Giving Back to the Places That Shaped Them

Dan Pleasant ‘72, ‘73 and Braydon Boaz both grew up on tobacco farms in Caswell County before graduating from Bartlett Yancey Senior High School and leaving their home county to pursue an engineering degree at NC State University.

Both remember being encouraged by teachers to consider engineering because of their aptitude for math. Pleasant’s high school math teacher, Nellie Strader, told him he should be an engineer. Boaz’s mother, who is a teacher, signed him up for STEM activities when he was younger. Boaz also dual-enrolled at Piedmont Community College in high school to earn an associate degree.

Both were one of just a handful of students from their graduating class to enroll at NC State in engineering.

Their shared experiences from growing up in the same rural area helped develop their empathy for those around them.

“I think if you grow up in a rural area, you’re more likely to have that,” Pleasant said. “You quickly put yourself in the other person’s shoes, and you want to understand their situation.”

Dan Pleasant and his wife, Barbara Pleasant, who is from the neighboring Person County, prioritized giving back to their communities throughout their lives by volunteering and serving in leadership roles for numerous nonprofit and civic organizations. Recently, they established the Dan and Barbara Pleasant Scholarship Endowment. The full-tuition scholarship is for engineering students from rural North Carolina counties, with a preference for Caswell and Person counties. The counties are both about an hour-and-a-half from NC State’s campus.

Boaz is the first recipient of the scholarship, and he shares the Pleasants’ drive to give back. A sophomore construction engineering student, he volunteers every Tuesday at his local food parish in Caswell County to reduce food insecurity.

“It’s where my roots are,” Boaz said. “The people and experiences from Caswell County have shaped me into who I am today.”

‘Everybody knows everybody’

Growing up, Pleasant had a large family and a strong community around him. His father co-owned the Pleasant General Merchandise Store, which was the Purley community gathering place. During elementary school recess, he teamed up with his many cousins. 

“We used to say, rather than pick teams, ‘The cousins will take on everybody,’” he said. 

He logged long hours on the family’s tobacco farm and in Pleasant Store, and the physical labor provided motivation to pursue a college degree.

Pleasant knew only a few people when he started at NC State. He joined the freshman football team and later the rugby team, and he made lifelong friends.

He enrolled as a civil engineering major due to his interest in water, which evolved from his childhood spent playing in a creek to an understanding of the importance of water management in agriculture. He earned his MCE in environmental engineering a year later. While in graduate school, he met Barbara, and they married two months after his graduation.

He began his career in Raleigh, but when the Pleasants started a family, they felt the pull to be closer to their families. The engineering consulting firm Dewberry was opening an office in Danville, Virginia, just north of Caswell and Person counties. Pleasant was the second employee hired there. Over 45 years, he built a successful career, eventually becoming chief operating officer and president of the engineering company as the company grew from 300 to 2,200 employees.

“That foundational education that I got at NC State, as well as the life experiences of the university were not only transformational for me, coming from a very rural county, but really equipped me to enjoy the professional success that I think I had,” he said.

Boaz is just starting out on his path as an engineer. In Caswell County, some things have changed. The general store has sat empty for years, and with the drastic reduction in family tobacco farming, plus the adoption of youth employment laws, Boaz didn’t work long hours on his father’s tobacco farm.

But many things are the same.

“I first heard about the scholarship because people were calling my family, because in Caswell, everybody knows everybody,” he said. “A lot of people knew I was going to State, and they heard about it in the local newspaper.”

Like Pleasant, Boaz started at NC State with just a few classmates from his high school. His decision to major in construction engineering was influenced by his experiences back home.

His father instilled in him the importance of sustainable practices and land protection from his years of farming. His time working on a small construction site in high school inspired him to start thinking about ways to reduce waste. He learned first-hand the need for improved safety after his father was injured on a job site due to a faulty ladder.

Boaz’s long-term goal is to open his own construction company.

“I want to do more research on safety, waste reduction and sustainability …  so I can make those goals for my company,” he said.

The Dan and Barbara Pleasant Scholarship makes that easier for him. Boaz can spend more time on research and extracurricular activities when he’d otherwise be working a part-time job.

“Being able to graduate from school without having large debt is a possibility that I didn’t think I’d ever get,” he said. “In the long-term, to be able to have financial flexibility or freedom after I graduate to start my career how I want to is also something I never thought I’d be able to do.”