The Ha-Ha Sisterhood Celia McCormick fondly remembers the creative monikers that students from Hollins\u2019 Horizon Program for adult women adopted each fall for Tinker Day. However, the retired Horizon director still winces when she recalls a query she frequently received during her leadership: Describe the average Horizon student.<\/p>\n \u201cI hated that question,\u201d she told attendees at the program\u2019s 40th anniversary reunion last September. \u201cFirst of all, there is absolutely nothing average about any of you. Horizon students have ranged in age from the mid-20s, occasionally younger, to their mid-70s, occasionally older; some single, some married, some with children, some without, some worked, some didn\u2019t. Horizon students have never, thank goodness, fit into a neat description. That\u2019s what makes it so interesting, and really quite inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet talk with past and current Horizon students about how the program has affected their lives, and their stories are remarkably similar. \u201cFinding my voice\u201d is a commonly cited discovery: Evelyn Bradshaw, who graduated through Horizon in 1988 and became director of the program a year later, explains, \u201cIt was at Hollins that I learned I was smart and I mattered and that my opinions counted for something. I could be a leader and I had contributions to make.\u201d Aretha Day \u201912, a small business owner who has gone on since graduation to complete an executive M.B.A., relishes that she \u201cdidn\u2019t have to apologize for being who I was. I could say what I had to say and it was accepted. The Horizon Program helps women find their authentic selves.\u201d<\/p>\n Ericka Kelly<\/p><\/div>\n Confidence<\/em> is the mantra of Horizon student Ericka Kelly, an English and creative writing major who is pursuing an interest in screenwriting. \u201cA very consistent Ericka has definitely shown up in this last year and a half. My decision-making, my ability to know that no matter how crazy things get, I can handle it.\u201d And Sarah Hazlegrove \u201990 states unequivocally that, when she was 27 years old, Horizon \u201cchanged my life. It was the beginning of this huge awakening.\u201d<\/p>\n Horizon\u2019s genesis began in 1974. Recognizing that women over 21 were already attending Hollins as day students, Elizabeth Minnich, the school\u2019s first director of continuing education, proposed \u201cthat we make some special revisions for these students, seek new ones, and proceed toward implementation of a full program geared to the special needs of re-entry students.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cContinuing Education,\u201d as the program was called, embraced the mission that endures today: serving nontraditional-age women who weren\u2019t ready to enter college after high school, or who had to delay higher education because of family or career obligations. The program\u2019s structure has dramatically evolved since the mid-70s. Then, the program was strictly part time. As Sandra Tucker-Maxwell \u201990 notes in her research paper, \u201cThe Hollins Horizon Program: 1974 to 1991,\u201d \u201c\u2026students were advised to take just one class during their inaugural term at Hollins. Special re-entry courses were especially designed to help the returning woman regain study and writing skills as well as to ease her back into the academic environment\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n A turning point came in 1987. \u201cContinuing Education\u201d inadvertently implied the program was noncredit, so a new name, \u201cHorizon,\u201d was adopted from student suggestions. \u201cSince a definition of horizon<\/em> is the range of perception or experience, it fit perfectly,\u201d Tucker-Maxwell explains.<\/p>\n Sarah Hazlegrove<\/p><\/div>\n The program\u2019s other major change was offering adult women the option to attend Hollins full time. Horizon students enthusiastically embraced the opportunity. I became a work horse,\u201d says Hazlegrove. \u201cI had always been a hard worker. I liked manual labor. But I\u2019d never felt challenged on an intellectual level to that extent. I was very hungry for all I was learning. It was an experience that taught me so much about myself, what I was capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n Horizon students are legendary for their herculean work ethic and time management expertise. \u201cI\u2019m [on campus] all day,\u201d says Kelly, who also holds down \u201cabout four part-time jobs.\u201d Tessa Urgo \u201915 juggles a demanding academic schedule (22 hours during the fall 2014 term) with raising three young sons. She approaches her education \u201clike a job. I come here in the morning when I get my kids to school and I stay until I pick them up. I devote that time to my schoolwork. When I go home, if they have schoolwork to do, and I have schoolwork, we all do it together. They need to see me doing my work as an example. We\u2019re all working toward goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Hazlegrove, a Phi Beta Kappa honors major in philosophy and French, is now an acclaimed photographer. She continues to credit Hollins for her ability to achieve high standards in her work. \u201cI use the same measuring stick when I was at Hollins to gauge if I\u2019m doing my very best. I know when I\u2019m doing a good job. It\u2019s held me in good stead.\u201d She is currently traveling throughout the world documenting tobacco farming. Four Roanoke museums will feature her photography next October.<\/p>\n Aretha Day<\/p><\/div>\n A strong support network, both at Hollins and beyond, is crucial for many Horizon students. When Day enrolled, she was keen to pursue religious studies, sociology, business and organizational behavior, and leadership training\u2014or as she puts it, \u201cI wanted to major in everything. I was talking to Celia and I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do this. I want to take all these classes.