Highlanders in the News: August 2024

Our Highlanders are using their education to do extraordinary things. Here, we’ll highlight some notable mentions from local, regional, national and international news media. Whether our students, alumni, faculty and staff are featured as subject matter experts in high-profile stories or simply helping make the world a better place, we’ll feature their stories.

• Carlik Jones, a guard with Radford’s men’s basketball from 2016 until 2020, when he was named Big South Player of the Year, has already had a full summer. He competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics, leading the team from South Sudan. They triumphed in their first challenge – beating Puerto Rico 90-79, with 19 of those points coming courtesy of Jones – before running into stiff competition from Team USA (whose roster boasts such names as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant) and Serbia. "I'm just proud of my teammates, coaches,” Jones said to BasketNews after the game. “We've come a long way."
• Earlier this summer, The Roanoke Times wrote about how Rachel Santos and Roberto Santos, both Radford University faculty and researchers for the Department of Justice, are partnering with Roanoke’s law enforcement to help it adopt a stratified policing model. Late last month, the Santoses appeared on the Policing Matters Podcast to discuss their work and their recent publication, “Operationalizing Proactive Community Engagement.” The 47-minute program is available on iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms and can also be heard via YouTube. 
• Forbes Magazine takes a look at Performance Golf, a platform that connects golfers and instructors which was founded in 2016 by Brixton Albert ’10. According to the article, the company – which offers pointers from authorities like Nick Faldo, Hank Haney and David Leadbetter – has, since 2018, doubled its business annually. It reportedly raked in $90 million in revenue last year. "I realized people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, if they’re into golf, they’re trying everything to try to get better," Albert, a former member of Radford’s men’s golf team, told Forbes. "[T]he first day we launched, a couple people bought, and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is a good market,’ and it kept expanding from there.”
• Melissa Clore-Taylor is back on familiar turf – she was recently announced as the new principal of Madison County High School in Madison, Virginia. Clore-Taylor earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Radford, but before that, she was a 1984 graduate of Madison County High herself. “I've spent time in Madison schools as a student and teacher, but now I get to experience it was an educational leader,” she told The Daily Progress in a story that ran July 18. “It is time to give back to the community that gave me this glorious start in this educational journey.” 
• Last month, Radford unveiled its “four-plus-one” undergraduate-to-graduate program, through which students on the bachelor's degree track can earn their master’s in just one extra year while also preparing for such career positions as agriculture economist and market analyst. On July 17, “four-plus-one” was the subject of a television news spot by WDBJ7 and later was covered in a story that ran this week in The Roanoke Times.