Southern Virginia University: How do we get here?

By Adam Kelly

Southern Virginia University, as many know, is a private liberal arts college located in Buena Vista, Virginia and is home to over 1,000 students.

Southern Virginia’s history starts back in 1867, where it was originally established in Bowling Green, Virginia as Bowling Green Female Seminary; an all-girls school. In 1901, after some conflicting matters, Edgar H. Rowe moved the school to an old hotel in Buena Vista and changed the name to Southern Seminary. Later on in 1961, the school changed its name to Southern Seminary University and over time, the University became recognized nationally with many state and regional titles.

In the 1980s and 90s, the College ran into financial problems as enrollment was declining. However, in the spring of 1996, the school’s trustees transferred the assets to a new board with Glade Knight in charge. By 2001, the school’s name changed to its current name of Southern Virginia University. The school remained affiliated with the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with over 90% of the students being members.

While there are a lot more details about the history of campus, I cannot explain all of the University’s history and importance in just a few paragraphs. To learn more about Southern Virginia, click here to read Matthew Rosson’s article.

Since the University started back up in the 90s, it has grown significantly in enrollment. Students, on average, travel about 1,300 miles to attend Southern Virginia. To obtain high enrollment numbers, the University depends on good marketing and a heavy social media presence. With most of the enrollment being athletes, good recruiting by coaches has really made a big difference. But, what really drives students here has been word of mouth. Many students find out about this school from people they know who have attended, or by people who are currently attending. That’s how I found out about the school.

At Southern Virginia University, the faculty wants each student to succeed. Whether you are an athlete, musician, or in any other activity, the school wants to help you reach your goals as a student; that is what I have experienced in my three years here. Being a student athlete, my schedule can be busy. I’ve had to miss several classes due to sporting events. Despite that, I’ve felt a lot of support from my professors as they have done all they can to help me catch up on the days or assignments I have missed. When professors are willing to help their students, a lot of stress is taken off of a student.

During my time as a student at Southern Virginia University, I have often reflected on how I got here, the things I’ve learned, the people I’ve met, and the person I am now. After this reflection and understanding of the University’s history, I asked myself, how do students find and love Southern Virginia University?

My Journey

As my time as a high school student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was coming to an end, I had no idea where I wanted to attend college. I knew I wanted to go to college right after high school, but I didn’t know where. I was getting recruitment letters from schools not too far from home, but wanted to look at other colleges where I could play tennis.

My parents found out about Southern Virginia University from a family friend and instantly contacted the tennis coach. I remember getting ready to go to school one morning and my parents asked me if I would be interested in going on a recruitment trip to Southern Virginia University later that week. I had heard about the school but had no idea where it was or what it was about. In all honesty, my first thought was that I would be missing three days of school… I was excited about missing school, but I was looking forward to checking out Southern Virginia.

Later that week, I packed a bag and my tennis racquets and headed out. I flew into Lynchburg and two players from the tennis team picked me up. During dinner and the drive to Buena Vista, we spent time getting to know each other. One of the first things I noticed was that the tennis team had good chemistry and had already made some good memories. After my four years on the high school tennis team, I knew how valuable it was to have a tight knit group of teammates. When looking at colleges, that was something that was really important to me.

After meeting the team the previous day, Coach Snelson picked me up and took me to the cafe for breakfast. We sat in the dining hall and got to know each other. He told me how the practices were run, the players on the team, and the certain rules in Division III tennis. After our breakfast, I met with an admissions representative and we took a tour of the school, talked about what was expected, and the goals that Southern Virginia University has for every student who attends. I was intrigued with what was mentioned in the meeting, but still didn’t see myself attending Southern Virginia the following school year. I had always lived in an urban area; I enjoyed living close to downtown Milwaukee and grew up enjoying the city life. Buena Vista was far from what I knew and enjoyed. I had never lived in a small town with not too much going on, but I still wanted to keep an open mind.

After the meeting, I went to a philosophy class with a player on the team. I enjoyed the small class size, and I specifically remember the professor being nice; it seemed like he enjoyed teaching.

