SCC alumnus is park ranger at Claytor Lake

DOBSON — Surry Community College alumnus Alex Moss said he only attended college because his parents made him, but at the time, he never dreamed his whole career would come about because he would genuinely fall in love with biology.

Moss is a first-generation college student who initially didn’t even want to go to college. After his parents “made me come,” he said, he took general biology with Instructor Grayson Patton.

“I found out I loved biology. And I loved it so much, that I stayed on at SCC for three more years,” Moss said.

While at the college, Moss earned Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degrees and transferred to Radford University with a full scholarship where he majored in wildlife biology. Moss graduated from Radford with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2022. Just two weeks after his graduation, he was employed as a Park Ranger at Claytor Lake State Park in Dublin, Virginia, where he uses his degrees from SCC and Radford University each day while working with the public in the park.

“I get the opportunity to talk to many people. I know about the lake levels and temperatures, about more difficult things like where to put down docks, for example, and I have the answers to lots of questions that people ask. I love helping people in this way.”

About his time at Surry Community College, Moss said, “The learning tools I got at Surry Community got me through the pandemic and all the online learning I had to do at Radford. Radford University would have been a lot harder without Surry. I actually felt head and shoulders above others in my classes at Radford. My instructors at Surry made the most positive difference for me in all that I did in college.”

Surry Community College’s transfer program allows students to take classes toward earning Associate in Arts (A.A.) or Associate in Science (A.S.) degrees before they transfer to a four-year college or university. “These students receive significant benefits as transfer students if they meet certain conditions,” college officials said.