{"id":40551,"date":"2025-12-17T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=40551"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:47:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:47:41","slug":"furman-alum-and-family-strengthen-leadership-on-campus-through-greek-life-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-alum-and-family-strengthen-leadership-on-campus-through-greek-life-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman alum and family strengthen leadership on campus through Greek life gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Christopher \u201915 and his parents, Scott \u201983 and Pamela \u201983, are supporting Furman University\u2019s Greek life on campus with a $100,000 gift to bolster leadership experiences for students in fraternities and sororities.<\/p>\n

Steve knows firsthand how a student\u2019s life can be transformed through the lifelong bonds formed through Greek life. He was his fraternity chapter\u2019s president by junior year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community it offered was phenomenal, and it really shaped my college experience, Christopher said. \u201cThe friendships and connections you make in fraternities and sororities can last a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Four

Members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity make stress balls in the Trone Student Center as part of the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Greek life is part of the Furman experience<\/h2>\n

Furman\u2019s students are high performers who stay involved in their campus community, and Greek life is part of that broader experience, said Jordan King, director of student involvement. About 35% of the student body was involved with a fraternity or sorority in 2024-2025, and King said, \u201cthat\u2019s a lifelong commitment that results in long-term bonds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students don\u2019t typically expect that Greek life will make up the bulk of their college experience, though; they join for the connections, said Caro Douglas, assistant director of student involvement. Deferred recruitment means students can focus on getting acquainted with the campus, faculty, staff and their peers before getting involved with a fraternity or sorority.<\/p>\n

Christopher, who is in Kappa Alpha, said it was motivating to be part of a community of men and women \u201cwho share a common goal and common passions.\u201d His fraternity brothers are still some of his best friends, and he speaks to them every week. After he graduated, the organizational skills and professional connections he made leading his chapter and keeping his fraternity brothers engaged proved invaluable to his career.<\/p>\n

Passing the torch as a tribute<\/h2>\n
\"A

Members of the Sigma Nu fraternity volunteer at the Furman Farm as part of the MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 20, 2025. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Christopher said his family\u2019s gift is also a way to honor the memory of his late wife, Lindsay Cunningham \u201914. The two met at Furman through fraternity and sorority socials and formals, then reconnected after college and began dating.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to find someone from Furman in the community, we had a lot of instant connections,\u201d Christopher said.<\/p>\n

Cunningham, who was a member of Chi Omega, wasn\u2019t one to miss any event her sorority hosted, he said. She made best friends among the Chi Omega sisterhood, and the Christopher family\u2019s gift is a tribute to the joy and fellowship she found through Greek life. Cunningham died in 2021 of cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurman means a lot to my family,\u201d Christopher said. \u201cSharing that common connection with Lindsay, my family and I thought she would appreciate this gift and love to see it make an impact for students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Christopher \u201915, former Kappa Alpha president at Furman, supports Greek life on campus because he\u2019s seen it help students forge lifelong bonds through unforgettable experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":40452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,57,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-donor-stories","category-greek-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40551","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=40551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40552,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40551\/revisions\/40552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}