Members of the Alumi Board of Directors (ABOD) will gather at Inquiring Minds to discuss alumni engagement, staying connected after graduation, and their professional stories about the journey from college majors to current careers.
The speakers will include Brooke Gill ’05 , former theatre major, Alumni Board of Directors President; Scotty Bryan ’97, former student-athlete, ABOD Recruitment Committee Chair; and Corretta Patterson ’97, Director of Alumni and Family Relations.
Inquiring Minds offers lively, informal presentations and activities on various interesting topics for the entire community. Stanley Library at Ferrum College presents the series on most Wednesdays during the academic year, in the LEaP Studio on the library’s main floor during the campus’s community hour from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Inside Rockefeller Center, David Garten looks outside his office window at the bustling city streets of Manhattan. Despite working in one of the most iconic areas of New York City, Garten reminisces of the beauty seen in the night sky above Ferrum College. “At night you see more stars than you ever could possibly believe,” recalls Garten.
Born and raised in Orlando, FL with strong family roots in West Virginia, Garten ’98, was recruited by Coach Dave Davis to play football at the College. He describes his first visit to campus as arriving in an oasis within a beautiful landscape of mountains. It was different than anything he had seen in Florida, but he immediately felt at home with the coaches and his teammates.
Garten credits the College for instilling in him a certain amount of resiliency and grit. Having played football the entire four years he attended, Garten says, “We practiced on a field covered with rocks everywhere, and we did that every single day, all through the fall.” He adds that, “You grow really close to one another. You’re doing it day-in and day-out, in the mud on the rocky field.”
The resiliency and discipline he learned on the football field spilled over to his other pursuits as well. After graduating from Ferrum College with a B.S. in Social Work, Garten worked in the juvenile justice and specialized foster care system before attending graduate school at Columbia University. At Columbia, he earned dual master’s degrees in social policy and public administration and quickly found himself working on Capitol Hill for former U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York.
Garten’s time in D.C. and New York politics prepared him for his current gig: New York real estate. He is currently employed by RXR, a real estate and infrastructure development company in New York City, as the Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs.
Garten draws a straight line from his time at Ferrum to his professional success, stating, “It has been instrumental in helping me navigate from the worlds of bareknuckle D.C. and New York politics to [the world of] New York real estate.” At RXR, David works with a dynamic team advancing one of the largest and greenest office buildings in New York City history, a new terminal at JFK International Airport, the redevelopment of a city’s downtown, and much more. “I’ve been really fortunate to work with some amazing and dedicated people throughout my career. And it has been incredibly rewarding to work alongside so many individuals on the RXR team who embody what Ferrum is all about.”
Now with his own family, Garten looks forward to visiting the College with his wife, Melanie, and their son, Rohan. From nights spent beneath starry skies, to his time on the football field, to hanging out with friends on the ground floor of Bassett Hall, Garten wants them to see what makes Ferrum so special.
“You are not only getting a unique college experience, but you also get an education that is as applicable to the classroom as it is to life,” he adds. “You’re in close proximity at a small school [and must] figure out how to get along with others who might be different than you. That’s what life is about, and that experience is something that is unique to Ferrum.”
Article written and submitted by freelance writer Amy Shelor Dye with contributions by David Garten ’98.
“Real dear to me,” is the way Gary Ingram describes how he feels about Ferrum College. Ingram graduated with an associate degree in Chemistry from Ferrum College in 1977 when it was still a junior college. A Franklin County and a Ferrum community native, Ingram says that the College was a big influence in his life before he ever became a student. Growing up, he spent many hours on the Ferrum campus with friends whose parents worked at the College and has fond memories of playing basketball in the gym with those friends. The Ferrum College influence extended even to his extracurricular activities as his Boy Scout leader was a math and physics professor at the College.
After becoming a student at Ferrum, Ingram says that he enjoyed his math classes and even received a mathematics award during his time at the College. He also played tennis under legendary tennis coach Bud Skeens.
“Ferrum College is helpful,” Ingram says, “Like a family.” He refers to the College’s motto of “Not Self, But Others” stating that, “If you get that one principle, you will go far in life.” Ingram continues to give back to the College and urges other alumni to do the same: “Ferrum College is so important to the community. It offers students a diverse range of academics and gives so many students the opportunity to attend college that might not be able to attend otherwise.” One other attraction, he adds, is that most of the professors live and serve in the communities around Ferrum College.
Since graduating, Ingram has enjoyed a successful career in the glass and mirror industry. He has been part-owner in Finch Industries for 20 years. The company is a leading supplier in North America of decorative glass and mirror products that are used in the furniture, medicine cabinet, manufactured housing, RV, and decorative wall industries. He also helped build the Rocky Mount Bowling Center located about 12 miles north of the Ferrum College campus. He sold the business to its current owners after running it for a few years. Ingram currently lives in North Carolina near the Greensboro area with his wife of 33 years, Georgeanne. He’s also the proud dad of daughters Laura, Meg and Marci, and granddaughters Emma, Natalie, and Abigail.
Although a lot has changed since his days running around campus as a kid, he still finds time to visit. His last time on campus? The Folklife Festival in 2019. With each visit, Ingram reflects on how much Ferrum has meant to him and how much he owes to his hometown college.
Article written and submitted by freelance writer Amy Shelor Dye.
Mika Smith graduated from Ferrum College in 2016 with a B.S. in Chemistry and minors in both Forensic Science and Criminal Justice. A Dean’s List student, she was also a member of the softball team and of Alpha Chi, the National Honor Society.
Regarding Mika, Professor of Chemistry & Physics Jason Powell shared that, “It was a great pleasure for me to be able to work with her as she made the decision to transition from being a criminal justice major to a chemistry major with criminal justice and forensic science minors to better position herself for graduate work in forensic science. I also got to see her skills firsthand while she was working on a project funded by NASA where we developed formulas to make steel more resistant to corrosion. I am proud of what she has already accomplished since she graduated from Ferrum and look forward to seeing where life takes her.”
Mika is currently a candidate for a M.S. in Forensic Science degree in the class of 2018 at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her thesis work entails the analysis of commercially available vaping products through the use of Direct Analysis Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) and Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).
Earlier this month Mika presented her research to a gathering of students, faculty, and staff for the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Friday Seminar. After her lecture entitled “Forecast for Life after Ferrum: Cloudy with a Chance of Vaping”, we caught up with her for a brief interview.
Do you have a favorite Ferrum College memory?
My favorite Ferrum memory really isn’t one single memory but more of a collection of them over the course of my senior year at Ferrum. The memories ranging from completing my senior seminar presentation to spending time with friends during “grad week” to the start of my current relationship and of course the feeling of graduating with a Bachelor’s degree. Ferrum is a place that will forever hold a place in my heart because of the many memories and accomplishments it holds.
Did you have a favorite professor at Ferrum College?
Ferrum has so many great faculty members but I would have to say Dr. Jason Powell because he mentored me throughout my years at Ferrum and still continues to be a point of reference. He is always willing to help his students succeed and challenges students to be their absolute best.
Do you have any advice for current Panthers?
Always take advantage of every opportunity that you have. Every activity on campus is there to make you a better student and a better person.
What’s your next step?
I want to take all my education and experience and work in a laboratory as a forensic scientist specializing in toxicology and controlled substances.
