Ren Harman: I will do a little housekeeping at the top and then we'll get
started. Let me write the date down. What's today, the 4th?
Christina Daves: The 3rd.
Ren: Good afternoon. This is Ren Harman, the Project Director for VT Stories.
Today is November 3rd, 2017 at about 2:09 PM. We are in the Alumni Library in
Holtzman Alumni Center on the campus of Virginia Tech with a very special guest.
This is the only time that I will prompt you. If you could just say in a
complete sentence my name is, when you were born and where you were born.
Christina: My name is Christina Daves. I was born January 26, 1967 in Fairfax, Virginia.
Ren: What years did you attend Virginia Tech?
Christina: I was here from 1985. I actually had to graduate early, so I finished
in '88 but I went through commencement with my class in '89.
Ren: What was your major?
Christina: I was a double major in Political Science and German.
Ren: Very
00:01:00cool. Can you just tell me a little bit about growing up in Fairfaxand a little bit about your early life?
Christina: I actually grew up in Vienna. My parents were divorced, but my father
actually had taken some engineering courses from Virginia Tech, so I learned
about Virginia Tech early. I had a pretty uneventful life. Because my parents
were divorced I was a latch-key kid from third grade on, so I didn't do a lot of
extracurricular activities until I could drive, but that's kind of it. I went to
high school. I was a baseball manager in high school, because it was all boys,
it was a lot of fun.
Ren: Right.
Christina: Actually I'm first generation American, so I really didn't have any
guidance with college. My parents had no idea how to advise me on anything.
Luckily, I had friends who were going to college, so I kind of followed in their
path. It was actually a friend from high school who said, "Hey, let's go to
Virginia Tech together and we'll room together,"
00:02:00and that's how I pickedVirginia Tech. [Laughs]
Ren: Did you happen to attend Marshall High School?
Christina: I attended Madison High School, the big rival.
Ren: So all of my friends from college are all Marshall grads.
Christina: That's funny.
Ren: I know Madison was the rival. I was just curious when you said Vienna. You
said you are first generation American. Where did your parents emigrate from?
Christina: Both my parents are German, and they actually met in Texas, which is
kind of crazy and got married there. But I was the first person in my family on
either side to graduate from college, so a lot of firsts, first generation American.
Ren: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Christina: I do have a sister, but she did not attend Virginia Tech. She
finished up at George Mason.
Ren: Younger, older?
Christina: Younger.
Ren: What was it like growing up with a younger sister? Were you guys close?
Christina: No. Again, I was a latch-key kid, so I was kind of a surrogate mom
growing up, but now we're very close, so sometimes you just need that. We never
even went to high school together, because when she was a freshman in high
school I was a freshman
00:03:00in college, and then we definitely got close after that.Ren: What kind of things were you interested in in high school? What kind of
activities? You said you were a baseball manager, was there anything else you
got into?
Christina: Oh my goodness, I'm trying to think. All the girls kind of had a
sport that they managed. We had this group of girls, one was a wrestling
manager, one was debate, so we just did a lot of that kind of stuff. And it was
a different time back then. It was you know, 18 years old was the drinking age.
We could go to Georgetown. You know it was much different than high school is today.
Ren: What does your mother and father do?
Christina: My father was an engineer. He passed away in '91. And then my mother
worked for the German Agricultural Marketing Board, so she brought German
products to the U.S. So if you go through a grocery store and see German
products that's what she did.
Ren: My last name is Harmon, so I think there is some German heritage or
something there I'm pretty sure of. What
00:04:00role did education play in your home?Christina: You know, a good thing I was self-motivated and self-taught. Like I
said, the European way of life was very different then. It was good that I had
friends who had siblings that went to college, but there was never anybody
checking my school work. I signed myself up for the SATs, like that kind of
stuff, just because my parents didn't know any better. They didn't have that
over there. In Germany especially you're kind of assigned to either a trade
school or further education, so it was just a lack of knowledge.
Ren: I assume German was spoke primarily in the home?
Christina: Yes.
Ren: Right. So when you started kind of thinking about college and Virginia Tech
how did Virginia Tech come into the picture?
