Senior Circuit: Jeff GurganusJeff Gurganus was born and raised in Myrtle Beach, S.C. After attending the Night and Day program at Wofford during the spring of his senior year in high school, he was hooked.
“I knew it was the place for me,” he says. “The beautiful campus, the small, intimate community, and all the good things I had heard from a few friends back home who had attended Wofford all played a significant role in leading me to my decision.”
He hasn’t regretted it since. In fact, he’s been an active part of the Wofford community from the beginning.
“During the fall semester of my freshman year, I was a member of the cast in the Wofford Theatre production of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard,” says Gurganus. “My freshman and sophomore years, I played the drums and percussion for the Wofford Pep Band during basketball games. My sophomore year I was a member of the Multicultural, Diversity, and Interfaith Residential Learning Community.
“From my freshman year up to now, I have been actively involved in Campus Outreach, a Christian campus ministry, participating in things like new year conferences and summer leadership projects. One of those summer projects was a cross-cultural project that consisted of living in Pretoria, South Africa for two months with 13 other college students where we ministered to students at the University of Pretoria and contributed to rejuvenating strained interracial relationships caused by Apartheid among tribal South African students and Afrikaans students.
“I have also been actively involved in the Chinese Program here at Wofford, helping facilitate such on and off-campus events as the Chinese New Year celebration and the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebration held each year. As a requirement of my Chinese major, I spent the Spring semester of my junior year studying abroad at Peking University in Beijing, China.”
In football parlance, the Chinese major was an audible of sorts.
“I have been studying the Chinese language -- how to read, write, and speak it, along with Chinese history and culture -- since my freshman year,” says Gurganus. “Before I came to Wofford, I had no idea I would be taking classes in Chinese, much less majoring in the Chinese language. I just wanted to try something new, and I knew I enjoyed foreign languages (I studied Spanish in high school), and I have enjoyed the visual arts since I was very young, and since there really is an art to the Chinese characters, I decided to stick with this major. Of course, Wofford's extremely gifted and passionate Chinese professors and teacher assistants, who really have made the language fun and easy to learn, all played a significant role in leading me to choose to major in Chinese as well.”
Their teaching has had a major impact on Gurganus, far beyond his choice in majors.
“I plan to find a career in teaching after I graduate from Wofford,” he says. “Within the next year or so, I plan on teaching Chinese at a middle or high school. As for my long-term goals, I plan on going back to China at some point to teach English. No matter what I do, I want to pursue a career that consists of speaking and/or teaching Chinese.”
As his Wofford career winds down, Gurganus fondly recalls his freshman year as the best time. Academics were important, but finding a social niche was, too.
“Some of the funniest and best memories I have of my whole experience here at Wofford were during my freshman year,” he recalls. “I remember finding myself often hanging out with a couple of friends I had just met at the beginning of my freshman year throughout the fall and spring semesters, spending quality time watching movies and riding in beds of trucks to dinner.
“The time I spent with my friends even during that fall semester was probably more than I had ever spent with my friends growing up combined. Being in a new environment and stage of my life caused me to start spending more time with new people, step out of my comfort zone to participate in things like a Wofford play, and seek new opportunities to get involved and meet new people.
“What's more, there were even a few seniors who actually sought me out and eventually served as role models for my life, as well as very good friends. The relationships they built with me have contributed greatly to my desire and passion to reach out to younger students now that I am a senior in order to get to know them and provide for them what those seniors provided for me when I was a freshman. Those individuals were doing little things like simply inviting me to have dinner with them or watching a movie in their rooms, but the times I spent with them and small conversations they had with me all added up to allow God to change my life in huge ways that year, and for their faithfulness in just the seemingly small things I am extremely thankful.”