The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. — After building careers in cities across the U.S. and abroad, two Covington High School graduates have returned home, part of what locals are calling a “boomerang effect” that could reshape economic development in the Alleghany Highlands.
Terri Miller and Tripp Curry, both featured on the podcast “The Value Proposition,” left the region in pursuit of broader opportunities but eventually circled back, bringing professional experience and entrepreneurial ambitions to their hometown.
Miller, who graduated in 2003, pursued journalism with dreams of becoming the next Oprah Winfrey. Her journey took her from Bridgewater College to Old Dominion University for graduate studies, then to Philadelphia and San Diego before landing in Okinawa, Japan. She worked in higher education at institutions including Drexel University and the University of California San Diego.
The pandemic and the loss of a parent ultimately brought Miller home to Covington, where she now works remotely for a federal agency.
“When you boomerang, you’re bringing all of these experiences and all of this talent and exposure to things,” Miller said. “This is the kind of community where you could come home and say, ‘How can I help? Where can I get in?'”
Curry’s path led through Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, where he earned a nursing degree, before heading west to Las Vegas. He worked in marketing and sales, then returned to healthcare working with children. After brief stints in Boone’s Mill, he and his wife, Angel, settled back in Covington.
The couple now runs their own businesses from home. Angel launched a cleaning service just before the pandemic hit, while Curry operates a photography business supported by local organizations like the Alleghany Foundation.
“I’m not making a fortune or anything, but I am living happy,” Curry said.
Family considerations drove both returns. Curry and his wife were expecting their second child and worried about Las Vegas schools and crime rates. Miller sought the slower pace and safety of a small community.
“It surprises people when I say it really wasn’t that much of a stretch,” Miller said, comparing seven-mile-wide Okinawa to Covington’s size.
Both acknowledge challenges in returning. Miller misses the social venues common in larger cities — rooftop bars, breweries with activities for families and children. She noted the community compensates through close-knit relationships, though residents often travel to Charlottesville or Roanoke for certain amenities.
The returnees see opportunity in Covington’s transformation. Curry pointed to new businesses on Main Street that would have seemed unlikely 20 years ago, crediting millennial entrepreneurs with changing the downtown landscape.
“The opportunity is here,” Curry said. “You never know what you might bring that everybody will love.”
Gene Mundy, host of “The Value Proposition,” suggested the boomerang effect represents a viable economic development strategy for the region. With broadband expansion and remote work normalization following COVID-19, he argued local officials should actively recruit former residents who gained experience elsewhere.
Miller emphasized exposing local youth to diverse career paths beyond traditional regional industries. Drawing from her higher education background, she advocated for programs showing students options in fields like graphic design and STEM.
“I would love to see us spend more energy preparing them for having options,” Miller said, “whether it’s here or away or you boomerang back.”
Both speakers encouraged anyone considering a return to bring their ideas home, emphasizing Covington’s receptiveness to new ventures and community involvement.
—————————————
Transcript of the podcast
Um, I mean, I would just echo when you boomerang right when you leave, you’re bringing, you’re gaining all of these experiences and all of this talent and exposure to things. And you know, as trip said, When you come back, the opportunity to start a business or bring an idea here. It’s, it’s, it’s ripe with opportunity for that. I am not an entrepreneur. I have a lot of ideas I’d love to, you know, support and plug in. And one of the neat things about being here is that there are opportunities for for me to do that, to have a voice, because there’s community, because there’s a desire to grow. And so I would encourage anyone who’s thinking about coming back to bring those ideas, bring the talent. This is the kind of community where you could come home and say, How can I help? Where can I get in? Where can I fit in? And know that you, you probably can, if you, you know, sow a couple of seeds, you’ll figure it out. So, you know, there’s, there’s opportunity, and it really is a neat place to to come back home to. Hey,
Gene Mundy 1:15
good morning everybody. Welcome to the value proposition today. Our episode is called the boomerang effect, leaving the highlands and coming home today with us, we have Miss Terry Miller from Covington, and Mr. Trip curry, also from Covington, both of them have left the highlands off to find their fame and fortune and came home brought that experience and knowledge with them to share with our community. So, good morning, good morning. So we want to start off with a little bit of introduction. So Terry will start with you. Graduate of Covington high school and went out into the world. Give us the give us the story. Yeah.
