Virginia Tech: A great place to work in a top-rated town
Businessweek recently named the Town of Blacksburg as the top place in the nation to raise a family which strengthens Virginia Tech's ability to consistently attract and retain high-caliber faculty and staff.
Educational and economic information, crime rates, amenities, air quality, and diversity were factors considered in the nationwide ranking.
Susan Marmagas, associate professor and public health program assistant director for Virginia Tech’s Department of Population Health Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine reflects on her decision to move to Blacksburg to work at Virginia Tech.
“The reason I moved back to Blacksburg was to raise my kids in a wonderful area. There is a special community in Blacksburg.”
After growing up in Blacksburg, Marmagas lived in California and Washington, D.C., for 23 years before making the decision to come back. She notes Blacksburg’s low crime rates and sense of close community as characteristics she considered for raising her two young children.
Virginia Tech is a family-friendly employer, enhancing the work-life experience of its employees through the Hokie Wellness program. Hokie Wellness provides programming and information to boost employee health, well-being, and productivity.
“Working at Virginia Tech and living with my family in Blacksburg has also been beneficial in that I am able to integrate my family and professional life and I do not have to give up one in order to be successful with the other,” said Marmagas.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
