. We want to have the best restaurants on our campus, the best entertainment venues and breweries.”
That decision has paid off — Summit Pointe’s two high-rise office buildings, one of which is Dollar Tree’s headquarters, are filled, and tenants are paying some of the highest rents in the Hampton Roads area, Wright says. A third office building is planned.
Guesswork on leasing
Reflecting nationwide patterns, Class A office space in newer commercial developments like Town Center in Virginia Beach and City Center at Oyster Point in Newport News is in high demand across Hampton Roads. But older buildings with Class B or C office space? Not so much. Besides retail and restaurants, office workers also want free, easy-to-find parking, Wright notes.
“I think what we’re seeing in this modified, nontraditional, not-9-to-5 world is that when people have to pay for parking, there is less motivation to go into the office,” Wright says. “There’s just some sticking point of not wanting to go and formally pay for parking versus when you have free parking. Maybe you feel better about popping in for a short workday.”
Downtown Norfolk, along with Hampton, are the softest submarkets in the Hampton Roads area. Besides parking challenges, a major factor is “large blocks of functionally obsolete build-outs” that are unappealing, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s report.
Wright says it’s difficult right now for executives who have to make long-term decisions about leasing office space without a crystal ball to predict what their needs may be a decade from now.
“I don’t think we’re seeing dramatic reductions in overall square footage requirements,” he says. “What I have noticed is national companies with offices around the country have changed their requirements more than regional and local companies have.”
Some national companies have left the area, while others, such as Norfolk-based Sentara Health, have expanded, Wright says. “Whenever we’ve had these bigger blocks of square footage come up, there has been backfill occupiers grabbing them up, so that’s a good sign for the overall market.”
Lowe’s is expected to open its 1.5 million-square-foot regional distribution center in Suffolk’s Virginia Port Logistics Park in the third quarter, says Lang Williams with Colliers. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Port-driven industrial
As for the industrial market in Hampton Roads, it’s remained healthy thanks to the Port of Virginia, an economic driver for the entire state. Amid heavy demand for imports during the pandemic and delays at other U.S. ports over the past two years, many retailers located logistics presences in Norfolk and surrounding localities, says Geoff Poston, senior vice president of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s industrial group.
For the first quarter of 2023, industrial real estate had a 2% vacancy rate. “When all the ports across the country were backed up, we were the most efficient port,” Poston says. “Retailers were like, we can’t get into L.A. or Long Beach, we can’t get into New York. Let’s go to Norfolk. They don’t have any issues.”
In 2022, the Port of Virginia processed more than 3.7 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at its terminals, setting a record. Cargo movement and handling has resulted in higher demand for industrial space near the port’s terminals from distributors and third-party logistics companies.
Amazon.com, for example, built a 3.8 million-square-foot robotic fulfillment center in Suffolk and a 650,000-square-foot processing center in Chesapeake. In June, two industrial warehouses in Chesapeake sold for $24 million, and they’re fully leased to tenants that include Fortune 500 government contractor CACI International and third-party logistics firm Kalman & Co. Since July 2020, 79 companies have announced plans to establish manufacturing and distribution presences in Virginia, investing nearly $4 billion, according to an April 2023 study conducted by William & Mary.
TradePort Logistics, for example, fully leased and moved into Northbridge’s new 334,800-square-foot Chesapeake Logistics Center in May, says Lang Williams, a
Norfolk-based senior vice president with Colliers. TradePort has plans to construct a purpose-built transload facility near the Port of Virginia in the coming months.
Two other projects expected to open in Suffolk in the third quarter of this year are Lowe’s 1.5 million-square-foot regional distribution center in the Virginia Port Logistics Park and the 227,000-square-foot distribution facility that Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group (IRG), one of the largest real estate developers in the nation, is building on 40 acres in Suffolk. It will be fully leased to RoadOne IntermodaLogistics, a national intermodal, warehouse and logistics services company.
IRG is also working on two build-to-suit facilities in Suffolk and Portsmouth, totaling 1 million square feet, for Unis, a third-party fulfillment and transportation company.
