{"id":2003,"date":"2013-09-23T11:53:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T15:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2025-12-10T10:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:41:26","slug":"where-to-find-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2013\/09\/23\/where-to-find-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Where To Find What You Need To Know’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>
Wabash men at Apparatus: Chris Rozzi, Aman Brar, founder and CEO Kelly Pfledderer, Michael Carper, Ben Frame, Michael Tucker, Brad Vest, Greg Huebner, Eric Borgert, Matt Vest, and Sam Spoerle.
Photo by Kim Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Charles<\/em>\u2014Ten Wabash men with eight different majors work at one of Indiana\u2019s fastest growing and most innovative companies. That says a lot for the agility of a liberal arts education in today\u2019s high-tech world.<\/p>\n

So does the company\u2019s Web site: \u201cWe\u2019re endlessly curious about the future of technology and the connections it can make for people and businesses. We create engaging technology solutions that pull from the human experience. Our love of art, music, and design may sit behind the scenes, but it is present in all we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what I thought I\u2019d write about after returning from a photo shoot at Apparatus in Indianapolis, the aforementioned company. Wabash Director of Communications and Marketing and lead photographer Kim Johnson and I had a great time getting the photo of the company’s founder and CEO Kelly Pfledderer \u201996 (German major), Ben Frame \u201903 (music), Chris Rozzi \u201990 (art), Aman Brar \u201999 (economics major, religion minor), Michael Carper \u201913 (classics), Brad Vest \u201911 (physics), Matt Vest \u201908 (psychology), Eric Borgert \u201997 (English), Michael Tucker \u201993 (English), and Sam Spoerle \u201913 (psychology). Joining them was Apparatus artist-in-residence and Wabash Professor of Art Emeritus Greg Huebner H\u201977, whose paintings grace the company\u2019s headquarters, the ingeniously renovated former WFYI TV studios at 1401 N. Meridian. Pfledderer said more than once: \u201cIt\u2019s the paintings that make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole building seemed a metaphor for technology informed and driven by the connections a liberal arts education reveals, those criss-crossing synapses Wabash students develop.<\/p>\n

All this is featured in a story by Evan West \u201999 for the Fall 2013 issue of Wabash Magazine<\/em> in production right now and mailing in December.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Jim Kirchhoffer \u201955<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But I returned to campus just in time to catch the last minutes of a talk by Jim Kirchhoffer \u201955 in the College\u2019s \u201cCallings\u201d series. Now a Franciscan monk, Jim has had four or five careers, depending on how you count them: as an Episcopal priest, an insurance agent and investment broker, a school bus driver, a psychotherapist, and a writer. 80 years lived wholeheartedly and vulnerably. A conversation with the man is a gift in itself.<\/p>\n

Jim recalled words that the late Professor Jack Charles H\u201952 gave him during his senior year at Wabash almost 60 years ago: \u201cIf all you\u2019ve learned here is where you need to go to find out what you need to know, these four years will be worth it.\u201d That \u201cendless curiosity\u201d and pursuit of understanding has been liberal arts education\u2019s gift to Jim throughout his life, just as it\u2019s been for those 10 men at Apparatus.<\/p>\n

Wabash alums are fond of saying, \u201cat Wabash, I learned how to think.\u201d But I believe it goes deeper. There\u2019s a confidence that no skill is unlearnable, no problem is insurmountable; there\u2019s self-awareness and empathy for others and their cultures, a joy in learning and a way of seeing that has opened the world to these men and so many other Wabash alumni I\u2019ve interviewed over the years. We honored a bunch of them at Alumni Chapel<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But to see that gift in action Friday in the course of a few hours in the lives of young men and in the lifetime of a wise octogenarian was great joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Charles\u2014Ten Wabash men with eight different majors work at one of Indiana\u2019s fastest growing and most innovative companies. That says a lot for the agility of a liberal arts education in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/09\/IMG_0694-editloresjpg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}