Marlon Lewis ’20 would go to the Museum of Science and Industry with his family in his hometown of Chicago at least 10 times a year, and each visit was just as amazing as the last. So when he needed to find an internship after his freshman year, Lewis didn’t think twice about where he wanted to apply. With the help of Wabash staff and administrators, Lewis landed a dream internship at the famous Chicago museum that combined his love of science and his skills in rhetoric and art. Throughout the 10 weeks he was there, Lewis was able to help redesign current exhibits, conduct research for upcoming exhibits, interact with guests, and work in the museum’s fabrication lab. “I want to take my love for science and my skills in art and rhetoric to communicate with people, advocate for people, and bring light to issues that are often overlooked,” he said. “I want my pictures to speak 1,000 words and my words to paint 1,000 pictures. That’s kind of the saying I have for myself.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

CJ Ramsey ’19 is exactly where he wants to be on the sideline of a football field. He spent his childhood watching his father coach and dreaming of the day he could follow in his footsteps. His first coaching job came when he was a high school freshman – he has been his peers ever since. After years of learning from and listening to his father, he knew what the players should be doing and he knew how to articulate it. Now at Wabash, Ramsey coaches players he lives with, eats with, and has classes with. Some of them are older than he is. However, Ramsey believes this experience has made him a better coach. “I realized I can’t get anywhere if you don’t have good relationships with the players,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s less about coaching and more about building and maintaining positive relationships. It’s not letting football overtake the fact that we’re people.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Brock Heffron ’19 of Chandler, Arizona, had won four BMX world championships by the time he was 13 and earned the title of Sports Illustrated’s first ever Athlete of the Year. “It was quite the experience,” the Rhetoric major said. “My buddies will joke with me and tell me, ‘Brock, you peaked when you were 10.’ But I don’t like to think of it that way. I want to keep building on it.” Brock stopped racing when he realized that his talents on the track wouldn’t help get him into college. So he switched to focus on baseball and football, which eventually led to being recruited by Wabash College. When he arrived on campus, Brock decided he wanted to be known for his character and not his championships, which means most of his peers and professors have no clue about his pre-teen accomplishments. To his football coach, Brock is a player who brings a great amount of intelligence, toughness, and work ethic to his team. To his favorite professor, Brock is a student who really knows how to keep a classroom discussion going. Brock knows that every success is earned and not given. His hard work got him to four world championships, now to Wabash College, and hopefully to the FBI after graduation. “I want to set the bar with my actions now, not what I did previously. I like that new slate. I’m really going to show you what I can do.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn grew up in the projects of Chicago and lost his entire family when he was only 15 years old, but one thing he did not lose was the creativity his parents had fostered in him at a young age. However, being an artist never seemed practical – or even possible – until he came to Wabash. His professors helped him find his voice from his experiences and inspired him with their own work. Now Quinn is an internationally known artist, with work displayed in some of the most prestigious galleries and private collections in the world. His creativity plays a role in his art, but his work ethic is the foundation of his success. “People think as an artist, I’m cloaked with inspiration,” Quinn said. “It’s not like that. It’s laborious work, and you never, ever should feel like you have made it. I’m not driven by money; I’m driven by me. I want my name to last permanently; I want to be remembered.