Christina: Well, I knew about Tech and then like I said, I had a really good
friend who said, "Let's just go
00:05:00together and room together." And I remember whenwe came down for orientation I cried. We got to the Drillfield and it was
pouring down rain, and you know when it rains here, I mean the Drillfield it was
like a river going around, and it was so big. And I thought I can't, what am I
doing? Like I didn't know anything about it. And this is before the Internet.
It's not like you could research that way. You looked at a little brochure. But
then I got here and the first week I was just madly in love with it.
Ren: So that first time you came was for orientation. So you didn't do any
campus visits prior to then?
Christina: Again, there was no knowledge that you were supposed to do that.
Ren: When I was talking to Matt yesterday we talked about that, because he was
talking about he was wait listed and he was talking about at that time you were
literally like waiting each day for the mailman to come to deliver the letter.
It wasn't like something you could check online and you would like refresh. What
do you remember outside of that being rainy and the river on the Drillfield that
first time you stepped on campus?
Christina: It was just enormous. It was
00:06:00so overwhelming. I just thought wow,what am I doing here? Now in retrospect it was the best decision I ever made in
my life.
Ren: Your major, when you came in did you come in as a Political Science and German?
Christina: I did. I loved high school government, loved it. Loved international
business. Knew that's what I wanted to study, so I came in, and don't think
because I spoke German that it was an easy grade. That's what I tell people,
"Well you speak English, did you get straight As in English?" But I actually had
a job all lined up and I was going to go to Europe and then my father got really sick.
Ren: You came in as a German major. You spoke German, but it was still not the
easiest of your courses?
Christina: No, because you're studying literature. It's not easy. [Chuckles]
Ren: In your majors of Political Science and German there had to be I'm sure
influential professors or advisors that you
00:07:00can remember. Are there any thatstick out in your mind?
Christina: Yes, and he's no longer here, but Professor Mellon was my German
advisor. The reason I had to get out early I paid my way through college and the
government halfway through my senior year said, "Oh, there's no more money for
you." So I had to finish up, and that was when Tech was in the transition of
quarters to semesters, so it was a crazy numbers thing. I was I think
three-quarter hours short, so less than a semester hour short. Professor Mellon
did, what are they called now, kind of like a field practicum where we basically
spoke German about different topics. But yeah, that definitely stands out,
because he helped me get through and get out.
Ren: What about on the Political Science side?
Christina: Isn't that terrible? Now remember, I graduated a long time ago. A lot
of my classes were really big. I remember a lot of classes in McBride in McBride
100 we
00:08:00had the 500 people. Even like Political Philosophy had 60-70-80 people init. Back then we did Scantron tests. You wrote your social security number down
on a piece of paper and then you colored in the circles. But no, honestly that
sounds terrible, but I don't remember a Political Science one.
Ren: So you were here in the mid and then late '80s. What kind of subjects and
things were being taught in Political Science around that time? I'm just kind of gracious.
Christina: I honestly don't remember. I'm thinking Reagan was President right,
back then?
Ren: Yeah.
Christina: I'm trying to think because I remember the Wall came down, the Berlin
Wall came down right before my father passed away which was 1991, so that was
right around that time. Because for him having grown up in Berlin to see that
wall come down, go up and then come down. I'm trying the think, the Russians,
there was still a lot of
00:09:00tension, Cold War tension still. You know I totallychanged my track, so I remember exactly.
Ren: Was there anything that was happening in the world or on the national news
that you can remember playing out during that time when you were here?
Christina: I remember the movie, and we were probably in high school, so it was
a little bit before college, The Day After, you know we had the nuclear threats,
so that was something that always, you were always afraid of that, were the
Russians going to drop a bomb on you.
Ren: The sirens and getting under the desk.
Christina: Yeah, every Wednesday at elementary school, I remember the sirens
would go off and that's exactly what we did.
Ren: Wow. What role did mentorship play when you were here?
Christina: Again, like I said, Professor Mellon was somebody who was there all
through that, and the German classes were very small. By the time I got to my
senior year [I] would have one or two people in the class, four or five,
00:10:00so hewas definitely a mentor.
Ren: Were you involved in any organizations or anything going on at campus?