Companies are willing to locate near the port — and even a bit further away from the terminals — because it’s a fairly sure bet, given the port’s investment of about $1.4 billion to expand its overall capacity and cargo handling capabilities. This includes dredging the harbor to 55 feet so it can accommodate two ships at a time, “which is a game changer,” Poston says.
Demand is so high, Williams adds, that developers are starting to look to places along Interstate 64 like New Kent County, where AutoZone has broken ground for an 800,000-square-foot facility, and James City County, where Green Mount Logistics Center is expected to have a 373,536-square-foot Class A spec distribution facility ready in the fourth quarter of this year.
“So, we’re excited,” Williams says, “because we’re going to have more options for these companies to lease, which will be good.”
Responding to demand for more jerky and meat sticks, the Monogram Foods plant in Henry County has a $65 million expansion underway.
Memphis-based Monogram Foods’ decision to expand the operation also factored in existing infrastructure and production expertise, says Scott Mills, executive vice president and snacking division president, calling Martinsville “a thriving community with a healthy talent base.”
Ground was broken on the project near the end of 2022 and construction is expected to be mostly complete by March 2024, Mills says. The expansion, which will include adding equipment and about 150 employees, is expected to boost the plant’s potential capacity by around 40%, and upon completion, the plant will be the county’s second largest private employer.
In June, the company secured $8 million in financing from CEI Capital Management LLC (CCML), a subsidiary of community development financial institution Coastal Enterprises, which will assist with rising construction costs, according to CCML.
This is the sixth time the packaged snack food company has expanded the Henry plant since purchasing it in 2006. Previous expansions included additions for jerky production, warehousing and a biogas energy plant.
“The current complex is 54 acres with four operating buildings, a total of 287,000 square feet under roof,” Mills says. “Current expansion adds 13,000 square feet, for a total of 300,000 square feet under roof.”
Monogram Foods Martinsville employs approximately 600 people. That figure is estimated to reach 756 when it’s finished, Mills says. New positions will include additional line, warehouse, maintenance, quality assurance and janitorial workers, plus plant supervisors.
The plant has helped to diversify the industries in the Martinsville area, which saw its textile and furniture manufacturers move overseas in the 1990s, says Mark Heath, president and CEO of Martinsville Henry County Economic Development. It also supports the community by providing an annual grants program for local children’s organizations and sponsoring a local sports complex, says Henry County Administrator Dale Wagoner.
“It will most certainly have significant positive impacts on Martinsville, too,” says Glen Adams, Martinsville’s interim city manager. “The council is focused on finding avenues to spark housing development within the city, and this could be that spark. It will certainly increase other investors’ interests in our region, and we have several Martinsville-Henry County Industrial Park options primed and ready for additional expansion.”
Bridgewater College students will notice dramatic changes in Bowman Hall when they return to campus on Oct. 4 after the fall semester break.
The first phase of an $8.5 million renovation of the campus’s main academic building will be finished, and the basement and first floor will reopen. The redesigned classrooms and faculty offices will be flexible and better able to facilitate interaction between students and faculty, says David W. Bushman, president of the small, private college in Rockingham County. All four floors of the 70-year-old building will be impacted.
“We’re really thinking about the kinds of changes you need to make, not just to improve technology and furniture in the classroom, but how they make a classroom,” he says. “How does the classroom building really support student learning and advising and interaction with faculty?”
Bowman houses seven undergraduate and three graduate programs, and most students have at least one class there. Renovations include multiple outlets for digital devices, numerous flat screens to display presentations and web content, and chairs and desks on wheels that can be rearranged for collaborative work.
“Interactive learning is the coin of our realm these days,” says Provost and Executive Vice President Leona A. Sevick. “We talked about the spaces as being [makerspaces], not just spaces where students are sitting back and passively learning.”
Lantz Construction in Broadway, which has worked on several of Bridgewater’s buildings, began renovations the day after spring commencement. Work on the second and third floors will be completed next summer. The building will be 26,710 square feet when the renovations are finished. About 300 square feet will be lost due to HVAC and sprinkler systems upgrades, says Kristy Rhea, who is overseeing the project and is the college’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer.
All classes will remain in Bowman, but some faculty offices have been relocated temporarily. They’ll be grouped by department when they return, and their offices will open into advising suites for students.
