Furman offers AI wellness coach to help navigate on-campus resources

Furman University students have a new tool to help navigate the variety of wellbeing and social resources on campus. 

The university has partnered with Wayhaven, a company providing campuses with an AI wellbeing coach. The Paladin AI coach doesn’t offer clinical or therapeutic advice, instead it supplements Furman’s support services. 

“We were seeing challenges in coordinating all those resources, and in students’ knowing what’s available and where to go,” said Jason Cassidy, associate vice president for student life and dean of students. “How can we meet students where they are and get them connected to resources that are most appropriate for them?” 

Though Furman’s Wayhaven AI tool was developed with students in mind, Furman faculty and staff can also download the Wayhaven AI app from the App Store or on Google Play and create an account using a Furman email address. It’s also available online at wayhaven.com/students. 

Unlike some AI tools that might pull from unverified online sources, Cassidy worked with Wayhaven founder and CEO Christine Nicodemus and a team of campus partners to ensure the tool is trained on reliable information about campus resources. It can pull from Furman’s public-facing websites, as well as syncDIN, to answer questions about health and wellbeing resources, activities, clubs and more. 

Furman is well-resourced and has a lot of in-person support available for students, Nicodemus said. Wayhaven isn’t offering an alternative to those services, but a tool to make accessing them easier. 

“For many students, taking that initial step to seek help and make an appointment at the counseling center or reach out to advisors can be intimidating,” she said. “Let’s encourage students to access that support on campus.” 

How does Wayhaven work

Gwen Hirko, health promotions coordinator at Furman, works with a team of student interns who all focus on different subjects related to health and wellbeing. They took on the task of interacting with Wayhaven, coming up with questions and ensuring the tool provided correct information. Students are already provided with information about health and wellbeing services throughout campus, so it was important that if someone asks about stress management, they’ll get the same information they would in the Pathways program or at the Trone Center for Mental Fitness. 

“What I think is really cool about Wayhaven is we’re able to program it,” Hirko said. “We know what the answers are that the students are getting.” 

When a tester asked about how to make friends at Furman, Wayhaven affirmed their feelings, then asked a few questions about their interests. After learning the user liked building Lego sets and doing puzzles, the tool offered information about student organizations like the Ace of Clubs and the Furman Dungeons and Dragons Club. A question about feeling overwhelmed prompted the AI to offer some basic time management strategies, followed by a quick mindfulness exercise. 

But Wayhaven won’t try to step in when human connection is needed. It was trained not to engage with students through clinical support or intervention, Cassidy said, since “we feel like those services are better received in person, and we have the capacity to offer that.” 

“That human connection cannot be replaced,” said Allyson Brathwaite-Gardner, director of the Trone Center for Mental Fitness. “Wayhaven isn’t treatment.” 

Stigma around mental health challenges can sometimes make people feel uncomfortable asking for what they need, and Brathwaite-Gardner said that’s where Wayhaven steps in. It helps students “build confidence and language around their needs” while helping users deepen their connections to Furman’s human resources. 

Wellbeing is a daily practice, Brathwaite-Gardner said, and Wayhaven is a tool for facilitating that. 

“A wellbeing practice enhances a well-lived life, and isn’t that what we all want,” she said.