Christina: Yep, I was a charter member of Chi Omega, which was a sorority that
came in in 1987, and I actually was an officer when we started, and kind of
cool. I had set up our whole system on how we did meeting minutes and things
like that, and Nationals actually took my system and implemented it across the country.
Ren: Hey.
Christina: That's pretty cool when you're 19 years old.
Ren: Right. What kind of events or things did your sorority do?
Christina: So, we were the typical social sorority, but we did a lot of charity
work and we did a lot of work in Christiansburg with underprivileged children. I
remember having Christmas parties and making food and bringing presents and
having Santa. We did a lot. You do a lot of volunteer work, a lot of service,
00:11:00which I loved.Ren: Are you still close with your sorority sisters?
Christina: I am. And it's so funny, we were at the game last weekend and all of
a sudden I hear my name and I turn around and there's four of them that I hadn't
seen in 20 years, which is really fun.
Ren: That's pretty neat.
Christina: There's a good handful of us. Well thank goodness to Facebook we can
all reconnect.
Ren: I want to ask you, your favorite memories or experiences when you were here.
Christina: Oh my gosh, I had such a great time. Well it's funny because football
wasn't big yet. One of my favorite memories is sleeping out at Castle Coliseum.
I was a freshman. I lived in West AJ and you would sleep out for basketball
tickets, for Louisville tickets. So we slept out and I don't remember who the
basketball coach was at that time, but I remember them delivering Dominos Pizzas
to all of us sleeping out for tickets.
Ren: That's pretty cool. What was the incentive to sleep out for tickets? Was it
that hard?
Christina: Because it was that hard to get a ticket.
Ren: Because the team was that good?
Christina: Yeah. It was a basketball school back then and
00:12:00Louisville was one ofthe top teams to play.
Ren: Was Dell Curry here then?
Christina: Dell Curry was here, so it could have been that era.
Ren: So you lived in AJ? I lived in Pritchard. It's funny because Matt Arden is
lived in Pritchard also, so he's the first person I have interviewed for VT
Stories that also lived in Pritchard, so we had that in common.
Christina: My son lived there last there, so I'm very familiar with Pritchard,
and it hasn't changed much since the '80s. [Chuckles]
Ren: It's co-ed now though.
Christina: Yes, it is co-ed now.
Ren: And they remodeled the bathrooms. I think the year after I moved out into
Collegiate Suites Apartment, I think they remodeled the bathrooms at that point.
Christina: Well the rooms didn't look any different.
Ren: They didn't look any different? [Chuckles] My brother that's where he lived
too. He's an alumnus and that's where he lived as well, about the time Matt was
here in the early 2000s. So,
00:13:00were there any other favorite memories orexperiences that you can remember?
Christina: I just love the feeling here. Everybody was so friendly. But it's
interesting, I just remembered something you were saying was there anything I
remembered, there were still racial tensions, a lot of racial tensions. And two
of my best girlfriends were African American. They lived across the hall, but
when we were out on the Drillfield they couldn't say hello. Their group was not
allowed to, so it was really, and I forgot about that until just now.
Ren: Wow. How did that make you feel or make them feel?
Christina: Oh, it was terrible. And they tried to explain this is just kind of
what we have to do if we want to be part of this organization, but in the dorms
we could sit in each other's rooms and chat, but yeah, it was a different time.
Ren: Absolutely. What about any difficult experiences? Kind of the reverse of
that previous question. Any hardships?
Christina: I had a horrible experience with a
00:14:00roommate, and this is my bestfriend from high school, so yeah, that was not good. We actually just
reconnected after 20-something years.
Ren: Wow.
Christina: Yeah.
Ren: Do you want to go into that?
Christina: No, it was just two different people had different ideas on things
and if one has a boyfriend and one doesn't. It's typical. Everybody goes through
it. My lesson would be don't let it go on for 20-something years. And she
actually has breast cancer now so it's like -- no, we just got back together.
She's doing really well. And it's funny, our daughters had never met and they
ware one day apart and they clicked instantly, so that was kind of fun.
Ren: Wow. That's interesting. If someone simply says the words Virginia Tech
what's the first thing you think of?