After being in the classroom, I found Coach Snelson again and we drove up to the tennis courts to watch a tennis match. There, I met the rest of the tennis team… They looked very impressive to me. After the match, we all went to dinner. Everyone was talking, laughing, and having a good time. Even though I barely knew any of them, I could tell they were all good guys and that they had formed a brotherhood; it was something I wouldn’t have minded being a part of.

On my flight back to Milwaukee, I thought a lot about the past few days. I often went back to thinking about how close the tennis team was and the things that the admissions director told me. Relationships are very important to me, and I knew I would get the help and support I needed as a student-athlete.

I knew that if I did end up at Southern Virginia University, it wouldn’t be a bad thing… But I still was unsure. After about a month, I decided to apply and eventually got accepted. I took a few days to think about it and decided that I would be at Southern Virginia University that coming fall of 2018. Now, I am currently a junior and have loved every minute of being a student here.

When my freshman year finished up, I took two years off of school to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilbert, Arizona. In the fall of 2021, I returned to Southern Virginia. At the University, I have met wonderful people and lifelong friends, and I’ve loved being a part of the tennis team. Every year I have been on the tennis roster, it feels like I am on a completely new team (in the best ways). Some of my best memories and friends have been from playing tennis for Southern Virginia. I have enjoyed many of my courses and professors as well, I feel like they want me to succeed and want to take the time to help their students. I have felt nothing but support from my coaches and professors; it has been a great experience.

However, it would not be a great experience like it has been if it wasn’t for the great coaches and faculty. I have often wondered about their background, many who have very impressive resumes. How did this University find certain professors and coaches and why do they ultimately decide to work at Southern Virginia University? To help ease my curious mind, I asked several professors and coaches about how they got to Southern Virginia. Below are their answers.

Professor Brotherson: “Reflections — W. Todd Brotherson”

In early August 1998 I received a phone call from Walt Ralls, a friend of mine and one who had been with Southern Virginia College (SVC) since the changeover in leadership and mission in 1996. He said they were looking for someone to put together a business major, and he wanted to invite me to apply. At the Ime, we had fairly clear career plans, and while grateful for the invitatIon, I told Walt no, that I had plenty on my plate at the Ime. Perhaps also figuring into this response was that I had seen Walt come into our weekly Church meetIngs together just exhausted, and, knowing a little about what a startup entails, I couldn’t imagine adding that to what I already had and wanted to be doing.

One thing led to another, and aPer additIonal phone calls from other administrators and more of “Thanks, but no,” they asked if we would just be willing to come down for a visit. APer talking about it with Carrie, my wife, we said, “Yes,” — the beginning of the end!

A couple of days later we were taking care of some friends’ children while they were away, and that evening Carrie came back to the house from running some errands. She was visibly upset, frustrated about something, and I asked what the maMer was. She replied, “I’m running around having all these good feelings about SVC. They’re praying for us, and that’s an unfair recruitIng advantage!” Deeper in we go.

The morning of our visit, my professor-advisor called me to his office and handed me a job lisIng for a company in London that was looking to hire someone to effectIvely put together an in-house business educatIon division. He said, “I think you would be good at this.” I looked at the salary posIng, imagined how fun it would be to live in London for a while, and then thought, “What an interestIng juxtapositIon, this possibility side by side with our impending visit to SVC, a startup in a small town with what I imagined to be spartan-level resources.

Off we went to see. We did have genuine interest — we had heard a little about what was happening with the college — but we had no idea what we would find: a real college? Glorified EFY? A short Time later, as we met several students and spoke with professors like Dr. Fran MacDonnell and Dr. Randall Cluff, I thought, “Oh! They’re serious about this!”

As we came into Buena Vista and drove up the drive to Main Hall, Carrie had an overwhelming feeling of goodness and peace. We went in, met students, faculty and administrators, and later, as we were saw the president’s office viewing a regional news video about one of the SVC students, we had lumps in our throats and fire in our hearts, and we thought, “The Lord’s hand is in this work, and we want to be a part of it.” Interviews and other items followed, and the next morning I found myself conversing with the provost about how we were going to work the schedule for the upcoming semester. We were in.