Renovations are expected to be totally funded by donors, including a nearly $2 million gift from the late Dr. Garner H. Downey, a 1947 graduate, and his late wife, Mae Frances.
“We’ll have the formal dedication and ceremony next August, but students and faculty will benefit from some of these renovations right now,” says Bushman. “We’re excited about that.”
James Madison University is where Angela Reddix says she found “my tribe, the godmothers of my children” — and also her future husband, Carl, whom she met on her first day on campus.
“All those relationships came from JMU,” says Reddix, founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm. “I believe I owe my success to James Madison University — my confidence, my ability to navigate this world. There’s not enough that I could give to show my appreciation to James Madison University.”
Last year, Angela Reddix made a down payment on her debt of appreciation to JMU when she and her husband contributed $1.1 million to establish the new Reddix Center for First Generation Students and a scholarship endowment, also in support of first-generation students.
Carl Reddix, who studied management and graduated in 1988, was a first-generation college student, while Angela, who graduated in 1990 with a business administration in marketing degree, was a second-generation student. Nevertheless, Angela Reddix says, “I understand from being the child of a first-generation college student how important it is, particularly when you are at a predominantly white university … that there is a support system there for you, and that you have the resources so that you don’t feel that you have to navigate that space all on your own.”
Located in the five-story Student Success Center and officially opened in November 2022, the Reddix Center offers first-generation students space for individual or group study sessions, a lounge where they can relax and meet friends, and even a place to prepare and store food. The center’s staff provides students with information about the university and helps them connect with campus resources and opportunities such as social events and career workshops. The Reddixes also plan to be personally involved in the center’s programming.
“We’ve already been able to see a good bit of community building among first-generation students and that’s something that’s been pretty cool to see,” says Jordan Cherry, a graduate student in sports and recreation leadership who mentors first-gen students through JMU’s Centennial Scholars Program.
A first-generation student himself, Cherry says it’s important for such students to have a regular gathering place and a base where they know they’ll be able to find help and make friends with others in their situation.
“A lot of the time, first-generation students … feel like they’re going through this game of college alone, and that couldn’t be further from the truth because there are a whole lot of other first-generations feeling exactly what they’re feeling,” he says. “We want to reinforce that there is a community of first-generation students who are going through the same struggles and alleviate some of those stresses and help them realize there’s a lot of resources that JMU has for them.”
Building community
The Reddix Center is designed to foster a feeling of community by providing first-generation students with a place where they can meet, get help from faculty and staff, and access special programs designed with their needs in mind. These include a one-credit-hour class called University Studies 102 that allows students to explore a major, minor or career.
“It gives them an opportunity in a structured environment, in a class setting, to have conversations with their peers and with a faculty member about the choices that they’re making as far as their career and major path,” says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney.
Another program will cover financial literacy, from how to create and manage a budget to how to evaluate job offers to what their retirement goals should look like. It will be taught by JMU’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office staff as well as some alums, he says. There will also be programs devoted to helping students achieve academic success in areas where they may be struggling.
“That’s probably a first for us,” Mooney notes. “Certainly, the university has offered programs like this in the past, but we’re partnering and collaborating with offices across campus in some of our student support units to build programming specific to our first-generation students. Many of these programs are often offered or facilitated by people who are first-generation students themselves who want to come back and give back and be able to help students across that pathway.”
Mooney is working with the school’s admissions team to get the word out about the Reddix Center to prospective students and their parents.
“I’m a first-generation student and I would have loved to have a center like this accessible to me in college,” says Melinda Wood, the university’s director of admissions and associate vice president for access and enrollment. “I think it really shifts the narrative … and makes folks think about JMU differently because they know that there’s a support structure and there will be students who look like them that are a part of the center.”
However, the center is just one of several efforts by JMU to attract and retain first-generation students, who accounted for 12.2% of fall 2022 enrollment, or 2,707 students out of a total enrollment of 22,224.
JMU’s first-generation student enrollment has increased around 9% over the past decade. That’s helped James Madison’s enrollment grow at a time when many other higher education institutions are seeing declines due to demographics, rising tuition costs, anxieties about student debt and growing doubts about the value of higher education.