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Ian Finley isn’t the kind of man who waits for things to come to him. Just a sophomore, his academic resume reads like that of a grad student. The Spanish and economics double-major recently visited Argentina as part of his student-driven independent study course. With the guidance of history professor Dr. Richard Warner, Ian launched a research project on the Argentine Dirty War. “I got to interview Taty Almeida, one of the members of the Mothers of the Plaza De Mayo, a prominent activist group that raised awareness of human rights violations during the war. Being able to sit down with this real-life person to hear about the effects of the war was amazing.” Ian’s research culminated in a 40-page paper detailing the cultural effects and public memory of the Argentine Dirty War. Although he’s accomplished so much, Ian is just getting started at Wabash. “I’m looking forward to continuing my work on campus and to more trips abroad. I will be traveling to Kenya, and I’m interested in a study abroad trip to Spain.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Parker Sawyers is a renaissance man who took an unconventional path to follow his dream of acting. He modeled, worked on a home renovation, managed a restaurant, and worked in politics. Acting was a dream that he thought a lot about but never pursued. “I’ve wanted to act since I was eight years old. I just never did it.” Fate stepped in when Parker had a chance meeting with an actor who helped him break into the business. “It’s still surreal. I’ve only been acting for five years. But I draw on the things I’ve studied for my acting.” In a short time, Parker landed a number of roles; most notable is his starring performance as Barack Obama in the film Southside With You, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film follows the first date of the President and First Lady in their native Chicago. “It took a lot of studying because he’s known by the whole world. But it’s a great script; such an interesting way to tell a story about a public figure.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Aaron Becker knows better than anyone that life is short. A healthcare internship with Child Family Health International on a remote island in the Philippines taught him that lesson. Many patients there lacked access and financial means to get the healthcare they really needed. “Seeing patients suffer was difficult, but the responsibility and dedication the doctors had for them inspired me to do the same.” Since then, Aaron has decided to dedicate his life to helping his community lead healthy and happy lives. At Wabash, Aaron serves as a leader in the Wabash Christian Men Association while he works to finish his chemistry major and applies to medical schools. “I’ve been able to grow and encourage other guys to grow in their faith as well. We do a few conference and camping events a year. These will be some of my most memorable times.” His advice for incoming freshmen? “Make the most of your time at Wabash. Don’t take your four years for granted.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Carmel, Indiana, isn’t the place you’d expect to find an award-winning costume designer. But that’s exactly where Tom Broecker got his start. The theater major graduated from Wabash in ’84, went on to get earn his master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama, and has become a mainstay of the costume design industry. Tom has been designing costumes for Saturday Night Live since 1994. “It’s an amazing job. You don’t get a lot of design opportunities in television that last 20 years.” In addition to his day job at SNL, Tom has dressed the cast of 30 Rock, the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as Frank and Claire Underwood in the acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards. “Working with Robin was amazing. She’s such an interesting character, and no one on TV looks like her.” In 2014, Tom earned an Emmy for his work on SNL and a Costume Designer’s Guild Award for his work on House of Cards. He’s been nominated for six Emmys and four Costume Designer’s Guild Awards in his career.

