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

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 just the opposite. Caring professors. Supportive resources. 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 graduated this spring with a degree in Business Administration. It’s also a reason he’s sticking around to earn his MBA in the fall.

“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.”

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 of Dennis – and all of Guilford’s faculty – 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.

“That’s not just Dennis. So many teachers want to see you succeed. They know who you are and what works best for you. Coming to Guilford was a great decision for me,” says Dennis, who has one year of eligibility remaining with the College’s baseball team.

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 examples set by those Guilford professors who taught him.

“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.”

Want to learn more about a College whose professors are passionate about your success? Contact Steve Mencarini or another member of the Admission team to learn more about Guilford.