Persistence and Passion Help Local Writer Win Honors At Hollins

Thirty years ago Elizabeth Matthews Jones began a journey that will be completed in May when she graduates, Magna Cum Laude, from Hollins University, majoring in English, with a concentration in creative nonfiction and a minor in theatre.

Elizabeth enrolled in college at age 17, but left after 1 ½  years to marry and help her first husband complete requirements for four degrees. During the ensuing years she divorced and remarried, raised two daughters, and continued to take college classes whenever and wherever possible. She has been a student at Northern Arizona University (NAU), LSU, J. Sergeant Reynolds, and John Tyler and Virginia Western      Community Colleges, before discovering the Horizon Program for non-traditional students at Hollins.

Elizabeth credits Celia McCormick, the director of the Horizons Program, for encouraging her during the three years she has struggled to achieve her goal. Life was especially difficult her first semester because of turmoil in her personal life. The trial of the man who murdered her brother, postponed nine times, was finally scheduled. She was subpoenaed to attend the trial, and spent most of first semester driving to and from Baltimore, missing classes and trying to keep up with homework in hotel rooms. Other students and the faculty supported her with emails and phone calls, assisting with her homework via her computer.

“I do not know how I could have succeeded without their help,” she said, adding, ”They also helped me celebrate when Steven’s murderer was convicted.”

Succeed she did. Not only did she complete the requirements for graduation with honors, but she received other awards. After winning a writing contest at Hollins, she was entered into a national writing contest for her nonfiction piece entitled “Rocking Chair.” The contest is sponsored by the AWP. The Association of Writing Programs, of which Hollins is a member. Awards will be announced in April.

She also won a scholarship to an Undergraduate Writing Workshop held recently at Sweetbriar College.

”What a thrill to be with outstanding students from other colleges, to read some of my nonfiction work, and have time to write uninterrupted by other responsibilities!” she said. “And my mentor was an alum from the writing program at Notre Dame!”

In addition to all these honors, Elizabeth was awarded a $1000 scholarship from Dan Smith (Valley Business Front) at the Roanoke Regional Writers’ Conference. Each year a Hollins writer of merit receives this scholarship.

This semester, with graduation requirements behind her, Elizabeth is acting and singing in “Violet”, the spring musical at Hollins. She is also working on an independent study about the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, focusing on the road between Roanoke and Asheville. With persistence and passion she truly has earned her spot at the top of the class.