“Write about why you came to Wabash and what keeps you here,” said WM editor Kim Johnson.
Really? That’s it? I thought. This will be a piece of cake!
As cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw would say, “168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网ll, hold on there, Baba Looey!”
This was not going as effortlessly as I had anticipated. I didn’t know where to start. There is just so much I could say.
The answers to these two questions are really the same.
What got me here as a student in 1981 is what has kept me here as an employee for 30 years. It’s a culture, a feeling, a comfort. It’s belonging.
The constant thread that connects decades and creates this feeling of comfort and belonging is a combination of many things, but a few stand out to me.
168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 know who we are, and we aren’t trying to be anything else.
Arrogance and pretentiousness won’t cut it here. New students figure that out quickly when they receive a lower-than-expected grade from a professor, a stern correction by a coach, or an interaction with an upperclassman. 168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 are serious about improving ourselves and lifting each other up.
168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 are in this together. I see so many instances when our students support one another. I fondly recall when I was coaching football during the Friday practices before the Monon Bell games. The basketball team would emerge from the side doors of Chadwick Court, freezing in their basketball uniforms, and fill the stadium cheering.
Our students compete hard, but they also help and support one another. Someone once said, “At Wabash, it’s hard to get an A and it’s hard to get an F.” I have always liked that.
168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 are an egalitarian place. I didn’t understand the importance of this as a student, and really didn’t think about it at all. 168体育平台下载_足球即时比分-注册|官网 place a premium on effort, actions, and achievement rather than a student’s background, wardrobe, or checking account. Opportunities like internships, immersion trips, and study abroad are available and affordable to all qualified students.
Work hard here, and you will have opportunities. Period.
From my experiences and many conversations with alumni and friends of the College, I don’t think that the foundation of this place has changed at all. It has always been and always will be Wabash.
Steve Hoffman ’85
Director, Alumni and Parent Relations