“O Captain! My Captain!
By Sarah Achenbach ’88
ABOVE: Ti-Shawn Wellington ‘25 was interviewed for a powerful video about students having extraordinary college experiences thanks to Hollins prioritizing affordability and access to education. View the video at youtube.com/hollinsvideo.
“ What do you want to do?”
It’s a question asked of every undergraduate, but there’s a better one, says Jeffrey White, Director of Hollins’ Career and Life Design (CLD) Center: “What challenges in the world excite you?”
This question is at the heart of Hollins approach to developing each student’s potential, passion, and purpose. Helping students craft a four-year roadmap laden with internships, research, leadership opportunities, and comprehensive career services is a big part of the answer.
Ti-Shawn Wellington ’25, double-major in Biology and Public Health, has turned her Hollins path into her dream job—actually, one of the dream jobs for young scientists—conducting research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her goal is to improve minority health through genetics and epidemiology research. As the recipient of a $20,000 prestigious NIH Undergraduate Scholarship for students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, she’s well on her way.
“Working at the NIH was not on my Bingo card, especially because they told me ‘No’ the year before,” says Wellington, who first applied for the scholarship the summer before her junior year. Impressed with her application, the NIH encouraged her to reapply, and with the guidance of her advisor, Renee Godard, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, and CLD support, she submitted a second, successful application. The scholarship covers a one-year, paid research position alongside the NIH researcher of her choice.
“At Hollins, I am captain of my own ship. Hollins provides the opportunities for me to navigate my ship. And you’re never adrift if you need help.”
“At Hollins, I am captain of my own ship,” reflects Wellington. “Hollins provides the opportunities for me to navigate my ship. And you’re never adrift if you need help.”
She’s already focused on the next part of the dream: her M.D. and Ph.D. in Public Health. Hollins, again, is helping to chart that course with Ti-Shawn, with some additional guidance from Sunny Green ’19, an M.D./M.P.H. candidate at the University of Miami and former NIH undergraduate research assistant. Following Hollins, Green spent three years as an NIH Post-baccalaureate fellow with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) studying Chediak-Higashi Syndrome (CHS), a rare genetic disorder and the focus of her doctoral research.
“What are we doing to Set Our Students Apart?”
Wellington first began tackling her future’s big questions by applying to 26 colleges. Born in Jamaica and raised in New York, she had her heart set on an upstate New York college with in-state tuition until that college mistakenly categorized Wellington as out-of-state. Dee Williamson Marley ’81, a graduate of the boarding school where Wellington attended on scholarship, heard about her financial plight and called Hollins University President Mary Dana Hinton. After a Zoom call between Wellington and Hinton, Wellington applied the same day. Her financial aid package arrived 48 hours later, and two weeks later, in August 2021, Wellington began her first semester at Hollins.
She lost no time embracing every possibility. For her first January Term (J-term or Short Term), she applied to and received a Hollins First-Year Internship (FYI) with Roanoke’s Bradley Free Clinic. The FYI program kick-starts Hollins’ intentional, curated personal and career discernment journey by immersing first-year students in real-world experiences across Roanoke with an FYI class taught by Hollins faculty and transportation to most sites.
Undaunted when her internship was canceled due to COVID-19, Wellington and CLD staff researched other opportunities. For her sophomore J-term, she received a Hollins Signature Internship in New York City—alumnae/i provide funding for housing and food, plus mentoring—with Peace Boat U.S., a nuclear nonproliferation NGO closely aligned with the United Nations.
Wellington lauds Hollins’ overwhelming support for fueling her curiosity and empowerment. That’s the goal, explains Gary Brown, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Success, Well-being, and Belonging. “We want to ensure that students thrive academically and can apply that learning out of class and in life. Women remain underrepresented and undercompensated today, so it’s important to provide as many opportunities as possible to give them a leg up on what is extremely stiff competition.”
