Furman assistant professor Kylie Fisher receives national award for student advising

Before Kylie Fisher added advising to her responsibilities at Furman University, she was already proving to be an insightful, compassionate and engaging mentor.

Fisher, an assistant professor of art history, earned an Outstanding New Faculty Advisor award from the National Academic Advising Association. She traveled to NACADA’s annual conference in late October in Las Vegas to receive the honor, but amid the celebration she said her mind was on her students.

Fisher started working at Furman in Fall 2021 and began advising majors in the Art Department and undeclared students as an advisor for the first cohort of Furman’s Pathways Program in 2022. Before she was formally an advisor, “she was already demonstrating her consistent record of advising excellence,” said former student Ava Shutze ’25, from Atlanta. Fisher helped Shutze create her own major through Furman’s individualized curriculum program to study multimedia storytelling.

“She helped me curate my course list and continuously revise my 20-page proposal,” Shutze wrote in a letter supporting Fisher’s nomination for the award. “Without her, I would not have been able to complete my individual program and study what I’ve always wanted to.”

Kylie Fisher, assistant professor of art history, won a national award for advising students like Hannah Rich ’26, shown here showing her work to Fisher. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.

Making a difference by empowering students

Fisher’s recognition is part of the attention Furman has earned for its commitment to advising and mentoring of students. Mentoring is central to the Furman Advantage and Future Focused, Furman’s strategic plan. Furman’s excellence in the area was recognized by NACADA last year when the two-year, integrated advising Pathways Program won the 2024 Advising Innovation Award.

For Fisher, connection seems to come naturally. She fosters students’ ambitions and dreams while being realistic and firm with them when needed, building their confidence and showing them how capable they are of taking advantage of the opportunities college and their future careers offer.

“That’s part of what students get coming to a place like Furman. Sometimes I wonder in the day-to-day if I’m making a difference, and this was really reaffirming,” she said.

At Commencement in May, Fisher won two other awards. The Class of 2025 recognized her efforts with the Chiles-Harril Award for a member of faculty or staff with the greatest impact on the senior class. She walked and sat with the seniors at Commencement, where she also earned the Alester G. Furman Jr. and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Advising.

Mentorship outside the classroom

Fisher, seen here with psychology and studio art major Eliana Britman ’26, won a NACADA award as an outstanding faculty advisor a year after the Pathways Program won the 2024 Advising Innovation Award from NACADA. Photo by Jeremy Fleming.

Beyond instruction and office hours, Fisher’s research has provided students opportunities they’d never imagined.

Alex Aradas ’26, a politics and international affairs major from Rock Hill, South Carolina, was an undergraduate research fellow working with Fisher in 2024. Their collaborative work research with the Queer Arts Initiative/Upstate SC LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce introduced Aradas to new networks of professionals throughout the region.

“Her mentorship has profoundly influenced my self-perception and aspirations,” Aradas said.

A summer research project Fisher began in 2022 to narrate Furman’s connections with Asia became “Untold Journeys,” a multi-media digital humanities publication that involved multiple students. Working on this project gave Eli Kibler ’24, who majored in English and Asian studies, the opportunity to present at Furman Engaged as well as professional conferences in Texas and Georgia. Their work was published in Carolina Currents.

Fisher invested in Kibler, he said, and she “has certainly been the most impactful mentor and model for professorship in my life and career as an aspiring college professor.” Kibler is now working on a master’s degree in English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.