This summer, Sarah Showalter ’26 was among a select group of individuals chosen to participate in the 2026 Virginia Governor’s Fellows Program, giving her a unique eight-week opportunity to gain hands-on experience in Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration.
In the program, Showalter worked as a staff member in Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi’s office. The experience gave Showalter extraordinary experiential learning opportunities, including weekly lunches with Hashmi, Spanberger and Commonwealth of Virginia secretaries where she could ask questions about policy and leadership. “Each secretariat had a unique perspective and offered impactful insights to guide our path in life,” she said.
The program also required participants to develop an individual professional portfolio while also working within a small group on a policy project aimed at addressing an issue relevant to the commonwealth.
Showalter was placed in a group that was designing a policy initiative to protect and preserve Virginia farms from loss, she explained. Near the end of the program, which ran from June 8 to July 31, Showalter and the group presented their recommendations, along with their individual professional growth and accomplishments, to the Governor’s Office and commonwealth secretaries.
“I gained hands-on experience working on a group project that wasn’t to be graded but was an actual piece of policy that could have real-life impacts,” Showalter explained. She also learned “how hard and effectively” the lieutenant governor’s office works as a small team.
Each working day of the program, Showalter joined meetings with the staff as they discussed current constituent cases, managed schedule requests and composed press releases.
“From my point of view, the daily team meetings played an essential role in the office staff establishing goals and agendas for the day and week,” said Showalter of the learning experience. “If I am ever in a similar leadership role, I plan to meet daily with my team as well, because it was an effective way to manage roles, expectations and maintain communication overall.”
It’s impressive enough that Showalter was one of only 30 students selected for the program out of more than 300 applicants across the commonwealth. But the story of how she developed knowledge and honed her skills through her Radford education and experiences is extraordinary – and reflects the Radford University student experience.
Throughout her academic journey, Showalter, a political science major at Radford, participated in several campus activities that informed and prepared her for the Governor’s Fellows Program. One was the university’s semiannual Wicked Festival, an initiative that allows students to work in groups toward solving complex issues in their communities and beyond. Showalter first participated in Wicked Festival during her first year at Radford – she transferred from New River Community College – and received a Silver Rising Star award for her work. Later, as a junior, she won the Wicked Festival Award for Distinguished Research for her project examining the impact of AI companions on teens and minors.
“The Wicked Festival absolutely prepared me to dive deeply into public policy issues and propose policy initiatives,” she explained.
Showalter served as a festival student judge during her senior year. That’s where she met Kyle Rosner ’15, who was working as an alumni judge in the same festival category. Rosner participated in the Governor’s Fellows Program shortly after graduating from Radford, too, and “he encouraged me to apply,” said Showalter, expressing the kinetic energy of Radford alumni. “It was through my Radford education and connections that I became a strong applicant for the program.”
On campus, Showalter also participated in the award-winning Virginia Government Simulation, which was co-founded by Chapman Rackaway, professor and chair of the Radford Department of Political Science. The simulation is designed to give undergraduate students from colleges and universities around the commonwealth an opportunity to role-play as lawmakers during a three-day session in Richmond, Virginia. “It’s a valuable experience,” she said.
She gained even more experience as a secretary of community service within the Radford Student Government Association. In that position, Showalter organized community clean-up efforts around Fairfax Street near campus, a post-Hurricane Helene trash clean-up at Radford’s Bisset Park, and in the spring of 2026, she scheduled more than 30 hours of volunteer trail maintenance with the Blue Ridge Parkway.
During her junior and senior years, Showalter participated in Advocacy Day, traveling with a group of Radford students to Richmond to speak on behalf of the university to members of the Virginia General Assembly. She also participated in Radford’s 2025 Alternative Spring Break trek, during which students planted about 1,200 trees at a reclaimed surface mine site.
Her hard work and dedication earned her the political science department’s Outstanding Student Leader award, and it prompted Rackaway to encourage her to apply for the Governor’s Fellows Program.
“Sarah is just one of those special students, and I knew it from the moment she first joined one of my classes,” Rackaway recalled. “She has a special quality about her, a gift for leadership and sharing thought that's rare. Sarah is one of the students who others gravitate toward; they listen to her ideas, and she can motivate them.
“That's why I knew she would be a great governor's fellow,” Rackaway continued, “because she needed to go into an environment where she had ideas, shared them and would have to defend them articulately.”
Showalter learned many of those skills when she participated in the Power of Dialogue summer program, which brought together10 students each from Radford and Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., for an opportunity to explore in-depth conflict resolution skills and develop the cultural dexterity needed to serve as a bridge between urban and rural communities.
The Power of Dialogue experience was especially helpful to Showalter, who grew up in a rural environment, when she spent nearly two months in urban Richmond for the Governor’s Fellowship Program.
“I am used to small classrooms and small populations,” the Floyd County, Virginia, native said. “And while Richmond was somewhat a culture shock for me, I was a culture shock for one of my Governor’s Fellows cohort members, JaNell, who was born and raised in Richmond.”
JaNell coached Showalter about being more aware of her surroundings and being vigilant about her safety while in the capital city. “Perhaps if I hadn’t participated in the Power of Dialogue,” Showalter said, “I may not have earnestly listened to JaNell’s advice. But I understood our lived experiences were very different and influenced how we perceived ourselves and our surroundings.”
Ultimately, Showalter believes her selection to the fellowship resulted from the strength of her resume, the quality of her interview, strong letters of recommendation from Rackaway and Associate Professor of Political Science Daniel Reed, and the education and guidance she found at Radford.
Showalter certainly found her place at Radford and in the community through various programs and initiatives and through consistent communication with faculty. She encourages students to do the same, “to seek the place,” she said, “through valuable experiences” that make for better students and citizens, and “make the university and the world a better place.”