Valious Smith

By Malynda Dorsey

From the moment she stepped on VSU's campus, Valious (pronounced VO-lee-us) Smith has been busy. Since her freshman year, she has actively served at least five organizations and groups on campus all while excelling academically, maintaining membership in other off-campus organizations and advancing in her career.

Smith's active nature stems from her love of working for important causes and building positive relationships. She believes that meaningful work and relationships are the keys for developing a successful career and life.

Perhaps this attitude is what has afforded Smith the privilege of recently becoming special project coordinator at Boys and Girls of Valdosta, making her the youngest person with an administrative role at her job. Nonetheless, at age 21, she has faced some crossroads that have led her to direct and redirect her path.

In summer 2007, Smith was months away from graduating with honors from Lowndes High School and attending Georgia State University to pursue a political science/pre-law degree. Then her mother was pronounced legally blind.

“At that point, I became the primary caretaker for my mother,” Smith said. “I drove her around and took care of household responsibilities during my senior year.”

The added responsibilities did not hinder Smith from still graduating with honors the following spring, as well as being named Youth of the Year by the Boys and Girls Club of Valdosta, where she had been a member since age 16.

“After high school, I decided to stay here and attend Valdosta State University until my mother got corrective eye surgery. After classes, I worked at the Boys and Girls Club as a youth development professional.”

Smith's mother received a prosthetic eye and underwent surgery during her sophomore year at VSU. With a few less responsibilities, Smith contemplated transferring to Georgia State University to complete her political science degree.

“During summer 2010, I was selected to intern under the vice president of operations at the Boys and Girls Club in Kansas City, Mo. As a result, I decided to return to VSU in the fall instead of transferring.”

The internship also influenced Smith's decision to change her major to business when she returned.

“Once I got accepted into the college of business and began the courses, I knew I had made the best choice by staying at VSU. I love the direction I'm headed in with my career and I feel like the courses are definitely beneficial.”

Smith has already begun to apply skills obtained through her courses at her job at the Boys and Girls Club. As a result, she was promoted to special project coordinator in June 2011. Her current position allows her to coordinate special events, manage grant compliance and allocations and work with volunteers on various projects.

“This position, and all of the work I've done with the Boys and Girls Club, at VSU and in the community, have groomed me professionally."

Smith will receive her bachelor's degree in May and will once again face an important crossroad. Although she shifted undergraduate studies from law to business, Smith has not abandoned her dream of practicing law one day and expressed a desire to go to law school.

However, she is also considering staying at VSU to pursue a Master of Business Administration. She hopes to advance with the Boys and Girls Club and become the second woman president of the Boys and Girls Club of America.

“No matter where my career takes me, I want to always focus on building and maintaining relationships and making a difference I can see.”

Meet Valious Smith

Academic Year: Senior
Expected Graduation: May 5, 2012
Degree Objective: Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing

Hometown: Valdosta
High school: Home of the Mighty Vikings, Lowndes High School

Recognitions and Affiliations:
* Boys & Girls Club of America Georgia Youth of the Year (2008)
* Valdosta Daily Times Leader Among Leaders Opinion Column (2008)
* Boys and Girls Club Staff of the Year Award (2011)
* NAACP Most Distinguished Member (2011)
* Phi Beta Lambda/Future Business Leaders of America Service and Social Chair (2010-11)
* Phi Beta Lambda President (2011-2011)
* NAACP member
* VSU Heroes member
* National Council of Negro Women Bethune Health Committee Co-Chair (2011)
* Tabernacle Church of God in Christ Junior Missions
* Tabernacle Church of God in Christ D.M. Choir
* Boys & Girls Club of Valdosta-Topflight Keystone Club Co-Advisor

My favorite things to do on campus are… Attend and participate in all of the different events because it gives me the opportunity to network and meet new people.

When I have free time, I like to… read, sing, try to dance, play basketball, spend time with my nieces, volunteer everywhere and try to hold my own comedy shows even if I am the only person laughing.

The three words that best describe me are… ambitious, favored and supportive.

My favorite place to study … depends on what I'm studying. I like to study in a really quiet environment or on the go.

My favorite professors are… each and every one that passed me in their class, haha. I love all of the professors in the Langdale College of Business Administration, especially Dr. James Muncy. I'm also very fond of Dr. Linda Jurczak and Dr. Corine Myers-Jennings because they became mentors to me.

My favorite class so far is… Time Management for Salespeople. The course gave a unique perspective on how to be more productive and effective at what you do. I learned so many principles that I apply, if I hadn't already been applying, to my life on a daily basis. Reading developmental literature and hearing the great lectures offered during the course truly impacted my life and helped cultivate me.

If I could share an afternoon with anyone, I would share it with… hmm, good question. I would love to spend one last afternoon with my granny and granddaddy, and I would sit down at a round table with Oprah, Dorothy Height, Fannie Lou Hamer, Mary McLeod Bethune, Roxanne Spillet, W.E.B DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun, Barack Obama definitely and some of the all time greats from the many arenas.

The thing that I will miss the most about college… is having late night study sessions in the library with my friends. They were always fun yet beneficial. I will also miss playing intramural flag football. I broke my finger this year playing, BUT, I made the play when I broke it!

After graduation, I plan to… attend law school or pursue my MBA here at Valdosta State. Law is a passion of mine. I want to continue working for the Boys & Girls Club and move up in the organization with the hopes of becoming the second woman president of Boys & Girls Club of America. I would like to start two scholarship foundations and tour the world as a motivational, inspiring and empowering speaker. Eventually, I want to get married and begin a family, but that will be a nice number of years after graduation. These are just some of my ambitions other than taking over the world.

Some unique things about me are… I aim to make someone smile each day with something I do or say. I have this feeling that I was placed on Earth to make people feel better even though I decided a long time ago that being a doctor wasn't for me. Therefore I strive to lighten someone's load somehow everyday. I'm pretty weird (in a good way) if you ask people that know me, and I feel like my side job should be a comedian/entertainer because I truly am a character.

My favorite childhood memory is… winning a pageant when I was five or six and the trophy was as tall as I was at the time. I went to my grandparents’ house to show them and said, "Look Granddaddy, I won a huge trophy and a ‘savings bun!’" I didn’t know at the time it was bond, not bun! My granddad was extremely proud of me and continuously reminded me that I could do anything I put my mind to.

My biggest supporters in life are… my parents, especially my mom, my siblings, my family, my mentors and my friends.

Main Menu

Valious Smith