What BIP Taught Me That the Classroom Couldn’t
One statement I heard from the alumni we met in a lot in different forms was: Wabash prepares you for everything but trains you for nothing. As BIP progressed, that stuck with me and as it kept being brought up. After three weeks in the Business Immersion Program — with trips to Chicago, South Bend, and Indianapolis — I finally understand what it actually means.
The Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship (CIBE) put together a program that doesn’t just hand you a syllabus — it drops you into real rooms with real professionals and asks you to figure out how you fit. For someone like me, an Economics major with his eye on a career in sales, that kind of exposure is hard to replicate anywhere else.
The Conversations That Stuck
Three speakers in particular left a mark. Jim Hawksworth opened my eyes to the world of reinsurance — an industry I honestly hadn’t given much thought or even knew about before BIP. More than the technical side of the business, what struck me was how much he emphasized the Wabash network and how we need to reach out. The network isn’t just a nice talking point; for Jim and others like him, it’s something they actively pay forward. That means something when you’re a student trying to figure out where to land.
Chad Cleaver was the session that seemed to light up the room. He walked us through a wide range of careers in a way that felt honest rather than rehearsed, and more than a few guys in the program came out of that conversation with a clearer sense of direction than they’d had going in. That’s not easy to do, and it’s a credit to how generously he shared his time.
Ron Dostal gave us a window into the day-to-day reality of business consulting — the processes, the client relationships, the problem-solving framework that underlies the work. It broke down an industry that can seem a little abstract from the outside, and it raised the ceiling on what I thought was possible coming out of a school like Wabash.
For the Next Class of BIP Guys
If I could hand one piece of advice to the guys coming into BIP next year, it’s this: don’t treat it like class. You’re not there to take notes and wait for the right answer. You’re there to ask questions that matter to you, follow the threads that actually interest you, and push past the surface-level conversation whenever you can.
The alums who came to speak with us didn’t show up because they had to. They showed up because they care about this place and the guys coming out of it. Respect that by being curious, being present, and following up. A short email the next day goes further than most guys realize.
What I’m Taking with Me
As an Economics major heading toward a career in sales, BIP reaffirmed something I’d suspected but wasn’t sure: the liberal arts preparation Wabash gives you is genuinely valuable in professional settings. Being able to think clearly, communicate well, and hold your own in a room with people who know more than you — that’s the training Wabash actually provides, even if it doesn’t look like it.
I’m walking away from BIP with a stronger network, a clearer sense of what I want, and a real appreciation for the alumni who make this program what it is. To Jim Hawksworth, Chad Cleaver, Ron Dostal, and every other professional who gave their time to our class — thank you. You didn’t just talk at us. You invested in us, and that’s not something we take lightly.
