On the streets around Radford, you’ve probably noticed the 2019 BMW i8 with gull-wing doors, sleek and purring at a stoplight. Perhaps you’ve even passed it on the street – or, more likely, it passed you.

Radford University held Spring Commencement ceremonies May 3-4, 2024, awarding degrees to 1,398 undergraduate and graduate students.

Every two weeks, Highlander Highlights shares with readers some of the extraordinary research and accomplishments happening on and off campus through the tireless work and curiosity of our students and faculty. 

A runaway pingpong ball back in 2020 led to a chance meeting between freshmen Rachel Garrison and Patrick Keplinger. As their relationship blossomed, their academic focus turned to business. Today, on the cusp of their commencements, the pair has evolved into something of a power couple, Davis College-style. 

Two hundred and fifty students participated in Radford’s most recent Wicked Festival, held on April 11, 2024. Students showed their work through elaborate posters while also engaging in conversations about their extensive research with fellow students, faculty, university administrators and others who walked through the event in Kyle Hall.

“It’s been a journey,” said Rieder, a New Columbia, Pennsylvania, native who suffered devastating injuries in a car crash while in high school, but recovered and went on to study finance and accounting. Rieder will graduate from Radford next month. 

United States Sen. Mark Warner hosted members of the Radford University community, local elected officials and regional business leaders for a luncheon and discussion of economic development, infrastructure, community partnerships and entrepreneurship in the New River Valley at The Highlander Hotel Radford.

“By the end of this year, we will become a $4 billion company,” Smith, the president and CFO of K-VA-T Food Stores, told the crowd at the April 4 event in Kyle Hall. In the face of such success, however, he maintains a humble designation for himself: “I'm a second-generation grocer."