“Life comes full circle”: Jennifer Freed Hall ’88 returns to the University of Mary Washington, capping off a journey that began on the field hockey team at HRA

Hampton Roads Academy alumna Jennifer Freed Hall ’88 has experienced many twists and turns throughout her educational, athletic, professional, and personal life, but her path has brought her back to her alma mater in ways she never would have expected.

In fall 2025, her twin son and daughter joined the Academy as sixth graders. The following spring, just days after the end of the school year, she was honored with induction into the University of Mary Washington (UMW) Athletic Hall of Fame for her outstanding achievements in field hockey, capping off a journey that began on the field at HRA.

“People often say that life comes full circle,” Hall remarked, “and this past year has certainly felt like one of those moments.”

Shortly after the induction ceremony, held at UMW’s Cedric Rucker University Center on June 6, 2026, Hall reflected on her time at HRA and how it helped shape her into the accomplished individual she is today. Above all, she concluded, it was the phenomenal group of peers and mentors she met during her seven years at the school that allowed her to grow as a student, an athlete, and a person, laying the groundwork for the success she has achieved as an adult.

“Throughout my life and career, I’ve come to realize that how far you rise is often determined by how much you are willing to invest in building a solid foundation,” Hall said. “HRA taught me that with the right foundation, you are stronger, more confident, and better equipped to face life’s challenges.”

Building the Foundation

As a student at the Academy, Hall seized a wealth of opportunities to contribute to the life of the school. She served as president of the Key Club Keyettes and was an active member of the French Club and the Student Council Association.

It was in athletics, though, that she most distinguished herself. She tried nearly every girls sport offered at HRA, playing volleyball in the winter and running track in the spring before pivoting to softball.

Hall (second from right) celebrates with her field hockey teammates during her senior year

But the sport that would most define Hall’s trajectory after graduation was field hockey, which she played from seventh through twelfth grade, alongside her sister Laura Freed ’89. During her first year at the Academy, the legendary Coach Nancy Richwine, a 2022 HRA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, recognized her potential and encouraged her and several of her peers to attend a summer field hockey camp at Appalachian State University. According to Hall, Richwine was an excellent leader and mentor who taught her student-athletes that “if we wanted to become great players, we needed to learn from the best.”

In her senior year, Hall notched a historic TCIS Tournament win over Norfolk Academy and received All-Conference honors for a season that also earned Richwine a Coach of the Year award. For the varsity standout, however, some of her greatest achievements in field hockey were “the lifelong friendships that were formed and strengthened during those years—relationships I’m proud to say remain strong today.”

“I often tell friends and family that I learned so much of what I needed to prepare for life while attending HRA,” Hall said. “Playing sports gave me far more than the chance to compete. It taught me discipline, resilience, teamwork, and the importance of showing up for the people around me.”

An All-American, a Public Servant, and a Successful Businesswoman

Hall’s experiences at HRA determined her path in college in two crucial ways. First, the exceptional Upper School math teacher Ann Fichter inspired her to major in mathematics at Mary Washington College. Second, the love of field hockey that Coach Richwine and her teammates helped foster in her led Hall to continue playing the sport for four more years.

At the collegiate level, she was no less of a star on the field than she was at HRA. In 1991, Hall became the second All-America pick in the history of Mary Washington’s field hockey program after leading the UMW Eagles to their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. That same season, she also made history as the first Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year as the team claimed the conference title. To this day, she holds the UMW school record for defensive saves, with an impressive 37 over the course of her career. With such an incredible list of accomplishments, she was an obvious choice for the UMW Athletic Hall of Fame.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1992, Hall initially pursued a career in physical therapy. Fascinated by the rapid development of digital technology in the 1990s, she soon decided to return to school to study computer science. This pivot, she recalled, was “a major shift, considering I could barely turn on a computer at the time.”

Hall’s choice spawned a remarkable 24-year career with the Department of the Navy, where she served in a variety of roles, challenged herself professionally, and garnered numerous accolades as she spearheaded projects that transformed how hundreds of thousands of Navy and Department of Defense employees communicate and collaborate every day.

