Ensuring All Students Have the “Advantage”

Each year at Furman University, 2,700 students prepare for lives of purpose through a personalized, four-year pathway to graduation known as The Furman Advantage.

“The Furman Advantage has various components, including a rigorous classroom experience, but also the opportunity to do research with faculty, to study away, to have internships and to develop leadership skills,” says Furman President Elizabeth Davis.

In 2019, nearly 45 percent of women and 35 percent of men who enrolled at Furman said The Furman Advantage strongly influenced their decision to attend. Yaseen Echekki, a member of Furman’s class of 2025 and health sciences major, said it was pivotal for him.

“I could find community, closer relationships with professors, the opportunity to look at things in a more interdisciplinary view and the chance to do research my freshman year. All these things were built into the way that Furman functions,” says Echekki, who served as the Student Government Association Vice President in 2023-2024 and is a James B. Duke Scholar.

Those benefits are intentionally connected in a comprehensive academic strategy tied to learning and developmental timelines in the four-year Furman experience, according to Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Beth Pontari.

“What are your needs? What scaffolding do you need? What experience fits your pathway? Those are all very individualized conversations — opportunities to reflect on where you were, where you are and where you wanna be,” says Pontari.

Kelsey Sumter, a Furman Class of 2024 alumnus and former James B. Duke Scholar, echoes Echekki’s appreciation.

“The Furman Advantage allowed me to go on a study away trip to three different cities — Rome, Tourin and Florence — and to find an internship in Florida to do product development for personal care products,” she says.  Sumter, a chemistry major, is pursuing a career in the cosmetics industry on the basis of her experiences at Furman. Sumter’s experience is the norm at Furman — eight out of 10 Furman students augment classroom learning with hands-on opportunities.

With support from The Duke Endowment, The Furman Advantage was launched in 2016 as the foundation of the university’s strategic plan. Earlier work in The Student Resilience and Well-Being Project with other Endowment-supported higher education institutions — Davidson College, Duke University and Johnson C. Smith University — helped inform the plan’s emphasis on student well-being, comprehensive supports and a focus on preparing students for future success.

Laying the groundwork for success during the first two years of every student’s Furman experience is the Pathways Program®, a program designed to help students transition to college, develop independence, identify and build strengths and begin to think about future vocations and careers aligned with their strengths and interests. Faculty advisors, supporting staff and peer student mentors work closely with Pathways students throughout these critical years.

“All incoming students complete a one-credit course during their first and second years. The first semester is about transitioning to college and organized around holistic wellness. In the second year, we start to introduce the idea of career exploration,” says Michelle Horhota, Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean for Mentoring and Advising.

The curriculum for all students in the first year of Pathways emphasizes personal learning and discovery, with support for keen reflection and introspection to build self-awareness for each student around their values, interests and strengths. Specific skill development is also a part of the first year Pathways experience, including time management, study strategies and tools for stress management. Support from peers is a vital part of the program.

“My most fulfilling experience has been my peer mentor role with the Pathways Program. I love to stand in front of the class, to relate to them and to show them that we’re all going through the same thing together,” says Georgit Demian, Class of 2024 and a past Pathways peer mentor.

In the second year of Pathways, students build on their first year, integrating formal studies with engaged learning experiences including study away, research opportunities and internships in alignment with their career goals. Growth continues with a focus on career development skills, including resume writing, informational interviews with Furman alumni working in their fields of interest, leadership, and offerings focused on equipping students to share their unique life stories as a means to connect with others and for professional and personal growth.

As students move into their third and fourth years as Furman Paladins, they refine their choices for academic focus, further studies within their majors and career preparation. Recent data show that 98 percent of Furman graduates are employed, enrolled or participating in community, volunteer, or military service within six months of graduation.

With support from The Duke Endowment, Furman University partners with the Gallup organization to continually assess and refine key aspects of The Furman Advantage.

Today, data shows Furman alumni who have graduated from Furman after the full four years of The Furman Advantage are three times more likely to be thriving in their lives compared to the national average, as measured by Gallup’s five well-being indices – purpose, social, financial, community and physical.

The cross-sector, collaborative engagement of academic departments, teams of faculty and staff, areas of study, services and programs at the heart of The Furman Advantage have transcended specific academic goals to change the institution itself, becoming simply “the way we do everything at Furman,” according to Davis.

To Beth Pontari, these benefits stem from innovative and careful implementation of an evidence-based strategy at Furman that firmly establishes a leadership role for this historic university in Greenville, S.C.

“We are setting the standard for integrated, individualized, impactful and experiential education,” she says.

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