Admissions Summer Internship Reflections

Hey everyone! My name is Caroline Stemple. I am a rising Junior from Charleston, South Carolina and I’m majoring in Education!

This summer I had the chance to work with the Office of Admissions as a summer intern. I knew I wanted to stay on campus this summer and already loved being an Admissions Ambassador for Furman so, I thought to stay and give prospective students a glimpse of life here! I have loved getting to know and work with the other interns and we have become a little happy family throughout the summer. Meeting and getting close with the admissions counselors as well has been such a joy and I am excited to be able to see them throughout the year as I continue to give tours!

While I am not looking to go into higher ed or college admissions in the future, this internship taught me so many skills that I can take with me. I gained practice in public speaking and enjoyed the chance to interact with so many different people. I feel much more confident in talking to larger groups and effectively answering questions.

I loved getting to connect with students who are interested in Education and being able to share that experience with them as well. It’s always fun to share something that I am passionate about and those have been some of my favorite interactions to have with prospective students throughout this summer.

One of my favorite tours that I gave was for Miss Collegiate USA. I got the chance to give a tour to 10 competitors in the Miss Collegiate USA pageant and their guests. It was so much fun to be able to show them what Furman is like, and they were so sweet and welcoming!

I wouldn’t have traded this summer for the world and am so happy to say I came out of it with 5 new best friends.

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Hi everyone! My name is Sally Stahl and I am one of the Furman Summer Admissions Interns. With the summer coming to an end, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the events of this summer and how the internship has impacted me. Giving tours is not new for me and I have been an admissions ambassador since early sophomore year. However, this summer has been much more involved than what happens during the year.

Overseeing all the tours that come through here has allowed me to interact with many more of the students and families stopping through Furman. Being able to meet so many more people this summer has been so much fun and it has been rewarding to see how a campus visit can impact a student’s choice of college. This is such a pivotal moment for a lot of students and it is so enjoyable to be on the other side of the college admissions process.

In addition, I have gotten a better idea of the process that the Furman Admissions Counselors go through when looking at applications of people who have applied. When taking a holistic approach to applications, they must look at all of the activities that a student is involved in along with gaining more knowledge about the high school the student has attended. There is a lot of effort put into looking over a single application and there are multiple people who look over these applications.

Additionally, through this internship, I was reminded that even though I am going into my senior year, there are still new people around campus to meet. The other interns this summer have been so wonderful to work alongside and have provided these summer days with lots of laughs and great new memories. Going into the summer, I had never talked to a single one of them before. However, by the end of this internship, I can say that it is hard to remember those days of trying to learn their names.

Most of all, this summer has been a great time to reflect on how much I have grown as a person in my time here at Furman. Seeing the prospective students reminds me that not too long ago, I was in their shoes. It is such a great reminder of how much progress I have made in so many different aspects of my life. Furman has provided me with so many wonderful opportunities and having such a supportive community on campus has created an environment where I have thrived.

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Hey Guys! It’s Pete Bard and I am back with another blog! Just to remind you all, I am a rising junior at Furman from Boise, Idaho.

This summer, I had the pleasure of working with the Furman Office of Admissions as an intern. My tasks included giving tours to prospective students at Furman, talking about my experience here through panels, communicating with prospective students via email, and finally, seeing the behind-the-scenes process of what admissions looks like at Furman.

One of my favorite projects that we completed this summer was going through mock applications and working with my fellow interns to decide if we would like to admit, deny, or waitlist these students. This was interesting to me because I didn’t realize how difficult this process was and all of the different information Admissions Counselors take into account before making a decision.

Additionally, connecting with prospective students was something I enjoyed. It feels really good to help students with any questions they may have as they work through their college search process. Having given a lot of tours this summer, I found that there are several common questions asked. However, the one I get the most is “What is your favorite thing about Furman?”. To answer that, my favorite thing about Furman is, without a doubt, the small class sizes. Furman is a place where I thrive academically due to these smaller class sizes and with them, I feel comfortable asking questions in class. Alongside that, I feel like the Professor understands me and knows my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to learning.

As my internship reaches the end, I would love to leave prospective students with some advice. Ask current students about their experience at any college or university you go to; Ask them about their experience, what they like, and what they don’t like. Information like this is incredibly important in aiding your process as you make your final decisions. Finally, take notes after you tour a school. Often you are touring several schools within a small time frame and the information you receive from each can easily get jumbled in your head. By taking notes and writing down your thoughts and feelings after the tour, you give yourself a way to look back and how you were feeling at that moment.

If you would like to book a tour at Furman University, please click on this link! https://www.furman.edu/admissions-aid/visit-furman/

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Hi everyone! My name is Caroline Nusloch and I’m a rising junior here at Furman majoring in Public Health. I’m from New Orleans, Louisiana and I’m so excited to share what I’ve learned this summer interning at the Office of Admissions. I’ve been giving tours on campus since the spring of 2023. However, this summer has allowed me to see first-hand how the Office of Admissions operates. One of the most important aspects of the Furman campus visit that makes it so unique is giving prospective students multiple different current student experiences throughout their tour. Within the college search process, prospective students need to hear from current students at each university they visit so that they can compare their experiences to what they’re looking for in a college.

