Tamryn Herring stepped outside her comfort zone and applied to the College's Honor's Program. That, she says, made all the difference.
“Meeting other students and actually talking to them, getting to know them — that made me want to meet more students and get to know them, too."
The academic side of college always came easily to Tamryn Herring ’25. It was the social side she struggled with. If she wasn’t in a classroom, she spent most of her days and nights tucked away in her dorm room.
“I’m convinced nobody knew I existed as a freshman,” says Tamryn, who graduates this month with a degree in English and a minor in Media Studies. “I think I was scared of having this whole world of possibility open to me, and it was kind of overwhelming. Not kind of overwhelming — it was overwhelming.”
The Honors Program at Guilford changed that. The program provides a supportive community for students who have demonstrated a commitment to achieving academic excellence. Tamyrn applied at the end of her first year and was accepted. By sophomore year, she was studying abroad in Spain and Portugal with her Honors cohort.
“I — we, really — built a bond on that trip,” she says. “I made some special relationships that I never would have made just staying in my room.”
When she returned from Europe, the last place Tamryn wanted to be was back in her dorm alone. She became a resident assistant and was named a Principled Problem Solving Scholar. There was no holding her back.
“Meeting other students and actually talking to them, getting to know them — that made me want to meet more students and get to know them, too,” she says.
“I can still be introverted,” she adds. “I like my alone time, but I enjoy being out on campus and meeting people. That’s one of the things Guilford taught me: there are so many people who might be like you — but even better, who might not be like you. I’m glad I got to meet so many of them.”
“I didn’t think I would become as close with them as I have, but I will say — they definitely made college the absolute best.”
Tamryn began at Guilford as a Creative Writing major before switching to English in her junior year. She loves writing and hopes to become a literary agent one day. She had applied to two colleges in Greensboro — Guilford and a larger state university — and was accepted to both.
She’s glad she chose Guilford.
“I’ve loved my writing classes and the professors at Guilford,” she says. “I never would have gotten the personal attention I got here at a bigger school. It's been perfect for me.”