JEFF PILLOW 
Graduate, Southside Virginia Community College

As a student at Southside Virginia Community College, Jeff Pillow set the VCCS Basketball Conference record with 27 rebounds in a single game.

The way he is rebounding in life is even more impressive. After a disinterested and unfocused high school career, he says college wasn’t on his agenda.

“With complete adolescent confusion, I decided to enter the workforce knowing that I did indeed want to have money in my pocket,” he says.

Eventually, he found himself wanting to do more than just work.

Pillow’s rebound to college began on a part-time basis. He scored an “A” in Biology 231, so he continued with a second class, another “A,” and then became a full-time student.

“Southside Virginia Community College was a great place to test the waters to see if I could still achieve academically after being away from a classroom for awhile,” Pillow says.

His classroom success caught the attention of his biology professor, who urged him to apply to the University of Virginia through SsVCC’s University Parallel program.

He never considered himself “UVA material” and felt this professor had “lost her mind.”

Finally one day in exasperation she said, “Jeff, if you don’t apply to UVA, you are just crazy.”

Pillow is now in Charlottesville, pursuing his bachelor’s degree at UVA.