Hall assumed she would remain with the Department of the Navy until retirement, but another unexpected career change awaited her after the sale of her husband Chris’s family business in 2022. Seeing an opportunity to build a company of their own and leave a lasting legacy in the community, the couple founded Legasea Marine, a boat service, sale, supply, and storage company with locations in Yorktown and Virginia Beach, where Hall currently serves as CEO.

“My journey has taught me that opportunities come when you least expect them, change is constant, and growth requires being willing to step outside of your comfort zone,” Hall said. Through her many personal and professional transitions, the foundation she had laid at HRA gave her the confidence and the resilience to approach each new challenge as a chance to grow and excel—just as she always had in field hockey.

Returning Home and Looking to the Future

Hall has never forgotten how she discovered skills and relationships at HRA that she has carried throughout her adult life. A longtime supporter of the school, the dedicated alumna has participated in HRA Day and contributed to multiple fundraisers at her alma mater, including the Night of the Navigator Gala in 2025 and the inaugural Tidewater Table & Auction in 2026.

“I have never felt more connected to HRA than I do today,” Hall commented, fresh off her Athletic Hall of Fame recognition and looking back on her children’s first year as Navigators.

“Seeing my two children follow in my footsteps at HRA and having the opportunity to share in an experience that has meant so much to me has stirred so many emotions,” she said. “I am truly inspired by the incredible educators and coaches I have encountered this past year, and I’m grateful to know that the bar of excellence remains high. More than anything, I hope my children will one day look back and recognize the value of the foundation HRA gave them.”

A well-deserved honor: Hall is inducted into the UMW Athletic Hall of Fame

HRA alumnus and sought-after actor Dan White ’95

For Hampton Roads Academy alumnus and seasoned actor Dan White ’95, nothing compares to the joy of telling a story and witnessing the joy it brings audiences to receive it.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s ethereal, even. It’s transcendent.”

After more than three decades of experiencing this magic as a performer on stage, on screen, and in voiceover studios, White still attributes his deep love of his craft to a series of formative experiences during his time as a student at HRA.

Through the encouragement of his peers and especially his teachers, who recognized his potential before he was aware of it himself, White discovered talents that have defined the trajectory of his life since graduation. More importantly, he learned to embrace the work of painstakingly honing his technique, which has made him successful across multiple media—film, television, video games, commercials, stand-up comedy, and live theatre. And he remains committed to giving back to the Navigator community, especially in the performing arts, the bedrock on which he has built a thriving career.

“I Just Couldn’t Stop Doing It”

White (second from left) appears in Big Brother Jake at age twelve

White’s first-ever audition led to his earliest foray into professional acting at the age of twelve, appearing in the Christian Broadcasting Network sitcom Big Brother Jake with Jake Steinfeld. Around the same time, he starred in his first play in the sixth grade at Thomas Eaton Middle School in Hampton.

He did not perform for an audience again, however, until he joined HRA in ninth grade. As a freshman Navigator, he returned to the stage—and put on a thick Chicago accent—for a recreation of Saturday Night Live’s classic “Da Bears” sketch in a program known as “Comedy Works,” directed by science and drama teacher Ken Cecire. When he heard the audience laugh, he recalled, he caught an acting bug that he would never shake.

In that year’s spring play, Me and My Girl, he landed the largest role open to a freshman as a backflipping butler with a vocal solo. It was not until tenth grade, though, that White believes he truly found his voice as a performer.

White’s success on HRA’s forensics team earns him a prominent place in the 1995 yearbook

When Upper School English teacher Connie Holmes introduced him to the forensics team and poetry interpretation, he said, she cemented her place as “the most influential person in my life at HRA, whose actions and love and encouragement truly changed the course of my life.” Holmes, whom White still calls his “second mom,” assigned him Gwendolyn Brooks’ “The Life of Lincoln West,” telling the story of a black boy who celebrates his uniqueness in the face of ridicule. As a young African American struggling to fit in at a new school and navigating the racial dynamics of an era when Virginia still observed Lee-Jackson-King Day in place of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, White connected to this poem on a profound level.

