Wilkinson was born in Hamilton, Ohio in 1962, but she grew up in Kentucky with her grandparents Silas and Christine Wilkinson.
Her grandfather was a farmer who grew tobacco, corn and sorghum, and her grandmother worked in the homes of local schoolteachers in Casey County.
Wilkinson studied journalism at Eastern Kentucky University, and then she received her MFA degree in creative writing at Spalding University in Louisville.
Wilkinson is a member of the Affrilachian Poets founded by Frank X. Walker.
In 2000, Wilkinson wrote her first book, Blackberries, Blackberries; in 2002, she published Water Street; and in 2016 she published The Birds of Opulence.
Wilkinson is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Kentucky in the MFA in Creative Writing program.
The panels will generate an estimated 67,000-kilowatt hours of power a year, according to Jeff Groff, an associate professor of physics at Shepherd and the chairman of the Department of Environmental and Physical Sciences.
Groff said that amount of power is equal to about 10 percent of the library’s annual energy consumption. Or enough energy to power six and half average American homes for one year.
Groff said these are just estimates, though, and it will take some time to know the full impact. Monetarily, the library estimates it will save at least $120,000 over the panels’ 20-year lifetime.
The installation was made possible due to a $100,000 grant from a Massachusetts-based company called EBSCO Information Services. All the panels were paid for through the grant, except for one that was donated by a Shepherd alumnus. The installation took about three weeks to complete.
“I thought, why not try to apply for this? It seemed like there was nothing to lose,” Rachel Hally said. Getting the solar panels was Hally’s idea.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Rachel Hally and Jeff Groff.
Hally is the coordinator of collections at the Scarborough Library. She learned about the grant after receiving an email from the EBSCO company. This particular grant is only for libraries that want to install solar.
“This state has such a strong culture of coal and other extractive sources of energy, so to bring this forward and to get people excited and interested in solar, it’s a wonderful way for us to promote renewable energy within our community,” Hally said.
Hally and Groff worked together to write and apply for the grant. Groff said the installation won’t just save the library money, but it also creates a tool he can use in his classroom.
“One of the concepts I like to get across to students is just the idea about how much energy we actually consume; the vast quantities of energy we consume. So, when you have some energy production that’s local, and you can monitor it, it really drives home the point about how much energy that we are consuming,” Groff said.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Dan Conant is the founder and CEO of Solar Holler.
Solar In West Virginia
The solar panels on Shepherd’s library were installed by a West Virginia company called Solar Holler.
Founded in 2013, this company of 40 employees is one of the first solar installation companies in the state. It’s headquartered in Shepherdstown but has a larger office in Huntington.
Dan Conant founded the company to give people more options when it comes to their electricity.
“People have never had a choice in West Virginia. They’ve always been locked into one single utility that they had no say over. They have no say over what the rates are, or what they pay, and all of the sudden here along comes solar, which is giving them an option to lock in their utility bills to protect themselves from rate increases year after year,” Conant said.
For most people, solar doesn’t replace your normal utility bill, just helps to reduce the amount of electricity you pay for from your local electric or natural gas company.
Conant said while homeowners and businesses have access to a federal tax credit for 30 percent of the cost of their solar panels, nonprofits like Shepherd’s library don’t. That’s why the grant was so important.
On the state level, in West Virginia, there are no incentives for homeowners, businesses, or anyone to go solar.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Solar Holler is headquartered in Shepherdstown, W.Va. The company’s slogan is “Mine the Sun.”
But this doesn’t discourage Conant. He said despite the lack of incentives, solar is growing in West Virginia.
“Solar is cheaper. And so, as a result, I think the industry is going to continue to grow for the foreseeable future, as more and more folks understand that,” Conant said.
Conant said so far in 2019, his company has worked with 200 families in West Virginia to install solar. Since Solar Holler was founded six years ago, he said the number of their projects in West Virginia has increased every year, and Conant said many of their installations are in the southern part of the state.