Terri Miller 1 2:03
So graduated from Covington, left in 2003 to go to college at Bridgewater College, then went to graduate school at Old Dominion University, and went to Philadelphia for work, and then found myself in San Diego for work and family and marriage and everything took me overseas, actually, to Japan, and then from there, pandemic and, you know, multiple life things changed, including, you know, losing a parent, which brought me back to Covington, and I’m really Excited for us to have a conversation on why I came back.
Gene Mundy 2:43
Yeah, it’s gonna be an interesting you know, we all kind of share similar experiences. And so trip for you, you left, graduated from high school as well around 2005 and then went out and on the other side of the country. So we,
Tripp Curry 2:59
I had a little bit of fun. We graduated high school in 2005 like you said, from Covington. I went to Dabney for a little bit. Then we rounded about Blacksburg, traveled with music for a while, got my nursing degree from Dabney, still at the time. Then it took us out west, and we ended up in Las Vegas and did some marketing and sales out there for a while, and that was enjoyable, a different experience than nursing, I can tell you that, but my heart found my way back to working with kids in the medical field while I was out there, traveled back to Boone’s mill for a little bit with My job, and then we ended up back here in Covington, and got to start our businesses from home, and that’s been the biggest blessing and opportunity here. It’s been working for ourselves,
Gene Mundy 3:53
yeah, and I think that’s really two very different paths that kind of brought you back here. So you know, Terry, can you share with us? Why did you leave? You know, what led you to, you know, away?
Terri Miller 4:07
Yeah, well, I wanted to be Oprah, and so went to college for journalism. And, you know, saw these big, bright lights. And you know, city dreams. And you know, didn’t love it, and just sort of went into education with my masters, and then started working in the college field. And, like I said, different universities on the east and west coast, part of what led me away was, you know, just wanting to see all that the world had to offer, and to, you know, take my excitement everywhere and see what I could do with it. And I went pretty far, really grateful for that, but also excited to have those skills back here at
Gene Mundy 4:51
home, yeah, and, you know, similar trip, you know, you, you told us, you know, you went out west, and, you know What? What? Was the, where was the decision to actually go?
Tripp Curry 5:06
Well, it we were in mid visit in Las Vegas, and the opportunity arose, you know, it was a different world from Covington, definitely culture shock when you move there, the opportunity, the bright lights, see what the world could offer and see what it could teach us. Um, yeah, I really think that was the biggest thing, is just seeing and experiencing something different than what this area had at the time.
Gene Mundy 5:33
Sure, sure. And then at some point, you made a decision to come back. And so what was that decision point for you?
Tripp Curry 5:42
What led us to come back home was family. First. We were expecting our second child. Family was here security, you know, the crime rate and different things were definitely lower than Las Vegas and the school system, where we that might be the top three for sure, because school system out there was failing. You know, you see a lot of different things in the news, and had met a few people that lived there, the rare few that did that grew up, and you can see the reflection of their education and that So, not the down anybody, but we they knew what they had experienced also, and Right, right? We didn’t want that for anybody of ours, any of course. Terry, how about you
Terri Miller 6:32
listen, mine’s a little different, because I love the city life. I loved, you know, the opportunities that we had, all the places that we got to live, but the pandemic changed something for me. We came back from Japan during the pandemic, returned to Philadelphia, which was a city I loved in my 20s, and it was very jarring. It was just very different. The US was from the quiet, the community, all of the things that we experienced with kids in Japan. And so it just I came back, because I lost my dad, who was a retired police officer here in Covington, and it felt I forgot how comfortable it felt to live here. And so while I, you know, sacrificed having, you know, some of the big city opportunities, similar to trip, the community was just so warm and welcoming, and it it felt like I just folded right back in to home. Yeah? And, you know, fortunately, I landed a federal work opportunity that allowed me to stay remote, and so it was an easy yes for me to say once I got back, yeah.
