Jim Amidon — When people ask me about Wabash College, I usually start by telling them about the traditions and the richness of the relationships between students and faculty, and then I tell them about the value-added aspects of a Wabash liberal arts education.
Okay, so I’m in PR and marketing and I toss around phrases like “value added education” all the time — assuming folks know what I’m talking about.
Well, not everybody does.
Now is the time when high school seniors and their families are making decisions about whether to spend more money to attend Wabash or go to a lesser-priced public university. So as you can guess, I’ve been talking a lot more about those aspects of a Wabash education that deepen the value of the experience.
Some elements of the Wabash experience that are uncommon elsewhere are big ticket items like Immersion Learning trips that take our students around the world to learn at the source of their studies — in places like Rome, Athens, Quito, and Berlin. Lots of schools offer those types of courses; few schools pick up all the travel and lodging costs like Wabash does.
Lots of schools offer summer programs to expand course offerings, but students almost always have to pay for them. At Wabash, many students are paid to conduct research alongside Wabash scientists or participate in the Business Leadership Program’s Summer Business Immersion course — and get paid to do it.
Things like Immersion Learning trips, collaborative research, and the Business Leadership Program are huge programs to consider when looking at the Wabash sticker price.
But there are countless little things that happen every day that make Wabash a little different.
Last week, the guys involved in theater had the chance to work hands-on with professional theater performers. Rob Johnansan, an actor and trained stage-fighting instructor, came to campus to work over our student actors. They gathered in the wrestling room and took turns (fake) punching, (fake) wrestling, and (fake) choking one another. The students learned how to control their own bodies and react to the movement of others.
A lot of those same students had the opportunity to work with a New York-based professional troupe of puppeteers, who were invited to campus to perform Friday night in a Visiting Artists Series event.
Folks from Wakka Wakka Productions broke out the hand-and-rod puppets and taught the Wabash guys how to control the movement of — to animate — an inanimate object.
Earlier in the week, Wabash students spent time with famed economist and Columbia University Professor Charles Calomiris, who presented the Rogge Memorial Lecture.
Calomiris’ lecture came at a perfect time — he spoke on subprime loans, the origins of our financial crisis, and the emerging economic giant, China. All of those topics bring to life concepts our students learn in the classroom. And being able to just sit and talk to Calomiris or have dinner with him is indeed a rare opportunity — and if I may — a value added element of the Wabash experience.
Such access isn’t just limited to visiting lecturers and performers, though.
I was reading some of the student blogs on Wabash’s website last week and stumbled on a post by sophomore pre-med student Jake Ezell. Jake wrote about bumping into Dean of Students Mike Raters, then going back to his office to talk for half an hour.
Meanwhile, dozens of Wabash guys are getting ready to start summer internships provided by the College’s alumni. Instead of schlepping coffee, they’ll be doing real work in a real business, doctor’s office, or law firm. And a whole bunch of them will get paid for the experience.
Even with perhaps the state’s best financial aid and scholarship program, Wabash is still expensive for most families. And if students are deciding on their college education only on a bottom line price, Wabash will lose most of the time.
But if those same students and their parents are looking deeply — looking all those terrific options that are included in the Wabash sticker price — they will quickly realize that Wabash is different.
A Wabash education is something you pull off the shelf or drive off the lot.
A Wabash education is an investment that pays dividends over a lifetime. And it seems to me there is great value in that.