Christina: Home. I love it here. We never grew up. We have a place here. I live
in Northern Virginia, but we have a condo here. We've had season tickets
forever. My husband is a Hokie. My
00:15:00son is a Hokie. My daughter just appliedearly. And it was interesting reading her essays. She wrote them and gave them
to us and her perspective of this feels like home.
Ren: Did you meet your husband while you were here?
Christina: I didn't, no. We met about eight years later. And the funny thing is
all of his college friends are my high school friends, so I must have met him.
We must have crossed paths. Our wedding was really fun because everybody from
high school knew each other, yeah. But no, we didn't meet until many years later.
Ren: So you maintained a residence here in Blacksburg. When your children
started thinking about college, because I have two kids and they are 10 and 7,
how did you not push Virginia Tech on them?
Christina: Well, it's interesting, because my husband took my son on the
southern tour, the SCT tour, and he came home and he applied to Alabama, like
that day. I saw the credit card charge come through, I said, "What are you
00:16:00doing?" And they give a lot of money to kids from Northern Virginia with certaingrades, and I think he had 50 or 70% tuition paid for. All we said is, "You grew
up with us at the ballgames, at [00:16:15 Macado's], at the condo, would you
please take a tour?" That's all we said, just take it. So we set up the tour and
we came in and we said, "We're not going to go with you. You go take the tour
alone." He came back with eyes like saucers and said, "I'm applying early. This
is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life," and he is so happy here. He
loves it here.
Ren: What's his major?
Christina: He is commercial real estate and finance, double major. He loves it.
Ren: So he had been to games and been around the area for so long.
Christina: His whole life.
Ren: And something on the tour just kind of...
Christina: But he had never seen the academic side of it.
Ren: He had just kind of seen Lane Stadium?
Christina: Right. And my daughter was kind of the same way at first. She was
like, "Uh, I've done this my whole life. Why would I want to go to school
there?" And now she's come to visit him and seen that side of it and knock on
wood she applied early and she has not applied anywhere else,
00:17:00so we are keepingeverything crossed, because otherwise she has a two-week window to apply if she
doesn't get in.
Ren: What is she interested in majoring?
Christina: Physics.
Ren: Oh wow. Kind of the opposite of the business world, right.
Christina: Completely opposite. I have no idea where that came from, none.
Ren: So once you graduated in 1989, just looking at your resume and reading it
and learning about you, can you kind of just give the condensed version between
when you graduated and until now?
Christina: Yeah. So I had a job. I was all set. I was going to Germany. Super
excited. I had a family I was going to live with until I got on my feet, and
then my father was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer. And you have to
remember, this is before Face Time, this is before cell phones, so if I left I
literally might never have seen him again, so I opted not to do that, which kind
of led to a life of entrepreneurship.
00:18:00Just opportunities arose. I had somefriends, two guys who were doing event planning company and said, "Hey, do you
want to join us? We want some girl power." So I just kind of saw spaces in the
marketplace. I did that until I got married because I thought I didn't need to
be planning parties while getting married and having kids.
Ren: Where did you learn this seeing these trends in the marketplace? I'm just curious.
Christina: I think it's just knack, like everybody has something. So I kind of
see missing things and it's like, "Ooh, let's do that." Good, bad, or
indifferent, I don't know. My poor husband and I have had six businesses.
[Laughs] At least he doesn't worry anymore. Like he knows we're going to be
okay. [Chuckles]
Ren: Right.
Christina: So I did that and then I ended up working for my business partner's
father learning land development a little bit, and then I broke off and had my
own company. I was the only person who knew how to do kind of feasibility
studies for America Online for their datacenters, so that just went, but that
was kind of boring. And then where I lived there was no shopping, so my
girlfriend
00:19:00said, "Hey, let's open a store." So literally we opened a retailstore right before the economy tanked in 2003. We did it in 2002 in a blighted
town. The store is still in business today and it was successful from the day it opened.
Ren: Wow. What was the secret?
