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鈥淭he mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.鈥� John Muir, conservationist and wilderness advocate, 1873.

Dawn Neatherly was a precocious 11-year-old from Morganton when she first set foot on 甜瓜视频app鈥檚 campus in 1974 to attend the Cullowhee Experience, a four-week enrichment camp for academically and intellectually gifted students.

Neatherly liked it so much she came back four more summers, returned for her bachelor鈥檚 degree in philosophy in 1984, and again for her master鈥檚 degree in agency counseling in 1989. By the time she graduated in 1984, she and Chancellor Harold F. 鈥淐otton鈥� Robinson were on a first-name basis. He, too, had arrived at WCU in 1974 and was ending his tenure as chancellor in 1984, just as she was graduating.

Now, some 35 years later, after a career in school counseling, Neatherly is back in Cullowhee as the new executive director of Circles of Jackson County with a mission to pay back to a community as much 鈥� if not more 鈥� as she received. 

鈥淚鈥檓 just all about Western. It saved my life psychologically, if not literally, and gave me everything that I am professionally,鈥� Neatherly said. 鈥淭o be able to be back here and to hopefully give back to students in that same sort of way, it just means everything to me.鈥�

Neatherly said being an exceptionally bright girl who loved to learn was not a great fit in 1970s rural North Carolina. She was taunted by other children for being smart and she lacked a peer group who respected her talents. It wasn鈥檛 until she attended the gifted camp at WCU that she realized she wasn鈥檛 alone in the world. 

鈥淕ifted kids are such outcasts within their own society, quite often,鈥� Neatherly said. 鈥淭he neat thing about the gifted camp at Western was we were all equalized again. We were all smart; we were all capable.鈥�

Neatherly said the camp, founded by Carl D. Killian, former dean of the College of Education and Allied Professions, was remarkable for its time, bringing gifted students from all over the country to campus, where they lived together in dorms, engaged in recreational activities and arts and crafts, and took in all the regional sights, such as the Biltmore Estate, among others. 

鈥淓very year had a theme,鈥� Neatherly said. 鈥淭he first year I was there, the summer after my sixth-grade year, the theme was mountain heritage. We went all over the place. We saw 鈥楬orn in the West鈥� and 鈥橴nto These Hills.鈥� We went to Oconaluftee. We were just everywhere, and it was absolutely wonderful.鈥�

Neatherly eventually reached the point where she saw Cullowhee as her home and Morganton as a place she stayed during the school year. 鈥淭he camp gave us a place to be our own version of normal,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 go through all that depression that a lot of gifted kids go through and all the frustration of trying to deal with a world that doesn鈥檛 understand you, because I knew that no matter what happened during the school year, I would get to spend a month in Cullowhee. I would get to have that renewal that would get me through the year.鈥�

When she completed her last summer of camp in 1978, Chancellor Robinson was there to present her 鈥渄iploma,鈥� as he had the previous five summers, and as he would six years later when she completed her undergraduate degree. 

Neatherly鈥檚 transition to college at WCU was seamless; she lived in Scott Residence Hall all four years. She served on various boards and organizations (among them chief justice of the Student Government Association appellate court) and was appointed by Robinson to the Chancellor鈥檚 Advisory Board as the student representative.  By then, he recognized her at student functions, joking with her and acknowledging her by name, an action that drew awe from her fellow classmates. 鈥淚 just had a wonderful undergraduate experience. It was just phenomenal,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 graduated with a degree in philosophy and a minor in political science, which isn鈥檛 terribly useful, but it was an academic degree, it was about learning, and I enjoyed the heck out of it.鈥�

Neatherly attended law school for about a year and a half but quit because it didn鈥檛 satisfy a yearning she had to help others. A phone call to Barbara Mann, Neatherly鈥檚 former mentor at WCU and the university鈥檚 dean of students at the time, set her on the path to a graduate degree in agency counseling and a job in mental health services. Another quick round of school at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte certified her as a public school counselor, where she worked in both traditional public schools and at a facility for incarcerated youth in Morganton for 25 years.

Although she has retired twice, Neatherly knew she wanted to continuing working, but on her terms: back in Cullowhee on her beloved campus. On July 1, 2019, 35 years after she last graduated from WCU, Neatherly and her husband moved to Jackson County so she could work for Circles of Jackson County, a nonprofit agency that provides short- and long-term support to help people living in poverty move into financial sustainability through education, employment readiness assistance and community support systems.

鈥淚 learned this with at-risk kids, but also with people who live in poverty, that after a while, you just start to believe that everybody鈥檚 out to get you, and that nobody cares, and that you don鈥檛 have any power,鈥� Neatherly said. 鈥淭he programs that I have worked with are about teaching people they do have power and they can make changes and you don鈥檛 have to keep doing what you鈥檝e always done.鈥�

After her first year as the agency鈥檚 executive director, Neatherly recommended a few changes to its agenda, among them taking its program to WCU. 鈥淥ne thing I brought to the board was a realization that someone can be a full-time college student, living on campus, doing everything all college students do and actually be homeless, or impoverished or from a background where they didn鈥檛 have any sort of support,鈥� Neatherly said. 鈥淎 college student may have a Pell grant that pays for everything, but they still don鈥檛 have a home to go to. 

鈥淚 suggested we adapt our program to a young adult curriculum and reach out to the university where we can take everything we know about helping people, and instead of waiting until they鈥檙e in their 30s when they鈥檙e trying to build back up from failures, let鈥檚 teach it to them between the ages of 17 and 25, so they don鈥檛 make those mistakes.鈥�

This fall, Neatherly鈥檚 plan will come to fruition when Circles of Jackson County introduces its pilot project to WCU鈥檚 provisional freshmen through the university鈥檚 Mentoring and Persistence to Success program, which provides comprehensive programs and holistic services to first-generation and independent students. 鈥淎fter that, our hope is we鈥檒l be a presence all over campus and it will be open to any student,鈥� Neatherly said. 

She also found new office space for Circles of Jackson County at Cullowhee United Methodist Church, where, from her second-floor office, she has a birds-eye view of campus and her beloved mountains, a perch (and a perk) that brings her great happiness and comfort. 

鈥淢ost of my career was with young people, and young people rarely come back and thank you. That鈥檚 just not their thing, so you don鈥檛 get a lot of immediate feedback,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut knowing that I brought something back to where I started, that鈥檚 going to mean a lot to me.鈥