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Once/Always
a Mountaineer

Fall 2024 | Cover Story

It's true - our WVU connection is in our nature. Once a Mountaineer. Always a Mountaineer.

 Once a Mountaineer   Always a Mountaineer

Features

Feature

Once a Mountaineer

We’ve cheered them on to great victories and offered support after disappointing losses, hoping for the day we’d see them receive accolades as sports professionals. Most of all, they exemplify what it means to be a Mountaineer.

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Feature

Always a Mountaineer

West Virginia University alumni are sprinkled throughout our staff and faculty, representing to the students they encounter that the foundation built here can construct a career that gives back to the University and the state.

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Feature

Book Value

Jayne Anne Phillips (English, ’74) writes about what she knows best — her home state of West Virginia — but the recent Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner feels that being a writer is complicated. She can explain.

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Departments

Go Beyond

A Professional Boost with a Personal Twist

How a WVU alumnus' experience abroad as a student shaped a writing career

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Dream Big

Why You Do the Work

Stephenie Kennedy-Rea wears many hats at WVU’s Cancer Institute.

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Mountaineer Spirit

Goal Keeper

When the much-anticipated Team MVP was announced, the recipient wasn’t the leading scorer or the All-American defender. The members of the team had voted for senior midfielder Amanda Hill to receive the honor.

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Keep Going

The Beat Goes On

Since the creation of the WVU Alumni Band more than five decades ago, Ed Gilger (Recreation, ’65), a percussionist, has marched in nearly every Homecoming Parade. And at 83 years old, he plans to continue, finding rejuvenation in the familiar tunes.

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Go Above

MAKING HISTORY IN THE CIA

Andrew Hartsog (History, ’96) didn’t want to just study history, he wanted “to make history.” And make history, he did.

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Go First

Paying it Forward

If there’s one thing that has shaped Dr. Zack Koenig’s life, it was his mother’s prescription for success: surround yourself with the people you want to be like. That advice brought him to West Virginia University.

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Breakthroughs

POSITIVE DISRUPTION: Rodney Williams and the community of SoLo

Rodney Williams (Economics / Finance, ’06; IMC, ’08) didn’t know exactly what he was getting into when he started SoLo Funds, but he knew that he saw a problem he not only wanted to fix but had the ability to do it.

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The Last Word

The AT of WWE

One West Virginia University alumna can attest to the authenticity of WWE by tending to the broken bones, torn ligaments, sprains, dislocations and any imaginable injury to the bodies of World Wrestling Entertainment superstars.

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Successors

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kelly collins

Fair game: Kelly Collins

It could be argued that Kelly Tuckwiller Collins (’09, ’11, Reed College of Media) grew up at the State Fair of West Virginia. She has been attending the annual August event since before her first memory.

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underwood

WVU alum flies into storms for science

For six months of the year, the East Coast of the United States braces for “Hurricane Season.” While local officials and meteorologists signal caution to their viewers that may be in areas of danger, WVU graduate Nick Underwood flies directly into them.

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luke yingling

Grad Helps Attorneys Make the Right Case

Luke Yingling, Law ’22, is blazing his own trail as the founding president and CEO of Analytica Legalis, a technology company that uses artificial intelligence to help attorneys win in court.

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childers

Author Sarah Beth Childers

Sarah Beth Childers (MFA English, ’09) knew she’d write about her brother’s death soon after he died by suicide in 2012.

Read More : Author Sarah Beth Childers writes ‘Prodigals: A Sister’s Memoir of Appalachia and Loss’

Photos and Media

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Viewfinder

Nothing says “One WVU” like the Flying WV and it’s everywhere on campus in Morgantown, Keyser, Beckley and beyond. We fly it, we wear it, and when we see others wearing it at home and far away, all it takes is a “Let’s Go!” answered by “Mountaineers!”

WVU
Photo Essay

Coal Rush

The West Virginia Mountaineers lost to the No. 11 Iowa State Cyclones, 28-16, but celebrated West Virginia's role in the coal industry with their inaugural Coal Rush.

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Photo Essay

2023: A Look Back

A visual look back at 2023 through the eyes and lenses of our West Virginia University photography staff.

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Photo Essay

Mountaineer Nation Day

Mountaineer Nation Day is an annual chance for West Virginia University fans to come together while cheering on the Mountaineers — no matter where they're watching from. Images submitted by West Virginia fans around the country.

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