Christina: Customer service, without a doubt, and I would say it was my business
partner who was brilliant at it, just brilliant. Everybody loved to come to see
us and it was like a fun place where women can hang out and shop and buy gifts
and buy things for themselves. But then I got burned out, so I sold the business
to her. I thought oh, I'm in my mid-40s, time to retire. And then I had a freak
accident and broke my foot and was put in a medical boot, which I hated, and I
was going to New York. I'm like oh, how do I find something to make it look
good? I'm like medical boot fashions, medical boot accessories, and there was
nothing on the market. And I did my research and found that there are over
4-million people a year put in boots, so if I could just decorate a fraction of
those that would be a really lucrative business.
00:20:00So we went forward, Imanufactured. Then I realized that I had created a new space in the marketplace,
so I had to enlighten people that they needed to decorate their medical boots.
So I kind of became a DIY PR expert, which launched a whole nother business,
because I was really good at it.
Ren: Right.
Christina: But Diana Ross wore the products and I won Steve Harvey's Top
Inventor competition, so that kind of put me on the map a little bit and it's
been fun.
Ren: How did you break your foot?
Christina: We were on vacation in Canada and it was a freak accident. I was
getting ready to jump off the boat onto the dock and a big boat sped by and the
wake hit us and I kind of fell off the boat and I hit the metal cleat. Oh yeah,
it was very painful. As most mothers would tell you, who I'm sure have been on
here, the mothership can't go down.
Ren: Moms don't take a sick day or anything.
Christina: No, so it took me three weeks before, the day before I was going to
New York because I realized I couldn't walk through New York.
Ren: It was kind of interesting, when I was preparing for this interview I was
watching a
00:21:00TV interview and Hillary Clinton was on there and she's in a boot now.Christina: Yes. I already tweeted at her. No, no -- I've got Google alerts set.
Ren: I was telling my wife I have to tell this lady I'm interviewing because
this is her area, so maybe -- you never know.
Christina: You never know. You see it, and I reached out to Diana Ross's
manager. He said, "Send me an email." I sent an email. He forwarded it to her
and she said, "I would love to have it." So when she sang for the President
she's photographed in my product.
Ren: That's pretty awesome.
Christina: Which is very cool, yeah.
Ren: Very, very cool. Over 250 media appearances. Can you talk a little bit
about PR for anyone?
Christina: Yeah. It just kind of accidentally happened. I was having so much
success, and this was do or die. Like we took a mortgage on the house, so if I
didn't sell my products we were in really big trouble. And I figured out after
Steve Harvey it's like ooh, how do I recreate this? When you get your name out there.
Ren: This is all surrounding the medical boot stuff?
Christina: The medical boot, yeah, but the
00:22:00more publicity I got the more peopleknew about it and the more I could sell. You know I'm on page 1 of Google
because of all this publicity that I got. So, I was actually at an event and it
was all about being an expert in your industry. I actually went with a friend
just because it was in California. It was nice. I'm like, "Oh, I'll take a
couple of days off." But then I started talking to people and they said, "You've
got to start a business around this." Like people need to learn how to get
publicity. They need to learn how to get visibility for their businesses.
Literally we did PR for Everyone, but the URL was taken, but I have gotten it
since then. And then PR for Anyone, and I literally bought the URL and then I
came home like I can't start a business. Who is going to believe me, just
because I've done this? So I put this crazy ask out to the universe and asked
ten people all in the media, producer for Rachael Ray, a former Oprah producer,
like I sent these emails out and I said can I come interview you? I'm starting
this business, but I want you to kind of validate what's working for me. Every
00:23:00single person said yes. Every person said yes and like I can only do it Thursdayat 9. I can only do it Friday at 1, until they all fit into this perfect
schedule. So I had all this credibility behind it and then a publisher said,
"Hey, I've heard your story. I love this; will you write a book?" So I wrote a
book about it. So, it just kind of spiraled. It's just been amazing.
Ren: So it was kind of a mix of talent obviously which you have, and then faith
would you say, and luck?
Christina: Oh, I am a big believer in the universe. I'm always open to good things.
Ren: I want to ask you, when you're talking about putting yourself out there and
publicizing the things that you do, as someone who is an expert in this field
what is the balance between really promoting yourself but not being, what's that
word? I don't know.
