According to a , Rogers played a pivotal role in launching a comprehensive redesign that modernized the program’s structure, expanded its reach, and strengthened its position as a leading doctoral pathway for physician associates. “I’m honored by the trust placed in me and deeply grateful to the leaders, mentors, and colleagues who paved the way for my growth,” he said.

He holds a DMSc from the University of Lynchburg, a master of physician assistant studies from James Madison University, and a bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental sustainability from 91����Ƶ.

Rogers said 91����Ƶ prepared him by grounding his education in service, perspective, and purpose. “My intercultural experience in Bolivia with Dr. Doug Graber Neufeld expanded my understanding of global health and challenged me to think beyond my own context,” he said. “At the same time, Dr. Carolyn Stauffer‘s Sociology of Health course helped me see how social, cultural, and systemic factors shape patient outcomes. Together, those experiences shaped not only my career path, but how I lead and serve today.”

Dr. Tara Kishbaugh, dean of faculty and student success, taught Rogers in general chemistry when he was a student at 91����Ƶ. She said he showed a strong sense of civic engagement and confidence in his coursework, along with exceptional leadership and a commitment to service.

“I am thrilled to see him take on this leadership role in an educational setting and look forward to seeing how he inspires others to reach their academic potential while giving back to their communities,” she said. 

Clockwise from top left: Blake Rogers ’14 helps Clover Hill EMTs check inventory in one of their ambulances at the station in 2014. | Rogers speaks during a 2015 workshop for the Shenandoah Valley Soil and Water Conservation District. | Then a physician assistant student at JMU, Rogers receives the 2018 PA Student of the Year Award. | Rogers ’14 and Matt Tieszen ’10, MA ’15 (biomedicine), return from an elective clinical rotation at Shirati KTM Hospital in Tanzania in 2018.

This isn’t the first time Rogers has been featured in 91����Ƶ News. 

While a double major at 91����Ƶ, he volunteered with the Clover Hill Volunteer Fire Co. and interned at the Shenandoah Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, where he was hired after graduation. As a grad student at JMU, he received the 2018 Physician Assistant Student of the Year award and completed a clinical rotation at a hospital in Tanzania. 

Rogers spent his 91����Ƶ intercultural experience studying biology and Spanish in Bolivia and the Galápagos Islands. A medical mission team experience in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, confirmed his desire to enter the medical field. 

At the University of Lynchburg, Rogers said his favorite course to instruct is Ethics and Regulation of AI, where he guides students through modern dilemmas in health care. “I remain deeply influenced by 91����Ƶ’s emphasis on service, community, and global perspective as we prepare clinicians to lead and serve in a rapidly evolving health care landscape,” he said.

As a double-major in and , Rogers interned with SVSWCD to complete a required practicum during his senior year.

“During the spring semester, the SVSWCD had a vacancy, and I applied for the position. I started as a part-time employee until I graduated,” Rogers said.

Rogers is something of a self-described Rennaisance man when it comes to his work: he explains the numerous responsibilities as “wearing various hats.” His official title is outreach coordinator, which focuses on educational offerings for area residents and also supplementary environment education for local schoolchildren.

But he also doubles as a Total Maximum Daily Load technician, or TMDL for short. He helps monitor local waters for pollutants, an important job considering many area streams and rivers are sources of water for county and city residents.

Teaching and sharing conservation practices

Despite a large daily workload, Rogers’ unofficial motto — “getting conservation on the ground” — reaches towards long-term goals. His work with SVSWCD builds community.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of the job is working with local residents to implement conservation practices. I know that my work will have a long-lasting impact on environmental quality in my community,” Rogers said. “I am also very passionate about environmental education and I love every opportunity to interact with and educate local residents, of all ages, about the importance of conservation efforts.”

Most recently, Rogers’s interaction with the community has focused on an initiative of his own. In 1998, the Linville Creek watershed was listed as “impaired” by the state due to high bacterial and sediment levels. Because those numbers have only improved in minor ways over time, Rogers and his colleagues drafted an implementation plan last fall.

After receiving approval from the state and federal governments, Rogers applied for and was awarded grant money to see the project through to completion. SVSWCD will be funded for a variety of projects including best urban management practices, pet waste education, water quality monitoring and septic remediation.

