My SERVE story tends to be a little different than everyone else’s. I started off my Virginia Tech experience by coming to campus and touring in September of 2015. From the undoubtful beauty to the commended academic excellence, I knew this was the place I was going to call home for the next four years. I soon began my journey of applying to all the colleges that caught my eye, but I still had my sights completely set on Virginia Tech. I remember the day that I was accepted clearly. It was competition weekend and I was headed to Concord, NC for my biggest dance competition of the year, Showstopper. I was beyond excited, but I also had this awful feeling of despair because this was the last dance competition that I would ever compete in. Just as all of the feelings started coming to me, I got a notification on my phone from Virginia Tech Admission’s twitter page: “Admission decisions will be available on your status page after 5 pm”. I immediately looked at the time only to realize it was 6:15 pm. My stomach nearly dropped to the ground and I felt like my heart stopped beating. It took me a minute to catch my breath, but when I did I quickly pulled out my phone and type in my username and password as fast as I could. I couldn’t believe my eyes; there it was in big print, the word that I couldn’t be more excited to see: Admitted. I remember starting to cry as I looked over to my mom, telling her the delightful news. That was a moment I will remember for the rest of my life, the moment I truly became a Hokie.
Shortly after I started my Hokie journey, I was introduced to an idea that I loved- Living Learning Communities. I had never heard of these before and I was beyond ecstatic to learn more about them. I spent hours researching all of the different academic LLCs, trying to decide which one I would best fit until I came across one that stuck in my mind. I had only been researching academic LLCs, but maybe that was the problem. I found SERVE and knew that it would be a great match. I was extremely excited about this, but I wasn’t quite convinced. I had done community service all my life and no LLC could fit me better, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to start my freshman year off in an LLC. I had always wanted the big, broad freshman college experience and I didn’t think an LLC would let me have that. At the time I felt that an LLC would lead me to a strict, small group of friends and that I wouldn’t be able to have the full freshman experience. I was one hundred percent wrong but I had no idea at the time, so I put the LLC on the backburner and didn’t think anything else of it.
It was the end of July and in only a few short weeks I would be at Virginia Tech. I was attending Hokie Camp and the day after I would be going to orientation. It was unbelievable; my dreams of being a Hokie were finally coming true. We were sitting at an information session about VT Engage led by Catherine. I didn’t know it yet, but the words she was saying would mean a whole lot more to me in just the month to come. She was talking about all of the amazing things that VT Engage does when she started talking about SERVE. It hit me that this was an opportunity I had completely forgot about and let fly right past me. Then she said the thing that hit me like a boulder. She said that they still had a few open spots left in the SERVE community and that even though the deadline had passed, if we filled out an application right away then we could still have a chance to be in. It was fate. After being so involved in community service my entire life, how could I not be a part of this amazing community? After she was done speaking, I immediately went up to her to grab an application. I couldn’t believe how crazy and surreal I felt; it was my second chance and I was not going to make the wrong decision this time. Around two days later I received an email from Catherine saying that I was accepted into SERVE, and that was how it all began; that was how and why I chose SERVE.