Dasha shamlessly approached me, and asked me, “Are you Justin Graves?” Of course I said yes and I immediately was panicked – I couldn’t pick her face out of a line up, couldn’t attach a name to her eyes, and I couldn’t remember if we had met or not. Turns out Dasha wanted to be, and I am so happy she was, the one new person that I met that day. 

I had never met Dasha before but she wanted to make sure that I knew who she was. While I was already very impressed by Dasha’s many accomplishments during her time at Virginia Tech, she was so…modest. And humble.  I already knew that Dasha was her customary Russian nickname, as announced by Dr. Patty Perillo earlier in the proceedings, and how friendly she was. But I was particularly struck by her ability to immediately establish a connection with me.  I was humbled and flattered myself; Dasha knew about my personal goal of meeting one new person everyday, had viewed my TEDx talk, and was actively implementing the goal herself. Talk about awesome. 

Over the summer of 2012 after I graduated from college, I began to think about different ways that I could contribute to my university.  As an undergraduate student those opportunities are available widely but one can assume that as you get older and more removed from the university (but only in terms of time) those opportunities must be actively sought after.

I decided to interview for a position on the Multicultural Alumni Advisory Board (MAAB) through the Virginia Tech Alumni Association. After a double interview I earned an appointment to the board and was more than ecstatic to get involved with an entity that I never did as an undergraduate – the alumni association of the university.

Myself and other members of the MAAB were invited to the Student Recognition Banquet (older article from 3 or so years back) to take part in recognizing many students who excelled in their respective areas, like Undergraduate Man of the Year, Graduate Man of the Year, Outstanding Seniors in each academic college, and the Who’s Who Nominees for the year.

Well, I write this post not because of the many awards that were bestowed upon many amazing students at Virginia Tech, but instead due to one particular student who approached me after being named the Undergraduate Woman of the Year.

Just goes to show, you never know how meeting one new person can make someone’s day.