WNC Final BlogWritten by: Dr. Samantha Montano Our first ever experiential learning trip to Western North Carolina has come to a successful end!Hurricane Helene affected communities from Florida to the mid-Atlantic. Among the most severelyimpacted was Western North Carolina (WNC). As a department we always are looking for ways tohelp students gain hands on experience… Read more: Final Blog Post

Written By: Skylar Coakley Today we got to go to Marshall for our last day of volunteer work. I went to Trish’s studio to help with some of the smaller tasks she needed done. I had a few different tasks during the time we had at Trish’s today, my main task was painting a slab… Read more: Day 8

Written By: Samuel Racine Today’s adventure truly lived up to its name. Dr. Cheek was kind enough to take us to one of his old hiking spots, where we were able to fully enjoy the outdoors and embrace the beauty of North Carolina. The view at the top of our hike was extraordinary. I had… Read more: Day 7

Written By: 3/C Seamus Rudolph Today was another snow day, but with a bit more structure than yesterday. We began the day with some quiche for breakfast made by Mr Smith. We then moved onto our TTX, in which the scenario was a disease outbreak with zombie-like symptoms. My role was Planning Section Chief, the… Read more: Day 6 (1/31/2026)

Written by 4/C Natalie Frasca Today, Friday January 30th we started the day by visiting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At FEMA we had the opportunity to listen to a presentation from FEMA’s Interagency Recovery Coordination (IRC) team. We also got the opportunity to listen in on two briefings to show the recovery progress on… Read more: Day 5 (1/30/2026)