{"id":2946,"date":"2017-02-24T20:43:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T20:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=2946"},"modified":"2017-02-24T20:43:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T20:43:52","slug":"small-school-big-possibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2017\/02\/24\/small-school-big-possibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Small school, big possibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every student who steps onto this campus is looking at the legacies of previous Wabash men. The opportunities our students experience, the technology they work with, the dorms and fraternities in which they live, all of these are made possible by men who wanted to leave Wabash better than how they found it.<\/p>\n<p>They believed in the possibilities of Wabash.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2952\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2952\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2952\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/Wabash-18.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"140\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Allen received a $600 scholarship, which helped him attend Wabash. Years later, he and his wife, Betty, donated $10 million back to campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At his Chapel Talk on Thursday, the president&#8217;s Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Communications Jim Amidon &#8217;87 explained it to current students this way: \u201cA tiny liberal arts college in\u00a0West Central Indiana once said, \u2018We have a place and a voice in higher education.\u2019 We transformed the campus. And we did it through philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wabash College is currently halfway between that comprehensive capital campaign, which began in 1998, and its bicentennial in 2032. Conversations are beginning to take place regarding ways to improve the Wabash College experience for future students.<\/p>\n<p>The conversations and donations of the previous campaign raised $136 million and improved the campus in almost every aspect from new buildings, state-of-the-art technology, the establishment of immersion programs, and millions of dollars in scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>Though today\u2019s talks are still in their early stages, improving professional development, fraternities, campus life experience, and philanthropy are the pillars of the conversations.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2953\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2953\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2953\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/IMG_7429.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"167\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2953\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Immersion trips would not be possible without the generosity of our alumni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYou won\u2019t be surprised to know it\u2019s going to take a lot of money to do that,\u201d Amidon said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about participating in these big conversations\u2026it\u2019s about investing in those initiatives because you believe that tiny, little Wabash matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amidon explained there are several ways for a person to contribute to the future of Wabash. Financially, they can give on the campus\u2019s upcoming Day of Giving. They can take part in conversations with prospective students who visit campus. They can tell their story \u2013 where they came from, what they\u2019ve done, and where they plan on going.<\/p>\n<p>The Princeton Review says we have the No. 1 alumni network in the nation, but that only continues if current students also transition to being active alumni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs there really any question about the value of a Wabash education?\u201d Amidon asked. \u201cDon\u2019t let our future be up to fate. My point here, gentlemen, is that you should take ownership of this place. After all, whose Wabash is it anyway?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every student who steps onto this campus is looking at the legacies of previous Wabash men. The opportunities our students experience, the technology they work with, the dorms and fraternities in which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/MXI-Summer2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2956,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions\/2956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}