{"id":29330,"date":"2019-05-06T10:42:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=29330"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:11:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:11:09","slug":"victoria-chavis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=29330","title":{"rendered":"Commencement profile: Victoria Chavis: A life full of little circles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Victoria
Victoria Chavis (center) celebrates with from left to right: Emily Chavis, Gabrielle James, Dylan Brooks and Kennedy Locklear. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Summer Bridge<\/a> Program Coordinator Euna Victoria Chavis walks across the stage to receive her master\u2019s of social work degree in May, she\u2019ll be thinking of four other UNC-Chapel Hill students who will receive their undergraduate degrees then, too.<\/p>\n

Chavis, a first-generation college student, graduated from Carolina in 2014 with a major in psychology and a minor in anthropology. Shortly after, she joined the Carolina College Advising Corps<\/a> with the hope of helping students in American Indian communities. The Corps places recent Carolina graduates in select North Carolina public high schools to assist under-represented students with college admission, financial aid, scholarship applications and more.<\/p>\n

Chavis was the first adviser<\/a> placed at her home high school, Purnell Swett High School in Maxton. Four of her students \u2014 Dylan Brooks, Gabrielle James, Emily Chavis and Kennedy Locklear \u2014 will be graduating from Carolina at the same time as their mentor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all doing great things,\u201d Chavis said. \u201cWe have a group text, and we were figuring out a time to get together to take a [graduation] picture, and I started getting really emotional. I\u2019ve seen them go from high school all the way through college.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Victoria
Victoria Chavis will graduate with a master’s in social work and enter NC State’s PhD program in the fall in higher education administration. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chavis stayed for two years as an adviser at Purnell Swett before deciding to apply for the master\u2019s distance education program at the UNC School of Social Work.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, while pursuing her graduate degree, she was hired as the first program coordinator for the Summer Bridge Program, which is part of UNC\u2019s College of Arts & Sciences.<\/p>\n

It was like coming home; Chavis had graduated from the Summer Bridge Program herself. \u201cMy life is full of little circles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before she began her undergraduate career at Carolina, Chavis received a call from another Purnell Swett High School graduate \u2014 Associate Dean of the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling Marcus Collins, who oversees Summer Bridge. He invited her to apply.<\/p>\n

Summer Bridge is a six-week transition program that helps first-year students adjust to Carolina by providing academic enrichment, community-building, and co-curricular and experiential learning activities before they start college in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made very good friends during Summer Bridge that I\u2019m still friends with today,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we returned to campus that fall, I was so thankful for the 70 people in my cohort. We stuck together all four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavis can relate to the undergraduate students she counsels because she admits she struggled during her undergraduate career. In her office at SASB North, she points to a picture of one of her best friends \u2014Faith Hedgepeth, a fellow \u201cBridgee\u201d \u2014 who was murdered in 2012. It is a case that is still unsolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a whole different thing to deal with in my journey. Undergrad was hard, but that made it a different kind of hard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chavis\u2019 office is a bright spot for the students who stop by. Two bulletin boards pinned with photos of smiling students are adorned with positive sayings such as \u201cYou have a right to be here,\u201d \u201cThe world is better with you in it,\u201d \u201cYou matter\u201d and \u201cHave faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fuzzy teal easy chair, with a nearby candy bowl, sits across from her desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the nap station or the cry station,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was Dean Collins\u2019 office when I was a senior in college, so I\u2019ve been on the other side of this desk crying. Now [the students and I] cry together, and then we figure out what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chavis\u2019 academic journey will not end when she becomes a double Carolina alumna. She begins NC State\u2019s doctoral program in higher education administration in fall 2019.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll keep her job at Summer Bridge while pursuing her Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I\u2019m supposed to be doing. Every experience I\u2019ve had has added up to this. It has made it worth the struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Kim Spurr<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more profiles and stories.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Summer Bridge Program Coordinator Euna Victoria Chavis walks across the stage to receive her master\u2019s of social work degree in May, she\u2019ll be thinking of four other UNC-Chapel Hill students who will receive their undergraduate degrees then, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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