Foreground, L to R: Yasmine Rodriguez, a Reddix Center graduate assistant, talks with Valley Scholars students Destiny Campbell and Tessa Souder. Photo courtesy James Madison University
Total fall 2022 enrollment at JMU was nearly double its fall enrollment of 11,343 a decade earlier. Meanwhile, total enrollment at all Virginia colleges and universities fell from 539,319 in fall 2012 to 519,531 in fall 2022, a nearly 3.7% drop, according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).
“As universities, we want students from a wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives to attend our institutions, and first-generation students and their experiences offer another lens or life experience that a group of students can bring to our campus,” says Mooney, “and I think it’s important to have their voice on campus as well.”
The university also began allowing prospective students to apply using the Common Application two years ago.
“Joining the Common Application really has opened the doors to so many more students being aware of JMU and having the opportunity to apply to the institution with just one central application platform,” says Wood. “We’re seeing greater numbers of students apply to JMU, and then having this amazing story to tell in the future [about the Reddix Center] is going to help us with those recruitment initiatives.”
‘Journey to achieve’
JMU began reaching out to first-generation students in 2004 with the Centennial Scholars Program (CSP), which provides financial assistance and an academic support network for underrepresented students. Started by former JMU President Linwood Rose, CSP was aimed at increasing diversity at the university. CSP offers full scholarships to Virginia college students who meet financial need requirements. Recipients also receive academic support, peer mentoring, interaction with faculty mentors, cultural enrichment activities and career-oriented workshops.
“We would describe those students as academically talented, highly motivated, but also Pell-eligible students,” says Mooney. “Almost all are also first-generation students.”
CSP requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA, perform community service and participate in campus activities. Each cohort has about 50 students and more than 730 of them had graduated as of June 2022. The graduation rate for the last three cohorts was 87%, and at least 35% of those students have gone on to medical school, law school and other graduate programs, according to JMU’s website.
Special classes offered through the Reddix Center helps first-generation college students with career and financial planning, says the center’s executive director, Shaun Mooney. Photo courtesy James Madison University
In 2014, JMU launched the Valley Scholars program, a college-readiness program for economically challenged students from the surrounding area. It’s focused solely on first-generation, financially eligible middle and high school students showing academic promise in JMU’s partner school districts. (These include school systems in the cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Waynesboro and the counties of Augusta, Page, Rockingham, and Shenandoah.)
Valley Scholars students are selected in the spring of seventh grade and begin participating in the program’s educational and cultural enrichment opportunities in eighth grade. They also attend a weeklong summer camp between ninth and 10th grades. The goal is to equip them with the skills they’ll need to be successful academically and to increase awareness and access to colleges and universities. Those who graduate from high school having completed the program receive scholarship support to attend JMU.
Overall, the graduation rate for students in the Valley Scholars program is more than double that of Pell-eligible, first-generation students nationally, Mooney says. It’s around 75% to 80%, compared with a national graduation rate of around 30%.
“For many students, certainly the financial support is incredibly important, but building community is also critical,” Mooney says. “Students recognize that they’re not alone in their journey to achieve their degree. They have the opportunity to connect to other students. They have the opportunity to connect to other staff members and to faculty members, and develop those networking connections that are necessary to say, ‘Hey, you know, I get it. I understand the challenges that you have, the obstacles that you’re facing, and we’re here to help you.’”
James Madison University — At a glance
Founded
A public research university in Harrisonburg, James Madison University was founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women. It was renamed Madison College in 1938 in honor of President James Madison and became James Madison University in 1977. Located in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and divided by Interstate 81, JMU’s 728-acre campus is known for its distinctive bluestone buildings, as well as Newman Lake near Greek Row and the university’s 125-acre Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, which has numerous gardens and wooded areas with 100-plus-year-old oak and hickory trees.
Enrollment*
Undergraduate: 20,346
Graduate: 1,878
Student profile*
Male | female ratio: 41% | 59%
International students: 1%
Minority students: 22%
Academic programs*
JMU has 76 undergraduate and 53 master’s degree programs, two education specialist degrees and eight doctoral programs. Fields range from accounting and computer science to international business, psychology and nursing.