To help, Hollins recently created The Green, An Integrative Learning Commons, in the Wyndham Robertson Library. This one-stop shop includes Dean Brown’s offices (formerly known as Student Affairs); the Rutherfoord Center for Experiential Learning (the umbrella for CLD and the Global Learning Office, previously International Programs, funded through the generosity of Jean Hall Rutherfoord ’74 and her husband, Thomas D. Rutherfoord Jr.); HU Connect for first-generation, students of color, and limited-income students; and the Center for Learning Excellence for student and academic support. Students move seamlessly from office to office, taking full advantage of all the wrap-around services.
“The more experiential opportunities we have, the more we coordinate our services, the better we prepare students to go out into the world to make a difference, the better Hollins will be,” Brown reflects. “That’s the name of the game: What are we doing to set our students apart?”
Wellington also took full advantage of Hollins’ robust study abroad program and the funding available for international experiences—this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Hollins landmark program. She spent J-Term 2024 in Cuba, and for J-Term 2025 traveled to Ecuador. There, she, Godard, and other Hollins students researched the biodiversity of moths, leaf-cutter ants, and birds to compare the human perspective on climate change between Ecuador and the U.S.
LEFT: Wellington (fourth from left, standing) with her professors and classmates on their January Short Term trip to Ecuador, led annually by Director and Chair of Environmental Studies Renee Godard. RIGHT: In preparation for the Ecuador trip, Godard took students to Carvins Cove last fall for stand-up paddle boarding and team building activities.
Finding Meaning and Connection Through Research
Wellington’s passion for research is flourishing at Hollins. In Animal Behavior class, she examined the impact of female crickets on the amount of chirping for male crickets, the only crickets who chirp. (Spoiler alert: When a female is present, male chirping intensifies significantly.) In Dana Science Center labs, she studied the amount of density and grazing vs. non-grazing areas at the Hollins Equestrian Center.
But it was her Epidemiology class that cemented her path: “I wrote my own research proposal and knew this was what I want to do with my life.” Godard and other faculty members stoked that interest with boundless encouragement as mentors and role models.
These experiences and much more are part of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, co-directed by Jeanne Jégousso, Assistant Professor of French and Francophone studies and Director of the French program, and Molly Lynch, Assistant Professor and Chair of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science. This past year saw an impressive uptick in student research participation. Hollins’ Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program reached a record high of 15 fellows across all disciplines last summer, with each Hollins Fellow presenting research at the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Research Symposium for the fourth consecutive year.
In 2024, Hollins also experienced unprecedented success in fellowship applications and competitive placements, with a record number of ten Fulbright applicants and its first-ever undergraduate recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant. This year, Fulbright Scholar Natté Fortier ’24 is in Madrid, Spain working in Global Classrooms to coach students in Model United Nations. “This surge in interest and success prompted the Fulbright U.S. Student Program Outreach & Recruitment Team to reach out to Hollins, recognizing the momentum and expressing their enthusiasm about our students’ achievements,” notes a proud Laura A. McLary, Hollins Nora Kizer Bell Provost.
Wellington and other STEM majors present their research at the annual spring Hollins Science Seminar. All majors can present their academic research and creative work at SPARC (the Student Performance and Academic Research Conference). Last year, SPARC and the Science Seminar coincided, underscoring the collaborative spirit of undergraduate research at Hollins.
“Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice for students to apply learning in real-life settings and experience the impact of their work on their audience and future research in a supportive environment devoted to their success,” explains McLary. This includes publishing in journals and attending academic conferences with faculty and a deepening of the skills they need for career and life: adaptability, persistence, intrinsic motivation, self-awareness, ability to work in teams, curiosity, and creativity.
“One of the best aspects of undergraduate research for the student is knowing that someone they trust and admire—their professor—is on their team and rooting for their success.” McLary says. “Intensive one-on-one mentoring is still the best way for students to grow their confidence and skills, ask deeper questions, and introduce a framework of inquiry and improvement they can apply to future projects.”
LEFT: Career and Life Design Director Jeffrey White leads a session on professional development in the classroom located in The Green on the first floor of Wyndham Robertson Library. RIGHT: Students gather for group study work in The Green. Behind and along the far wall are offices representing a range of student support services.
The Evolution of Career Development Support
Regardless of where students go post-Hollins, work is going to look a lot different for today’s college students. Digital literacy, remote work options, a growing gig economy, and the need for soft skills and technical expertise will drive careers.
