Randolph College Senior Shares Love of Dance With Local Elementary School Students

LYNCHBURG– Brittany Dickey ’10 has danced for as long as she can remember.

This week the Randolph College biology and dance major will share her love of dance with students from William M. Bass Elementary School in Lynchburg. The two-day workshop will be held March 24-25 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and is Dickey’s capstone project for Randolph College’s Susan F. Davenport ’69 Leadership Program.

Originally from Roanoke, Dickey worked for a professional dance company through high school but became increasingly interested in medicine. She decided to attend a liberal arts and sciences school in order to get the best of both worlds.

While she plans to pursue a medical degree in osteopathic medicine once she graduates in May, Dickey knows she will always dance. “No matter what I end up doing in life, dance is always that home base I can come back to,” she said. “Dance is where I can come at the end of the day and just be myself and be human.”

The Davenport Program is a four-year program designed to provide students with the skills, experiences, and confidence they need to become effective leaders on campus and in the world after college. One of the program course requirements involves a grant writing workshop which not only gives the students actual grant writing experiences, but also provides funding for selected proposals, such as Dickey’s submission, “Get Ready to Move for Days of Dancing.”

“The whole point is to introduce these elementary school students to dance,” said Dickey, who is leading a team of dance majors from Randolph College to provide the workshop to Bass Elementary School students. “The students get to see it, try it, feel it, talk about the history, and hear how good it is for your body. Many of them haven’t had this kind of opportunity before, and I wanted to share that with them.”

She credits the Davenport Program with giving her real-world experience she will be able to use once she graduates.

“What college can you go to where you can write a grant and carry it out and lead it all by yourself?” she said. “It’s amazing. Davenport has taught me to work with people and to feel comfortable organizing and getting a group to work together. That’s something I’ll use in medicine and dance and in all aspects of life.

“This has been one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had,” Dickey added. “I’m so glad I took advantage of it.”