Yaseen Echekki ’25 is keen on mastering all the trades he tries at Furman

You wouldn’t know it by talking to him now, but 2024-2025 Student Government Association President Yaseen Echekki ’25 knew next to nothing about Furman University before he applied. A college counselor happened to have a daughter who was attending Furman in 2020 and brought it up to the high school senior from Cary, North Carolina, as an option in a sea of large- to mid-size colleges he was considering.

“I think I maybe heard of it in passing, but I had never really researched what a liberal arts school might be able to offer me,” Yaseen said. “I’m glad I did.”

An active participant in student government and avid researcher of anything he puts his mind to, Yaseen spent much of that time just figuring out which of his many passions he wanted to pursue. What kept holding him back, he said, was the pressure he felt by several schools to pick a major and stick with it no matter what. That kind of approach isn’t exactly in his DNA. He has always been someone who wants to engage, experience and then explore how he can incorporate as many interests as possible into whatever he does.

That’s why coming to Furman ended up being an easy choice, but also why getting involved here was even easier to do.

From the very start, Yaseen found ways to involve himself in the Furman community. He entered that first year as a political science major, looking to expand on his high school efforts in fundraising and policy. But after navigating the college landscape amid a pandemic, Yaseen was introduced to an undergraduate research opportunity through his wellness class and took a chance.

“My professor came up and asked if I was interested in working with breast cancer patients through Prisma (a large health system in South Carolina) during the summer, and I couldn’t help but explore it,” he said. “I was interested in the field and interested in the research, and that was that.”

What “that” ended up being was a shift from politics as a major to health sciences. It’s a move that Yaseen believes will give him the most flexibility in all avenues of what he does whether that becomes graduate school, medical school or international service to communities. But he wasn’t going to let that decision derail him from his political passions. Instead, he dove even deeper and found himself leading student government.

Yaseen became involved in the Student Government Association in his second year thanks to mentorship from others in the group. That mentoring led to a vice-presidential election in 2023-2024 and to becoming president for this academic year. And he has built his leadership style on encouragement and a love of Furman.

“We are all going through this experience together and we are all part of the Furman community,” he said. “I want to continue to grow what makes Furman so special and make it stronger by the time I graduate.”

Building bridges between different parts of campus is a top priority for Yaseen. He hopes that even in a tumultuous time politically and personally, students at Furman can realize they are all working toward the same goal, even if they do it in different ways.

And when he is gone and he thinks back on the impact he has made, Yaseen hopes he left open a few more doors for students to walk through.

“Presidents before me have said, ‘You aren’t going to see the impact you’ve made at Furman until you are gone,’ and I had to learn to accept that,” he said. “Just getting the ball rolling and letting someone else finish it can be enough.”