Teacher and practitioner

As coordinator of these new programs, Rogers leads workshops on all the topics, as well as a few others. At a recent local workshop on septic remediation, 91����Ƶ chemistry professor was equally surprised and delighted to see her former student working with SVSWCD.

Kishbaugh taught Rogers in general chemistry and was impressed with his attention to detail and conscientiousness in the lab even early in his college career.

“He gave a really solid presentation. He spoke eloquently about the science and was engaging,” Kishbaugh said. “It’s great [to see] the work he’s done on securing grants — both for this septic program but also for other educational projects.”

Rogers, who was raised in the Hinton area of Rockingham County, enjoys getting out into the community as a representative of SVSWCD, where he says connecting with area residents helps fulfill immediate and long-term goals of promoting conservation and local stewardship of soil and water resources.

But this job isn’t the last stop for Rogers, who since the age of 18, has volunteered with the Clover Hill Volunteer Fire Company. In the process of completing paramedic training, he’s also working to earn an associate’s degree in emergency medical services.

His original plan after graduating from 91����Ƶ was to attend medical school, and that dream hasn’t died. He’d like to pursue studies as a physician assistant.

“I am equally passionate about medicine and environmental health and conservation,” he said.

“It happened after I received my ‘Enhanced,'” explained Rogers, in reference to an EMT-level he earned in January 2012. “Then, one day, we got a call about a diabetic emergency.”

On arriving to the scene in Clover Hill, Rogers encountered an unresponsive woman who had gone into diabetic shock, meaning her blood-sugar level dipped into the 20s – a normal blood-sugar level runs from 80-120.

Remembering what he had learned during his basic EMT training months prior, Rogers immediately set up an intravenous therapy and injected the woman with medication to raise her blood-sugar level. Minutes later, her blood-sugar level reversed, and the woman became alert and responsive.

“It was definitely a nerve-racking moment,” recalled Rogers, who was just two years removed from high school at the time. “But it was reassuring to see our training go into effect, which was a testimony to how hard we have worked.

“It’s always great to see that hard work pay off in the form of achieving an advanced level of care.”

Dedication and commitment

The Clover Hill Volunteer Fire Company – located on Clover Hill Road in Dayton – serves as a dual-purpose agency housing both volunteer paramedics and firefighters, a practice that is somewhat uncommon in the Valley.

“All of our members can function dual purpose, whereas Harrisonburg has their own rescue squad and their own fire department functioning as separate entities,” explained Rogers.

Rogers has been with the company for the last four years, serving as rescue captain for two. His demeanor is far more savvy than his 21 years would suggest.

As he toured the station – passing large, red engines and a tanker along the way – he was joined by 21-year-old Wanita King and 19-year-old Katie Lee, both of whom are EMTs with the agency.

“There’s a dedication and commitment by the people in their 20s,” said Rogers, when speaking about the company’s younger volunteers. “There’s about 10 to 15 individuals in their 20s that actively commit to running calls, so it’s a bit of a different atmosphere from most other squads or fire agencies.”

King noted that the number of young volunteers when she joined the agency at age 18 was lower, but over the years, more have joined, which somewhat eases the workload for everybody else.

“I’ve got to say, it’s been nice having more people taking calls,” she laughed.

Each individual volunteers 10 to 20 hours per week with the station, averaging one to two emergency calls each day – running the gamut from structure fires to medical emergencies – totaling about 60-70 calls as a whole, per month, stretching the Fulks Run-area to Augusta County.

The volunteers are dispatched through the station’s emergency communication system, which also sends out an alert to each person’s pager and cell phone, via email and text message.

“Sometimes, I’m sitting at work, we get an alert, and I start to worry about who is running the call,” said Lee, who works part-time as a receptionist at .

“But I really don’t have to worry, because our volunteer system is awesome.”

Paramedic training

It’s worth noting that six squad members- including Rogers, King and Lee – are in the process of completing 600 classroom hours of paramedic training, along with 500 clinical hours, at Sugar Grove Navy Base in West Virginia. At the course’s completion, each squad member will be qualified to execute surgical and advanced airway procedures at emergency scene.

