It’s entirely possible no student has taken more advantage of the opportunities Furman provides for undergraduate research than Jackson Pearce, who has worked on no fewer than five projects. That certainly wasn’t the plan for the aspiring physician.

“I don’t even think I knew what research was coming into Furman,” he says, “but once I found out there was this whole field where you just asked questions and went about getting answers—that is so exciting for me. So I definitely went full force ahead.”

And, in true liberal arts fashion, ahead meant anywhere Jackson’s curiosity led him. The psychology department. The admissions department. The public health department. A summer at Vanderbilt University doing clinical research on acute kidney injury stands out, however.

“It was the first time that I was removed from the Furman community and put in a whole new environment,” he says. “It was exciting and the most significant thing I’ve done because it really challenged me in a way that I had not been challenged before.”

Jackson still found time to get involved with seemingly everything on campus, from being a Shucker Leadership Institute student director to “Din It To Win It” game show host. He admits his mother, Beverly Wiggins Pearce ’80, was right to badger him into visiting campus over his objections.

“There have just been so many wonderful experiences that I didn’t even know that I wanted coming into Furman,” he says. “I guess the surprise would have been the availability of the opportunities and the accessibility.”