Rising junior Christian Haley of Boones Mill, VA, is Ferrum College’s newest McBroom student scholar. Set to graduate in 2021, Haley is a history major with a double minor in criminal justice and religion. He will spend this summer working at the College’s Blue Ridge Institute and Museum, the largest folklife museum in Virginia.

The McBroom Student Assistantship Program was established with a gift from the June M. McBroom Charitable Lead Trust in 2014. The program allows the director of the BRI to select a Ferrum College student in good standing to experience summer operations through the institute and museum, including living history interpretation, management of the museum and archives collection, summer camp programming, and event planning and production. Students who have an interest in history, agriculture, sociology, and recreation are given first preference.

Haley is exposed to a range of experiences through his work at the BRI. “My responsibilities are extremely broad, which is one of the things I love most about the job,” he said. “A typical day could consist of me taking care of our animals at the farm museum in the morning, digitizing and graphically editing artifacts in the middle of the day, leading an interpretive tour of the museum in the afternoon, and finally working to prepare the latest exhibit at the end of the day.”

“He has been absolutely outstanding,” said BRI Director Bethany Worley. “He is passionate about history and feels right at home in the archive, working on our upcoming exhibit, and on the 1800s farm in costume.”

When Haley is away from the museum, he can typically be found hiking, camping, fishing, rock climbing, and kayaking. “It’s where I’m most in my element,” he explained. And once he graduates from Ferrum College in 2021, he hopes to become a police officer and eventually enter federal law enforcement.

But he’s also keeping his options open to the possibility of graduate school and pursuing a career in the museum field. “Christian is getting what so many students need who are entering the job market or looking at graduate school: invaluable hands-on experience at the state’s largest folklife museum,” Worley said.

Read more about the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum here: https://dev.ferrum.edu/blueridgeinstitute/.

Leya and her four-year-old son, nicknamed “Little Kendall.”

Leya Deickman does all the things.

A senior from Fayetteville, NC, set to graduate on May 11, 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Leya has truly taken advantage of every available Ferrum College opportunity. She is a residence hall advisor and serves as president of the College’s campus chapter of Help Save the Next Girl, an organization dedicated to the safety of girls and women. She is an intercollegiate wrestler, serving as captain from fall 2016 to present, and has been named Academic All-Conference, Academic All-State, and Academic All-American. She is involved with the College’s orientation team and the Sister 4 Sister mentoring program for African-American students, and served as a Gatway mentor and a PAL tutor for two years. Leya is a Boone Honors Program mentor, a cohort representative to the Honors Advisory Council, and was nominated for the 2019 Honors Scholar of the Year through the Virginia Collegiate Honors Council. She has consistently maintained a 4.0 GPA.

As if those activities weren’t enough to keep her busy, she also stepped in to serve as an editor for Ferrum College’s magazine, Chrysalis Literary & Arts, which won her the Chrysalis Staff Member of the Year Award during the College’s recent Academic Awards Ceremony on April 12. Leya was named to the National Society of Leadership and Success, Psi Chi, and Sigma Tau Delta. She received the Unsung Hero Award during her second year at Ferrum College, which is given to a person who works tirelessly but unselfishly, without the motive of drawing attention to oneself. Without question, Leya exhibits the College’s motto: Not Self, But Others.

Leya’s long-term goal is to be an educational psychologist, but she is currently considering additional higher education. “I want to be involved in the lives of young adults,” Leya explained. “This is a delicate time where we are in between teenagers and adulthood and people expect young adults to have everything figured out. I really want to be able to model that anyone can achieve their goals despite adversities. I want to guide them through this journey and provide them with the resources necessary to make their goals come true.”

“Leya’s academic success at Ferrum and the impression she has left upon the faculty are uniformly outstanding,” remarked Professor of English and Director of the Boone Honors Program Lana Whited, who nominated Leya for the 2019 VCHC award. “It is no exaggeration to say that her faculty cannot figure out when Leya Deickman sleeps, or how she maintains her characteristic cheery, upbeat disposition. She is a remarkable young woman.”

She “has a level of maturity and ability to manage any number of activities that I’ve seen in very few students – maybe only three or four – in 35 years of teaching,” explained Katherine Grimes, associate professor of English, who taught Leya three English courses and an honors seminar.

But her most important accomplishment makes all the rest pale in comparison. Despite her rigorous schedule, Leya is the dedicated mother to little Kendall, a happy, remarkably adorable four-year-old boy. She and Kendall’s father, nicknamed Big Kendall, are both students at Ferrum College and are steadfast in their commitment to family and education. Despite their youth, they show up for each other in big ways: Big Kendall held off on his education for a year to watch Little Kendall while Leya began her studies at Ferrum, and Leya has been diligent in her goal to graduate. She will complete her undergraduate work in only three years, as opposed to the traditional four. Big Kendall is on track to graduate in 2021 with a degree in health and human performance and coaching.

Big Kendall attributes the family’s success to their commitment to each other: “All three of us feed off of each other. Believe it or not, our four-year-old will try to motivate us in the best way he can! We are a team,” and to their network of Ferrum College friends: “People offer to watch Little Kendall while we write a paper or do a project. The College is great, but the people make it even greater.”

Leya agrees and is adamant Ferrum College gave her the tools to be successful. “When I found Ferrum, I instantly found a second home. From day one, I felt like I belonged here,” Leya explained. “Through thought provoking conversations, individualized classroom settings, and countless hours of community service, Ferrum has prepared me to help others. If I can give people half of what Ferrum has given to me, I know I can help make the world a better place. I am not only excited, but honored to be an alumna of such an inspirational institution.”