Aiden Buckner

Aiden Buckner is a student majoring in Hospitality and Tourism Management and with a CGPA of 3.51. He has been home-schooled since the fourth grade and has been a part of diverse communities of thought and expression that have contributed to the enthusiastic scholar he is today. He is an analytical thinker who values excellence in everything, and he loves the responsibility and human connection associated with leadership and being a part of teams that create change. He says studying politics and religion/culture were academic passions of his through high school as well as communication and debate, and now he is a student in the Pamplin College of Business.

Aiden says the best thing about being a black male student at Virginia Tech is VT’s focus on diversity and inclusion and this is something that resonated with him early on as he attended the virtual Black College Institute in the Summer of 2021. He values the close and supportive community for Black Men on campus and the numerous organizations and opportunities to come together and get involved. His post-Virginia Tech aspiration is to pursue his MBA. Aiden says that his personal and career dream is to work either in the restaurant or cruising industry.

He is affiliated with Undergraduate Student Senate (USS), First-year Leadership Experience (FLEX), and Black Student Alliance (BSA). Aiden says that his role models are his parents who showed him what leadership and perseverance look like, and how to put his best into everything he does, and he tries to model all the greatness he has witnessed through informal and formal leadership roles. During his free time, he enjoys walking around campus, listening to new R&B music, hanging out with friends and keeping up with national politics and news.