Fellowship recipient offering free computer classes to the community

Cybersecurity student Alexia Maynard is the 2019-2020 Ross Fellow

Alexia Maynard has been selected by the LFCC Foundation as the recipient of the prestigious Ross Fellowship for Service and Scholarship. The award is valued at more than $7,000.

Alexia enrolled at LFCC after her 2018 graduation from Skyline High School in Warren County.

Our Ross fellows are required to give a minimum of 45 hours each semester to a service-learning project. Alexia, who is studying cybersecurity, has chosen to offer free basic computer training classes to community members and fellow LFCC students.

She has recruited some of her classmates to gain valuable IT experience while helping to teach the classes, which will be offered on Saturdays at the Middletown Campus. For more information about the classes, visit email.vccs.edu/thecyberclinicworkshop/, or email thecyberclinic2019@gmail.com.

Although a promising mechanic – as a sophomore, she was the only first-year Blue Ridge Technical Center student to pass the industry-recognized Automotive Service Excellence Exam – Alexia was looking for a new challenge.

While still in high school, the National Honor Society member earned 28 college credits through LFCC’s dual-enrollment program. Those dual-enrollment classes, plus the affordability and proximity of LFCC, led Alexia to choose the college after high school graduation.

“I love Lord Fairfax,” she says. “My professors are very thorough in their teaching. I really like learning. I’m looking forward to helping others in the community learn how to use computers and not be intimidated by them. Computers have so many benefits.”

After graduation next spring, Alexia hopes to transfer to George Mason University to continue her studies in cybersecurity.

When she’s not in school or studying, Alexia is kept busy with her job in the parts department at Marlow Automotive Group, working on her family farm and participating in Phi Theta Kappa, the college’s national honor society.

Alexia was given the opportunity to shadow at Marlow Auto Group while taking her automotive courses.

“Not only did she shadow, but she impressed the company to the point that they created a paid internship for her,” Blue Ridge Technical Center Principal Jane Baker says. “At BRTC, she became a student mentor in the class and a role model for other female automotive students.”

The president of Marlow Automotive Group, Emily Marlow Beck, says when Alexia started interning at her company, she “fearlessly jumped in and made herself valuable right away.”

“Her attention to detail, work ethic and integrity make her invaluable in a department that involves (literally) thousands of moving parts every day and where there are many opportunities for error or breach of trust,” Beck says.

Through the Ross Fellowship, Alexia’s full-time tuition expenses will be covered in 2019-20. She will receive $1,000 for textbooks and $750 for a technology purchase, such as a computer, tablet, or iPad. After the successful completion of her service project, she will receive a $1,000 stipend.

For more information about the fellowship and the LFCC Foundation’s benefactor, Mr. Charles Ross, please visit: www.lfcc.edu/ross.