Colleges & Universities
Students, faculty, staff, and various organizations at colleges and universities worldwide reached out to Virginia Tech in droves. The response from these communities shows how visceral their reaction was. Each individual instantly identified with the people of Virginia Tech, knowing that it could have been them and their institution experiencing the trauma and tragedy of that day. In response, collegiate communities pulled together to support themselves and to offer their strength to those mourning in the Virginia Tech community. The overall message: "We are all Virginia Tech". The support from Virginia Tech's historic sports rivals was possibly the strongest of all with many taking the highly symbolic and extremely unusual step of depicting their mascot in Virginia Tech colors.