Welcome and POP

Well, hello there! Let me be the first to say welcome to the Furman Freshmen Blogger Page! Here is where you will be able to join 5 freshman Paladins as we journey through our first year at Furman. We will each be posting about once a week. We each found these to be very helpful and integral parts of our decision in choosing Furman. We hope you find them to be as useful!

All packed and ready!

I guess I will start by introducing myself. My name is Sam McCoy and I am so excited to be a blogger for you! I grew up and lived in Wichita, Kansas for all of my life before venturing to South Carolina to begin college. My major hobbies include playing tennis, writing poetry, listening to music of almost all genres, and running. I plan on majoring in Chemistry... and I might double major in Health Sciences... but I have not decided! I love trying out new things and learning from different perspectives. So, let's get started.

I guess you could say that I did not have the traditional moving experience. I was able to move in early with about 70 of my classmates before the rest of the Freshmen Class moved in. Why were we moving in early? We were POPpers.

POP stands for the Paladin Outdoor Program that Furman offers for incoming freshman. The trips vary from white water rafting and ziplining in the blue Ridge Mountains, to a myriad of water sports in Charleston, and also a backpacking trip that show cases the beauty of the local natural landscape. I opted to go on the service trip with 9 other freshman. I felt this would be a great way to be introduced to the local Greenville community. I was right.

Let me give you a brief run down of each day:

My new home in Geer 315

I moved in to my lovely dorm in Geer Hall and was on my own. Scary, right? Not really, because I was in a place that has been a dream for so long: Furman. I made my way to a group meeting with the 70+ other POPpers where we were given the opportunity to get to know each other before splitting off in each of our respective trip groups. As we finished our meeting, I received the greatest news of my life: I was going to eat at a professors house.

Okay, so maybe greatest news of my life is a little much, but all through my college search process, I had heard about Furman Professors hosting students for dinner and how it fostered close relationships between the professors and the students. Being told I was, on my first night, going to be dining with 2 professors validated that I had chosen the right school. In that moment, I knew this place would be memorable. So that night at dinner, I got to know Dr. Powers and Dr. Slining, not as professors, but as people.

New friends, Samin and Emma, painting
at Trinity Church

Reese Lowry, Furman Alumnus,
and Dr. Kennedy, Professor of Musicology,
 hard at work in a community Garden

For the next two days I was given tours of a local church that works as a homelessness service center. I was introduced to a new philosophy on how to deal with the homeless and was given a greater understanding about their conditions and how to help. The leaders of the trip, Dr. Powers and Dr. Kennedy, along with the student leaders, Kathryn and Emily, helped us as we began to understand the conditions of the homeless community in the Greenville area. Our first objective was painting two rooms at a church that was being renovated. The following day, we were divided into three groups. One group helped in the community garden offered at Mercy Triune Church. Another group helped to organize clothes for the clothes store in Triune. I returned to Trinity Church to finish the painting job. That afternoon, I was given the opportunity to work at a community garden along the Swamp Rabbit Trail with a Furman alumnus who now dedicated his time to the growth and development of gardens in the area.

It is so hard to give such a brief account of what my POP trip was like. To summarize my first days at Furman: I got to know professors beyond the classroom, I developed new opinions of homelessness, I fostered a new sense of the importance of community gardening, art and music, I was able to experience the Greenville area in a very unique and rewarding way, and I was able to develop close friendships with people who share similar interests as me. I learned and experienced so much, and classes hadn't even begun. It just goes to show you the opportunities for personal, educational, emotional and spiritual growth that Furman offers. I highly recommend doing a POP trip.

One of our awesome nights in downtown Greenville!

So much has happened since the end of my POP trip, but that is for a later time. Stay tuned to learn about O-week, my first day of college classes, and a midwesterners take on southern food. Let me tell you, sweet tea is no joke.

Please feel free to email me any questions you may have about Furman or my experiences as the year goes on. I found the blogs to be super helpful, so utilize them!

Keep that Pala-Pride Strong!
Sam McCoy

sam.mccoy@furman.edu