{"id":39958,"date":"2025-11-11T10:05:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=39958"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:04:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:04:01","slug":"magazine-letter-from-the-president-building-a-network-of-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-letter-from-the-president-building-a-network-of-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the President: Building a Network of Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our Spring magazine, I mentioned a few wonderful alumni I\u2019ve met through Clearly Furman campaign events around the country<\/strong>. It\u2019s inspiring to know that so many Paladins are proud of the university, and how they love coming together. From San Diego to Houston, New York to Orlando, there\u2019s an enduring network, a Furman-fortified bond of alumni support.<\/p>\n

Our students experience this network time and again when alumni serve as mentors, or when a student is looking for an internship. Often, those internships turn into careers, and our alumni who were interns become mentors.<\/p>\n

Angela Acampora, a 2014 graduate with a degree in political science, as it was known then, was hired into a Washington, D.C., government relations firm right after graduation by Furman grad Mariel Ellerbe \u201912.<\/p>\n

Nine years later, when Samantha Beeson, a communication studies and politics and international affairs major, was looking for an internship, Katie Maxwell, our internship program director, connected Samantha with Angela, who had been working with Katie for years to hire interns in D.C. The following summer, in 2023, Samantha interned with Angela\u2019s firm.<\/p>\n

Later that year, another Furman grad, Fiona Bloom \u201912, recruited Angela to the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and after Samantha graduated in 2024, Angela recruited her into a full-time position. They work on the same team, consulting with the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n

Angela says she wants to give Furman students the same experience she had. And, she says Furman students have a stellar reputation in D.C. for being eager and able to translate lessons from their engaged learning experiences into their jobs.<\/p>\n

Furman students are hardworking, dedicated, passionate, they ask thoughtful questions, and they show up, Angela says.<\/p>\n

Samantha received funding from the Malone Center that allowed her to live in D.C. for a full summer while interning, which was key to her getting the job offer from Booz Allen. As a student she felt the support of professors and mentors who helped her realize the skills she was learning were applicable to a real-life occupation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people all around the country who are constantly wanting to provide support and give honest feedback,\u201d Samantha says. \u201cCommunication studies is very collaborative; there\u2019s always someone who wants to help you and wants to see you thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The network isn\u2019t limited to the nation\u2019s capital. Katie and Lauren Payne, director of the Malone Center, have plenty of stories to share about Paladins connecting all around the country, even overseas.<\/p>\n

One measure of a university\u2019s health is alumni activity. Judging by the willingness of our alumni to help students in the formative stages of their careers, and to help each other many years after graduation, Furman has never been better. I am deeply grateful for everyone who contributes to the network, from the faculty and staff who engender a sense of care and support, to alumni like Kristin Huguet Quayle \u201999, who came back in May to deliver the commencement address.<\/p>\n

I am also excited that our new director of Alumni Engagement, Ford Riddle \u201912,
\nhas joined us. Ford loves Furman, and he\u2019ll be working closely with colleagues in Development, the Malone Center and elsewhere on campus to enhance and amplify the network of Paladins. You can read Ford\u2019s first letter in the magazine on page 48.<\/p>\n

I hope you\u2019ll consider connecting with the network if you haven\u2019t already. You can reach Katie at katie.maxwell9@furman.edu<\/em> or Lauren at lauren.payne@furman.edu<\/em><\/a> at the Malone Center, and Ford at ford.riddle5@furman.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A letter from Furman president Elizabeth Davis outlines the many ways alumni and supporters make Furman University better.<\/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":[3484,1963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2025","category-furman-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39958","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=39958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40225,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39958\/revisions\/40225"}],"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=39958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}