Engaged Living program honored for collaborative initaitive

Furman University’s Engaged Living Program has won the “Outstanding Collaborative Initiative Award” from the Commission for Admissions, Orientation and First-Year Experience of ACPA-College Student Educators-International. The award will be presented in March during the American College Personnel Association 2015 National Convention to be held in Tampa, Fla.

The award is presented to recognize an outstanding collaborative initiative that spans admissions, orientation, and/or first-year experience, and bridges multiple programs and functional areas. Furman’s Engaged Living Program was selected for demonstrating a partnership across functional areas, and for effectively showing the program’s adaptability, creativity, cost efficiency and educational value.

A collaboration between Academic Affairs and Student Life’s Department of Housing and Residence Life, Engaged Living is Furman’s living/learning communities program. Students live together, participate in a common academic experience facilitated by Furman faculty/staff, and have fun together while getting involved in campus life.

Says program director Brad Harmon, Ph.D., Assistant Academic Dean for Advising, “We are absolutely excited to have been selected for this award. Our annual surveys reveal higher levels of satisfaction among student participants with their on campus living environment, a stronger sense of community, more meaningful relationships with faculty, and higher levels of satisfaction with their college experience than those who do not participate. So this award validates a solid alliance between Academic Affairs and Student Life and celebrates a program that promotes student success on our campus.”

ACPA, headquartered in Washington, D.C. at the National Center for Higher Education, is the leading comprehensive student affairs association that advances student affairs and engages students for a lifetime of learning and discovery.

The Commission for Admission, Orientation, and First-Year Experience (AOFYE) serves as the organizational home for higher education professionals whose work enhances the manner in which all new students transition into and through the first year of college.

More information about Furman’s Engaged Living Program may be found at this link. For more information about the award, contact Dr. Brad Harmon at (864) 294-3036, or by email at brad.harmon@furman.edu.