Christina: I always tell people you have a gift. Everybody has a gift that they
offer. It doesn't matter if you're a business coach and there's 10-million of
them, there's something you do that's different,
00:24:00if you are a real estate agentor whatever that is. So if you're providing value and giving information about
what you know and what you're good at, then it's okay to say, "Hey look,
somebody else thinks I'm good at this too." And if you don't do it, somebody
else is. In this world that we live in with social media, if you're not saying
you're the expert in that space somebody else is going to get it.
Ren: So learning all this, did you take any other courses or were you reading
books, anything?
Christina: I did. I went to the library. Like what's a library? But I read PR
for Dummies, every white paper I could do, webinars, anything to learn, and then
it was a lot of trial and error. I look back on some of the things I did back
then and it was like oh gosh, that was not good. But then you figure out
formulas and systems that work and then when they work for you you can help
other people. I mean I get emails every day, oh my gosh, I've been quoted in the
Wall Street Journal. "Christina you're
00:25:00wonderful." But once you learn how to doit, and it's not rocket science, you just learn.
Ren: As part of your success and having all these media appearances, when did
the marketing industry mentoring board from Pamplin, when that did that kind of
all happen?
Christina: I think it's been two years ago. Somebody referred somebody that I
know and then she referred me. I just got out of that meeting and it's amazing.
We did an event last night. We do it every year called Barracuda Bowl, that we
do with Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola puts up a $10,000 prize for a student to
implement their idea, their concept. So last year it was two young women who won
and they did a thing on the Drillfield; it was a big social media push for Coke.
And the young man who won last night blew us away.
00:26:00He was so good. It was agaming thing to do with Coke, but he gets to implement this. He gets to go to
Coke. He gets to meet the head of gaming for Coca-Cola. I mean that's a
feel-good. When you're on a board like that and you can do stuff like that for
students, it's like wow.
Ren: Matt talked a little bit about this, but what other kind of things does
this mentoring board, and what was the reason behind establishing this board?
Christina: I honestly don't know because I'm relatively new to that, but I think
the whole concept was to work with the marketing students. Matt and I have a big
grand vision for this that we want to help as many students as we can. And it
was funny, he calculated out today, he was like, "What is it, ten hours maybe a
quarter?" You know it's one day a quarter that you take 30-minute calls with the
kids. But what I have found is they don't have confidence in what they do. And
when you work with them and you convince them that they are good at what they
do, my biggest success story from one of the students here, but I really pushed
her because
00:27:00she was very talented. And when I came back a year ago April shecame like running into my arms and gave me the biggest hug, and she is now the
graphic designer for the Florida Panthers. And she is like, "I never would have
applied for that job if you didn't tell me I was good at what I do."
Ren: So being on this board you're working directly with students?
Christina: Yes.
Ren: So you're mentoring and advising like a small group of students?
Christina: Whoever wants it. I tell them, "Here's my number. Here's my number if
you want help." And it goes on. This one student was actually having problems
with the boss and she graduated two years ago. She said, "Can I talk to you? I
don't know what to do. I'm not sure." Then she had to see her boss's boss and I
walked her through we don't point fingers. This is what you want to do for the
company and how can you best do your job. And she now has her boss's job. [Laughs]
Ren: It worked out.
Christina: But just to help. You know the kids now it's this instant
gratification and they all feel like I've got to get a job. I've got to take the
first job I
00:28:00get. I tell them you are spending your entire life at that job. Youare spending more time there than you are with your family, so you've got to
like it.
Ren: What advice do you give to the students and what do you say to them when
they come to you with questions?
Christina: It really depends. I've had students who have asked me to look at
their portfolios. You know now they all have websites and stuff like that to
help them stand out. We've looked at resumes before. I've had people find my
connections on LinkedIn, would I be willing to make an introduction. You know,
sometimes I did one, somebody I knew was head of recruitment, she was like, "I
get 600 resumes. I will put it at the top. If it comes from you I'll look at
it." You know there's no guarantee on a job, but sometimes it's all about who
you know.
Ren: Being asked to be on this board why did you agree?
Christina: Because I love to help the kids.
00:29:00I do. I wish I had, because I wasvery misguided because I didn't have parents who understood the college system,
and I basically majored in something that I liked in high school. I just didn't
have any... You know it's like my daughter, you can explain to her you can major
in something that you like, but there's things you can apply to the personal
things you like. Like you like physics, well maybe there's something you can do
with physics that you're inventing a new dryer, a fashion something. But nobody
ever told me that, that you can work at a job you love.
