As excited as she was to become the first member of her family to earn a bachelor’s degree last month, Alysha Jarvis didn’t participate in NC State commencement ceremonies. She was thousands of miles away, in the Dominican Republic to build water filtration systems on one of the university’s Alternative Service Breaks (ASB).

Last week, civil engineering degree complete, she was back in Raleigh to take the next step in what’s been quite an academic adventure.

Before becoming a Goodnight Transfer Scholar, Jarvis had never ventured beyond the United States. Thanks to the program’s travel opportunities and enrichment grant funding, her NC State experience has also included ASB trips to Peru (twice) and Rwanda, study abroad in Ireland and Goodnight Scholars trips to Paris and London (with one to Washington, DC, thrown in for good measure).

“I’ve taken advantage of every opportunity,” she said.

And she’s not done with adventure, or with NC State, yet.

The 30-year-old Jarvis grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, loving music and fiber arts. After high school, she earned an associate’s degree in arts management before entering the workforce.

At age 22, she moved to the North Carolina mountains and became a machine operator in a fiber mill. The work was enjoyable, but the Gold LEED certified building captured her admiration and imagination.

The time was right, she decided, to ensure greater financial stability and set a good example for two younger siblings by furthering her education. Jarvis enrolled in a CAD certificate program at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, where her interest in architecture quickly morphed into a more math-oriented determination to pursue civil engineering.

She finished with associate of science and associate of engineering degrees, along with the CAD certificate and a mental health first aid certificate.

The opportunity to become a Goodnight Transfer Scholar not only brought her to NC State but also provided her with a supportive, empowering community of students and staff members.

“The scholarship felt like an affirmation of all the work I’d put in,” she said. “Now that I’m in the Goodnight program, I can’t imagine not being in it. As a nontraditional student and a transfer student, it would have been hard to build the kind of incredible community I found.”

Being a Goodnight Scholar has proved empowering, from the chance to participate in learning sessions on a range of topics to Jarvis’ work helping run the program’s social media accounts.

And, especially, the travel opportunities have made a lasting impression — on her entire family. When Jarvis was studying in Ireland, for example, her grandparents even took their own first trip overseas to visit her.

As her passion for serving others grew through her Goodnight experiences, she also reconnected with a road not taken.

Faculty members including Jonathan Miller, Ghadir Haikal, Steven Welton and Laura Bottomley inspired Jarvis by the way they interacted with and cared for their students, in addition to their deep subject knowledge.

People had often told a younger Jarvis she should consider becoming a teacher, “but it just didn’t seem like my path,” she said.

By the time she traveled to Rwanda to help teach STEM lessons to young people, on a trip advised by Bottomley, she had an inkling she might tweak her plan to earn a master’s in engineering education.

“I realized I loved interacting with students, and I want to give back that way,” said Jarvis, who tried out a graduate-level engineering education class during her final semester as an undergraduate. 

With one semester of Goodnight Transfer Scholar funding remaining, she is beginning work on a master’s in engineering education.

She hopes to earn her professional engineering license and work in transportation planning — while perhaps teaching a night class or two in engineering concepts at a community college. She wants to give back, to honor everything NC State has given her.

“This is the most diverse place, with all the people from so many places, pursuing all kinds of interests,” Jarvis said. “It’s a really inspiring place to be.”