Practice makes Paladin: Audrey Ryu ’27 balances her passions at Furman

When Audrey Ryu ’27 came to Furman University she wanted to keep a lot of plates spinning.

The Dublin, Ohio native has played golf and piano since she was 6 years old, and was recruited to play on the Furman Women’s Golf team. Balancing athletics and academics is challenging enough at times, but Ryu also wanted to practice and perform as a concert pianist.

With some help from Women’s Golf Head Coach Jeff Hull , guidance from her professors and plenty of determination, Ryu has managed to pursue her passions while keeping her workload balanced. Whether it’s hitting wedges on the golf course, studies in a research lab or piano exercises in the music building, Ryu is honing her Furman experience with the help of her mentors.

Audrey Ryu ’27 was SoCon Female Athlete of the Year for the 2024-25 academic year and led the Furman Women’s Golf team to the title her sophomore year. Photo by Jeremy Fleming, Furman University.

“My coach always said I can do anything as long as it doesn’t cause me stress. It should be a source of enjoyment,” she said.

She fuels her motivation by “falling in love with the process.” As an athlete, that meant not focusing on the results of every round but on whether she was refining the specific skills she practiced.

Hull said he’s seen firsthand her excellent time management skills. “Audrey has proven that focused practice is better than lengthy practice,” he said. Coaches help students adapt to college life by encouraging them to schedule all their activities – even social engagements – while keeping tabs on their workload, reducing stress where possible and prioritizing academics.

In the classroom, Ryu dreams of putting her biology major and biomedical sciences studies to work helping people. The summer after her first year she worked on two research projects with Professor of Chemistry George Shields: One studying how fentanyl and its derivatives interact with opioid receptors, and the other studying structures of water.

“Audrey was tireless in examining the structures of different clusters of water and helping us understand what our numerical results meant,” Shields said. Ryu’s curiosity drove her to become an author on their research paper, which published in September in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.

Focused practice helped Ryu sharpen her skills as a Paladin golfer, and that tactic has helped her manager her time between studies, practice, hobbies and her social life. Photo by Jeremy Fleming, Furman University.

She has no shortage of accomplishments. Ryu was SoCon Female Athlete of the Year for the 2024-25 academic year and led her team to the title. She won Furman’s Winston Babb Memorial Award in 2024-25 for outstanding leadership and service through academics and research, communications or athletics. She had an internship at Prisma Health’s Institute for Translational Oncology Research, helping process samples and showing her how her education could save lives.

Her piano recitals are the icing on top. She’s not a music major and doesn’t perform for credit, but she’s still able to take lessons from Professor of Piano Derek Parsons and perform at recitals.

“He has created a very welcoming space for me to learn where I can do as much or as little as I need, given my current workload, and I am very appreciative of him taking the time and effort to do so,” Ryu said. “It’s like a reset during my day. I can tell that when I’m not practicing piano consistently, my stress gets higher.”

Ryu’s experience at Furman is unique, but not uncommon. Through its focus on engaged learning, mentoring and empowering students to live lives of purpose, Furman’s strength lies in helping students find where they belong and how they can thrive.