So many adventures awaited — ups and downs, setbacks and successes, but we’ve never lost that vision, and we’ve been grateful throughout for the opportunitIes we have to work with students of promise, hope, dedicatIon and grit, and colleague-friends who are dedicated, consecrated, enlightened and good.

Professor Covington: Marketing Instructor

“In the summer of 2019, I mentioned to a colleague that I was wondering what should be the next step in my career. That colleague happened to be employed here at SVU, and within a week, he had set up a meeting between myself and the Business Faculty regarding an open teaching position. I had no concept of what (or where!) Southern Virginia University was, but as I met with the Business Program Faculty, I found that we had a lot of similar ideas around empowering students and preparing them for the “real-world.”

That being said, I still was convinced this was something I should pursue, until both my wife and I had separate spiritual confirmations that we should investigate the opportunity further. So, I scheduled a time to come out and visit, teaching a few classes and meeting students, faculty and staff.

That happened in September of 2019. We fell in love with the area, and by the end of our visit, I had verbally accepted the position.

So, looking back, what ultimately brought me here? I would say it was a combination of a beautiful area; genuinely talented and amazing staff and faculty; and spiritual/religious confirmations that this was the right place for me to be at this time.”

Before Southern Virginia University, Professor Covington was a digital marketing consultant for Megaplex Theatres, Marketing Program Advisor for Salt Lake Community College, Vice President of Digital Marketing for the Utah Jazz, manager in Online marketing and new media for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, etc.

Coach Snelson: Men’s and Women’s Tennis Coach.

I used to live in Indiana close to Notre Dame. I was in the same ward as Jason Lamb. He was an assistant coach at Notre Dame. We became friends. Would hang out and go to lunch. Jason became the lacrosse head coach as SVU and after a time became the AD. He would call me up and ask me to come coach the men’s tennis team. After some time I decided to give it a try. Mainly because the school gave free tuition to family members. I had two sons that had not graduated and were just working jobs without much opportunity for growth. The two boys and I started SVU in the fall of 2015.

SVU has been good to me. I love working with young people. They keep me young myself. I have a lot of freedom. The beautiful views here are amazing and I enjoy the peace.

Coach Jon Baker “First time I heard of SVU?”

[In] 2016- A friend of mine was the Head Coach for women’s volleyball at Townsend University. His son was a really good lacrosse player and was being recruited by Jason Lamb the AD of a small school in Virginia. Southern Virginia University was going to start a men’s volleyball program and they were looking for a coach. I told him I was not interested but knew someone who might be interested. I gave them Tom Peterson’s information.

How did I get here?

Nearly immediately Tom was asking me to come out and coach. I did not. After six months, Tom convinced me just to come visit. It took another six months. My wife (Debby) and I came for a visit in June. There were not very many students left on campus, [but] we could still see the vision.

Brett Garcia, Jason Lamb and Tom talked about the mission of the University and the school’s vision. We had no intention of moving to Virginia. We continued to talk and we told them that something had to fall into place in order to make it work. At first it didn’t seem like I could. I was offered an Assistant Principal job near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Then things just fell into place for us.

We just finished our sixth year here. In the five years with the men we went to the NCAA tournament four times. It would have been five, but COVID shut us down. We had six or seven All Americans and a bunch of other awards including American Volleyball Coaches Association and National Assistant Coach of the Year.

In six seasons with our women’s volleyball team, we have two conference titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances and multiple team and individual awards. One of the awards we are most proud of is our academic awards. Last year our team GPA was 3.75. I am very proud of our girls. They work hard on the court and in the classroom.

Michael Frye: Associate Director of Student Success

I found Southern Virginia University from a friend that was a RA at Southern Virginia University. He was at my previous institution and thought I should apply to SVU. I wasn’t ready for another university but I wanted to change my lifestyle. I enjoy how joyful students and professors were and are currently. SVU is a place I would want my daughter to experience one day!

It is the inviting, involved people that make Southern Virginia University great. There is a lot of history and memories here and more to be made. The impact and relationships that have been created is what helps students and faculty thrive. Southern Virginia University has been great for these professors, and coaches, and for me!