Lynchburg Alumnus Inspires at Inaugural Hornet2Hornet Conference 

By Jacob Clavijo – Staff Writer

University of Lynchburg alumni, Carter Elliott IV ’19, delivered the keynote speech for the inaugural Hornet2Hornet Conference on Friday. Elliott, who now serves as the press secretary to Maryland Governor Wes Moore, shared his experiences as a student and the impact that networking has had in shaping his career.

“For me, Lynchburg was the beginning of everything,” Elliott said. “It was where I was raised, it was where I went to college, and it was where I began my career in politics.”

Carter Elliott ‘19 at Hornet2Hornet Conference 2024. Photo by Jonathan Suarez, 3msla Media.

Elliott began his political endeavors on the University of Lynchburg campus, where he founded the Lynchburg College Democrats. As a junior, he was asked to be the campaign manager for Beau Wright, then-candidate for Lynchburg City Council. 

Elliott noted that he dedicated effort and time to Wright’s campaign, which raised the most money among the candidates running at the time. He developed a field program that knocked on thousands of doors across Lynchburg.

 “We put so many hours that at the end of the day we got sick after Election Day,” Elliott said.

Elliott’s dedication and enthusiasm for campaigning helped Wright secure his victory in 2018. Since then, he has worked for multiple candidates and elected officials. However, as Elliott pointed out, victory is not always common in politics.

“After that race, all I did was lose for the next five years,” Elliott told a room full of students, faculty, and alumni at Hall Campus Center.

Despite numerous campaign losses and being unsure which direction he was headed in, Elliott remained persistent. He noted that he kept a running list of people with whom he felt he needed to stay connected.

“I was aggressive, especially early on, about reaching to folks,” Elliott said.

A fourth-generation farmer who was raised on Seven Oaks Farm in Campbell County, Elliott compared networking to farming and attributed his upbringing to his career success in politics.

“Networking is just like farming. You have to pay attention to it every day. You have to spend time with the crops in order to have a good harvest in the fall. You have to prepare, sometimes for great lengths, you don’t just put crops in the ground. This is how you have to treat networking,” Elliott said. “Whether it’s a relationship or a crop, if you don’t tend to it and you don’t do regular upkeep, it’ll wither.”

As one of the youngest gubernatorial press secretaries in the country, Elliott firmly stated that despite attending a small school, University of Lynchburg students are more than capable of competing in the workforce and achieving their goals.

Carter Elliott speaks to a room of students and alumni at Hall Campus Center, 2024. Photo by Jonathan Suarez, 3msla Media.

“Here at this school, you aren’t learning just for learning’s sake,” Elliott directed to the students in the room. “You’re learning to grow, whether you realize it now or not.”

In his closing remarks, Elliott paid respects to University of Lynchburg alumni Kevin Scott ‘94, who is the current chief technology officer of Microsoft, Jim Bibby ‘80, a World Series winning pitcher in Major League Baseball, and Setsuko Thurlow ‘55, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for nuclear disarmament, who he believes would all agree with him that the university has a profound impact on its students and prepares them for success in the real world.

“Any of them would tell you the same thing that I’m going to end with today: Be proud that you went to Lynchburg, because the skills that you learned here and the network that you built, you can do anything,” Elliott ended with.
To learn more about Carter Elliott ‘19, read Lynchburg Magazine.