Jevontè Blount '18: My Experience as a Governor's Fellow

This summer, I was part of Governor Northam’s first class of Governor’s Fellows since he took office in January 2018. I was assigned under the Secretary of Natural Resources and worked with the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries on various projects, including one regarding coastal resiliency. 

Throughout the program we had daily brown bag lunches with key figures in Governor Northam’s Cabinet. It was an opportunity to learn about the responsibilities of each department, the agencies they oversee, to soak in as much information as we could about their journey from where they started to where they are now. 

Jevontè Blount '18 (right) with Governor Ralph Northam. Jack Mayer photograph.

My major project that I spent majority of my time working on was with initiating and presenting a plan to the Governor’s Chief of Staff to improve recycling within state buildings like the Patrick Henry Building.

Towards the end of the program the Fellows had a policy project competition. This took five major problems impacting the Commonwealth and the United States and we had to find a feasible solution. My group was given the topic of rising student debt crisis. We won!

Jevontè Blount '18 (far right) with his policy project competition teammates. Jack Mayer photograph.

About Jevontè Blount ’18:

Jevontè Blount ’18 was a 2018 Governor’s Fellow, one of only 22 rising college seniors, graduating seniors, or graduate students from across the state named to the prestigious program by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Blount, from Hampton, Virginia, graduated from Ferrum College this past May with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. During his tenure at Ferrum College, he was in the Ferrum College Honor Society, on the Dean’s list, and served as Ferrum College Residence Hall Association president. Blount now in studying in the Master in Public Administration program at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

About the Governor's Fellows Program:

(https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2018/february/headline-822716-en.html)

"Governor Chuck Robb created this prestigious program in 1982. Since then, it has offered college students a hands-on opportunity to learn about state government at the top level. Previous members have gone on to pursue careers in various levels of state and federal government, each using their skills acquired during their Fellows experience.

Fellows are given the opportunity to cultivate and sharpen leadership skills by taking on various tasks and projects. The Fellows also learn from special guest speakers from the administration and take field trips across the Commonwealth."

Study Abroad 2017: Joshua Sanders '18 in China

By Joshua Sanders '18

August 9, 2017: Hello all, this time from America! I’ve finally settled back in and gotten used to the time difference (and I’m almost over how sad I am about not being able to get awesome Chinese food every day). For the last two weeks of my China trip, I left the research laboratory and joined up with the United Nations Academic Impact “Incredible Three Gorges” Summer School for classes such as Chinese culture, mythology, songs, dance, language, and calligraphy (to name a few). Unfortunately, I passed all of my classes so I won’t be heading back next summer to re-take any of them (ha-ha). I got a Chinese name during the summer school classes, “成河人” (Chéng Hé Rén) meaning to become like a person of the river. I helped choose this name because of a traditional Chinese idea about water and rivers, “上善若水” (Shang shan ruo shi) meaning “the highest virtue is to become like water”. In Chinese culture rivers and water are seen calm and gentle, bending and giving way to stronger forces when needed but also being strong and carving through rock and tackling obstacles.

Throughout our time in the summer school program, each of the foreign students (two from Korea, three from Italy, and two other Americans plus myself) were assigned a volunteer who was a student at CTGU to help us and guide us. My volunteer, Jiang Nan, was incredible and was always happy to help us out or go out shopping, eating, or to KTV with us. She even helped me online shop for some gifts for others (and myself) online, and is shipping one to me that arrived after I’d left! All of the other volunteers were amazing as well, and at the closing ceremony before everybody left there were tears and hugs all around.

During the summer school, in addition to classes we went out on cultural outings, such as visits to the Three Gorges Dam (the world’s largest hydroelectric power facility), Zigui and Jiangxi for white water rafting (yes, white water rafting!), a tea factory to learn how to pick and process green tea, and a trip to a bijou factory. (Bijou is a traditional Chinese alcohol, the translation into English is “wine” however bijou is not wine, it is most certainly liquor… very strong liquor.) I have been and will continue sifting through all of the pictures I have to post some more to the Flickr album, but I took a lot of pictures and the volunteers took many as well and were kind enough to put them on a flash drive for me, so I’ve got hundreds of pictures and movies to go through.

My last night in China, I went out with several friends from the research lab I had worked in, and we ate dinner then went out singing KTV. Karaoke, which is “KTV” in China, is incredibly popular. In America, when someone says “karaoke” the mental image often conjured up is someone in a bar who got drunk and decided that karaoke was a good idea, but in China this isn’t the case at all. There are very nice KTV places with lots of individual rooms, and you and your friends can rent the room for a few hours. In the room, there’s often a disco ball or some laser lights, and a really nice tv set-up with a little tablet/display to pick songs to sing; KTV is comparable to making plans and going out bowling or to play mini-golf with friends.

