Hayley Harrington

Hayley Harrington is rightfully proud of “sticking around long enough to make it to the other side.”

Hayley found her place at Virginia Tech by joining the Recovery Community. She said, “Being a grad student is isolating, and being a sober grad student is even more isolating. So it was life-changing to have a group of people from every corner of the university to hang out with while we all work to become the best versions of ourselves.”

One of her nominators wrote, “What I admire and love about Hayley is her dedication to her developmental journey. Without flinching, with bravery, and with compassion, she shares herself with others, so that as she grows, others also grow in wisdom.”

Hayley said, “To me, self-understanding and integrity is about working on yourself from the ground to create a foundation by which to lead others and guide your actions in society. When I entered recovery, I had to reconstruct that foundation, but I had the fortune of doing that work in a very supportive environment. Now that I’ve had time to sit with that foundation, I can use it to guide my daily actions and set an example for those around me for what it means to love and live unapologetically.”

Calling her “honest and refreshingly terse” and “a great awkward conversationalist,” her other nominator wrote, “Hayley has a passion for justice and equity second to none and a wonderful way of expressing herself that is truly only Hayley. Since joining our community and through her master’s program she has grown so much and this is primarily due to her own push for excellence.”

Passionate about building a more equitable future for all, Haley believes in talking freely and openly about heavily stigmatized subjects so that people are less scared of them. She said, “It’s harder to uphold harmful stereotypes towards people in recovery when you can attach a disease to a face. The same thing goes for homophobia and ableism, neither of which are universally confronted on a systemic level. My individual actions cannot sufficiently generate larger systemic change, but leveraging the voice and the power I do have can exist as a fraction of a larger shift towards a fairer society.”

Hayley is pursuing a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. She is a program assistant and graduate teaching assistant. She said, “The professors in our program are among the most brilliant contemporary scholars in our field and I feel so fortunate to have learned from them.”

Currently a student designer with the community design assistance center, after graduating, Hayley would like to find a job doing community design work. Her long-range plans include teaching and perhaps pursuing a Ph.D., but she wants to watch her career unfold a bit more before heading down that path.

Haley, it is a distinct honor to present to you the Aspire! Award for PURSUE SELF-UNDERSTANDING AND INTEGRITY.