The biggest news in small-town Virginia could be the installation of its first stoplight or the grand opening of a new Target. Maybe the high school football team has won the state championship or the pastor's wife has had a new baby. While they may enjoy the unhurried pace and closeness of rural towns, some University students have changed the family precedent by becoming the first to attend college.
Second-year Education student Elizabeth Cash said she always has been academically oriented so her parents expected nothing less than her continued education at college.
"I was very grown-up when I was young, and I said from age five that I was going to U.Va.," Cash said. "My Dad would take me to girls' basketball games [at U.Va.] and seeing the students, I just knew that this is where I wanted to go to school."
Although her parents did not attend college, Cash said they encouraged her to pursue a college education.
"I think it was a lot of self-motivation, but my parents were involved in everything I did," she said. "My dad coached my basketball and softball teams until I went to high school, and I don't think my mom missed any of my games or school activities. Having them always be there gave me the support and motivation to always try my best and succeed."
Third-year College student Heather Ham said parental motivation helped her too.
"My mom really wanted me to go to college," Ham said. "She has always been really supportive and she always has encouraged me to get into different things like Governor's school."
Ham said she was always in the gifted and talented programs at her school and was admitted into the Governor's School for 11th and 12th grades. Attending the Governor's School for half of the school day was another motivating force, Ham said.
"Governor's School was also a big deal because we took college classes and many were taught by college professors so that definitely encouraged me to go to college," she said.
Ham said she also took summer classes at Wytheville Community College in order to earn more college credit.
"She is definitely motivated and very independent," third-year College student and close friend Daphne Rankin said.
While Ham and Cash had goals of attending college, they both said they knew they wouldn't be able to depend completely on their parents.
"My step-dad encouraged me to go to college but said I would have to do it myself, Ham said, "but my mom tries to help me out a much as she can."
Cash said she is lucky her parents pay tuition, but she is responsible for room and board, books and sorority dues.
While both Ham and Cash said they receive some scholarship money, they have jobs in order to make ends meet. Ham said she began working as a bookkeeper at a grocery store when she was 16 and now works at the Malcolm W. Cole Childcare center.
Cash is a Resident Adviser as well as a media relations intern for the athletic department. During the summer, Cash said she works at the Hershey's Chocolate factory at home in Augusta County where her mom has worked for 13 years.
According to Cash, many of the people who live in her hometown, Staunton, work in the factories that make goods such as food products, medical products and heating and air conditioning units. Other people have trade jobs such as brick masonry or plumbing, she said. Cash's high school had a trade school which prepared students to get jobs directly out of high school.
"I even have a friend working for my dad," said Cash, whose father owns a business called Wade's Floor Covering and Interiors.
Ham's parents, on the other hand, own a dairy farm in Carrol County. Ham said her parents began working on the family owned farm 16 years ago. Before that, her mother worked in a clothing factory after she had Ham at age 17.
Cash said she also lives on the family farm -- a horse farm that her grandparents still own. Both sides of Cash's family have been in Augusta since the 1800s -- and they all knew each other. According to Cash, her parents were high school sweethearts and were married five years after graduation.
While Cash's mother attended community college for a short while, she decided she just didn't like school. Her father, on the other hand, could not attend college because he had to help his mother after his father passed away, Cash said.
Ham said that her step-father probably could have gone to college, but chose the Reserves instead. Her mother, however, went to Mount Rogers High School in Grayson County, which had kindergarten through 12th grade in one school.
"Where my mom comes from, it is really back-woodsy," Ham said, "and I don't think anyone from there goes to college ever."
Even though their parents did not go to college, both Ham and Cash seem to appreciate their support.
"We have U.Va. everything," Cash said. "Our white mini van is even pinstriped orange and blue."
And Cash said she always can tell when her mother has been telling fellow workers about her daughter's achievements.
With a history major, an astronomy minor and plans of getting a master's degree in teaching with a concentration in social studies secondary education, Cash said she wants to become a teacher and eventually work in education administration. Ham also plans to become a teacher with a double major in history and religion. Ham said she decided to pursue a career in education after she started working at the childcare center.
Neither Cash nor Ham, however, said they think they are getting a 'higher' education than their parents.
"We are educated in different areas," Ham said. "I don't know anything about milking, but I could tell them everything about World War II."
Cash agreed. "It is not a higher education; it is a different education," she said. "Their education came from living in the world"
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