Twelve guidance counselors from Friends schools along the East coast gathered at Guilford College this week for two days of conversation, reflection and the kind of quiet revelation that happens when long standing values meet new momentum.

They came from as far away as Rhode Island and as close as just around the corner in Greensboro, counselors steeped in the rhythms of Quaker education — inquiry, community, integrity — and curious to see how Guilford, the only Quaker-founded college in the Southeast, was living those values in 2025.

Kathleen Martin has been a counselor at Wilmington Friends School in Wilmington, Del, the past 20 years. Before that she worked 17 years in college admissions. “I felt like I had a good foundation about who you were and who thrives here but I got a refresher course,” she says.

The campus she returned to this week felt renewed. “The new facilities, those maker spaces (in Hege Library) are gorgeous,” she says.

But what impressed her most was the people and the College’s spirit. “You can feel it — the energy, the vision, the momentum that’s happening here,” she says. "It’s authentic. We felt it everywhere.”

That word — authentic — came up often as the counselors made their way through tours, presentations, and meals with faculty and students. Guilford, which has spent the last several years redefining itself through innovative academic programs and a more intentional student experience, seemed to radiate the same earnest energy that built its legacy — and which, for these counselors, defines the best of Friends education.

Check out a slideshow from the guidance Counselors' tour of Guilford College

The visit was a chance for some Friends school counselors to see and experience Guilford for the first time and for others, like Kathleen, to be acquainted with the College. Steve Mencarini, Guilford’s Chief Enrollment Officer, says the idea was to reconnect with Quaker schools that had been influential in Guilford’s enrollment years ago.

“It was a fantastic two days,” says Steve. “The counselors are looking forward to continued connections with Guilford and we certainly want to stay connected, too.”

One of those counselors was Chris Miller from Sandy Spring Friends School in Maryland. Chris attended George School, another Quaker school outside Philadelphia. He has several friends who attended Guilford and sent a student here a few years back.

What struck him then, and now, is what he calls Guilford’s capacity to “meet you where you are.”

“You don’t have to be fully formed,” he says. “You can be open. Wherever you are, this institution is going to get you to wherever you need to be after that.”

New Garden Friends School counselor Allie Blosser works just down the street from the College. But until this week she never really got to see the College up close and personal.

For Allie, the day was more than a campus tour. It was a chance to think about her own students — and what they need. “She says she’s sending more kids to schools that offer robust student support services.

“Families are willing to pay for that and Guilford’s a place I know many of our students can do very well,” she says. “It’s clear the College thinks about how to support the whole student — not just academically, but in terms of life skills, independence, all of it.”

By Friday afternoon, the counselors were heading home, carrying with them notes, names and impressions.

What lingered most for them was not a program or a statistic, but a feeling, the sense that Guilford is once again becoming what Friends schools have always hoped their graduates would find: a community where intellect and conscience meet, and where people — as Chris put it – are “met where they are.”

“It’s tangible,” Kathleen says. “People are genuinely excited. You can tell what’s happening on this campus, the learning and discovery is real.”