Faculty*
Full-time: 1,070
Part-time: 393
Tuition, fees, housing and dining**
$25,840 approximate annual in-state undergraduate residential cost, including tuition, mandatory fees, housing and meal plan for incoming freshmen.
What’s the path ahead for Chesapeake’s Greenbrier community, a 12-square-mile area known as the city’s economic powerhouse?
Consultants have been meeting with city departments, the business community and the public since January to craft a plan guiding Greenbrier’s future development. They also posted a survey on Chesapeake’s website that garnered about 1,640 responses by July 1.
“What really spurred things on was the Summit Pointe development,” says Jimmy McNamara, the city’s planning director. Located in Greenbrier, Summit Pointe is a pedestrian-friendly mix of offices, apartments, retail and restaurants that Fortune 500 discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc. is developing around its 12-story corporate headquarters tower, which opened in 2018.
Chesapeake hired Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., a Raleigh, North Carolina-based planning and design consulting firm, for $744,500 to help create the Greenbrier Area Plan for the community, which is bordered by the Chesapeake Expressway, Military Highway and Kempsville Road. Expected to take 16 months to complete, the area plan will become part of the city’s comprehensive plan.
“We’re big believers that focus precedes success,” City Manager Chris Price told City Council during a May discussion of the plan.
Through meetings and the survey, the consultants have heard Greenbrier’s best qualities include convenient shopping, good schools and parks, and its variety of restaurants, Devin Simpson, a Kimley-Horn transportation engineer, told city officials. The community’s challenges include traffic congestion, few attractions for teens and young adults, a need for more housing options, and the struggling Greenbrier Mall, which has an uncertain future after most of the property went into foreclosure last year when Tennessee-based CBL Properties defaulted on a $61.6 million loan.
Brad Barnett of Cooper Robertson, Kimley-Horn’s urban design partner on the project, told City Council that residents want more outdoor facilities and gathering places; more options to walk, bike or take transit to ease congestion and connect residential and commercial areas; and more activities available after work and on weekends. Greenbrier has large parks, he said, but there’s an opportunity to create pocket parks and playgrounds in residential areas and small plazas near shopping areas.
Public outreach is continuing for the Greenbrier Area Plan, and the result will be broken into phases, says McNamara.
“I think this will be a plan that will evolve over time,” he says. “We’ll be able to knock a couple of things out and we’ll move the ball towards where we need to go.”
Like the rest of the country, Virginia’s public schools are suffering from a teacher shortage. In the 2022-23 academic year, there were 3,573 vacancies statewide, and more teachers are working with only provisional licenses, which don’t require teacher preparation courses.
In Southwest Virginia, though, educators are signing up for a master’s degree in education that the University of Virginia’s College at Wise is offering this fall, its first graduate-level degree program. Applications opened May 1, and the school received more than 40 responses in the first three weeks, even though tuition for the 2023-24 year hadn’t yet been set, says U.Va. Wise Chancellor Donna Price Henry.
“We were hoping that this first cohort will have 20 students, so we’re excited that we have more applications than that,” she says. “We’re planning to accommodate all who qualify.”
Although teachers can get licensed in Virginia with a bachelor’s degree, many opt for master’s degrees because they can qualify for higher pay and often gain more job opportunities — but Southwest Virginia lags behind Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads in the number of teachers who have master’s degrees in education.
U.Va. Wise’s board of visitors approved the program last year, and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approved the degree in March.
“Education seemed to make the most sense for our first master’s degree program,” Henry says. “Our thought was that if we could offer a graduate degree, it would provide teachers with that access, and then, hopefully, that enhanced education might help them to be better teachers.”
The nearly 69-year-old college worked with the University of Virginia to create the 30-credit-hour program, which has a concentration in curriculum and instruction. “[Graduates] will be better equipped to design curriculum, supervise other teachers and go into administration,” says SCHEV Director of Academic Affairs Joseph DeFilippo.
The new program will also provide those without a teaching license the courses they need to be provisionally licensed in special education and other subjects, Henry says. It’s flexible, with a full-time track that takes a year to complete, a five-year part-time path, and a combination of remote, in-person and hybrid courses.
“We could add some different tracks in the future, and one track that we’re looking at is for librarians, which is a need across the commonwealth,” as well as a track for reading specialists, she says.
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