In March, the College hosted Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver (left) and co-founder of The Origin Project (TOP) and New York Times best-selling author Adriana Trigiani (right) in celebration of the 10th anniversary of TOP. The Origin Project is a program that helps second to 12th graders find their voices through writing about their family and regional roots. Trigiani brings in outstanding authors to talk with students participating in TOP each year. Teachers and high school students who participated in The Origin Project were invited to campus for the unique opportunity to spend time with Trigiani and Kingsolver. Kingsolver discussed her latest book, Demon Copperhead, a modern-day story set in Southwest Virginia. The event was a pre-event of the Virginia Festival of the Book.
More than 100 alumni and friends gathered in December 2022 for a Virginia Tech basketball game in Blacksburg. It wasn’t all about sports. Most fans in the crowd were old friends and classmates of VT head men’s basketball coach and Emory & Henry alumnus Mike Young, ’86.
On May 6, 2023, Emory & Henry celebrated its 175th commencement ceremony and the Class of 2023. Squire Miller Henry, a former porter and furnace stoker for the College, was among those celebrated, but with an honorary posthumous Doctorate of Divinity.