Izaac, who plays baseball for the Quakers, knew he'd have support from his teammates on the field. He was surprised to find that same support from professors in the classroom.
At Guilford, faculty know you and are here to support you. That personal attention is one of the many reasons our students thrive.
Everything Izaac McGuire ’25 knew about college – or thought he knew about college – he learned from his high school teachers.
Massive lecture halls. Professors who are too busy with research to be bothered to help. The stories Izaac heard weren’t exactly encouraging.
“My high school 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.”
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 sticking around Guilford a little while longer. After graduating last spring with a degree in Business Administration, Izaac is pursuing his MBA at Guilford this fall.
While he’s excited about the MBA program, Izaac is even more enthusiastic about continuing to grow at Guilford.
“I’ve built some truly invaluable relationships with professors and staff,” 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.”
Want to learn more about a faculty that supports you throughout your college career? Contact Steve Mencarini.