{"id":37532,"date":"2025-04-23T14:25:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T18:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=37532"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:06:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:06:53","slug":"magazine-letter-from-the-president-clearly-furman-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-letter-from-the-president-clearly-furman-on-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the President: Clearly Furman on the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our last issue of Furman magazine, I mentioned that Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century was entering the final stretch<\/strong>. By our October 2024 Board of Trustees meeting, the campaign already had raised $415 million of our $426 million goal, and the board voted to increase the target to $476 million by our 2026 conclusion. I have every confidence that we will reach this new amount, thanks to the efforts of Heidi Hansen McCrory, our former vice president of Development who retired at the end of the year,\u00a0 Interim Vice President Shon Herrick and the Development team.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of the campaign for me has been our regional events in cities across the country to see the real stars of the campaign: our alumni, parents and friends. So far, we\u2019ve been to 17 cities, including New York, Atlanta, Charlotte and Tampa. In January we spent a week in Texas visiting Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. We were a merry band of Paladins driving across the heart of the Lone Star State. That four-hour drive from Houston to Dallas leaves a person a lot of time to think, and I was able to reflect on what\u2019s made the Clearly Furman events so special.<\/p>\n

A large part of the fun comes down to four words: college without the homework. At each stop, a faculty member joins us to share their expertise with the crowd. It\u2019s like being back in the classroom, without having to study for a test. In New York, Mathematics Professor Kevin Hutson talked about data analytics, our fastest-growing minor that\u2019s also popular with employers. Cultural anthropologist Judith Williams, a former chef, shared her insight on food and culture at the new African American Museum. In Texas, Brent Nelsen, the Jane Fishburne Hipp Professor of Politics and International Affairs, talked about Texans\u2019 second favorite hobby, behind football: politics.<\/p>\n

But hearing people\u2019s stories are the most meaningful for me.<\/p>\n

At the Dallas Museum of Art, Rob Langley \u201905 shared how he came to Furman soon after his father passed away, making college even more formative for him. As a student-athlete he was able to explore life, career, values and his faith. He met and later married Lauren Welch \u201904, got an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and co-founded an investment firm. The couple has three beautiful children, who we hope will also come to Furman one day. In 2021 they established the Langley Family Endowed Scholarship for Men\u2019s Golf.<\/p>\n

Rob\u2019s story, the outcomes, are what makes Furman a special place. Students leave with more than a degree. They also leave with an informed worldview and an understanding of what they want to experience and value in life. The stories I\u2019ve heard most from alumni are about the lasting impact a Furman education has on their current success.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re visiting more cities this coming fall and spring: Denver, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Birmingham. If you\u2019re nearby, I hope you\u2019ll come out for college without the homework, and please bring your stories to share.<\/p>\n

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

President Elizabeth Davis reflects on everywhere Furman University and Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century has been in the last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":30870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3343,1963,3342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-the-lake-spring-2025","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532","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\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37904,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37532\/revisions\/37904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}