“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” – Barbara Kingsolver (Animal Dreams)

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If there is a theme to this Spring 2022 issue of Hollins magazine, it is hope, a thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.

The record-breaking $75 million gift from an anonymous alumna donor was based in hope and confidence – hope that Hollins’ best days are ahead of her, and confidence in the progressive vision and leadership of President Mary Dana Hinton. Our story, “Making HERstory,” explores the ways this gift has inspired and excited the larger campus and alumnae/i community. It is a story of how individual generosity breeds hope in others.

The Imagination Campaign, which is neither a strategic plan nor a long-term campaign, was President Hinton’s idea for attempting to kick-start a different way of looking at Hollins by seeking out new or improvable avenues for revenue-generating programs in the hopes of creating a more fiscally sustainable and healthy university in the coming decades. A key new program launched this year thanks to the Imagination Campaign is the HOPE Scholarship. The Hollins Opportunity for Promise through Education was created to generate and reward hope in new generations of students in the Roanoke Valley, and early indications are it is doing exactly that.

In “Roads to After,” writer Sarah Achenbach ’88 takes on the heavy topic of domestic and relationship abuse, a national plight that has only become more problematic during the pandemic. But the heaviness of the matter cannot dull the inspiring actions of the many Hollins alumnae who have made it part of their life’s work to support the victims and work to educate for a better tomorrow. The women interviewed are living testaments to the power of hope.

As an undocumented Black immigrant in America Patrice Lawrence ’11 keeps hope alive in her work with the UndocuBlack Network, work highlighted exceptionally by creative writing graduate student assistant Jeff Dingler M.F.A. ’22.

I invite and encourage you to read these and other great pieces in this issue! The Rock got a much-needed cleaning, pulling away 40 years’ worth of paint layers and ensuring its status in Hollins lore for generations to come. Professor of English Julie Pfeiffer and retired professor and children’s literature program director Amanda Cockrell ’69, M.A. ’88 are both finding their written works gaining attention. And our In The Loop section reveals a campus full of accomplishment and activity.