Starting this year, the first Friday in April will become Furman Engaged day. Furman students perform projects and later display them throughout the campus. Best of all, students get the day off from classes; however, they are still expected to participate in the Engaged program. This past Friday, I took part in a wide variety of opportunities that Furman Engaged offers to both its students and the community. First of all, I earned some money before the event by setting up easels and posters in the gymnasium and the Townes Science Center. The pay was pretty good, eight dollars and hour, and the workload was not too bad. In addition, I worked with four other people so we kind of hung out while performing the work. Working before the event was definitely as plus for me.

In my Freshman Seminar, Wal-Mart: Monster or Miracle, we constructed a poster for display at Furman Engaged dealing with our experiment that we conducted about Wal-Mart. The poster was set up in the gymnasium among numerous other posters. Other students, professors, and people from the community walked around and looked at the posters. In addition, they asked us questions as we displayed our posters. The time we spent displaying the posters was not too consuming though. For example, we were only required to stand by our poster for an hour. Furman Engaged is definitely worth it, especially if you have three classes on Friday like I do.

Furthermore, I volunteered for the VO2 max testing that the Department of Health and Exercise Science was conducting. VO2 is the maximum oxygen uptake during maximal exercise. During the testing, a mask was put on me and I was instructed to run on a treadmill. Slowly, the speed and elevation were increased until I could no longer run. The maximal level I got to was 8.5 miles and hour at six elevations. The result: a sixty VO2 max, not too bad. Overall, I highly enjoyed Furman Engaged and I hope the program continues.