Inside Dr. Raymond Alvarez’s healthcare administration classroom in Jaynes Corridor, the partitions are embellished with storyboards showcasing photographs and written articles that depict the historical past of healthcare and training in the area people.
“My concept is that if I’m educating healthcare programs to college students in a setting the place they will see the artifacts that I’ve as a part of their setting, then it’ll assist them perceive why a subject we’re protecting is related at the moment based mostly on the way it was prior to now,” mentioned Alvarez, a retired healthcare government.
For Alvarez, a Fairmont native who now serves as each the Healthcare Administration Program Coordinator and a visiting professor at Fairmont State, preserving historical past is not only a educating methodology, but additionally a private curiosity geared toward cultivating cultural tourism in his hometown. Alvarez has printed 18 articles within the WV Division of Tradition and Historical past’s Goldenseal Journal, and his historic analysis spans subjects from the civil battle and the coal trade to ladies leaders and the evolution of Fairmont State’s position in training, to call just a few.
In recognition of his efforts, the Metropolis of Fairmont and the Marion County Fee signed a decision earlier this fall designating Alvarez because the official historian of Fairmont-Marion County, West Virginia.
“I’m very appreciative of this particular award, however I’ve by no means thought of myself a historian,” mentioned Alvarez. “I like to think about myself as a researcher. I take pleasure in uncovering compelling tales and bringing them to life.”
It’s Alvarez’s hope that tasks paying homage to the area’s wealthy cultural heritage will convey curious guests to the Fairmont space who come to study however keep to eat and play, partaking in the neighborhood’s native points of interest. Later this month, Fairmont State college students will current the concept for one such mission in coordination with the Frank and Jane Gabor Folklife Middle and the Appalachian Educating Challenge funded by the Appalachian Regional Fee. The mission goals to encourage heritage tourism by offering audio tales about domestically important people who’re buried at Marion County’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery.
“I take pleasure in getting individuals to work collectively on shared concepts,” mentioned Alvarez, who sits on Woodlawn Cemetery’s Board of Administrators. “That’s the enjoyable half.”
Alvarez has additionally performed in depth analysis on Fairmont State’s beginnings because the Fairmont Regular College situated in downtown Fairmont via its transition to the present-day location because the campus on the hilltop of Locust Avenue. His findings may be publicly considered at https://library.fairmontstate.edu/fns.
“As Fairmont State’s and the county’s resident historian, Dr. Alvarez’s love of historical past permeates his life and, in flip, the lifetime of the scholars he touches,” mentioned Fairmont State College President, Mirta M. Martin. “It’s this kind of ardour and dedication that college students search as they make Fairmont State College their vacation spot of selection. I’m grateful he’s a part of the Falcon Household.”