Gene Mundy 7:57
I think we’re all three, you know, only in a similar situation we have young children, you know, they all go the same school. They’re in the same classes. I think, you know, that kind of draw for us that was important, you know, one of the reasons we came back. But you know, on the theme of, you know, what you’re, you’re, you’ve highlighted, I just like to, you know, look at a few statistics and share with everyone Crime and Safety comparison, Alleghany Highlands overall crime rate is 41% lower than the national average, so we live in a relatively safe environment here. Housing Affordability comparison, median home value in Alleghany Highlands is 70% less than the than the Virginia average, and about 50% less than the national average. So cost of living here is very reasonable for our families. Overall cost of living index 33% below national average and 37% below the Virginia average education quality comparison. This is, this is one that kind of hits home for us with with small kids at home, math proficiency, reading proficiency, overall proficiency, rate competitive with the state. Actually, we’re better in in math by about 15 points and 10 points better than the state averages. So, you know, some real takeaways that as a parent in young families, you have to take into consideration when moving back here. So, you know, moving back didn’t come, you know, there’s obviously things have changed since you left me, what? What were your thoughts when you when you returned, about what had changed in the years you were away?
Terri Miller 9:48
Well, I left, what, 22 almost 23 years ago. And so, you know, aside from coming back for holidays from college. And things like that. I forgot a lot when I came back, I was very surprised at how much there was to do for kids. I expected sleepy town, which, you know, it is a quiet town, which is beautiful, but there is so much to do. The social calendar is packed, and so we often find ourselves, you know, saying no. So there is no shortage of, you know, dance, basketball, cheer, violin, acting classes. There’s just so much to do for the family. And so, you know, the opportunities to expose our children to things that maybe we would have gotten if we lived in a larger place. They are here, but they’re more community based, which is kind of the sweet spot of having the opportunities, but also feeling comfortable and knowing who the teacher is and who the other kids in the class are, right?
Gene Mundy 10:56
And trip you mentioned, you know, you’re an entrepreneur. You and your wife, Angel have two businesses. And you, you know, you’ve been a real significant force with the MenNefer, you know, come back with your role there. So I would ask you, you know, what has been the benefit of, you know, being a small business owner in the community,
Tripp Curry 11:19
coming back, it was extremely easy to start because, as you say, you know everybody, it was very welcoming coming back. You know, the rail had just started when we were first moving back to Covington, and that jump started DJ’ing again for me, and got back into weddings. And you know it the opportunity was just there opportunities everywhere, if you’re willing to work and work hard enough at it, good point, you know, while we were in Las Vegas, I started a candle business, and I went door to door selling candles. I mean, in Las Vegas, if you want to work hard enough you can do it. So coming back here just it was just so much easier, though, because you didn’t have to work. You do have to work as hard, but the elbows wasn’t as didn’t have to go rub and grease palms as much.
Terri Miller 12:16
So, yeah, understand. Can I add something? So you know, one of the things that I enjoyed, specifically in San Diego and Japan, was water. I discovered that I absolutely can’t live without it. And so, you know, stand up, paddle boarding, and, you know, snorkeling, and you know, all of these things that are water connected. I can’t do those exact things all the time here, but we have the proximity to water, right? And so I have found myself buying kayaks and using my paddle board on the Jackson river. And, you know, putting my kids out there. We’re used to being in the ocean in Japan, and now we can sort of get that feeling here, and it’s 20 minutes it’s 30 minutes up the road, it’s, you know, it’s the lake. It’s like Moon law. It’s gas, right? It’s, you know, there are so many opportunities to sort of scratch that itch, if you will. I guess didn’t think about it when I was in school, when I was here, but surprised coming back, that I could still get that same feeling quality of life. Yeah, absolutely.
Gene Mundy 13:25
As our city manager likes to say, you know, we’re a walkable community. You can literally walk to any park in the city. You know, every neighborhood has a park that outdoor opportunity to get outside and experience you know, nature is a big draw for our community. I think that you may not find if you lived in downtown Richmond as an example, or suburb, etc. So trip coming back, had a great you know, like you said, you came back, you started your businesses. But what were the challenges of returning?
