Coming Full Circle: The Story of Asianna Holloway
Discover A1 Studios Dance and Performing Arts at Boys Home of Virginia
Some people find their way to Boys Home of Virginia through a connection, a referral, or a sense that this is where they’re supposed to be. For Asianna Holloway, Development Operations Manager and now approaching her five-year anniversary, it was a little of all three with a childhood memory she didn’t even realize she was carrying.
“Growing up, I spent a lot of time around Boys Home for youth events, Girl Scout events,” she says. “I remember learning to swim here, and there was a reptile event in the gym when I was about seven or eight. Some of my core memories are here.”
Where the Heilman Leadership Building stands today, there used to be a pool. Asianna learned to swim in it. She had no idea at the time that she’d one day work on the campus where those memories were made.
A Text That Changed Everything
Before Boys Home, Asianna was working in development at Washington and Lee University in her first fundraising role she picked up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was learning fast, managing a commute, and juggling COVID tests and school closures for her two young sons. She knew she liked the work, but she also knew something needed to change.
An alumnus and former employee, Trequan McDonald, sent her a text. A grant writer position had opened at Boys Home of Virginia. Come up for lunch, apply, and see what happens.
“I’ll forever be thankful for that,” she says.
She started with grants and kept going. As she got more comfortable, she started asking questions — how are donations being processed, what’s happening with the data, how do we make this better — and then she asked for more. More time with students. More ways to contribute. She now handles grants, gift processing, donor database management, admissions support, social media and communications, and employee onboarding and training with a background in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice woven throughout.
She also teaches a weekly Social-Emotional Ethical Learning class. This was a decision she made because she wanted to actually know the students she was writing about and advocating for.
“They are grateful when you want to learn about them and their background,” she says. “They know that you’re trying to help them on their journey here.”
Miss Asia at the Studio
Here’s where Asianna’s story gets a little more layered (and a lot more fun!).
Three nights a week and sometimes weekends, she is not quietly working at a desk. She is loud, she is everywhere, and she might have a kid on her hip and another on her back. When she’s not at Boys Home, Asianna is a dance instructor at A1 Studios Dance and Performing Arts, just five minutes from campus, where she teaches contemporary and hip-hop to students ages 3-17, across both recreational and competitive tracks.
She got into dance the same way she gets into most things: with a little hesitation and then a whole lot of commitment. She was nine years old when she watched her cousin perform at a senior recital and thought, that confidence she has — I want that. She went home and asked her grandparents to help her find a class.
“It surely did help build my confidence,” she says. “And I haven’t looked back since.”
This past year was her first with a soloist, a student she describes as very much like her younger self, talented and way too hard on herself. Asianna coached her through it. The student went on to win Audience Choice at a local talent show as the youngest competitor, and a video of her performance quietly went viral in the community.
“To see her confidence grow has been really awesome,” Asianna says. “I’m so proud.”
The Same Magic, Two Different Rooms
Ask Asianna what she loves most about teaching dance, and then ask her what she loves most about working with students at Boys Home, and you’ll get the same answer — just set in different rooms.
It’s that moment when a student realizes they did something they didn’t think they could do, and the look on their face says everything before they even find the words for it.
“You see it here at Boys Home as they’re working on their reading skills, their writing skills, being able to verbalize their thoughts,” she says. “They grow this confidence and it’s just this little look they give, like — wait, I said that. I did that. I’m doing a good job.”
Both Boys Home and A1 Studios Dance and Performing Arts share another value that matters deeply to Asianna: no student should be turned away because of what their family can or can’t afford. At the studio, they fundraise to cover costume fees, class fees, and competition costs. At Boys Home, financial background is never a barrier to enrollment. She’s seen firsthand how much it means when a family doesn’t have to do the math before saying yes.
“You’d be surprised how aware some students are of their situations,” she says. “They internalize feeling different. To know that’s one less thing their families have to worry about — that means a lot.”
What’s Coming Next
Asianna has a vision for where this all goes, and it involves the two worlds she loves coming together. Boys Home students are being offered the chance to sign up for classes at her studio, and she’s eager to see what happens when they walk in the door — not just as students, but as leaders.
“I feel like they would do an awesome job learning, but also taking the lead and being leaders in the classes,” she says. “That means a lot to me.”
Longer term, she’d love to see Boys Home host local dance competitions or workshops on campus as a way to open the doors wider and bring more of the community in, with the same low-pressure, everyone-belongs energy that defines both organizations.
And personally? She’s working on pushing herself out of her comfort zone, exploring competition adjudication, and getting to a place where she feels ready to lead workshops of her own.
Given everything she’s already doing, it’s hard to imagine she won’t get there.
If you’d like to learn more about the people and programs shaping student life at Boys Home of Virginia, reach out to us today. We’d love to connect.