Furman Engaged 2024 Reflection

Meghan Bové

Every day at Furman University, you are surrounded by exceptional students. Furman Engaged is the one day a year when the stranger you see in the DH every day presents groundbreaking research or a masterpiece artistic creation. Or, just as rewarding, you get to see a friend or even a student mentor present on something you’ve watched them work on all year.That’s what I set out to explore for this year’s Furman Engaged.

The first presentation I went to was done by peers in my Spanish major on the effects of speaking English as a second language in the Upstate, titled, “‘Te miraban como si tenías una enfermedad o algo’: Raciolinguistic ideologies & lived experiences speaking Spanish in Upstate South Carolina”. This was one of those moments when I was able to see strangers in an academic context. Even though Furman is a small school, until you work with somebody or have a class with them, you don’t realize how impressive your peers are. This gave me the opportunity to see my fellow students in this light. They performed an impressive amount of interviews to discover the experiences by Spanish speakers in the upstate when speaking Spanish in front of others, and how they would react when somebody spoke Spanish to them. I had not really considered summer research until this presentation, I didn’t see how humanities majors would be able to discover something new, but this changed my mind about the idea of it.

Afterward, I attended the presentations by the five Furman Fellows. This was special for me, because I look up to a lot of the presenters like Jaeden Hill-Mims, Lydia McCarty, and Nicole Warren. They set standards for Furman students that seem impossible to reach. It was a pleasure to see them present the culmination of their Fellowship projects after hearing the announcement at Opening Convocation this year. This is especially true when seeing LydiaMcCarty present, as she is somebody I view as a mentor and close friend at Furman, I love that I was able to be there to support her.

Furman Engaged is not only inspiration for students’ pathway, but also a celebration of everything about Furman and its students. It helped my own pathway by allowing me to see what other students are doing and allow me to explore how they achieved their goals. Many people say comparing yourself to others is a weakness, but I think it gives people goals to strive toward, and that’s what Furman Engaged gives many people.