Meet Frank Tyree

Frank Tyree - Student Success Coach

Roanoke City CCAP Success Coach

Hi, my name is Frank Tyree and fall 2021 marks my first year as the Roanoke City CCAP Success Coach. I am extremely excited and delighted to help and work with the CCAP students at Virginia Western.

Helping students succeed in academics is something I did for seven years, having worked for Roanoke City Public Schools at Westside and Garden City elementary schools. Prior to RCPS, I worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Norfolk State University, helping the teams that I oversaw win three MEAC Champions while I was there. Helping these athletes achieve greatness both on and off the field of competition brought me the greatest joy.

I am a graduate of Franklin County High School. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from The University of Virginia’s College at Wise and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology/Exercise Science from James Madison University. My local ties also extend to coaching and sports performance training at many Roanoke Valley middle and high schools as well as many individual and AAU/travel teams. It is my goal to bring some of my past experiences, motivational strategies and coaching techniques to motivate and encourage CCAP students to achieve success and greatness in their class and career goals while at Virginia Western.

A few of my duties to help with Roanoke City CCAP students are:

  • Assisting students with challenges or obstacles they may encounter while at Virginia Western
  • Assisting to connect students to the various resources around campus
  • Motivating students to achieve their career or academic goals
  • Providing financial aid, enrollment and advising assistance

I look forward to hearing from current Roanoke City CCAP students – or from any students interested in attending Virginia Western!

Phone: 540-857-6709
Email: ftyree@virginiawestern.edu

Fralin Futures Student Success Coach

Meet Schuyler van Montfrans

Schuyler Van Montfrans - Student Success Coach

Fralin Futures Student Success Coach

Hi, I’m Schuyler van Montfrans and fall 2021 marks my first year as the Fralin Futures Student Success Coach.

I grew up in Yorktown, Va., and attended the University of Virginia where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology.  At the University of Florida, I studied food web ecology in the salt marshes of southeastern Georgia and grew to love teaching as a graduate teaching assistant. During my time there, I taught biology lab, ecology lab and helped to design and implement an annual field course that traveled to the Bahamas each spring to study tropical marine biology and ecology.

I began my teaching career in 2012 – since then, I’ve taught a variety of science subjects (biology, ecology, AP Biology, marine science, physics, and chemistry) at both rural and urban schools in Lake City, Fla., Decatur, Ga., and Roanoke’s William Fleming High School. 

For the past several years at Virginia Tech, with funding from the National Science Foundation, I worked as an research specialist and led the design of a place-based online-accessible educational curriculum that integrates novel pedagogical approaches with “backyard” ecology and conservation experiences to inspire middle- and high school students across Appalachia to become lifelong stewards of their local natural environment.

Here at Virginia Western, I will be serving as a student success coach for the Fralin Futures Scholarship program, a merit-based scholarship awarded to help ensure on-time program completion by high-achieving STEM-H students. Scholarship recipient cohorts have been growing in number each year. In the first year of the scholarship program (2019), there were 12 students who received this scholarship in 2020 this number grew to 24. In fall 2021, I am supporting 36 scholarship recipients spanning a range of academic pathways (nursing and practical nursing, dental hygiene, engineering, mechatronics, science and agriculture, radiation oncology, medical lab technology and information systems technology).

For more information about the Fralin Futures Scholarship program, contact Schuyler at (540) 857-6272 or email him at svanmontfrans@virginiawestern.edu.