{"id":185,"date":"2026-05-18T14:22:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/?p=185"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:31:22","slug":"new-graduates-carry-classical-liberal-ideas-beyond-wabash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/2026\/05\/18\/new-graduates-carry-classical-liberal-ideas-beyond-wabash\/","title":{"rendered":"New Graduates Carry Classical Liberal Ideas Beyond Wabash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sitting (left to right) are Albert Bernhardt, Arman Luthra, Tobey Condon, and Blake Discher. Standing (left to right) are Kale Helms and Eric Copeland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nine members of the Wabash College Class of 2026 graduated this spring with something more than a diploma: a sharpened understanding of free societies, expanded professional networks, and firsthand experience gained through their time at the Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2021 and made possible by the generosity of alumnus Richard J. Stephenson \u201862, the Institute connects students with internships, conferences, speakers, immersion trips, and its Agora lunchtime forums\u2014open discussions designed to give students practice in free expression on controversial topics.<\/p>\n

While the Institute\u2019s offerings are open to all Wabash students, this cohort was particularly involved in our programs, so we are proud to celebrate these new graduates as they move on to the next stage of their careers. Their majors span Computer Science, Economics, Rhetoric, Art, and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)\u2014and their hometowns ranged from places as close as Indiana and as far away as India.<\/p>\n

For Arman Luthra (Computer Science, Jammu, India),<\/strong> his path began with a trip to assist at the Mont Pelerin Society conference in New Hampshire in 2023, followed by a summer internship in 2025 in a data engineering role at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). As he graduates, Arman is taking a position at Skop Intelligence in California. \u201cThe talks on campus kept that momentum going,\u201d Luthra said, \u201cand eventually it led to my first real internship \u2026 in Washington, DC, which is what set up the role I\u2019m starting now.\u201d He also credits a grant-funded semester at George Mason University in the DC area as \u201cone of the most important parts of my college experience.\u201d Arman concluded by telling us that \u201cthe Institute has been one of the best parts of my time at Wabash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ego Gonzales (Art\/Political Science, Queen Creek, Ariz.)<\/strong>, who is returning home to work in the Phoenix area, found his entry point through Agora. \u201cThe Agora talks were how I first came to be part of the Stephenson Institute,\u201d he said. \u201cThey allowed me to not only share my thoughts with other students, but to look at others\u2019 perspectives and try to challenge myself through conversations.\u201d An Institute summer grant also sent him to Greece, where he learned about classical liberal ideas abroad and later shared what he learned with students and faculty back on campus.<\/p>\n

Preston Art (PPE, Indianapolis)<\/strong> also went abroad, with two summers spent working at the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, and both internships funded by the Institute. A highlight of his time there was conducting policy research on tax disputes with foreign investors in Spain and studying successful economic reforms in Ireland and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Albert Bernhardt (PPE, Orland Park, Ill.)<\/strong> is heading to Georgetown\u2019s McCourt School of Public Policy, where he will be studying for a Master’s in Public Policy (MPP). In the summer of 2025, Albert was selected to participate in The Fund for American Studies’ summer internship program in Washington, DC, where he also interned at the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure. Albert\u2019s transformative summer was made possible by the Institute\u2019s student grant funding.<\/p>\n

Tobey Condon (PPE\/Classics, Watervliet, N.Y.)<\/strong>, who earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and was named Moot Court Top Advocate, praised the Institute\u2019s ability to open doors. \u201cIt allowed me to interface with relevant figures and topics and gain life experience in a way that no other program at Wabash could,\u201d he said. Tobey spent the summer of 2025 at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), which works closely with the Stephenson Institute on other programs. Like Albert, Tobey also plans to pursue graduate study.<\/p>\n

Isaac Grannis (Computer Science, Indianapolis)<\/strong>, who won the David E. Maharry Prize in Computer Science and is headed to a systems engineering role in Indianapolis, valued the chance to engage working scholars. \u201cBeing able to interact and converse with academics actively doing research in the field\u2026 I could take some of that built up tacit knowledge and apply it to my own studies and life more broadly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Several of our graduating seniors also worked part-time in the Institute\u2019s offices, helping run all of our programs and sometimes assisting with research. They included:<\/p>\n

Kale Helms (Economics\/French, Owensburg, Ind.) <\/strong>will be joining the Orr Fellowship in Indianapolis. In 2024, Kale received Institute summer funding to intern at the Adam Smith Institute in London. \u201cThere is no better extracurricular programming on campus,\u201d Kale remarked.<\/p>\n

Eric Copeland (Rhetoric, East Chicago, Ind.)<\/strong> begins a management trainee role at Enterprise, citing the Institute\u2019s collaborative atmosphere as a model for the culture he hopes to build as a future business leader and entrepreneur. Blake Discher (PPE, Grosse Pointe, Mich.)<\/strong> is another senior who assisted in running our office.<\/p>\n

Together, these nine graduates embody the Institute\u2019s founding aim: producing individuals who are humane, tolerant, and curious\u2014equipped to conduct their own search for purpose in a free society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine members of the Wabash College Class of 2026 graduated this spring with something more than a diploma: a sharpened understanding of free societies, expanded professional networks, and firsthand experience gained through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":341,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/49\/2026\/05\/Seniors-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}