Tripp Curry 14:04
Challenges of returning to Covington and Alleghany County? Just it was the pandemic had just hit. You know, we were so young families, second child coming, the basic problems that any young family hit, you know, trying to keep a schedule, get sleep and keep motivated to keep going that I always say that was the biggest challenges, though I will say as business wise, we were Very blessed. Um, you know, the chamber is very supportive. If you utilize them, Josh and Lacey and all of them down there, they’re great, right?
Gene Mundy 14:49
Shout out to the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.
Tripp Curry 14:51
Yes, you know, love Josh and everybody. They’ve been big supporters, especially with my photography. You know, they share STILL TO THE. Day, a lot of photos that I’m proud of. I think I just grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. You know, I’ve really, you know, I’m not making a fortune or anything, but I am living happy. And, you know, going back to the parks and nature and stuff, you know, we had parks in Vegas, but you had to go in the middle of the night and still, in 100 degree weather, you couldn’t walk out into the forest and touch grass. The backyard was rock. You know, the being comfortable here was one of the biggest things, too, along with the business and everything. It’s just circling back to that a little bit. But, yeah, I don’t think we had much of a pushback. You know, angel. She was very blessed. She started her business a month before the pandemic hit the shutdown. But what better business than a cleaning business, and she’s maintained, you know, great ratings and service and recommendations. And, yeah, I don’t, depending on what business you bring here, I’m sure there’s always going to be a challenge, right, right? We didn’t have brick and mortar. We didn’t have a lot of overhead, so that made it a big lesson, sure.
Gene Mundy 16:17
And Terry Japan Covington, big change, definitely a culture shock. What? What challenges did you go through with, with your family returning?
Terri Miller 16:28
Yeah, I mean, so it surprises people when I say it really wasn’t that much of a stretch, because we were in Okinawa, which is tiny, seven miles wide, so you could compare it, you know, size wise, to a place like Covington. So, you know, in some senses, this made sense. If I like the slow pace, the challenge, though, I’ll say, is culture and some of the things that we, I guess, social that we enjoyed doing, not just in Japan, but San Diego and Philadelphia. So you know, for example, I love a rooftop bar. I love breweries, I love places that you can meet friends who also have children. I have. Most of my friends also have children, and so our kids go with us everywhere. I love places that have giant checkerboards and, you know, corn hole and things like that, that you can take the kids with you. You can meet up with your friends on a Friday. You can have a great time. And then everybody goes their separate ways. So I’ve found a little bit of a challenge in that. I mean, I circle back to community where we haven’t been able to find it on Main Street, for example, you know, you find it with with your people, right? But, you know, we’re close enough to Charlottesville, we’re close enough to Roanoke and, you know, bona tot and some other areas where we can kind of go and get that. But for me, it has been just not always having as many social even without the kids, just, you know,
Gene Mundy 18:09
my thing, yeah? And I think you know that military community vibe, yeah, that, you know, we’ve experienced being away and being in the service, it’s different, yeah, you have to depend on each other. You know, you are your own community. Within a community, your own tribe is, you know, as we say sometimes, and so, you know, there, I could see where that would be a bit different here, similarly, coming from overseas, back to Covington, it was a was, you know, for us different, but again, we were anchored with family, and we came here for the safety issues of, you know, small town community and tight knit relationships. And I think that’s kind of the theme of what we want to share with people, right? The boomerang effect is, you know, there’s an opportunity for our community here in as we look for then, you know, what is the next economic opportunity for the Alleghany Highlands? We may not be building a mill or, you know, we’re not going to get back to that point. But I think when we start looking at what draws people here, what brings people back, what brings their entrepreneurship, what brings their sense of belonging and building within our community, we should be thinking about that. How do we market that? How do we reach out to, you know, the folks who went walk about, you know, like we did, but then came back. And so what I would offer, you know, to our economic development corporation, to the city of Covington, the Town of Clifton forest and Allegan. County is, you know, is this a marketable economic development strategy that we should be thinking about in, from what I’m hearing, and, you know, from what we have shared with, you know, our experience and with other folks like us, I think the answer is yes, the arrival of broadband, you know, the remote work. The remote work, kind of movement post covid has really changed the dynamics of a business. And so it’s something I think we should, we should really take a good, hard look at. So in closing, any closing thoughts from from trip or from Terry
Terri Miller 20:44
ladies first cool, I mean, I would just echo when you boomerang right when you leave, you’re bringing, you’re gaining all of these experiences and all of this talent and exposure to things. And you know, as trip said, When you come back, the opportunity to start a business or bring an idea here, it’s, it’s, it’s ripe with opportunity for that. I am not an entrepreneur. I have a lot of ideas I’d love to, you know, support and plug in. And one of the neat things about being here is that there are opportunities for for me to do that, to have a voice, because there’s community, because there’s a desire to grow. And so I would encourage anyone who’s thinking about coming back to bring those ideas, bring the talent. This is the kind of community where you could come home and say, How can I help? Where can I get in? Where can I fit in? And know that you, you probably can, if you, you know, sow a couple of seeds, you’ll figure it out. So, you know, there’s, there’s opportunity, and it really is a neat place to to come back home to.
