{"id":3746,"date":"2015-05-05T18:59:34","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T22:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2015\/05\/05\/james-rich-named-gig-meredith-outstanding-student-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T17:28:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T22:28:25","slug":"james-rich-named-gig-meredith-outstanding-student-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/james-rich-named-gig-meredith-outstanding-student-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"James Rich named Gig Meredith Outstanding Student of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JamesRich_AcademicAwards_2015_100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

James Rich, who moved to the Upstate to attend Furman University\u2019s Evening Undergraduate Program, was recently named the Francis \u201cGig\u201d Meredith Student of the Year.<\/p>\n

After growing up in Valdosta, Ga., Rich attended Valdosta State University for two semesters and then joined the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted some excitement,\u201d he said, joining a para rescue unit in 2007. Serious stress fractures during his training ended that plan so he moved into an engineering and surveying program. After technical school at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, \u201cI got my orders. I thought it was Arkansas. It was Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n

He married his high school sweetheart and they moved to Fairbanks in the winter. His wife attended college there while he worked in the drafting and surveying shop.<\/p>\n

The window for doing outside surveying was about two and a half to three months each year, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold was very challenging. When we went out our instruments often didn\u2019t work,\u201d he said, recalling temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. But \u201cthe summers were really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich said he enjoyed active duty, but the couple\u2019s plans had always been for a short stint in the military and then for him to attend college.<\/p>\n

While looking for a permanent location, they decided they wanted to be near his family in Georgia and his wife\u2019s family in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

He had never been to Greenville, but he found Furman\u2019s Undergraduate Evening program was just what he was looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought I wanted an outside job,\u201d he said, but during his military tours \u201cI was happiest inside crunching the numbers.\u201d\u00a0 That led him to a major in accounting.<\/p>\n

They arrived in the Upstate and quickly found a home.\u00a0 Without knowing the area, the location they chose wasn\u2019t great\u201445 minutes from Furman and an hour from Travelers Rest, where his wife worked.<\/p>\n

When he began attending Furman\u2019s evening program, he said he was something of a non-traditional student among the non-traditional students in the program. Most students work and go to school part-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically was going into it as a full-time student,\u201d he said, adding that he cared for his children during the day while his wife worked to support the family. A week of each month, he went to Goldsboro, N.C., where he worked in the 567th<\/sup>\u00a0Red Horse Squadron in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He\u2019s been tagged for deployment three times but hasn\u2019t been on a long-term deployment since leaving the active military.<\/p>\n

The faculty and staff worked with him to accommodate his military schedule, he said. \u201cOften times I would have a few weeks a semester that I had to be gone for and they were always willing to help me get ahead or make up assignments in a timely manner when I returned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rusty Copsey, vice president\/ relationship manager in the Credit Management Group of Wells Fargo Bank and an adjunct professor at Furman\u00a0said Rich represents the Undergraduate Evening Studies Program and Furman well.<\/p>\n

And Rich will continue that strong representation as he looks for a job: \u00a0\u201cHe can sell himself because he brings a lot of skills to the table,\u201d with what he learned in the military and from Furman, Copsey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the UES students are much more prepared to study\u201d than traditional college students, he said. \u201cThey\u2019re more focused, more driven. It\u2019s more of a job for them. They understand the reasons behind what they\u2019re learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award, which includes a small monetary sum, was begun in 1999 when funds were donated \u00a0for the award. Furman\u2019s evening program has about 100 students, with more than 69 percent remaining in the Greater Greenville area and more than 80 percent remaining in South Carolina, said Beth Crews, program director.<\/p>\n

Faculty members recommend students for the award. Crews, who is academic advisor for all the students, reviews the nominations looking for a student who will well represent Furman as well adult students and their interests.<\/p>\n

Rich \u00a0was selected because of the way he was able to balance his school work, family life, and out-of-state military responsibilities, she said.<\/p>\n

Although Rich planned to walk in the May graduation, he will be unable to be there because of his military responsibilities. He will be spending two to two and a half weeks \u00a0in\u00a0 Central America building schools with the rest of his squadron.<\/p>\n

Learn more about Furman Undergraduate Evening Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Rich, who moved to the Upstate to attend Furman University\u2019s Evening Undergraduate Program, was recently named the Francis \u201cGig\u201d Meredith Student of the Year. After growing up in Valdosta, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":14836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-undergraduate-evening-studies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746","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\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}