RADFORD -- Sociology students at Radford University have teamed up with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia to establish a wall of fame honoring successful club alumni and to help inspire young people.

Jeanne Mekolichick, associate professor of sociology, collaborated with Amanda Melniczek, director of the Boys & Girls Club of the New River Valley, and Chrissy Underwood, former director of resource development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia, to develop a project last spring for Mekolichick's class in organizational research.

"For the initial phase of the project, we met with Boys & Girls Clubs executives and alumni to learn about their organization and goals for the project," Mekolichick said. "From there, the students in the class and I developed a survey based on the goal of the project and began administration of the survey online."

The survey asks alumni for their opinions about such things as the club's ability to instill leadership skills, teamwork and communication skills.

Some students have continued working with Mekolichick after the class ended, and they are still gathering survey data. They plan to begin the qualitative, interview phase of the project this fall.

Melniczek said her organization hopes to use the data to learn more about the Boys & Girls Clubs' alumni base in Southwest Virginia.

"The Boys & Girls Clubs in this area are still somewhat young," she said. The organization was formed in 1997. "Many of the alumni we come in contact with may not have gone here but have instead moved to the area. So we would like to connect them to our clubs by getting them to participate by volunteering, being a board member or being a spokesperson for the organization."

Through the survey process, students and organization leaders will learn more about how the clubs have affected the lives of alumni, and they also want to develop a wall of fame.

"We may find there will end up being a display in both the Roanoke and New River valleys, but we definitely want to capture information from alumni and see who would be interested in participating by being featured on a wall of fame that will promote the organization's benefits," Melniczek said.

Notable Boys & Girls Clubs alumni from across the nation include Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan and Bill Clinton.

See the alumni survey by clicking the link at the bottom of the Web page: bgcswva.org.