Now that I’m back stateside (which almost didn’t happen on time because my flight from Yichang to Shanghai sat on the tarmac for two hours before take-off, yikes) I definitely want to stay for a while and finish my schooling but after I graduate from grad school (hopefully with a Ph.D) I definitely want to go back to Yichang and teach for a year at CTGU. I’ve spoken with some of the instructors at the school and with Dr. Johnson about it, and I’ve been told that it’s relatively certain that I’d be able to teach for a year, so that is definitely on my horizon. Until then, I’ll keep in touch with all of the friends I made in China and study hard so that I can graduate on time and get back to Yichang.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with all of my adventures in China, and more pics are on the way when I find the time to get through all of them! And again, I am incredibly thankful that I’m a Ferrum Panther, and that I’m in the Boone Honors Program. The professors, advisors, and everyone else in my Ferrum family help me be the student I am and do the amazing things I have been given chances to do. Without the support of my fellow Ferrum students and the professors and advisors I emailed and Skype called, I wouldn’t have made it through my time in China. It’s a great day to be a Panther.

Read my other blog posts shared in June 2017 and July 2017.

My Health and Human Performance Internship: The Most Humbling Job

By Ashley McAllister '18

The final week of my internship spent at a physical therapy clinic was full of reflection, good-byes, and many thanks from patients along with encouraging words as I continue on my journey.

During my last week I continued to learn new techniques including how physical therapists analyze a person’s gait. Taylor, the clinic’s physical therapy assistant, told me that there is a lot more than just “watching” the person walk when looking at someone’s gait. Everything goes into account, how their hips, knees, feet and even toes move as they walk. All of these things help a therapist determine how a person is moving. Taylor shared with me how during her schooling they used different techniques to look at each other’s gait during lab. One technique was sprinkling baby powder on the floor and having a person walk across it. This allows someone looking at gait to see which part of the foot a person is walking on and which toes they are using more. 

Overall, Taylor told me it takes a lot of practice to become really good at noticing the incorrect ways people move. I was able to watch a couple patients of Taylor's while she was observing their gait and I could pick up on how they were moving incorrectly based on their injuries. I felt accomplished being able to pick up on how the patient was moving and then being able to see the improvement after Taylor corrected them was a very neat experience.

As I continued to reflect on my experiences this summer I realize that you meet so many amazing people with many different backgrounds in this job field. For example, I met a patient whose life was completely changed after a terrible car crash. Despite their disability, the patient owns their own business and is one of the sweetest people I’ve met. It was amazing hearing their story and seeing how positive and hard-working they are. It was very humbling to meet and work with this person.

My last day was bittersweet, being told by many patients that I’ll do amazing things and hearing their good luck wishes with my future endeavors. It was really a confidence boost hearing so many people tell me I’m going to do great things in the future and to just have them wish me luck. I enjoyed my time at the clinic and I plan to check in with everyone I worked with. I am so blessed to have done my internship with this clinic. It was an amazing experience I know I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else!

Study Abroad 2017 2: Joshua Sanders '18 in China

By Joshua Sanders '18

July 10, 2017: Greetings again from China! Today officially ends my period of working in the chemistry lab and tomorrow marks the first day of my UNAI CTGU Summer School classes.

(L-R) Dyes Methylene Blue, Crystal Violet,
Methyl Orange, and Sulforhodamine B. 

I found some really interesting data through my work in the lab. In this photograph, I show the four dyes I worked with this summer. The Methylene Blue (MB) and Crystal Violet (CV) are separated from the Methyl Orange (MO) and Sulforhodamine B (SRB) because the MB and CV are cationic dyes and the MO and SRB anionic dyes, meaning that the blue and violet dyes have a positive charge on the dye molecules, and the MO and SRB have a negative charge on the dye molecules.

The biochar I used in all of my research was suspected to be anionic as well (negatively charged.) This was supported by some of my data: the negatively charged dyes didn’t absorb at all on the surface of the biochar, following the old phrase “opposites attract”. Just like magnets, the negative charge of the dyes was repelled by the (suspected) negative charge of the biochar. Also like magnets, the positive charge of the cationic dyes was attracted to the negative charge of the dye.

Though I’m not sure exactly how my data will be used, I have given over all of my data to my research advisor here at China Three Gorges University, and will be told later on if any of my data will be used in any future research or publications.

Joshua Sanders in front of the only Christian church in Yichang.

Before he returned to Ferrum, Dr. Johnson took me to downtown Yichang and showed me around. We visited the only Christian church in Yichang and a popular public park near the Yangtze river, which was filled with people and families exercising and enjoying their weekend. We also went to Wuhan to meet two students, Dawn and Feng, who previously came to Ferrum College, and Pan Xiaojie, from the Wuhan Institute of Hydroecology, who visited Ferrum’s Smith Mountain Lake Water Quality Lab in the summer of 2016. During this trip, Dr. J and I visit the Yellow Crane Tower and had a meal at a crawfish restaurant. Crawfish have become incredibly popular in southern China over the past few years.

Tomorrow the summer school classes start, so I will have another update to send out as soon as I go on more adventures and meet other people who have come to study in China. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer, and I look forward to sending out some more pictures and info before I head home. I can’t wait to be back stateside, and I’m definitely ready to be back at Ferrum for my senior year for classes this year. Until then, I’ll be learning, meeting new people, and having adventures. Until next time!

See additional photographs here.