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Wabash took Patrick Bryant places he never imagined he’d go. As a freshman, he traveled to Manchester, England, to study industrial literature. And in the fall of 2013, before the trade and travel embargo had been lifted, he traveled to Cuba for a politics and culture course. “Before going to Wabash I had never even been out of the U.S. You can read as many books as you want, but actually being there, you live it. It brought the learning up close and personal.” Patrick’s hands-on attitude didn’t stop at learning abroad. He was involved on campus as Student Body President, was editor of the Wabash student paper, The Bachelor, and interned at Eli Lily as part of his economics major. That internship led to a full-time job offer, extended the day Patrick started his senior year. He’s been working at Eli Lily as a financial analyst since he graduated. “Wabash was a fantastic four years that prepared me for what I am doing now. I draw on my experiences there – in student government and from classes – to do my job here all the time.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

A spring break shadowing a social worker empowered Kevin Griffen to address community problems at the policy level on Capitol Hill. As part of Wabash’s Malcolm X Institute for Black Studies, he leads the effort to find opportunities for him and his peers to grow as community leaders and share their experiences as African American students with their brothers on campus. He’s traveled to D.C. to walk in the Million Man March and for the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where he saw President Obama speak. Kevin leads on-campus events, like “I Too Am Wabash,” that start dialogues on culture and difference. “We are a brotherhood that sticks together. The Malcolm X Institute helps the men of color on campus lead our whole community to think about how we make lives better for communities of color nationwide.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Cornell Professor, start-up founder, and chemistry whiz Geoff Coates is working toward solving a huge problem: plastics. While they are cheap and convenient for all kinds of things, they have a devastatingly negative impact on our environment. Geoff wants to change that. “We need to develop synthetic methods that limit energy and raw material consumption, and the new plastic must be better – and cheaper – than what’s out there now.” And that’s exactly what his team at Cornell and his start-up Novomer have done. They’ve engineered a way to trap the carbon dioxide that escapes into the atmosphere to create polyethylene and polypropylene that are then used to make plastics. “It’s 44 percent carbon dioxide by weight, and the cheapest polymer on the planet.” The process earned Novomer the ICIS Innovation Award for Best Environmental Benefit and won backing from the U.S. Department of Energy and partners Albermarle and Eastman Kodak for larger scale production.

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

A summer internship working with Wabash alum Jason Bridges at his company, Nantucket Bike Tours, was a perspective-shifting experience for Cole Crouch. “We gave tours every day. The experience was like an emotional intelligence boot camp. It taught us how to be aware of ourselves and be attentive to other people. We spent that summer becoming better people and better leaders. All of my relationships have grown since.” Cole chose to be a rhetoric major after falling in love with a public speaking course. But after a few more courses he realized that rhetoric was so much more than giving speeches. “Rhetoric is a part of everything. Art, music – in any form of communication, there’s a message.” Since his summer in Nantucket, Cole has done research on Robert Kennedy with a rhetoric professor, studied abroad in Greece, and become the editor-in-chief of the Wabash student paper, The Bachelor. In everything he does, Cole knows doing it well is about knowing your audience.

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

When a global health course took Bilal Jawed to Paloma Alto, Peru, he knew he’d found his purpose. “I went in with a superficial idea of what a doctor is, but as I worked firsthand with patients and doctors in Peru I got a deeper understanding of why I want to do this work.” And once Bilal found his path, he took it at a run. He next traveled to Uganda as an intern with a clinical trial for a drug used to fight pneumococcal meningitis in HIV/AIDS patients. “I remember walking into the infectious disease ward for the first time. The smell hit right away. There was bed after bed after bed and the patients were the sickest of the sick.” Bilal served as an extra set of hands there to help the deeply understaffed team. The conditions and limitations they endured there frustrated Bilal and motivated him to make it better. “It was really overwhelming. But so eye-opening.” Bilal’s plan is to get his master’s degree in global health and do research that improves healthcare on a global level.

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

At Wabash, Peter Prengaman discovered his passion for language and literature. The one-time math major had a series of aha moments that led him to change to a double-major in English and Spanish. Since then, Peter’s pursuit of both passions has made him insatiable for more. He’s worked all over the world as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Morocco Today, The Associated Press, and more. He’s earned a certificate from UCLA and a graduate degree from Stanford. And he’s learned to speak multiple languages, including Portuguese, French, and Arabic. Most recently, Peter was named the Brazil News Director for AP. In this role, he leads a multimedia effort to tell the stories of the largest nation in South America, including covering the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janiero with the whole world watching.

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.

Jared Cottingham knows exactly what he wants. “I’ve known for a long time that I want to practice medicine. I just needed to pinpoint what my specialty should be.” Jared found his match after reading a New York Times article about the ear, nose, and throat doctors who serve on the Met Opera’s medical staff. “I want to be an otolaryngologist, a throat surgeon that specializes in vocalists and vocal cords.” Jared’s been singing most of his life. He’s the president of the Glee Club, an opera singer, and has starred in several musical theater performances on campus. He hopes that his experience as a vocalist will make him an even better doctor. “I’ll connect with my patients because I’ll be able to inform them in terms of their health and their career.” After graduation, Jared plans to head to medical school, but he says he’ll never lose his passion for singing. “I want to give lessons while I’m in school to keep my passion alive. I don’t think I’ll ever stop performing.”

That’s a Wabash man for you. Seriously.