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“They’re coming to us with real


needs,” Henry says, “and with a family that can’t support them getting a higher education degree.” Starting this fall, U.Va. Wise’s


Within Reach initiative will allow in-state students from families making $40,000 or less to attend the college for free, paying no tuition or fees. “It’s one of the best colleges to be


able to go in and graduate with less debt than you would anywhere else,” says Wise Mayor Jeff Dotson. His son, Kevin, graduated from U.Va. Wise in 2018 and plans to start law school this fall. Dotson has been on Town Council


since 2012, just days after he retired from the town’s police force. Altogether, he’s served Wise for nearly 40 years, so he knows something about the town and the area that surrounds it. “Down this way’s all coal country,


Clinch Valley College began classes


on a campus that had been a farm, with 109 students, most of whom were Korean War veterans. The college offered only two-year degrees at first. It awarded its first bachelor degrees in 1970, the year after its name changed to University of Virginia’s College at Wise. This fall, U.Va. Wise will offer its


first graduate degree, in teaching. The college expects to add a graduate nurs- ing program in fall 2022.


Small town, big impact “First and foremost,” says the col-


lege’s chancellor, Donna Henry, “U.Va. Wise is here to serve Southwest Vir- ginia. Access and affordability are two of our biggest central components of our mission.” More than half of the college’s


2,021 students are the first in their family to attend college. More than 80% get financial assistance. A third of them, Henry says, get no contribution from their families to help pay their college costs.


Photo courtesy U.Va. Wise


just about, and that’s declined,” he says. “Nearly everyone in the region used to work at a mine or for a company that supported mines or somehow served mine workers. As those jobs went away, so did many of the people who filled them. “Our population has declined quite a bit [also],” he says. Wise County has lost nearly 9% of


its population since the 2010 census, according to U.Va.’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. According to Census Bureau estimates, nearly 10% of the 3,286 people living in Wise in 2010 had left town by 2018. Little towns that depended on


mining are suffering all through the coal- fields, Dotson says, but “in Wise we seem to be doing better than most of them.” Wise is certainly doing better than


some. The nearby town of Appalachia, which lost nearly 11% of its population over the same period, has a median household income more than $22,000 less than Wise’s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Coeburn, another Wise County town, lost more than 12% of its popula- tion and has a median household income more than $23,000 lower than Wise’s. Neighboring Dickenson County has lost more than 10% of its population since the last census and has an unemployment


www.VirginiaBusiness.com


rate a point and a half higher than Wise County’s. The median income in Clinchco, a little town in the middle of Dickenson County, is more than $39,000 below Wise’s. One big reason, Dotson says, is


U.Va. Wise. “It’s been tough on us, but we realize


we’re fortunate to have the college here,” Dotson says. “It’s a big asset to us, I think, to know that we have it.”


Supporting role In a town as small as Wise, any-


thing that provides 300 jobs and 2,000 potential customers would be an asset. “The college itself has always been an economic engine for this region,” says Shannon Blevins, associate vice chancellor for economic development and strategic initiatives. That’s just the beginning of U.Va. Wise’s economic contributions, however. Education is any college’s primary


purpose, but Henry says, “The other part of our mission, which I think is really important, is service to the region. One of the areas that we help to serve the region is through our support of economic development.” The college created its office of eco-


nomic development in 2007, and Blevins was promoted to vice chancellor four years ago. The elevation, she says, shows how seriously U.Va. Wise takes its role in the region’s economy. “That department’s really doing


good. They’re doing lots of things to try to improve the region, which would improve their college, too … I think they’re doing great work,” Dotson says. Blevins isn’t actively recruiting com-


panies, Henry says, but “her role is really to partner with the economic developers in the region to ask, ‘How can the college help with what you’re doing?’” While the economic development


pros market the area, Blevins says, U.Va. Wise invites prospective employers onto campus, hosting presentations and making sure companies are familiar with the expertise and resources available through the college. The college also reassures companies that the community can fill their workforce requirements.


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