Feature Story
How Kevin Salins is Investing in His Eternal Family at Southern Virginia University
Looking for a way towards his next steps in life, design major Kevin Salins (‘25) started looking into colleges and heard about Southern Virginia University from a family friend who was a current student. He felt a spiritual prompting that it would be the right school to go to, and since coming to Southern Virginia University, he has found confidence in himself and an eternal family.
During his first semester at Southern Virginia, Salins decided to focus on his academics and found a friend in Director of Student Success Michael Frye, who not only offered academic support, but good life advice as well.
“I wasn’t very confident in myself when coming to Southern Virginia University, and after the first semester of seeing my growth, Michael helped me to see the potential that I didn’t know I had,” said Salins. “He’s helped me see my strengths and has pushed me to reach my potential.”
Salins also met his wife, Moriah, while a student. A few days into his first semester, he saw her walking back from the Institute of Religion building and asked for her number a few days later, and they were eventually married in November 2023.
“It was a lot easier for me to have a conversation with her than most people. We could have an easy back and forth, no effort really involved,” said Salins. “I wanted to spend more time with her, get to know her, and her family…I wanted to be a team with her.”
After getting married, Salins took a Child and Adolescent Development class to fulfill a general education course and discovered he had an interest in the family and human development major. On a suggestion from his wife, he decided to minor in it and has been able to make personal applications from classes such as Personal and Family Finance and Marriage and Family.
“Personal and Family Finance helped me out in knowing what to do with being an adult and one day becoming a father and providing financially for my family,” said Salins. “Marriage and Family is about how it all ties together: how to have a strong relationship with my spouse and how that influences the rest of my family so that we can all work towards the same goal and be a really healthy family unit.”
“It really nailed into me that the core values and goals of what I should be learning about and caring most for is my family,” continued Salins. “It’s the best investment I could ever make.”