BLACKSBURG – Each class ring reflects the experience of each class at Virginia Tech.
Unlike an official ring many universities use year after year, a committee of Virginia Tech students designed its own distinct one.
“Every year a new committee takes on the task of designing the ring that reflects their experiences here at Virginia Tech,” explained Laura Wedin, advisor to class programs. “It’s telling our story.”
The process starts at the beginning of the students’ sophomore year.
“So they are working together to get the sense of their class, they are putting together the motto, they’re class colors.”
Rings for the class of 2009 were already designed when the April 16, 2007 tragedy happened, but Wedin says Balfour, the company behind the rings, called to ask if they wanted a change.
“Balfour came to us and offered the opportunity, that they would be willing to make a change in the ring design if the students wanted that,” she recalled. “It was a huge offer knowing the complexity of manufacturing the rings. It was just a huge offer. But they did that.”
Just two weeks after the tragedy, emotions were raw, the decision difficult. Ultimately, the committee decided to do it.
“They just changed small parts of it in ways that we realized later and we didn’t know if that was the right decision. We didn’t know how their classmates, and they represented their classmates at the time,” Wedin explained.
When the rings were revealed at the traditional ceremony six months later, Wedin says, “You understood by the way from the audience response. And it wasn’t like wild cheering because that wouldn’t have been appropriate, but you knew this was the right thing to do. And it was a good feeling.”
The class side of the ’09 ring shows the VT ribbon, a symbol created in remembrance of the lives impacted by the tragedy.
The opposite side, the university side, reads, “We will prevail.”
It’s a quote from the distinguished professor Nikki Giovanni’s poem, read at the convocation the day after the tragedy.
“Each of those rings since then, because there have been 10 since then, have reflected that resilience and moving forward. I think all of those things represent that.”
From the very first ring designed after, and possibly the one in the works now (the details cannot be revealed), students choose to remember.
There are symbols which range from eight stars for eight classmates lost, to the April 16th memorial stones, symbolizing the 32 Hokie Stones placed on the Drillfield in the hours following the tragedy and later turned into a permanent memorial.
Thirty-two Hokie tracks first appeared on the class of 2015 ring and may now be a permanent feature.
“That really was part of the bezel, was doing those 32 tracks to recognize those 32 that we live for.”
There’s yet another symbol, first displayed on the 2010 ring, most everyone on campus 10 years ago can identify with.
“They have had on several rings, ‘We are Virginia Tech.’ And I think to me that is another phrase that signifies the pride of our community,” Wedin said.
“You know we are Virginia Tech. We are going to move through this. And it is that statement that I think that most of us who were here at that time. We still identify with that.”