Engaged learning powers recent grads’ next steps

We checked back in with recent graduates to see how their engaged learning experiences (which we featured in recent years in the lead-up to Furman Engaged) led them to their current paths:

Jordan Harris ’20 (who presented on his internship with United Ministries in 2020) is as an associate planner with the planning & zoning division at the city of Greenville. “I am continuing to learn about the profession and land-use planning specifically,” he said. “I’ve learned that land-use planning can be the string that ties sustainable growth together community preservation, if done with the appropriate intentions.”

Maddie De Pree ’19 (who presented on her summer study in England in 2019) is waiting to hear back from several competitive MFA programs for fiction writing but has learned a lot about the workforce since graduation after working as a line cook, receptionist and editorial assistant since. “Being humble and being willing to ‘mop the floors’ as they say, whether figuratively or literally, has been a huge part of my learning and growth following the time I spent at Furman.”

Rachel Perkins ’21 (who presented on her creation of a 200-level syllabus, “May Experience: Health and Medicine in the Global Context.”) is completing the first semester of a global health master’s program at Georgetown University in addition working as a graduate research assistant at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science & Security.