Avione DeVond is a student, excellent writer, and fabulous personality at the Mount. She’s an involved member of the Mount Community, and with peer support and a will to achieve greatness has become published on Dateline: Student Newspaper.
The Journey: Avione DeVond Dares to Embark
Avione DeVond is a student, excellent writer, and fabulous personality at the Mount. She’s an involved member of the Mount Community, put on a wonderful performance at the MSJ Christmas Concert, and is on the staff of the Dateline student newspaper. If you were to talk to Avione now, you’d immediately notice her confidence and her unapologetically vivacious personality. And if you were to read her writing, you’d assume that the art must have come to her naturally. But that’s the thing; it didn’t. The art was learned through trial and error, through the determination to embrace excellence, and with the support of loving peers at the Mount.
Avione was nervous to start at the Mount, but those nerves quickly took a backseat due to the Mount’s supportive community. “It feels like we are amongst friends all the time,”, Avione stated. This friend support came from classmates and professors alike, with Avione specifically recalling writing advice she received from professor Brian Whalen: “He told me not to filter myself and to be willing to push the expectations of writing and let it flow. I took that to heart and it repeats every time I go to write.” In taking this advice to heart, Avione has been able to improve her writing and even become published on Dateline.
Avione was first introduced to Dateline and the idea of writing for it by Dr. Barkley, and decided that there wasn’t any harm in giving writing for the student newspaper a shot. “I was new, and I wanted to make the most of my college experience,” explained Avione. This is a recurring theme with Avione — She wants to be involved, she wants to try, and she wants to shine. So, after getting involved in watching our football team defend the Mount at our games, Avione found inspiration for her debut on Dateline, a great piece about our quarterback Tyler Prather. Avione has gone on the record to say that she would redo the article if given the chance; however, and Avione has said as much herself, it’s undoubtedly an amazing feature story all the same.
Avione attributes her success in improving her writing to peer support and learning that writing is a process that requires the ability to adapt. She outlines being open to trying new styles of writing as the greatest obstacle she has faced in improving her own writing skills. Despite having felt overwhelmed by the prospect of writing in a new way, she “asked for help and went through periods of trial and error,” which Avione credits her success toward greatly, as she expresses that she “wouldn’t have been able to do it alone.” She has also learned that writing is a process that demands openness to change. You have to give any random idea you have a chance, be willing to adjust your personal writing style, and recognize that the writing may take you to a conclusion that you had never anticipated. In response to being asked what the most important trait that anyone who wants to improve their skills as a writer should embrace is, Avione responded, “You MUST be open to change. To be a writer, you must be open to switching up your still or taking up something new. It’s a journey, not a destination. It can take you to different places.”
Avione has let the journey take her, and it has led her to being a bold writer and a shining beacon of success at the Mount. By pushing her comfort zones, she recognizes that she has “been able to unlock a greater version” of herself, and push herself to accomplish seemingly insurmountable goals all while letting herself have fun in the process of accomplishing them. Avione reflects on the advice that she would give to her past self at the start of her time at the Mount: “I would tell myself to relax a bit and that great things are to come.”
Great things have certainly come from Avione, and it was achieved with peer support and the ability to achieve greatness by letting the road lead the way. Avione has proven that no mountain is too tall for a student to climb at the Mount. And the way to climb higher? Start climbing!