Silver
 

Institution: Furman University

Title of entry: 2019 President's Report: Reflecting On Our Calling

About this entry: We sought to create a publication that embodied the Furman University experience and illustrated the impact of our signature approach to education: The Furman Advantage.

The Furman Advantage guarantees every student a personalized four-year pathway that combines classroom learning with real-world experiences and self-discovery. This integrated pathway, guided by a diverse community of mentors, prepares students for lives of purpose and accelerated career and community impact. Key to self-discovery is intentional reflection. Mentors, faculty and advisors encourage students to reflect on their experiences throughout their four years to make informed decisions about their path. Therefore, with our president’s first annual report, we “reflected” on 2019 and sought to achieve the following goals with clarity and resonance:
· Contextualization of data – from the scope of engaged learning and diversity and inclusion strategies to enrollment numbers and endowment levels
· Connection of these implications to the future of the institution, the community, and past, present and future students

Our primary external audience was our peer institutions.

A member of the University Communications strategic communications team authored each chapter. This approach resulted in in-depth and meaningful content, thoughtful and creative conversations between communicators and departments, and an exhaustive process of content creation and review.

Each section leads with a reflection accompanied by detailed results. This helps to personalize, humanize and contextualize the university’s rankings and accolades, results from the Furman-Gallup study, statistics on graduate outcomes and a transparent financial overview of our endowment.