DVC shout-out to Virginia Tech

We’ve all heard about the massacre at Virginia Tech. I don’t want to recite the details, as CNN is no doubt still updating us constantly. I do want to tell you about an event, a beautiful one, on our own campus that same week. On Thursday, May 19th, DVC students, faculty, and staff gathered in solidarity with Virginia Tech. Wearing orange and maroon and bearing signs that read, “God Bless the Hokies,” and “We love you, VT,” they discussed the tragedy in hushed tones. Some cried, and some held those who were crying. This event on the other side of the country made us all pause and analyze our campus’s safety, and our role in the mental health of students. In times like these, we realize our essential connectedness.


As a VT alum and former instructor, the memorial, designed by Hopi Breton’s sculpture students, meant the world to me. When I first came upon it by chance on Tuesday the 17th, I fell silent and the tears that hadn’t come Monday night fell from me. The art students tending the memorial held me until I’d finished. On Thursday at 2 pm, I felt more a part of DVC than ever, wearing my VT long-sleeve tee and holding my sign, “Today, we are all Hokies.”
--Christina D. French
VT alum, '99, '01 and ex-faculty member
DVC English Instructor