Performing this work, he became the first student in HRA history to place in poetry interpretation. This was the start of a string of victories that catapulted him to the Tournament of Champions, where he became the first Navigator ever to win the top prize.

White’s success in forensics gave him the confidence to approach then-Head of School Evan Peterson about organizing a Martin Luther King Jr. Day assembly in January 1993, where he delivered an excerpt from the historic “I Have a Dream” speech. The performance received universal praise, but no feedback meant more to White than the comments of two teachers who came up to him after the assembly. Upper School French teacher Elaine McDermott left a lasting impression with her support, her encouragement, and her validation of the sophomore’s courage in spearheading the event and standing up in front of the whole school. Math Department head Ann Fichter, meanwhile, left him floored when she told him, “I was at the March on Washington. If I had closed my eyes, I would’ve thought it was Martin Luther King.”

Practicing King’s speech, White said, was the first time that preparing for a performance “didn’t feel like work. I just couldn’t stop doing it. If I was sitting idle, I wanted to work on that speech.” Performing was no longer just an extracurricular activity. It had become his passion.

Breaking Out as a Performer

It was not long before White’s triumphs as a student performer led to a return to professional acting, as he was cast in his first movie on CBN during his sophomore year.

White distinguishes himself as a leader on HRA’s varsity football team during his senior year

Still, White remembers an experience on stage at HRA as the defining acting role of his high school years. In twelfth grade, he was playing varsity football when Assistant Coach Mike Oehmann invited him to audition for the musical Little Shop of Horrors, which he would direct that spring. Oehmann cast White immediately. As he prepared for a challenging role, the young thespian soon became well acquainted with Middle and Upper School choral director Robin Steinberger. Spotting White’s potential as a singer as well as an actor, Steinberger gave him a meaningful vote of confidence in a moment of self-doubt.

Reflecting on the role that educators like Steinberger, Oehmann, McDermott, Fichter, and Holmes played in his growth as a performer, White said, “These people saw in me what I did not see in myself. And when I listened, I went somewhere.”

“That’s what I love so much about HRA,” he added—”the encouragement, the community.” Without his dedicated teachers’ support, he explained, he would not have discovered so many of his talents, nor would he have had the courage to pursue them.

And pursue them he did. After being recruited to play Division I football at William & Mary, White transferred to Jackson State University, where he majored in mass communications and continued performing as the host of a radio show and lead anchor for a local cable news program. Minoring in theatre and participating in plays in his senior year, however, made him discover that acting, not broadcasting, was the path for him.

White promptly pivoted from mass communications job fairs to drama school auditions. To his delight, he was accepted to his top-choice, UCLA, with a scholarship. But when the California Institute of the Arts called offering him a full ride, he could not turn down the opportunity.

In 2003, shortly after White graduated from CalArts with an MFA in acting, a couple of producer friends approached him with an intriguing offer. Familiar with a hybrid impression of Isaac Hayes and Barry White that he had first developed while working on a humorous interpretation piece for forensics at HRA, the producers asked him to revive this voice for the theme song and narration of a pilot for MTV called Pimp My Ride. The show was a hit. “Thank you, Connie Holmes!” White said.

Feast, Famine, and Gratitude

After leaving Pimp My Ride and enduring a string of unsuccessful auditions, White booked a role in 2005’s Barbershop: The Series. With his face on magazine covers and billboards from Times Square to Sunset Boulevard, this part catapulted him to a level of visibility he had never known before, allowing him to land a movie and a 50 Cent music video.

Then, White recalled, came “seven years of almost getting it” in film and television. In the interim, he continued working steadily in voice acting, stand-up, and theatre—including an Off-Broadway reimagining of Pulp Fiction (1994) entitled Pulp Shakespeare, wherein he took on Samuel L. Jackson’s iconic role and experienced “the most fun I’ve had on stage.” Nevertheless, he realized that he still had much to learn about on-camera technique before he could truly advance beyond the “apprenticeship” stage of his career.

