Victor Furtick ’12, MSW ’13: Succeeding as a Solo Act

Victor Furtick ’12, MSW ’13, is one in 11–15 million. It’s a distinction he shares with his three brothers, because those are the odds of giving birth to identical quadruplets. The Furtick quadruplets learned this statistic on The Doctors, just one of the many TV appearances they’ve made over the years.

Being one of four identical little boys practically guarantees you a spot in the limelight. Furtick, along with his brothers, Keith, Kevin and Jason, modeled, shot TV commercials for Levi’s and Tide and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. But while the Furtick quads looked identical, each was always very much his own person. After high school, the brothers decided to “explore who we were as individuals,” Furtick said—attending different colleges and pursuing different careers.

He chose Adelphi because “I wanted to go to a private college not too far from home [the Bronx],” he explained. After taking a sociology class as an elective, he found that “the content captured my interest and came naturally to me.” From there it was a short step to social work. “I knew I wanted to be involved with creating a more equal world and assisting people who are disenfranchised. In sophomore year I declared my major and never looked back.”

Taking the lead also came naturally to Furtick. He and fellow social work major Kevin Taylor ’12 revived the Social Work Action Gateway (SWAG), a club that gets both majors and nonmajors involved in activism and community service. A highlight for Furtick was when, after the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, SWAG collaborated with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) on a forum called “Hoodies & Hijabs,” where students discussed the criminalization of the Muslim and African American communities. He was one of the founders of the Adelphi chapter of Pi Lambda Phi, the first nonsectarian fraternity in the United States. And, in the fall of 2011, his fellow Adelphi students elected him Homecoming King.

After graduating with his B.S.W., Furtick went straight into graduate school at Adelphi’s Manhattan Center campus through the School of Social Work’s Advanced MSW Standing program. Shortly after obtaining his MSW, he was hired as a clinical social worker at Safe Space, then advanced to a more supervisory role as senior social worker/community connections coordinator at The Door in Manhattan. He was then promoted to runaway homeless youth supervisor, where he was helped develop policy and was responsible for supervising the drop-in center, case management staff and social work interns.

In April 2018, after spending nearly four years at The Door, Furtick moved into the role of school-based mental health counselor with Brooklyn Center for Psychotherapy. He now is responsible for providing direct individual and group counseling services to a high school of nearly 4,000 students. In this role, he has created group curriculums to help at-risk students navigate the freshman adjustment period and manage stress and anxiety. Furtick was also responsible for advocating for the first-ever mental health professional development training series for staff. In this capacity, he will provide monthly workshops for the school on topics including social-emotional learning, mental health, professional self-care, crisis intervention and trauma-informed care. In addition, he has assisted in the development of a mental health classroom curriculum that he has begun presenting in health classes.

In September 2018, Furtick founded a self help brand/company named alifevibe focused on helping clients develop the skills to live their best lives. He accomplishes this through workshops/events and speaking engagements, blog articles and life tips, an online academy called alifevibe university and personalized life coaching services.

As they advance their solo careers, Furtick and his brothers still enjoy being quads; they continue to model and make TV appearances, including another visit to Oprah (the producers called while Victor was in class at Adelphi) and a walk-on at a party on Jerseylicious (“Oh my gawd! It’s quad-roo-plets!”), among others. Expect to see more of the Furtick quadruplets in the future: “We are working on some exciting projects,” Furtick hints.

While he looks forward to the many opportunities to come, Furtick has fond memories of his time at Adelphi. “Those years flew by,” he said. “I do miss being there and sometimes wish I could go back. I never regretted my decision to attend Adelphi. It has become such a big part of who I am today.”

The Furtick quadruplets with Oprah Winfrey