Changing Seasons a Constant for BVU Alum from Southern California
Recent grad, Victoria Hodge, reflects on her experience moving from California to Iowa to complete her undergraduate degree at BVU.
Affordability and the chance to experience changing seasons brought Victoria Hodge from Southern California to Buena Vista University in Storm Lake four years ago.
Hodge, who graduated from BVU in May, began her career at the end of July, working as a special education teacher at Emory Academy of Global Leadership & Empowerment in San Diego. She works with children in grades K-6, making sure they’re getting everything they need as they grow and advance.
“It was last fall while I was at home in California (taking classes virtually through BVU) that I decided I wanted to stay near home to start my career,” says Hodge, who earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a special education endorsement. “I wanted to be back close to my family.”
Hodge left Southern California as a BVU freshman, intent on earning some independence in a college setting far from home. She also sought to experience the changing seasons, a foreign development for many who, like her, come from the Los Angeles area.
“My favorite professor is Dr. Karin Strohmyer (Associate Professor of Education, Special Education) who took me in as a freshman. She helped me with my own mental health. She also challenged me and inspired me to become a great teacher like her.”
Victoria Hodge
“I wanted to experience being on my own in a place far from home,” she says.
Hodge competed on the BVU cross country team as a freshman and sophomore. She participated in MELT (Multicultural Engagement Leadership Team) for three years and grew close to friends and professors who made up her BVU community.
“My favorite professor is Dr. Karin Strohmyer (Associate Professor of Education, Special Education) who took me in as a freshman. She helped me with my own mental health. She also challenged me and inspired me to become a great teacher like her,” she says.
BVU’s size allowed for frequent one-on-one communication between Hodge and her professors. Several scholarships and grants offered through BVU’s financial aid application process ultimately allowed Hodge to graduate with a debt load far beneath the national average.
“BVU was my most affordable choice and the smartest choice for me,” she says. “I earned a ton of scholarships as well as federal aid. Plus, with many schools in my home state, it can take five years because you’re not guaranteed to get into all the classes you need.”
As Hodge enjoys the start to her career on the shores of the Pacific Ocean (the school is adjacent to the beach), she finds herself reflecting on the changing seasons and the constants she found as she grew to love her alma mater.
“My first winter in Storm Lake was hard,” Hodge remembers. “I’d come from a big city that had no winter. And many of my friends were farmers and small-town people. But I stuck it out and stayed. And the more I stuck it out, the more friends I made and the happier I became at BVU.”