White appears in one of his most recognizable roles on ABC’s General Hospital

What carried him through this rough patch was the joy he had discovered in dedication to craft, process, and preparation during his time on HRA’s forensics team and in the cast of Little Shop of Horrors. He remembers this period of challenges and growth with “tremendous gratitude for the journey.”

By 2013, the work paid off. Seamlessly transitioning between comedic and dramatic projects, just as he did as a student, White has assumed numerous noteworthy roles on television, in such projects as The Young and the Restless, Sean Saves the World, Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, The Last Thing He Told Me, and perhaps most memorably General Hospital, where he stepped into the character of the nefarious Elijah Crowe in 2021. He has also built an impressive résumé in theatre and in high-profile video games, along with film credits such as Greenland (2020) and Same Kind of Different as Me (2017), in which he performed alongside Academy Award-winner Renée Zellweger.

Forever a Navigator

White shares his story and his career advice with aspiring performers at HRA on October 17, 2025

Back in town for Homecoming weekend and his thirtieth reunion in October 2025, White returned to HRA to speak with the students in Director of Theatre Kate Goddin’s Upper School acting seminar about his impressive career as a performer across a range of media. Enthusiastically sharing his story, answering students’ questions, and even staying after the class to offer personalized tips to aspiring actors and singers, White demonstrated his commitment to helping the next generation discover the passion, the confidence, and the work ethic he had developed as a Navigator.

Addressing students in the crowd who were just coming into their own creatively, his advice was simple: “Lean into it. … Keep on feeding it. You never stop learning.”

“It is so important for students to see that a life and career in performing arts is possible,” Goddin remarked after White’s visit. “The fact that he is an alum makes it even more impactful, because his life in the arts began on the same stage my students are performing on today.”

This connection was at the forefront of White’s thoughts during his time on campus. Just two months later, on December 13, he would play the lead in The Soul Café at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. As he looked forward to this role, however, he could not help but reflect on his time as a student at the Academy.

“It’s exciting to still have the same love for the stage that I had back in spring 1995 during Little Shop of Horrors,” he said, “continuing to build on the foundation HRA gave me all those years ago.”

HRA alumnus and documentary filmmaker David Schmidt ’05, Courtesy of The American Revolution Film Project/Florentine Films. Photo credit: Stephanie Berger

“I tell people I grew up in 1774,” said Hampton Roads Academy alumnus and filmmaker David Schmidt ’05. Now, with his most recent documentary, The American Revolution (2025), which he produced and co-directed with Sarah Botstein and the legendary Ken Burns, Schmidt is excited to share a slice of the rich history that surrounded him during his childhood in the Historic Triangle.

The 12-hour, six-part series, premiering November 16 on PBS, follows a diverse cast of men and women who lived through a period of dramatic global upheaval—rank-and-file Continental soldiers and militiamen, Patriot leaders, American Loyalists, British officers, German mercenaries, Native combatants and civilians, free and enslaved African Americans, French and Spanish allies, and refugees on both sides of the revolutionary struggle. In the leadup to the U.S. semiquincentennial, the documentary will not simply glorify the American colonists’ fight for independence, but rather highlight the contradictions of an imperfect society’s contest for liberty and the legacies of the conflict that reverberate worldwide to the present day.

Though he spent his early life just minutes from the Yorktown Battlefield, Schmidt found his ten years working on The American Revolution to be an eye-opening experience. “I understand my country far better than I did before,” he said. “The American Revolution is a big story, and it belongs to everyone.”

Schmidt considers it a tremendous gift to be able to tell such stories as a career. And his time as a student at HRA played a crucial role in sparking the passion for American history that set him on this path.

Deep Roots in History

For Schmidt, it is little wonder that he was “obsessed with history from an early age.”

After his family moved to James City County during his toddler years, Schmidt’s mother strongly encouraged her children to pursue extracurricular activities at Colonial Williamsburg. Young David would welcome early America into his life with open arms, following the example of his four older siblings, all of whom graduated from HRA—Danny Schmidt ’96, Andy Schmidt ’98, Lisa Schmidt Ha-Ngoc ’00, and Kita Schmidt McCord ’00.

