For this year’s Homecoming Weekend, held Oct. 17-20, the University of Lynchburg reimagined Hornet to Hornet, or H2H, transforming it into a daylong professional conference.

The free event began at noon on Friday, Oct. 18, with lunch and a keynote address by Carter Elliott IV ’19. Elliott, who majored in history and political science at Lynchburg, said prior to the event that “coming home” to Lynchburg “is something I’m always eager to do.”

Elliott is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s press secretary. He previously managed communications for Moore’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign and held political communication roles in the campaigns of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and U.S. Senate candidate Alex Lasry.

He managed his first successful political campaign, for a Lynchburg City Council candidate, while he was still a student at Lynchburg.

Elliott was honored by the University’s Alumni Association this past spring with The M. Carey Brewer Alumni Award. The award is given to “a young alum who has made an outstanding contribution to civic or religious life, or service to their alma mater.”

He’s also a member of the Alumni Association’s board of directors.

Over 10 or 15 minutes, Elliott talked about his background, which included growing up on a Campbell County dairy farm. He also emphasized how important networking has been to his career.

“Networking is just like farming,” he said. “You have to pay attention to it every day. You have to spend time with the crops in order to have a good harvest in the fall, and you have to prepare, sometimes for great lengths of time.

“You don’t just put crops in the ground. You’ve got to take soil samples, plan the square-footage yield, and put together a schedule. That’s how you have to treat networking. You have to do the work beforehand so that you know you’re going to succeed.”

In keeping with that, he encouraged the students in attendance to build relationships with people — and not just because you need something from them. “Don’t reach out to people just because you want something,” he said.

“Meet new people and make new connections because that is one of the most beautiful parts of life. And never, ever discredit someone, or somewhere. You have no idea who you might meet and in what small-town dive bar or coffee shop that you might meet them in.

“That is precisely why I’ve always loved that saying, ‘It takes a village.’ They don’t say a big city or a fancy state. The word village is intentional, because good advice, incredible people, and lifelong support can come from anywhere, even the smallest of places.”

One of those small places, he continued, was the University of Lynchburg. When he graduated, he wondered how he would compete in the job market with “people with fancy degrees from big schools,” but in the end he had nothing to worry about.

He told the “soon-to-be graduates in the room” that they, too, would discover that Lynchburg “has prepared us in ways that we don’t even understand until we get into the real world. Lynchburg teaches you how to be critical thinkers, how to write, how to speak in public, how to argue, how to network. …

“Don’t ever let anyone tell you, and don’t ever feel like you can’t accomplish something or get the career of your dreams, because of where you grew up, what you look like, or where you went to school.”

You’ll make the connections you need to succeed, he added, “as long as you’re willing to put in the work to network and make it happen.”

H2H is a joint effort between Lynchburg’s Center for Career Engagement Opportunities, or CEO, and the Office of Alumni and External Engagement. “It’s this collaborative effort that made it possible to grow H2H into something bigger,” Dawn Marfil, the CEO’s assistant director of operations, said before the event.

“Previously, all panels were held simultaneously across campus within one hour and were major-specific. This year, we will have three separate time slots with simultaneous sessions … for our current students to explore their future paths.”

Marfil described the panel sessions as “industry- and topic-based,” providing “students with a more accurate perception of the spectrum of opportunities that their education and skills may be applied to.”

She added that H2H enabled the students to learn from and network with alumni from “various industry settings.”

The following panel discussions were held:

• “Managing Words, Codes, and People” — Shane Roscher ’11 and Tom Zimmerman ’05.
• “Education and Social Services” — Mary Milley ’13, ’23 MEd and Christina Valentine ’15.
• “Health Care and Mental Health” — Jody Caretti ’22, Dr. Paul Goldenbaum ’66, Juliana Kraemer ’24, Amanda Pratt ’94, Kasey Rangan ’94, Lavender Williams ’15, and Veronika Williams ’19.
• “Hospitality, Tourism, and the Environment” — Shane Roscher ’11, Lindsey Van Zile ’17, ’22 MA, and Gregory Wormser ’94.
• “Government Administration and Nonprofit” — Jamar Hawkins ’04, Robert Lipscomb Jr. ’89, Arielle O’Malley ’14, Jeffrey Snow ’19, ’21 MA, and Gregory Wormser ’94.
• “Graduate Education: Alumni who pursued advanced degrees and how it impacted their careers” — Christina Valentine ’15, Dr. Paul Goldenbaum ’66, Mary Milley ’13, ’23 MEd, and Lavender Williams ’15.
• “Career Development: Insights into alumni who are HR professionals on how to get a job” — Shane Roscher ’11 and Adrieanna Vest-Turner ’22 MPH.
• “Big Cities and Digital Cities: Alumni who work and live in large metropolitan cities and those who work remotely” — Jamar Hawkins ’04, Kasey Rangan ’94, and Tom Zimmerman.

The panel discussions were followed by an H2H networking reception on the balcony of Hall Campus Center. If you’d like to be an H2H panelist next year, contact Marfil at [email protected].