About Me... My name is Ashlyn and I am a freshman majoring in Human, Nutrition, Food and Exercise. I am from Delta, Pennsylvania, which is a (really) small town about five and a half hours away from Virginia Tech. I come from a family of four, with my mom, dad and brother, who is three years younger than me. We also have one dog, an Australian Shepard, which we rescued from a shelter in Pennsylvania. My family enjoys traveling, and we have a motorhome that we go camping in, with some family friends. I enjoy all of our trips because we get to experience new places and see and do a lot of cool things. For example, we have visited places like Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and Mackinac Island in Michigan. Traveling with my family has allowed us to become closer, which made it a little harder going to school over five hours away. However, choosing SERVE has made it a more comfortable transition for me. I chose to join the SERVE living learning community because I enjoy serving others and I wanted to be part of a group that shared the same interests and passions as I do. Also, I knew that transitioning into college can be tough, and I was hopeful that being part of a living learning community, would give me a close group of friends that would help make the experience easier for me. I also knew that joining SERVE would give me a lot of opportunities to meet new people and give back to the community. Lastly, I chose to join SERVE so that I could have the opportunity to continue the tradition of serving others that exists at Virginia Tech. My passion for service began when I was a freshman in high school. Up until then, I had always gone to children's parties, held by an association at my mom's work, and been able to participate. However, that was the first year that I was too old to go as a kid. So, I started volunteering, and participating in preparation and clean up. I helped with these parties all four years of high school. During my junior year, I took the opportunity and applied for the National Honor Society at my high school, and my application was accepted. This allowed me to have many more opportunities to serve others, and helped motivate me to find those opportunities. Throughout high school, I served others through volunteering at the children's parties, canned food drives, vacation bible school at a local church, and many other events. The opportunity to be in the National Honor Society at my school, and serve others was such an honor. However, I wouldn't have had the chance to do these things if it weren't for my mom and her inspiring me to volunteer and serve others. I plan on continuing to live a life of service during my time at Virginia Tech, by being very involved on campus and always looking for opportunities to help others. I think that choosing to join SERVE was a great opportunity to do this. Also, a big part of serving others is having a sense of community with those who live around you. Having that sense of community is important because it allows you to be able to come together, as a group, when needed and make a difference. Living in the SERVE living learning community has already shown this kind of community, and I know it will continue to grow as the year progresses. I also plan on continuing to live a life of service after college too, as my goal is to become a physical therapist, where I will be serving others every day. I have also played lacrosse since I was about five years old, and during my high school career our team won a county championship and multiple district championships. Being a part of this team showed me just how important a sense of community is, as our school and community came together and supported our team in all of our games. Having that support motivated our team to be even better, and it was such a great experience to be a part of. Because of all of these factors, I knew I wanted to be a part of a community that felt like a family when I came to Virginia Tech, and I couldn’t think of a better opportunity for that, than joining SERVE.