Focus on Halle Hill

Since graduating from MC, my career path has been challenging and rewarding, with common threads of storytelling, research, mentoring, and people being in all of them. After college I went to graduate school and received my MFA and have been working in higher education ever since. My jobs have ranged from roles in admissions, PR, marketing, copywriting, and tech communications.

A typical day in my office depends on the day of the week and whether I’m working remotely or in the office. Projects range from writing web page copy, working on communication plans for implementation rollouts, copy editing emergency enterprise communications, creating digital campaigns alongside my team, or interviewing colleagues/subject matter experts and pulling data points for longer form projects like our end of year quarterly report, advisory committee reports, and/or executive speech writing. Additionally In my role, I work with students and manage our student technology advisory committee, which is a delight.

I learned so much working in my first job out of college. I worked in transfer admissions at a rural college outside of Asheville that valued sustainability, experiential learning, social responsibility, and community engagement. That job was exciting because everyday I felt challenged to be better and look beyond myself towards community. It was frequently uncomfortable but filled with joy and hard work. Some days my role included moving cattle! The college was surrounded by over 1000 acres of native North Carolina beauty with a working farm run by students, faculty, and staff. The students had an incredible sense of self-determination that was infectious. That job deeply influenced the values and vision of life I have today.

My MC experience prepared me for life and a sense of vocation mostly through community. Maryville teaches students how to be in relationship to one another and creates a space to explore, grow, and change. I still have my pen from freshman orientation when I signed to keep the covenant. While far from perfect, scholarship, respect, and integrity are guiding principles I strive to uphold in life.

I enjoy being outside as much as possible, exploring NC hiking trails or walking though my neighborhood. Additionally, I enjoy reading non-fiction and knitting on my porch. Running is a passion of mine and a hobby I picked up while at MC. Looking forward to running in the cooler months, it’s been brutal running this summer.

Completing my first book, Good Women: Stories, was the most rewarding accomplishment I have achieved in my life so far. It debuted in September 2023 with Hub City Press and took me six years to complete. The book focuses on the lives of 12 Black women in Appalachia. Completing it gave me a sense of pride because I was able to write a collection that honored Black women from the area of the world my family is from. It’s not everyday that women from our region have their stories heard. This book, for me, is an act of witness and remembering.

I lived in Wyoming for about a year and survived a 32 inch blizzard!

There are too many precious memories to count. Some standouts are walking around campus in the evening during the fall, swimming in the Smokies at Spruce Flats Falls, taking religion classes with Bill Meyer, attending chapel in the CCM on Tuesdays, running with my roommate in the College Woods, or line dancing on Sundays at the Cotton Eyed Joe.