{"id":3935,"date":"2015-08-11T13:57:34","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T17:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/03\/staying-the-course\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:47:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:47:53","slug":"staying-the-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/staying-the-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying the course"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_3681\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Grudgingly, Jeremiah Ockunzzi \u201917 had made his peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved Furman, but it was a good two years and that was the end of a chapter in my life,\u201d he says. \u201cI was going to Ohio State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a Buckeye wasn\u2019t the Cleveland native\u2019s first choice out of high school, and it certainly wasn\u2019t Ockunzzi\u2019s first choice midway through his sophomore year at a school with about 95 percent fewer students that had come to feel like home. There was nothing to be done, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome January, my dad lost his job, and it looked like I wasn\u2019t going to be able to go back to Furman,\u201d Ockunzzi says. \u201cIt was kind of like pulling up roots. I was scared to have to start all over again at a new place, leave all of my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of options, or so he thought, Ockunzzi told his Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers the bad news in a group message. The texts and calls of support he expected; the suggestion to look into Furman United<\/a> for a final Hail Mary pass he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI searched it and didn\u2019t see an application, so I was kind of perplexed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ockunzzi picked up the phone and found himself talking to Forrest Stuart<\/a> in the financial aid office. No promises were made, but by the end of the conversation the tunnel\u2019s end seemed to be a little less black.<\/p>\n

It was no illusion.<\/p>\n

\u201dI filled him in on the story, and he said write a letter of appeal and we\u2019ll talk about it,\u201d Ockunzzi remembers. \u201cIt was three days later. I was expecting a month, two months, and three days later he came back and said we\u2019ll give you the money you need to come to Furman next year. I mean, it was an absolute miracle. It\u2019s one of those little things that helps you realize just how blessed you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furman United began in 2008 as a lifeline for students caught in the undertow of the Great Recession. The program was supposed to be temporary, but, backed by a grant from the Daniel-Mickel Foundation<\/a> in Greenville in its first year, Furman United became a permanent part of the University\u2019s financial-aid landscape.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, Furman United has given more than $876,000 to more than 165 students. There is no formal application process, no set number of recipients per year, and each case is handled on an individual basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you analyze the text of Furman\u2019s foundational documents and create a word cloud, you see one word that is dominant\u2014student,\u201d Stuart, Furman\u2019s associate vice president for financial aid, said in an email. \u201cFurman United reflects the mission of a student-centered institution that expects a lot out of its students yet supports them when times are tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ockunzzi is spending the summer back home in Ohio building genetic sequences for a pharmaceutical company. He has already earned a provisional patent on a research idea for cancer treatment, and not content with his biology\/sociology double major and afternoons spent practicing as a member of the track team<\/a>, Ockunzzi plans to add chemistry for a major trifecta with an eye on earning an MD-PhD and becoming a\u00a0pediatric congenital cardio-thoracic surgeon.<\/p>\n

A lifetime high achiever, he attended Saint Ignatius High with his sight squarely focused on an elite private school in the South. Just not this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to fight to go to Furman in the first place. Duke was my dream school, and when I applied there it was a foregone conclusion (in my mind) that I was going to get in because I was coming out of one of the best college preparatory in the U.S.,\u201d he says. \u201cI had a 35 on my ACT, a 4.3 GPA\u2014I was going to get in. Then I got wait-listed, and at that point Duke had been the only school that I had applied to. I didn\u2019t know where I was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ockunzzi\u2019s college counselor put Furman on a list of similar institutions he might be interested in instead. He was surprised by what he discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started looking into schools, and it turned out Furman actually had a higher acceptance rate into medical school than Duke did, which threw me for a loop,\u201d Ockunzzi says. \u201cBut that\u2019s actually what I picked based on. I came for a visit, did my interview, and I fell in love with the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in love he ended up turning Duke down a month later when he was taken off the wait list and offered admission. His parents weren\u2019t quite so smitten, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I told them I had decided to stay with Furman my dad actually didn\u2019t speak to me for two whole weeks because he was so upset,\u201d Ockunzzi says. \u201cThat was a tough month in the household because they were so frustrated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

They soon came around as well, to the point Ockunzzi\u2019s father, Kevin, was nearly as devastated as he was about the transfer\u2014and nearly as happy when he got the news in May about Furman United.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was taking a nap, and when I got the email I ran upstairs and started jumping on the bed like an 8-year-old\u00a0. . .\u00a0He thought someone was breaking into the house or something,\u201d Ockunzzi says. \u201cHe started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ockunzzi says emotions overwhelmed him more than once as he read Stuart\u2019s email over and over, and he has already devised a way to express his gratitude in a more concrete way. A member of Alpha Phi Omega, Furman\u2019s service fraternity<\/a>, Ockunzzi is in charge of organizing its first fundraising 5k this year, and all proceeds will be given to Furman United.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it was his transparency with the situation he and his family were experiencing combined with his proven resilience and tenacity to graduate in spite of those circumstances,\u201d Stuart said when asked what about Ockunzzi\u2019s situation got the attention of Furman United. \u201cI don\u2019t know if changes lives is what I would say (about Furman United), because Furman changes lives. Furman United just enables students to continue to experience the entity that is Furman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donations to Furman United can be made here<\/a> or by calling 864-294-3431.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grudgingly, Jeremiah Ockunzzi \u201917 had made his peace.\u00a0\u201cI loved Furman, but it was a good two years and that was the end of a chapter in my life,\u201d he says. Ockunzzi’s father had lost his job and it looked like he wasn’t going to able to continue his education at Furman. But then he learned about\u00a0the Furman United program, which exists\u00a0as a lifeline for students caught in financial turmoil. Now he is returning for his junior year at the university, where he is a member of the track team and is preparing for a career in medicine.<\/p>\n

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