Senior lacrosse player plans career in sports administration<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/heflin.jpg\")
Valerie \u201cVal\u201d Heflin \u201919 was shy as a student in her Orange County, California, high school. So when she moved across the country to attend Hollins, she decided, \u201cI\u2019m gonna be a new me. I want to be outgoing.\u201d The single-sex environment taught her to speak up. Now, she says, \u201cI love raising my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
A senior majoring in communication studies, with a minor in psychology, Heflin has been building toward a career she imagined for herself in high school: working in sports administration. As a basketball player in high school and a lacrosse player at Hollins, she knows firsthand the culture of athletes. \u201cI like the sociability of being on a team,\u201d she says. Hollins athletes are \u201cvery genuine; we support each other\u2019s games. If you\u2019re an athlete, you\u2019re just sort of expected to be there. I don\u2019t think you see that at every college campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wrote her senior thesis on how broadcasters use the \u201cfemale apologetic\u201d when talking about female athletes\u2014a term she defined \u201cas ways [broadcasters] describe female athletes as feminine to make up for the fact that they\u2019re athletic, usually a masculine trait. For example, they\u2019ll say, \u2018She gracefully fell.\u2019 A lot of the time they won\u2019t say anything\u2014and not saying anything is almost worse, because no one likes a silent broadcast. But because they aren\u2019t experts in [women\u2019s athletics], they have nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
She serves as athletic chair for the Student Government Association, a role in which she\u2019s a \u201cbridge between the student government and the rest of the student body to the athletics department and student athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she spent her senior J-Term interning with the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, or ODAC, of which Hollins is a member. She helped her supervisor, Bethany Dannelly, director of championships, get ready for upcoming basketball and swimming tournaments, made playlists and updated record books, and attended coaches\u2019 meetings. The internship \u201cdefinitely reaffirmed what I want to do professionally,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her experience as a student-athlete at Hollins also confirms her decision to stay in the field. \u201cI have nothing but positive things to say about [Director of Athletics] Myra Sims and [Head Lacrosse Coach] Kate Keagins. Hollins sports are definitely getting better and performing at a higher level. I\u2019m so excited to see what happens in the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo by Sharon Meador<\/em> Sponsored by Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine<\/p>\n Students in Associate Professor of Art Jennifer Printz\u2019s Intaglio Printmaking class contributed their creativity to The Influence of Women<\/em>, which was on display at the\u00a0Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine\u00a0(VTCSOM) through March 1, 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cEach student produced two amazing prints about women who have influenced them, from friends, to family, to fictional heroines,\u201d Printz explains.<\/p>\n Sponsored by VTCSOM\u2019s Creativity in Healthcare Education program, The Influence of Women<\/em> is one of three exhibitions held annually for local artists to showcase their works to the community and to reinforce to medical students the importance of having a community connection.<\/p>\n Image credit: Rachel Jackson \u201919, Hikaru, dry-point print with watercolor,\u00a02018<\/em> Photo by Sharon Meador<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For love of the game Senior lacrosse player plans career in sports administration Valerie \u201cVal\u201d Heflin \u201919 was shy as a student in her Orange County, California, high school. So when she moved across the country to attend Hollins, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,6],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-8524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-in_the_loop","tag-spring-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8524"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8672,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8524\/revisions\/8672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"divider\"](\"http:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/wave.png\")
<\/p>\nThe Influence of Women: A showcase of student artists<\/h3>\n
![\"Image](\"http:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hikaru.jpg\")
Works by Hollins students highlighted an exhibition that explored and celebrated the many ways women affect their worlds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/www.糖心传媒.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/glenn.jpg\")
Idella Glenn, special advisor on inclusivity and diversity; Board of Trustees Chair Alexandra Trower \u201986; and Cheryl Taylor \u201909, biology lab technician, were among those who spoke during the Hollins Day celebration in February about the institution\u2019s beginning, the contributions made and milestones achieved over the past 177 years, what Hollins means to them now, and their vision for the future.<\/p>\n