July 12, 2024
Summer of Growth
Snapshots of Summer W&L students share their experiences getting to know the larger Lexington and Rockbridge community during the summer months.
“Spending my summer in Lexington gave me a new perspective on this place I already loved so much.”
~ Addie-Grace Cook ’25
W&L students lucky enough to spend a summer living in Lexington doing research or completing an internship get to know a new side of the larger Lexington and Rockbridge community. Addie-Grace Cook ’25, a politics major with a double minor in Middle East and South Asia studies and poverty and human capability studies, stayed to complete a Shepherd Program internship with Project Horizon while living with a group of other summer interns and researchers. Cook also spent her summer mapping a 47-mile trail running route of the length of Rockbridge County, which she successfully ran in one day on Aug. 17. Her project, made possible by funding through the Outing Club’s annual Kendrick Award, will include a GIS-generated map interspersed with watercolor paintings and a collage comprised of natural materials found on the trail that she plans to share with the campus community this fall.
Below, she recounts in her own words how this summer created memories to last a lifetime:
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One of my favorite songs, “Call It Dreaming,” by Iron and Wine, begins with these lyrics:
Say it’s here where our pieces fall in place
Any rain softly kisses us on the face
Any wind means we’re running
We can sleep and see ’em coming
Where we drift and call it dreaming
The song begins by boldly stating the answer to a question I asked at the beginning of my summer here in Lexington: What does it mean to stay here? What if it’s here that everything comes together? What does it mean to be grounded in a place that we know so well in the other seasons, but only through the lens of being college students?
It was here in Lexington, not somewhere else, that the pieces fell into place. The summer was nothing short of magical.
My roommates — Meagan Baxley ’26, Meaghan Endress ’26, Sophie McCauley ’25 and Taylor Middleton ’26 — and I frequently finished our respective workdays with porch dinners, sunset drives, late-night Cookout runs or TV shows on the couch. We went to trivia at Devils Backbone Outpost Taproom & Kitchen, celebrated at 7-Eleven with free Slurpees, ate pastries and drank coffee at Season’s Yield Farm, road-tripped to Staunton and Charlottesville for dinner and, of course, ate at our favorite Lexington restaurants. We also spent loads of time outdoors — biking the Chessie Trail, swimming in the Maury and James rivers, hiking and going on walks throughout Lexington’s historic downtown.
We hosted W&L friends for the Fourth of July by grilling out and lighting sparklers in the backyard. I especially enjoyed the Freedom Food Festival, a showcase for local restaurants featuring live music and al fresco dining on Main Street, and visiting the annual hot air balloon festival.
We picked blueberries at nearby Still House Farm and peaches at Chiles Family Orchard in Crozet. We watched “Kung Fu Panda” at Hull’s Drive-In’s free Wednesday screening and ate chocolate chip waffles at Waffle House afterward. We also had the pleasure of farm sitting for a local family, caring for goats, cows, chickens, geese, dogs and rabbits. Of course, there were lots of sunsets.
We named our shared photo album for the photos “Summer of Awesome,” and it was. It was a summer like those of my childhood: catching fireflies, eating popsicles and listening to music. Spending my summer in Lexington gave me a new perspective on this place I already loved so much. I gained a deeper appreciation for this community beyond just my role as a student at W&L. It challenged me to not only deepen my connections here but explore new ones. I can confidently say that it’s here in Lexington that the pieces fall in place.
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Cook plans to continue exploring her local environs this fall, she said, by running every street in Lexington and compiling a photo exhibit from images captured on her runs.
See what other W&L students have been up to this summer in Lexington in the slideshow below:
Opportunities to intern and conduct research during the summer are available through the Office of Community-Based Learning, the Shepherd Program and the Summer Research Scholars Program. Explore our recent coverage of summer opportunities to learn more about how W&L supports students’ summer endeavors.
If you know any W&L students who would be great profile subjects, tell us about them! Nominate them for a web profile.
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