Inspired to serve

From mentoring Hispanic youth to painting a house, students in a societal health class are learning that health work happens in more locations than hospitals and clinics. 

It can happen everywhere. 

This fall semester class inspired a Christiansburg resident to not only contribute financially, but to lend a hand on a recent work trip to West Virginia.

It all started during a gathering last summer in Abingdon, Virginia, where Mary Ann Capp learned more about Virginia Tech’s outreach to Appalachia. It inspired her. She decided to make a gift to the Appalachian Studies program, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Capp, who recently retired from a long career, was looking for new ways to give back to the community. She donated to fund the class's travel and supplies.  

Fast forward to this fall when Capp learned from Emily Satterwhite, a professor and director of Appalachian Studies, about plans for 17 students in her class to travel to Welch, West Virginia, for a weekend to work on several projects in a community that was hit hard by flooding in February. 

“I was going over the bill of materials with her [Satterwhite], and I said, ‘I’d be glad to help, if you need an extra hand,’” Capp said. “From there, I pulled out one of those big plastic bins that you store things in and started throwing tools in it that I’ve had for 40 years.” 

During the trip, Capp, who has a background in engineering, helped several students build a ramp for a homeowner. She said she was impressed with the care that the students put into constructing the ramp. 

“Each student walked on it several times to make sure it was just right,” Capp said.  

While in West Virginia, the Hokies also painted a house and helped to convert a church into a living space for people in recovery. They worked with Holler to Holler, a mutual aid organization in the New River Valley, and God’s Grace Ministry, based in Welch, that led and organized the trip. The class stayed in a former boarding house for coal miners.

The goal of the class, which is co-taught by Satterwhite and Rebecca Hester, associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, is for students to learn how they can contribute to healthy communities. The students, all who study a variety of majors including pre-med, are responsible for choosing a community project on which to focus during the semester. 

“I very much enjoy research, but I love people,” said Savanah King, who is majoring in clinical neuroscience and hopes to attend medical school. “We all have a love for people, and we want to do more. We are not satisfied by learning about the science. We want to learn the context and how to properly help a community.”

The class does incorporate science, but it seeks to connect the origin of health and illness to people’s embodied conditions, with a focus on what action students can take to help, said Hester. 

“We take what we call an upstream approach to health,” she said. “We look at the source or the causes of poor health. Rather than saying you have lung disease or you have diabetes, we want to look at the origin of that and food systems and transportation systems and housing and economic markets. The class really gets students thinking broadly, not only about where health begins, but also how to intervene in it.”

Capp, who has been volunteering in small communities for much of her life, said the mission of the Appalachian Studies program at Virginia Tech connects perfectly with her personal goals, and she hopes to continue her support in future ways. 

“I've always had a passion for helping people,” she said. “This is a new avenue to do what I’m passionate about.”

Make a gift to the Virginia Tech Appalachian Studies program.