CU Beckley Getting Involved with the Community

There are many classes that are offered on the Beckley campus that some do not know about and the flexible class schedules are great for non-traditional students. Ms. Lori Pace, Instructor of Criminology goes on to state that, “Beckley is a hidden gem.” Students at the Concord Beckley campus are using their time while at CU to both learn and serve their community in a variety of ways.

    For the last ten years the Ms. Pace and her students at CU Beckley have hung purple ribbons out in the Beckley Community to celebrate Domestic Violence Awareness Month and share the message. This year was no exception, along with a group from WVU Tech and the Women’s Resource Center students and faculty members hung purple ribbons in parts of Beckley to celebrate Domestic Violence Awareness month and spread the message.    

    In addition to being involved with Domestic Violence Awareness through hanging ribbons, the students also attended Chili night in uptown Beckley. During the event they walked through the crowd educating people on the importance of Domestic Violence Awareness and handing out purple ribbon stickers for people to wear in show of support for the cause. Through fundraising efforts they were even able to sponsor the Women’s Resource Center booth for the Chili Night event in addition to educating the crowd.

    All of the events start with fundraising that typically happens once per semester, which helps the group fund all of their service projects for the semester. There have been many events, trainings, and seminars that have been attended and sponsored by the group already just in the first half of the fall semester.

    So far, they sponsored 25 people during the “Stewards of Children” training that was held at the Erma Byrd Higher Education Center. 17 CU students were able to attend the “Handle with Care Conference” in Charleston as well. Handle with Care is a system of how to handle children who have been involved in a domestic violence situation, this practice is referred to as being trauma informed. Additionally, a group trip to the Trans Alleghany Lunatic Asylum was taken and a variety of guest speakers have been brought in for the students.

    Samantha Russell, Senior Psychology major with a Sociology Minor stated “She’s [Ms. Pace] is the only teacher that I’ve ever had here at CU that hot me out in the community with hands on experience.”    

    Other events that they are involved with include the Candlelight Vigil on October 14 for those lost to Domestic Violence victims who have been lost in the last year. They also will be at the Tailgate Halloween again with Just for Kids in Downtown Beckley. Ms. Pace even said that many of her former students come back and tell her that “What they remember most is what they did in practice out in the community.” Ms. Pace said that students on the Athens campus should “Consider a class at the HEC. It’s a reasonable drive and has a different dynamic with nice, modern classrooms.”    

    For more information on getting involved with these activities at the CU Beckley Campus please contact Ms. Lori Pace at lpace@concord.edu or call 304-256-0270.