Community Involvement
“It’s easy to sit up and take notice. What’s difficult is getting up and taking action.”
– Thomas Fuller, author
My Two Homes: Northville & Lexington
I’m originally from Northville, Michigan, but I’ve attending university in Lexington, Virginia for over three years now. Each town has shaped me into the student, athlete, and person I am today. By working with local organizations, in both clinical and non-clinical settings, I’ve been able to see firsthand how these communities build such strong, free-thinking, and resilient residents.
Northville, Michigan
My hometown. Northville has a cheerful small-town feel, with lots of locally owned business, restaurants, and organizations. With just a 30 minute drive, you can arrive in downtown Detroit. Growing up in Michigan meant quickly learning to push out of my comfort zone, greeting everyone around town with a smile or a hello.
Lexington, Virginia
My university home. I first visited Lexington in 2016, and I immediately fell in love. Lexington shares the small-town vibes of Northville, but with a cultural twist. The speaking tradition in Lexington and on the campus of W&L holds strong, and everyone greets one another as they pass by. The area surrounding Lexington, Rockbridge County, is filled with beautiful rivers and mountains. The people of Lexington and Rockbridge all work together to keep their community strong. I’m so grateful to be uplifting and upholding the values of this wonderful town.
Community Involvement
Rockbridge Area Hospice
At the end of 2019, I completed my training to begin working as a hospice volunteer with Rockbridge Area Hospice, or RAH. RAH serves the cities of Lexington, Buena Vista, and the surrounding Rockbridge County area. We serve community members by providing care from our diverse team of physicians, nurses, chaplains, health aides, and volunteers.
As a volunteer with RAH, I help visit patients and provide relief for their caretakers. Caretakers sincerely appreciate the opportunity to leave the house, run errands, and spend time outside. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, I was unable to attend my first visit in 2020. Now that I’ve returned to Lexington at the end of the summer, however, I hope to start helping with visits via telecommunications.
In the Winter of 2020, I started working with Meals on Wheels in my home state of Michigan. Meals on Wheels is dedicated to maintaining the health and well-being of the senior community. By delivering hot meals, frozen meals, and breakfast to seniors front doors, Meals on Wheels works to ensure that no senior is left isolated without access to nutritious foods.
I work directly with the Meals on Wheels Programs in Novi and Hartland, two neighboring communities of Northville. In Hartland, I help package both hot meals and sack lunches for multiple surrounding communities. In Novi, I help organize the meals by delivery route and deliver to the residents at Meadowbrook Commons Senior Living Apartments. My favorite part of the job is the delivery. I’ve met many friendly residents who enjoy chatting.
My work in Michigan encouraged me to reach out to the Meals on Wheels organization in the Lexington area too. For my final semester of college at Washington and Lee, I will be trained to drive a route that serves the Lexington and Buena Vista senior communities. I’m looking forward to meeting the local residents.
I’ve been working as a Crisis Counselor with Crisis TextLine for over 2 years now! Crisis TextLine serves English-speaking individuals all over the globe. We are working to develop platforms in other languages, including French, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese.
As a level-4 Crisis Counselor, I’ve completed over 60 conversations with texters. The topics discussed with texters include mental health issues, substance abuse, self-harm, abuse, suicide, and more. At times, it can be difficult to speak with texters who are struggling with serious issues. The most difficult conversation I’ve had to date was with an active-rescue case, in which emergency officials were sent on scene following my risk assessment. As a Crisis Counselor, I know that I can’t change every person’s situation, nor fill the role of a psychiatrist or psychologist. Nonetheless, I can provide support and help collaboratively problem solve, bringing the texter from a “hot moment” of intense emotion to a “cool moment”, where we can think critically together about coping mechanisms.
Crisis TextLine has given me the opportunity to serve my community on a larger scale, beyond the states of Michigan and Virginia.
Since starting my education at W&L, I haven’t had as much opportunity to work in Northville. During the summer of 2018, I worked on the neurology floor and in the Neuroscience ICU at Providence Park Hospital.
As a student-volunteer I was able to get exposure to the clinical setting, while directly communicating with patients. I helped refill supplies in patients’ rooms, discharge patients, and deliver drinks. Almost every shift, I had the opportunity to sit down in a patient’s room and have a conversation. Lots of patients were lonely in their hospital rooms, so they enjoyed having the opportunity to share their stories and learn about my future aspirations.