Lisa Schmidt Ha-Ngoc ’00, Kita Schmidt McCord ’00, and David Schmidt ’05 in Colonial Williamsburg, c. 1998

Schmidt first got involved with the living history museum around age seven and participated in the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps from age ten until his mid-teens. He also worked for one summer on the ongoing excavation at Historic Jamestowne, where his brother Danny was already employed as an archaeologist.

But the colonial period was not Schmidt’s only interest within American history. When he was about eight years old, his brothers introduced him to Ken Burns’ classic series The Civil War (1990), igniting a love for Burns’ work that he has never shaken.

Schmidt’s fascination with the American past would only grow thanks to a host of excellent teachers at HRA—most of all the late Larry Cunningham. Schmidt was a student in four of Cunningham’s classes, starting in eighth grade and continuing with AP United States History and two semester-long senior courses in government and America since 1941. In Cunningham’s classroom, excerpts from The Civil War again made their way into his life.

He often connects with fellow HRA alumni, whether they attended school with him or not, over their profound shared appreciation of Cunningham’s teaching. “American history is a great story,” Schmidt said, “and I was lucky to get the opportunity to hear him tell it so many times.”

From Student to Storyteller

As he prepared to graduate from Dartmouth College with a degree in history in 2009, Schmidt was certain he wanted to tell the story of American history as well. How he would do so, however, was an open question. He considered both teaching and work in museums, but he ultimately “fell into” documentary filmmaking.

By chance, on a visit to career services late in his senior year, Schmidt came across a shadowing offering at Florentine Films, Burns’ production company. He leapt at the opportunity.

It was not long before Schmidt decided to devote his professional life to creating documentaries. His shadowing experience led to an internship at the company and, four months later, a full-time position as a researcher, apprentice editor, and script supervisor for The Roosevelts (2014).

David Schmidt and Ken Burns after a playback screening in New York City, Courtesy of The American Revolution Film Project/Florentine Films. Photo credit: Daniel J. White

This series would mark the first of many collaborations between Schmidt and Burns. The HRA alumnus went on to win the Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year award for The Vietnam War (2017), a project on which he also worked closely with writer Geoffrey C. Ward and helped coordinate postproduction. Five years later, he and Burns produced the two-part biography Benjamin Franklin (2022).

Across each of these projects, Schmidt said, the “bedrock of knowledge about American history” that he obtained in Larry Cunningham’s classroom consistently served him well. Particularly while working on The Vietnam War, he found that many of his colleagues did not possess the wealth of reference points that he had internalized in an “awesome class” at HRA.

The Story Comes Full-Circle

Schmidt described The American Revolution, his latest project with Florentine Films, as “a real homecoming.” He and his team filmed more footage on the Peninsula than anywhere else in the country, in no small part because of the local community’s commitment to historic preservation and interpretation.

On September 20, 2025, Schmidt gave this community a sneak preview of his new series, including scenes no public audience had viewed before, at a special screening at Yorktown Battlefield, hosted by Colonial National Historical Park in partnership with WHRO Public Media, York County, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and the VA250 Commission.

Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt, and Megan Ruffe look on as Buddy Squires films in Colonial Williamsburg, Courtesy of The American Revolution Film Project/Florentine Films. Photo credit: Ellen Peltz

“It was truly exceptional,” said HRA Director of Alumni Relations Tommy Yevak ’83, who had the privilege of attending the event. “Our students at HRA can become whatever they put their hearts and minds to, and David is another great example of that. I’m proud to have been his Middle School P.E. teacher for multiple years, but I’m prouder to be his friend and a big, big admirer of his work in filmmaking.”

“David has that ability to make the ground come alive in such a historic, hallowed place,” Yevak added.

But for Schmidt, it is the places themselves—storied locations like Yorktown, Jamestown, and Colonial Williamsburg—that bring history to life.

“History really is everywhere,” he said. For students at HRA, fortunate enough to have history on vivid display right in their backyard, Schmidt’s advice was simple: “Seek it out. Immerse yourself in it. Better understand your community.”