Ren: What's the phrase, if you have a job you love you never work a day in your
life, right?
Christina: I do not work at all. And my kids say that. Like you work all the
time but it's not a pressure work, because I love what I'm doing. Like I wish I
didn't have to sleep. There's so many things I want to do.
Ren: Right. So a couple of years ago, and really what spurred a lot of the
activity with VT Stories was a Gallup survey that talked about Virginia Tech
00:30:00alumni being so engaged, or maybe close to their University, not necessarilyengaged philanthropically in supporting the University, but that they loved
their University, and it was so much higher than other universities. Why do you
think that is? What would your thoughts be on that?
Christina: You know it's funny. My son and I were talking about this; he's a
sophomore now, and there are people who still feel the other university in
Virginia is much superior, and he was like, "They don't get it." Until you come
here, and you can't explain it, but there is something. And people all think
we're crazy and we drank the Kool-Aid, but it doesn't matter where you go. We
were in Europe this summer and my son on a Virginia Tech shirt and somebody came
over to say hello. We were at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, and it turns out my
husband went to college with him. That's Virginia Tech. That's just how it is,
Hokies helping Hokies.
Ren: We've heard so many stories of that of people wearing a hat or a shirt in
an airport. We were talking about that again yesterday,
00:31:00so that's a story wehear often. From your time here, and obviously you stayed in the area and
connected to the University in various ways, what changes have you kind of seen
over time and what do you think about some of these changes?
Christina: It's obviously grown tremendously.
Ren: In the last 20-something years.
Christina: Shh. [Laughs]
Ren: Sorry.
Christina: But it's funny, the feeling is the same. Of course, there's new
buildings and some new restaurants, but we were having this conversation last
night about what was there? What was there? But you know, other than growing
bigger much less parking. [Laughs] You know what, I'm excited for the new
administration. I hope, the one thing I don't like about Virginia Tech is that
the schools don't work together. And in the kind of society we live in now and
business we live in now
00:32:00you've got to collaborate. You've got to know differentaspects. You know, just because you're an engineering major you've got to know
business. So I'm hoping, and I know President Sands it's big on his agenda, I
really hope he can pull that off, because I see students lacking in that, that
they don't know other disciplines.
Ren: Kind of staying away too much.
Christina: Yeah, exactly, and if they could combine that they would be much more successful.
Ren: And that's one of the missions of VT Stories is because there's a lot of
inter-disciplinary work that goes on between, because I'm in the English
Department, but we work with History and the Library. We do stuff with our
website and developing the website, special collections, so we work across a lot
of different disciplines and VT Stories is definitely one of those projects
where we have people from all walks of life we say.
Christina: Right.
Ren: We've had engineers as our interns and architects as our interns. They're
not all English or History or Liberal Arts majors. When you kind
00:33:00of look acrosscampus and the state of the University what inspires you?
Christina: What inspires me? I don't know. I think there's just like Burruss
Hall. It's just always such a focal point, and the chapel and the Drillfields,
and I hope that never changes, because all my memories are there. It's just such
a comforting place. Does that make sense?
Ren: Yeah, yeah.
Christina: It's something we all identify with. It's always been there and will
hopefully always stay there, so when you go across it's just that view that you have.
Ren: You mentioned a little bit about the students not always knowing other
subjects besides their own. Is there anything else that kind of concerns you or
that worries you at all about the state of the University or where we are going?
Christina: You know, really that's the big thing that stands out.
00:34:00My husband andI talk about this all the time. He's on the Building & Construction board, and
Building & Construction is a little different because they do work with
engineering and they do offer those classes. But I think, again, we have a new
administration in. I'm excited about it. I've met President Sands a few times. I
think he brings some great new light to the University and Ms. Sands or Dr.
Sands, so we'll see. Time will tell. But it's fun to see the sports program
exploded. I think Justin Fuente is just going to be a great coach for many many
years. It's just a fun place to be.
