From Virginia to Elmira: How a Planned Stop Became Home

Dr. Jarvis Marlow-McCowin, Community Development Manager at Corning Community Impact, Elmira, NY

Jarvis Marlow-McCowin grew up in Columbia, a small town in central Virginia, where community showed up for you whether you asked or not. He carried that with him through stops in Binghamton, Oneonta, and Delhi, New York, before landing in Elmira in 2021. He didn’t move there to stay. He moved here because his wife, Shannon, got a job. Five years, one published book, and a baby on the way later, he’s still here.

A Move Built on Familiarity

When Shannon, a school counselor, accepted a position with the Corning-Painted Post School District, Jarvis started thinking about what he actually knew about the Southern Finger Lakes. It turned out to be more than he expected. “We were familiar, having visited the area within the Southern Tier before, particularly the wine trails,” he said. Growing up going to camp, he was already looking forward to lake days and hiking trails. Ithaca was close too, home to the Cornell chapter where his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, was founded in 1906, and he had friends scattered across the region. He wasn’t worried about leaving people behind in Binghamton or Oneonta. Those places were close enough that he knew he’d see everyone again soon. “I’m a believer that you can find good people and things to do anywhere,” he said. “You may have to search a little harder or longer.”

What Home Really Means

Jarvis studies place-based identity and rural student success for a living, so he thinks about “home” more than most people do. For him, home is still central Virginia. Always will be. “Central Virginia did not make me who I am by keeping me there,” he said. “It made me who I am by giving me something to carry.” He points to bell hooks, who wrote that leaving rural Kentucky taught her more about her own place-based identity than staying ever could. He didn’t fully understand that until he moved to Elmira and found the same warmth and rootedness he grew up with, not identical to Virginia, but genuine in its own way. “Home, it turns out, is less a fixed location than a set of values in motion,” he said. “Central Virginia taught me how to recognize it wherever I land.”

The Work That Keeps Him Close to Kids

Jarvis serves as community development manager with Corning Community Impact, a role that lets him hold onto his identity as an educator even outside the classroom. He partners with local K-12 districts, working alongside teachers and school leaders to build a culture where belonging and cultural responsiveness sit at the center of how schools operate. It’s the kind of work that keeps him tied to the community, one school and one relationship at a time.

A Book Two and a Half Years in the Making

This year, Jarvis published The Ascenders: A College Success Toolkit Inspired by Rural Black Men, a book grown out of a decade in education and his own dissertation research. The idea behind it is simple: rural Black men bring real strengths into college, and those strengths deserve to be named and built on rather than overlooked. The book pulls from the men he studied, the students he’s worked with, and his own story of carrying a community’s hopes into spaces that weren’t built with him in mind. He wanted it to reach students directly, not just other academics, so he wrote something that blends a toolkit, a practical guide, and what he calls a love letter to the communities and young men who inspired it. It took two and a half years to write. His mother worked as an editor, and he grew up watching her name appear in books she worked on. Holding his own finished book, he says, has been one of the most meaningful moments of his life. The Ascenders debuted as the number one new release in Higher Education Administration on Amazon in June 2026, and landed at number two in K-12 counseling education and number four in college guides. It’s available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Life in Elmira and Corning

Jarvis and his wife have found more to do in the area than they expected, especially once things reopened after the pandemic. They’re regulars at the Clemens Center for touring Broadway shows, and they enjoy Elmira Little Theatre, the John Jones Museum, local thrift stores, and free community events like Alive After 5 in Downtown Elmira. Their weekdays run on routine: walk the dog, hit the gym, work, spend time together, repeat. Weekends mean a local breakfast spot, a trip to Ithaca, or a nearby farmers market. In spring and summer, that means long walks with the dog and time at the markets in Elmira and Corning. Come fall, it’s apple picking and his wife testing out a new baking recipe with a seasonal coffee in hand. That routine is about to change. The couple is expecting their first child in August.

What Only a Resident Would Know

Ask Jarvis what he’d want a newcomer to know, and he doesn’t hesitate: this is a close-knit community that shows up for families, with plenty to do locally and within an hour’s drive. But there’s a piece of local history he wishes he’d known sooner, and thinks deserves a much wider audience. John W. Jones was an enslaved man who walked from Virginia to Elmira seeking freedom. He became a station master for the Underground Railroad and later served as sexton of Woodlawn Cemetery. “I believe his legacy deserves to be taught in history books nationally, not just honored locally,” Jarvis said. “Beneath Elmira’s small-city feel is a history of resilience and impact that most people never get to see.”

Still Here, By Choice

Jarvis didn’t move to the Southern Finger Lakes looking for all of this. He moved because his wife had a job offer. What he found was a place to build a life he’s proud of. “If you are someone weighing a move and wondering whether a place like this can hold your ambitions, your family, and your values all at once, I would simply say: it has held mine,” he said. “I have built community here, written and published a book, and my spouse and I are expecting our first child in August. The Southern Finger Lakes has not asked me to be less than who I am. If anything, it has given me more space to grow into it.”

---

Jarvis’ book, The Ascenders: A College Success Toolkit Inspired by Rural Black Men, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IngramSpark. 

Thinking about relocating to the Southern Finger Lakes? Our Help Me Move page is a good place to start exploring what life here actually looks like.