{"id":37045,"date":"2025-04-04T11:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=37045"},"modified":"2025-04-04T11:15:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:15:32","slug":"furman-offers-ai-wellness-coach-to-help-navigate-on-campus-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-offers-ai-wellness-coach-to-help-navigate-on-campus-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman offers AI wellness coach to help navigate on-campus resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Furman University students have a new tool to help navigate the variety of wellbeing and social resources on campus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The university has partnered with <\/span>Wayhaven<\/span><\/a>, a company providing campuses with an AI wellbeing coach. The Paladin AI coach doesn\u2019t offer clinical or therapeutic advice, instead it supplements Furman\u2019s <\/span>support services<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were seeing challenges in coordinating all those resources, and in students\u2019 knowing what\u2019s available and where to go,\u201d said <\/span>Jason Cassidy<\/span><\/a>, associate vice president for student life and dean of students. \u201cHow can we meet students where they are and get them connected to resources that are most appropriate for them?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Furman\u2019s 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\u2019s also available online at <\/span>wayhaven.com\/students<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s public-facing websites, as well as syncDIN, to answer questions about health and wellbeing resources, activities, clubs and more.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furman is well-resourced and has a lot of in-person support available for students, Nicodemus said. Wayhaven isn\u2019t offering an alternative to those services, but a tool to make accessing them easier.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor 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,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s encourage students to access that support on campus.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How does Wayhaven work<\/h3>\n

Gwen Hirko<\/span><\/a>, 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\u2019ll get the same information they would in the Pathways program or at the <\/span>Trone Center for Mental Fitness<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think is really cool about Wayhaven is we\u2019re able to program it,\u201d Hirko said. \u201cWe know what the answers are that the students are getting.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Wayhaven won\u2019t 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 \u201cwe feel like those services are better received in person, and we have the capacity to offer that.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat human connection cannot be replaced,\u201d said Allyson Brathwaite-Gardner, director of the Trone Center for Mental Fitness. \u201cWayhaven isn\u2019t treatment.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stigma around mental health challenges can sometimes make people feel uncomfortable asking for what they need, and Brathwaite-Gardner said that\u2019s where Wayhaven steps in. It helps students \u201cbuild confidence and language around their needs\u201d while helping users deepen their connections to Furman\u2019s human resources.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wellbeing is a daily practice, Brathwaite-Gardner said, and Wayhaven is a tool for facilitating that.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA wellbeing practice enhances a well-lived life, and isn\u2019t that what we all want,\u201d she said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wayhaven-powered AI tool gives users a new way to navigate the many wellness services, organizations and groups available to them on Furman’s campus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":37042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,2384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","category-trone-center-for-mental-fitness"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37047,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37045\/revisions\/37047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}