Everything Izaac McGuire '25 knew about college – or at least everything he thought he knew about college – he learned from his high school teachers.

Massive lecture halls. Professors who are too busy with research to offer help. The stories Izaac heard weren’t exactly encouraging.

“Teachers would always say, ‘That won’t fly in college,’” Izaac recalls. “To be honest, I didn’t have a great feeling about leaving high school.”

But within his first month at Guilford, Izaac discovered a very different reality. He found caring professors, supportive resources, and a campus community invested in his success.

“It wasn’t anything like they said it would be,” he says, smiling. “Everyone at Guilford wants to see you succeed. You still have to do the work, but they’re here for you if you need help.”

That support, Izaac says, is a big reason he’s graduating on Saturday with a degree in Business Administration.

And he’s not done yet. This fall, Izaac, who played for Guilford's baseball team, will return to Guilford to pursue his MBA. Earlier this month, he was named a Presidential Fellow—an honor that will help cover the cost of his graduate studies.

While he’s excited about the MBA and the fellowship, Izaac is even more enthusiastic about continuing to grow at Guilford.

“I’ve built some truly invaluable relationships with professors and staff here,” he says. “That’s something I really hold dear. Other schools could learn from that, but Guilford seems to have perfected it.”

One of those relationships began in his first year, in a class that didn’t exactly start off on the right foot. Izaac had enrolled in International Business with Dennis Cole, a visiting assistant professor.

“At first I was like, ‘Who is this jerk?’” Izaac laughs. “He was loud and intense—I didn’t know what to make of it.”

But as the semester progressed, his perception shifted.

“I started to appreciate how passionate he was about teaching,” Izaac says. “Dennis doesn’t just regurgitate information. He makes sure we understand the things he believes really matter.”

Now, Izaac is considering a future in higher education himself—either in administration or in the classroom. If he does teach, he says he’ll follow the example set by his professors at Guilford.

“What I’ve learned is that when a professor is as passionate about teaching as I am about learning, it makes all the difference,” he says. “That’s how a lot of my professors were at Guilford. That’s how I’d want to teach, too.”