“We will all earn an associates degree in Emergency Medical Services from Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, in Martinsburg, W.Va.,” said Rogers, who added that all six members are on track to earn an associate’s degrees in emergency medicine.

“We all have taken basic prerequisites, like English, psychology and math, outside of the [paramedic] program in order to obtain the associates degree, as well.”

No higher reward

Though their dedication is evident by the time devoted, Rogers, King and Lee explained volunteer EMTs must have something more.

Rogers maintained that one must “be motivated and confident,” while Lee added that a person must be able to adapt to “unexpected” or “on the fly” situations that may occur on site.

King, who works full-time at as a patient care technician and part-time at G&W Ambulance, echoed Lee’s sentiments, adding that a person must be “fully committed” to the craft.

“You never know exactly what a call is going to end up being,” said King. “It could be a code that somebody isn’t breathing or it could be a code that somebody is dead. Either way, you have to be prepared to go under the job no matter what and be able to jump right in and just do it.”

While life as an EMT can be challenging and the situations can be tense, all three admit that, at the end of the day, there is “no higher reward” than saving someone’s life.

“After a while, you begin to sit back and think about the fact that `I actually helped save this woman’s life,’ or `I was involved in something that is bigger than myself,’ ” says Rogers, an aspiring physician’s assistant.

“I played a role as a team member in something that ultimately worked out for the community, and that is rewarding.”

– Courtesy of the Daily News Record, Mar. 4, 2014

Blake Rogers gave a ” at a donor appreciation banquet on Oct. 11, 2013.

Tonight, I want to reinforce that 91����Ƶ is truly a Christian University like no other. Three and a half years ago, I was poised with making a life-altering decision: Where was I going to attend college? I had received acceptance from five universities. How was I going to choose? Which school would fit? Which school would provide me the best opportunities to excel?

Little did my 17-year-old self know how much of an impact that choice would make on the rest of my life. I stand before you to declare that I made the best decision – that this Christian University, like no other, has transformed me into not only a scholar, but into an individual like no other.

Multiple factors congealed to make 91����Ƶ rise above Virginia Tech or UVa, in my eyes. First, my mother, the first in my family to receive a college education, had graduated a few years earlier from the . She had shown me the core values of caring and compassion that 91����Ƶ’s professors instill in the minds of their students. Second, my dream was to become a doctor and and boasted medical school acceptance rates far beyond any public university I had considered. And, third, was the amount of financial support I would receive, making 91����Ƶ more of a realistic possibility. 91����Ƶ just seemed to fit.

The fit seemed more like home as I began my studies three years ago. As I reflect on my years burrowed deep inside the bowels of the , I have had multiple defining experiences. While some of my cherished moments are of classes, most are of the connections I made with faculty and fellow students while learning. Whether I was discovering how to set up a silica-gel column in the organic chemistry lab, determining what distinguishes a mockernut from a pignut hickory, or dissecting in the cadaver lab, these defining moments could have never happened without the resources that 91����Ƶ provides its students.

At this small private Christian university, I have had experiences that my high school classmates yearn for. Most have never sat down in a professor’s office to discuss not only class material but how the semester is going and what challenges they’re facing. Almost none has been provided the opportunity to dissect a cadaver as an undergraduate student.

If these highlights weren’t enough to set 91����Ƶ and its science department apart, this summer I was blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Bolivia and the Galapagos Islands on an 91����Ƶ sponsored cross-cultural. Under the guidance of 91����Ƶ biology professor and his wife Christina, I had the opportunity to discover biology outside of a textbook. I was drenched by rain in a rainforest, I had a monkey steal my water bottle to drink from it, I swam in Lake Titicaca, I fed the Galapagos Island giant tortoises, I observed Darwin’s finches, and best of all I made connections and built friendships that will transcend generations.

Today an article was posted to , 91����Ƶ’s intranet system, highlighting 91����Ƶ’s graduating class of ’62 and their life experiences and accomplishments. From this article, it became evident that 91����Ƶ, or EMC [in 1962], was a catalyst transforming each of these young minds to prepare them for the future. I can only hope that I can share the same sentiment when my 50th reunion from 91����Ƶ occurs.

Without the contribution of donors, like everyone in the audience, my education and the education of future students would not be possible. Thank you for allowing my education to be like no other.