Sophomore Zoya Mahajan shared this selfie she took with her iPhone during the photo shoot for the cover of Virginia Tech Magazine's spring edition.

Relay For Life at Virginia Tech, one of the biggest service events on campus and the largest collegiate "relay" in the world, has raised more than $4.5 million for the American Cancer Society. To participate in this year's event on April 24 on the Drillfield or to help Virginia Tech reach its fundraising goal, go to vtrelay.org.

Why I 'relay'
by Ashley Graham

Kim Graham, of Yorktown, Virginia, with her daughter, Ashley Graham, a senior majoring in marketing management who serves on the executive committee for Virginia Tech's Relay For Life. Photo courtesy of Ashley Graham.

Although I "relay" for many reasons, my inspiration comes from the strongest woman I know: my mom.

My story goes back 10 years to a day in fifth grade that I will never forget. Little did my family and I know that day would lead to a journey full of multiple doctor visits and struggles, as well as triumphs, for the next decade.

Like most of you, I was fortunate to study and earn my degrees at an excellent public university. In this state, we take pride in our top-ranked public universities. Indeed, check any ranking and, usually, only California, with almost five times the population of Virginia, will have more public universities identified for excellence.

However, Virginia's excellence is not derived from greater levels of investment in higher education. Virginia's funding of public colleges and universities has dropped significantly below the national average. On a per-student basis, Virginia ranks No. 41 in funding for its public research universities. Students and families pay the major share of the costs, which are continuing to shift from the state to the student. Although state policy calls for the commonwealth to pay 67 percent of a Virginian's educational cost, the commonwealth funds only 35 percent at Virginia Tech. Although every analysis shows that the return on investment to the state for higher education is extraordinary, there is nothing on the horizon to suggest the downward trend in public support will be slowed or reversed.

Virginia Tech Magazine talked to Eric Standley, associate professor of studio art in the School of Visual Arts; Randolph Wynne, professor of forestry and remote sensing in the College of Natural Resources and Environment; and Mark Embree, professor of mathematics in the College of Science.

Multimedia by Gabrielle Minnich. Photos by Logan Wallace, Virginia Tech; Michael Shroyer, The Roanoke Times; and Virginia Tech Athletics.

In 2014, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman of the Year Joey Dance became Tech wrestling's first true freshman to earn All-American honors after going into the NCAA championships as the No. 16 seed and scrapping to take fourth.

On the mat, Dance is a fierce blur of speed and force: focused, methodical, dominant.

This season, ranked fourth in the nation at 125 pounds, Dance compiled a 24-2 record—including three ACC wins in the Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre in the Moss Arts Center's Street and Davis Performance Hall.

In early March, he captured his first ACC title and entered the NCAA championships as the No. 3 seed, but was defeated in the quarterfinals.

Virginia Tech continues to build its reputation as one of the top research universities in the United States, climbing two positions to reach No. 38 in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) annual survey of higher education research expenditures. The ranking is based on Virginia Tech's expenditures of $496 million on research projects in fiscal year 2013, a figure that's up from $454 million in fiscal year 2012.

In fiscal year 2014, Tech spent even more on research, $513 million, an all-time high for the university and a 3.42 percent increase from fiscal year 2013. The NSF rankings for 2014 won't be released until early 2016.

Congratulations to our newest Hokies, who were selected from a record number of undergraduate applications for admission to the Class of 2019. The nearly 22,500 freshman applications received by Feb. 1 represented a 7.6 percent increase over last year's total of 20,897.

To help spread the good news, newly accepted students were invited to share their #HokieSpirit photos.

The Virginia Tech Foundry Institute for Research and Education—aptly named VT-FIRE, for short—is where gold from donated class rings is melted down for use in future class rings.

Published in mid-July, Virginia Tech Magazine's summer edition will explore the university's interdisciplinary, cancer-related research and work, including hospice care and palliative medicine, carried out both on campus and in the field by faculty and alumni. Also featured will be the latest transformations planned for campus—a new transportation hub in the North precinct, a new entrance from Route 460, and improvements to traffic flow on and around the Drillfield—and an up-close look at the corps' preparation for a trebuchet competition that promises team-built siege engines launching projectiles (well, cantaloupes).