According to the nonprofit Solar Foundation, in 2018, solar installation was up 17 percent in West Virginia. But nationwide, the state is ranked 49th in installed solar capacity.
Hally said she hopes their solar installation demonstrates that solar is possible in West Virginia.
“We’re probably not going to stay the largest nonprofit installation for long, and I think that’s a good thing,” she said. “So, I hope that it kind of has a snowball effect where people hear that we were able to do this, learn about how we did it, and then hopefully try to figure out their own path to get more installations up.”
Hally hopes more homeowners and businesses recognize the cost saving opportunities offered through solar, and she encourages folks to seek out their options if they want to install their own panels.
Shepherd joins Concord University as the second campus-based satellite site for Marshall’s autism services program.
Under this agreement, a full-time student support specialist will be available on Shepherd’s campus, and Shepherd faculty and staff will get training. Professors will receive support in their instruction to students enrolled in the program, and students interested in the field will have opportunities for clinical placement experience.
Marc Ellison, executive director of the West Virginia Autism Training Center, said in a news release that about half the students who have autism across the U.S. have average to above average intelligence — but have other significant problems that lead to unemployment or underemployment.
He said a significant reason for these issues is because of improper or ineffective support in higher education, or a lack of support entirely.
“The transition to adulthood, especially for students who are at risk, is really an overwhelming experience,” Ellison said. “Universities have been working for years to figure out how to best support at-risk students. Because of things that have nothing to do with their intelligence, students with autism are perhaps the most at-risk in higher education these days.”
The West Virginia Autism Training Center was established in 1984 and has served nearly 3,000 families and more than 5,000 educators over the past 34 years.
Undergraduate students from any college or university in the United States can spend a semester immersing themselves in the study of the American Civil…
Undergraduate students from any college or university in the United States can spend a semester immersing themselves in the study of the American Civil War here in West Virginia beginning next year.
Shepherd University announced a new history program that begins in the fall of 2019, according to a news release.
The Civil War Semester leverages Shepherd’s relationships with nearby National Park Service, state, and local historic cultural resources to offer students an immersive opportunity to earn 15 to 18 college credit hours.
Dennis Frye recently retired as chief historian with the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Frye is among the professionals who will help teach the program.
He said the program is an opportunity to live “the Civil War in Civil War country.”
To apply, students must have a 2.0 grade point average, and already earned 45 credit hours from their institutions.
During the Vietnam War, her father was killed in action, and his death left a major impact on Zacharias’ life and the lives of her mother and siblings.
Writing and faith helped her process the struggles of her youth, and it also gave her a pathway to remain connected to her Appalachian roots.
Zacharias later became a journalist, a nonfiction writer and novelist.
She graduated high school in Georgia, attended Berry College for a short time, and then followed her family out west to Oregon where she still lives today with her husband, Timothy. They have four children.
Zacharias earned a B.A. degree in Communications and Education from Oregon State University.
Her novel Mother of Rain is a Weatherford Award winner and was adapted for the stage by Paul Pierce.
Mother of Rain has been chosen as this year’s One Book, One West Virginia Common Reading selection.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting is partnering with Shepherd University next week to co-host a free screening of “Recovery Boys” – a feature documentary film directed by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon.
The screening at Shepherd will be the fifth public showing of the documentary co-hosted by West Virginia Public Broadcasting since its launch on Netflix at the end of June.
The film follows four men as they try to reinvent their lives after years struggling with substance use disorder. The men enter an addiction treatment program in Aurora, West Virginia called Jacob’s Ladder.
The post-film discussion at Shepherd will be led by West Virginia Public Broadcasting Executive Producer Suzanne Higgins. Panelists will include members from the local community who have seen addiction, treatment and recovery first-hand.
The screening will be held at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, September 20 on the third floor of the Student Center in the Storer Ballroom on Shepherd’s campus.
The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Geography, Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, and Shepherd University Lifelong Learning Program.
*Editor’s Note: The location of the screening was adjusted for clarity on Sept. 13 at 3:19 p.m.