\u2019 Celia said, \u2018Oh Aretha, this is Hollins. We can make it work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At the 40th anniversary celebration, Bradshaw shared the story of a Horizon student who needed a hysterectomy. \u201cShe was in a quandary as she dared not drop out for the semester because she was in the home stretch to graduate. Her husband, who had not graduated from high school, volunteered to attend her classes and take notes for her. He and the professor worked out the details and she finished her classes with As.\u201d<\/p>\n Urgo, who wants to teach pre-K through second grade, faced the enormous task of earning teacher licensure while completing a psychology major. Even though she was passionate about a career in education, she debated whether she could meet the licensure requirements while finishing her degree. \u201c[Associate Professor of Education] Rebecca Cox got behind me and said, \u2018You can have both of them and you can be what you want to be.\u2019 She helped me work out my schedule and gave me the emotional strength to say, \u2018I can buckle down and do this.\u2019 Had she not done that, I would have given up.\u201d<\/p>\n Since its inception, Horizon has had a place to call its own, from Malvern Hill in the mid-70s to the program\u2019s home today in Eastnor. For students, the Hill House is a sanctuary. \u201cIt\u2019s like a nontraditional-age dormitory,\u201d Day explains. \u201cYou can go there, you can eat chocolate, decompress, lament about a grade, get advice on a project. We would bring traditional-age students over and they were like, \u2018Eastnor is the coolest place!\u2019 When a lot of us would come in the door we\u2019d say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m home!\u2019 I still say it when I come back to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n Tessa Urgo<\/p><\/div>\n Urgo adds, \u201cI sit in Eastnor and there are single and married moms or a grandmother and I think, \u2018That\u2019s our common bond.\u2019 We can talk about our kids, what we\u2019re going to cook for dinner, how we\u2019re going to study for an upcoming test. It\u2019s this sorority-like feeling of knowing we can laugh, we can cry, we can vent, we can sit in silence. I can sit there and feel wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n Eastnor\u2019s foundation isn\u2019t bricks and mortar. It\u2019s the recruiters, advisors, confidants, and cheerleaders also known as the various directors of Horizon over the last four decades. From the beginning, Elizabeth Minnich was realistic about the challenges: \u201cThere will be problems. There are always problems. But we plan to help the women who make this important decision in every way we can.\u201d Current director Mary Ellen Apgar \u201912 is a Horizon alumna who has continued the program\u2019s commitment to hands-on leadership since 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cShe has been a big supporter,\u201d says Urgo. \u201cShe\u2019s a fantastic listener and has a calming demeanor. To know she\u2019s there and so accessible is priceless. She brings a sense of experience that is invaluable. If we can see our director has done it, then clearly we\u2019re going places. She lets us know it\u2019s [going to be] okay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love her. She\u2019s so encouraging,\u201d adds Kelly. \u201cYou ask Mary Ellen, \u2018How are you?\u2019 and she always answers, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m living the dream.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Celebrating the program\u2019s 40th anniversary last fall were the three most recent directors: Evelyn Bradshaw \u201988, Mary Ellen Apgar \u201912 (the current director), and Celia McCormick. Photo by Dan Smith<\/p><\/div>\n A program for adult women could exist at any public or private college or university. But both past and current students believe Horizon is uniquely successful because it\u2019s based at a women\u2019s college. \u201cThe ability to concentrate on your studies because you\u2019re around women rather than a mixed student body where you might be distracted\u2014that was like, \u2018I\u2019m in an oasis of safety and the ability to concentrate,\u2019\u201d says Hazlegrove.<\/p>\n Kelly admits, \u201cYou couldn\u2019t have paid me when I was 17 to go to an all-girls\u2019 school, but I see the genius in it now. It just incubates strength and motivation. I see a campus full of women who want to do something. They want to get their hands dirty, they want to start making changes, they want to see their world in a new light.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes [Horizon] that much more special because I\u2019m not sure it would get the same type of support, focus, or attention at a coed institution,\u201d Day asserts. \u201cIt\u2019s not just an education, it\u2019s an experience. It\u2019s an empowerment of women.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Hodges is director of public relations.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For 40 years, the Horizon Program has empowered adult women from all walks of life to discover their voices and fulfill their ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-5878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-winter-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5878"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5950,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878\/revisions\/5950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>The Witches of Eastnor
\n<\/em>The Oompa Loompas from the Chocolate Factory<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Ericka](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/ericka-kelly.jpg\")
![\"Sarah](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sarah-hazlegrove.jpg\")
![\"Aretha](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/aretha-day.jpg\")
![\"Tessa](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/tessa-urgo.jpg\")
![\"Horizon](\"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/directors.jpg\")