Ren: Yeah, that's what I tell everyone. I came as an undergraduate student and
never left, right. What would you like people to know about you? You're a very
public person and you're in the easy Google [chuckles] as they say, but what
would you like people to know about you
00:35:00that maybe they don't, or what would youlike people to know?
Christina: I hear a lot, "Oh you're so lucky," and I want people to know I've
worked my butt off to get where I am. You know there are people who look for a
magic pill, and I've gotten what I've gotten because I've worked and I've been
beaten down and I've crawled by back, and I think that's the recipe for success.
My husband gave me a piece of paper out of a calendar that said 'overnight
success takes 15 years', and he's absolutely right. When you do have the success
it's everything you did leading up to it. So persistence, passion, those are my
rules, my formula for success.
Ren: Right. This is a question that we ask folks and I always enjoy the response.
Christina: Uh-oh. [Laughs]
Ren: It's a simple question, but I always love the response, but what does
Virginia Tech mean to you?
Christina:
00:36:00Virginia Tech is the foundation of everything that I am. My husbandwent there. We didn't meet here, but it's my family. I mean it's my friends.
It's my connections. I meet new people all the time. People will be like, "Oh,
do you know so and so? You guys have got to meet," and the business
collaboration. I could just work with Hokies [chuckles] for the rest of my life
and everything would be good.
Ren: Right.
Christina: But no, it's comfort and it's home. I think comfort is the best word.
I always say when I drive up the mountain it's just like ah, I'm home. It's my
happy place.
Ren: I find it so fascinating that you and your husband both went to Virginia
Tech and now you have two children there, one that's here...
Christina: One, fingers crossed.
Ren: Shouldn't have a problem.
00:37:00Legacy is such a huge part of Virginia Tech andfamilies that attend this University. You go to football games and you see a
perfect example of this. I'm taking my kids to football games and others, trying
to get them involved in Virginia Tech as much as possible. So I really
appreciate you sitting down with us and taking the time. I know you're crazy
busy I'm sure. The last few questions, is there anything that I haven't asked
you that you would like to say? It's kind of an open floor for you to add
anything that you would like to say.
Christina: Oh my goodness. No, I'm actually honored to be here. I'm honored to
share my story. I tell people that. We talk about this a lot, like our friends
from other colleges all work for other people or they are in the sales field.
But most of our Virginia Tech friends are entrepreneurs, and I don't know what
it is here that creates that in us that you're
00:38:00not afraid to fail. You're notafraid to take an idea and run with it, and we have a lot of really successful
Hokie friends. And again, it's a rocky road. You don't leave here and, "Oh,
here's my million-dollar business idea." But I think there's a lot of support
too from the community, and now I love it. I can come back and I hire students
all the time. I just love the whole feeling of Virginia Tech.
Ren: You said you hire students. What do you see in students that come out of
Virginia Tech? I'm sure you have hired other people that graduated from other
universities. Is there something unique or special about a Virginia Tech student?
Christina: I can't pinpoint it. I was just saying they don't have a lot of
confidence, but I think there's just something about it here. Maybe it's the
well-rounded education that you get enough of a, or a confidence to put you out
in the world.
00:39:00We were just talking about the job rate getting out of VirginiaTech is astronomical, and the Building & Construction is 100%. That's amazing,
so they're doing something right here. [Laughs] I can't pinpoint it, but.
Ren: Outside of the University and how it has changed since you've been here,
Virginia Tech is a very different place obviously. Is there any other changes
outside of just like the physical nature of the campus that's changed?
Christina: You know it's still that community feel that was there in the 1980s.
I hope that when I talked about the racial issues that were there, I mean I had
a roommate who was a very southern family, and her parents saw a picture of her
with an African American boy in the picture and they came to pull her out of
school, and this is the late '80s. So I think that climate, I hope that climate
00:40:00has changed. You know talking to my son and seeing his friends and it's just amixing bowl of people and all the kids who come to the tailgate, it doesn't
matter what you are. So I think that has probably changed quite a bit and it's
more accepting of everybody.
Ren: Right. I really appreciate you sitting down with us and telling your VT
Story as we say, so I'll just say thank you so much Christina Daves, Class of
1989. Nice meeting you.
Christina: Nice meeting you too. Thanks.
Ren: Thank you so much.
00:41:00