That means that Hollins’ approach to student career development needs to look different, too. While CLD staff still facilitate workshops on resume-writing and other career skills, they have pivoted to a new model of delivery. Because Gen Z, White says, is less likely to come to workshops, CLD goes to them. “Student clubs, residences, and athletic teams select from a CLD menu of interactive programming.”
Recently residents of Randolph Hall and Hollins’ Black Student Union invited CLD staff to engage in hour-long career conversations about internships, research, networking, and resumes. This shift to a demand model of in-person content delivery led to an 81% increase in student participation in workshops during the fall semester compared to all of the last academic year, more than quadrupling the average number of workshop participants. All students also have 24/7 on-demand access to materials from CLD’s robust online Career Portal.
Through its academic career integration initiative, Career and Life Design now facilitates in all First Year Foundations courses a 90-minute collaborative learning experience road-mapping their career development. Starting this spring term, CLD launched The Career Toolkit course, required of all sophomores as part of the new core curriculum.
“The Toolkit experience aims to deepen sophomores’ vocational discernment in large part through career conversations with industry professionals,” White says.
CLD’s Toolkit facilitators train students how to run a 10-day outreach campaign to build professional connections that lead to these informational interviews. White adds, “Exposing all first- and second-year students to career design is one of our key strategies for increasing student adoption of career management skills.”
The Career Toolkit is funded in part by a $60,000 grant from NetVUE that will also fund a Purpose course for seniors, which will act as a capstone vocational reflection seminar. Additionally, this grant will fund the founding of an Institute for the Liberal Arts, Social Capital, and Social Mobility and the incorporation of vocational exploration within Student Success, Well-being, and Belonging programs. All of these are building a comprehensive, campus-wide approach to career engagement at Hollins.
CLD integration efforts have also reached the typical college classroom. In the last few years, supported through a partnership with the University of Minnesota, CLD staff have trained 19 faculty to integrate into their courses and curricula the 10 core career competencies, CLD resources, and the online RATE tool for articulating experiences in ways employers will understand. Students track their core competencies with RATE (Reflect, Articulate, Translate, Evaluate), a required discernment exercise for all internships for credit, starting with this year’s sophomores. Additionally, CLD has trained another 11 faculty to use RATE for course and internship assignments.
When students become juniors and seniors, White hopes they are actively excelling in career management approaches. “Sometimes undergraduates can miss out on opportunities to engage in career experiences and how to build professional connections or improve their career communication skills.”
Everything CLD is doing aims to improve career outcomes for all Hollins students. “I’d like to see every student graduate with multiple offers in hand or in the pipeline,” notes White.
Wellington’s two work-study jobs as a student assistant to President Hinton and as a Hollins Ambassador giving tours deepen needed skills like strategic thinking, organizational planning, and public speaking skills. Her role as an international student entry and transition mentor to first-year international students also hones her empathetic leadership, which she employs as founder of the year-old Caribbean Student Union. “There was an influx of students from the Caribbean this year,” she explains. So far, the club has hosted Caribbean Jeopardy to teach about Caribbean history and culture.
When students become juniors and seniors, White hopes, they are actively using the Hollins smorgasbord of opportunities to winnow the questions they want their life to answer. “This is mainly an internship and summer research space with career coaching and support to use opportunities as a strategy for building connections, gaining mentors, and connecting with future opportunities,” he says. “Sometimes undergraduates can miss in the moment with an internship or an opportunity, but you need to build in things for the future steps as well.”
With her future path well in sight, Wellington sees the many steps Hollins has helped her take to make it happen. “If you have an idea at Hollins, all you need to do is ask the questions,” she says. “Hollins prepared me to ask questions like ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’ and made me curious to try new things.”
A big part of her answer to the better question is personal: “It’s all part of paying it forward in my way. I could not have gotten where I am without other people helping me. If Dee Marley hadn’t reached out to President Hinton, if President Hinton had not encouraged me to apply, if my professors and CLD didn’t write recommendations to the NIH or help me with my applications and personal statements—this community helped me get to where I needed to be.”