Tripp Curry 21:58
Can echo that so much? You know, the opportunity is here. You can find it. You the talents, the education, the culture you find everywhere else you bring here that might not fit at the time years ago, but now it’s a different age. You know, information has hit covid 10 so much faster than they used to. I remember when we left for Las Vegas, Facebook, social media, what was that you know? So I will say, Bring those talents back, take the time and find the opportunity here. And you never know what is missing. You never know what you might bring that everybody will love, right? I mean, look at all the businesses. I mean, Kanawha, right across the street, the New Mexico, Casa de loan is onward, blessings, you know, he would have thought any of that would have hit Main Street in covid 20 years ago. So, you know, the millennials are coming up, so we have to fit, fit that pair of pants and see if we can get both legs in to bring everybody down the street and support us.
Gene Mundy 23:15
Yeah, being away, you had a lot of great experiences. Which one of those would you highlight this to offer you’d like to see more of here in the in the city or in the county?
Terri Miller 23:27
Sure, I’ll go first. So you know, my master’s is in higher education, and I have worked in the College of Engineering at Drexel. I’ve worked for University of California San Diego. I’ve worked a lot in admissions and seeing what talented high school to college pipeline looks like. I think the talent and the desire is here. I would love to see more exposure for our kids in education. So, you know, it didn’t occur to me until maybe 11th grade that I could go to college, and I was a smart kid, but it took a college visit, it took something like that for a light bulb to click. And so I think creating opportunities for our kids to see what industries are doing, not only here at the mill, because I think that’s a big one, but also, what are people doing outside of here? What is graphic design and, you know, user experience, what like? What are these different industries that we can expose our kids to? STEM is a huge one, and steam, if you will. I would love to see us, you know, bring those opportunities and exposure. AP, academic rigor, just challenging them. See the world beyond Covington and Alleghany Highlands, and knowing that coming back is an option, but you also can go away, or you can say that you have choices, right? I would, I would love to see us. To spend more energy. We love our kids here, sure, in the highlands, and so preparing them for having options the world, the world, whether it’s here or away or you boomerang back,
Gene Mundy 25:12
right, would be great. Great idea. Trip. Your thoughts,
Tripp Curry 25:16
the biggest one. You know, I loved what Las Vegas did in the smaller communities as they would bring, you know, crafts and activities and different things to a parking lot, so like mid City Mall, everybody could pull up. It doesn’t have to be just the farmers market or Chris Kendall market coming up, you know, this weekend to plug them. But I will say that that was one of our biggest things that we really loved. It was getting out there and seeing the different opportunities in Vegas. You know, what we could have done and what you could have made, and different things like that. And I think bringing kids to those type of events give them opportunity. You know, college is always an option, of course, right travel, but you can come out of school with a trade or an idea, if it’s good enough run, you work hard enough, and you can even work out of the back seat of your car and sell stuff. Or you can buy a place on Main Street. It doesn’t have to start at 25 or 30.
Gene Mundy 26:17
We like to thank you for joining us today on the value proposition. Look forward to seeing you again next week.