Among the six interns at the Office of Admissions this summer, we were all involved in many different activities on campus. Some of these include Greek Life, club sports, study away, Best Buddies, Heller Service Corps, the outdoors club, orientation staff, and many more. Throughout our internship, we have all been able to share our experiences with these activities, our academics, and other aspects of campus so that prospective students can obtain a better grasp of what life at Furman may look like for them.

As for how we incorporate these stories into the campus visit, we first introduce Furman through an information session and a current student panel. This panel allows prospective students to hear what some current students are involved in on campus, what their academic track looks like, as well as what they like to do for fun. Following this panel, visitors are taken out on a walking and trolley tour by two different tour guides. By the end of their tour experience, prospective students have heard up to five different student experiences at Furman, giving them the ability to see if what they’re looking for in a college aligns with what our current students have experienced. It is a beneficial piece of any college tour to hear the perspective of current students and I’m happy to have shared my story with all of the students and their families who have toured this past summer.

Over the summer, I’ve learned that my job as a tour guide is not to sell Furman but rather to share my experience here and see if any students might be interested in something similar. This internship has been very rewarding for me since I could watch prospective students fall in love with Furman just like I did on my tour a few years ago. I’ve loved having the opportunity to share the amazing experiences I’ve had over my past two years here, and I’m so excited to continue giving tours at Furman!

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Hey everyone! My name is Bella Shafer, a junior from Weston, Connecticut studying Psychology. This summer I had the pleasure of working in the Office of Admissions as a summer intern. Originally, I wanted to do this internship because it gave me the chance to be outside and interact with many different people. Now after the internship, I have gained a new interest in pursuing a career in higher education admissions. Halfway through my sophomore year, I decided to switch my major to psychology. I wasn’t exactly sure which path of psychology I wanted to pursue, but after learning what higher education admissions entails, the profession has become extremely interesting to me. I like the personal aspect that  Furman specifically brings with their admissions process and how intentional it is.

At the start, I honestly thought that giving tours was all this job required. I was gladly mistaken. I got to understand a lot of the behind-the-scenes aspects of admissions as well as make personal connections with the other interns and admissions staff. I also loved the tour aspect of it and getting to see how excited prospective students were to see our beautiful campus. It truly was so much fun showing visitors the campus and chatting with them about why I love to call Furman home.

This internship has been a great learning experience. It taught me how to address many different types of students during my tour so that everyone sees they have a place on our campus. It also taught me determination, perseverance, and hard work. Furman and this internship have allowed me to grow immensely as a leader, role model, and student and this experience truly reminded me why I love to call Furman my home.

If you have the opportunity to do this internship I 100% recommend it, it is such a fun experience!

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Hey everyone! My name is Yamiko Sumaisi and I am a rising sophomore from Zambia. This summer I have been working with the Office of Admissions and have had a chance to see some of the things involved with a profession in higher education. My main day-to-day task was giving tours of our campus. From this opportunity, I learned the importance of making sure that prospective students have a good college tour because it plays a major factor in making their decision about a school.

This internship has allowed me to improve my public speaking skills and I have noticed that I am now more confident when speaking in front of big or small groups. It has made me appreciate the opportunities Furman gives to its students so that they can grow both professionally and personally.

Having a chance to work with the other interns gave me a chance to see that, while all Furman students will have different individual experiences, we have a common theme of the “Furman Experience”. Since we are 100% residential, we can have a strong community here at Furman that ties us all together, giving us shared overarching experiences that bring us together. While you may not be in the same clubs or eat at the same spots on campus as others, experiences like this internship allow students to meet other students on this campus who share the same sentimental feelings of those shared Furman experiences. Throughout these experiences, students can make new lifelong connections that extend well beyond the reach of their four years on campus. I can say that, as we reach the end of the internship, the other interns I have met throughout this journey have shaped my Furman experiences in ways that I could never have imagined. Their friendship and teamwork have been something I have appreciated throughout this summer, and I can’t wait to see them on campus throughout the school year.

Being an international student, I did not have the chance to tour Furman before enrolling and committing. Due to this, I did not understand how important it is for prospective students to tour different colleges before committing to one. With that being said, my biggest takeaway from the internship is knowing the impact a college’s campus visit can have on a student’s decision to apply and attend.

As we close out this summer, I can say that I have enjoyed being a summer intern within the Office of Admissions. Not only did I have a chance to work with other great interns (shout out to the interns!) but also learned much about leadership and professionalism from the Admissions Counselors and all other staff that were involved with our internship this summer. It was a great pleasure to be part of the team, and I would do it over again if I could!

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We hope to see you during a campus visit this fall or spring!

Admissions Summer Interns ’23