“A Taste of the Liberal Arts”
These stories of alumni, students, and teachers offer a sampling of the ever-growing possibilities offered by a Wabash education.
At first glance, food may seem an insubstantial, if tasty, subject for a magazine about the liberal arts. More sauce than steak.
As I take closer look at the alumni, students, and teachers featured in this issue, though, I see a different story. I see a savory menu of the liberal arts unbound and thriving in the lives of Wabash men who are transforming their work and their communities.
You will read about a philosophy-major-turned-master chef reinventing fine dining at one of Chicago’s top restaurants. Study the menu Thomas Lents ’95 presents at Sixteen in the Trump Tower and you realize that he’s still very much a philosopher.
You will encounter a history-major-turned-pasta entrepreneur; a religion major helping cities and corporations re-think the way we grow, consume, and distribute food; and a political science major riding his bike across South Africa and listening to people around the barbecue to understand the culture of a nation in transition.
You will see images from the winter harvest gathered by Director of Sustainable Agriculture Allen Matthews ’71 and his students at Chatham University’s “new model for a new world.”
You will sample the ways professors Rick Warner and Joyce Burnette use food as an entré into world history and local economics.
Even the anecdotes alumni share about memories evoked by food reveal a remarkable depth and range of experience and interests.
I think back to recent Wabash honorary degree recipient Geoff Coates ’89, who discovered a process to make plastics from discarded orange peels, and I realize that Wabash alumni represent a smorgasbord of food-related endeavors—from sustainable farming to scientists finding ways to use even waste products for the benefit of mankind.
Few of the journeys chronicled here followed the expected trajectory of a given major or curricular path. They were made possible by a way of seeing the world that sparks agility across the barriers of disciplines and career fields.
These are must-read stories for prospective students and their parents to help them realize how a Wabash education prepares young men for life. They also are the sort of stories we want our current students to be able to tell about themselves and their Wabash experience.
I am seeing those narratives unfold in earnest now as we move forward with our Liberal Arts Plus initiatives—Global Health, Democracy and Public Discourse, Digital Arts and Human Values, and the Center for Innovation, Business, and Entrepreneurship. You might as well call these programs “liberal arts live”—real-time performances that demonstrate how a Wabash education empowers students to create careers, solve problems, and inspire the hope and ingenuity of others.
During presentations for these programs I’ve listened to students from practically every major we offer. They have initiated entrepreneurial ventures in technology, conversations with Crawfordsville residents on local issues, and health education for Peruvians in rural villages, to name a few of their projects.
When you hear these stories—or read students’ blogs from immersion experiences or see their efforts at the Cele-bration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work —it is easy to imagine these Wabash men reshaping their workplace and world. The narratives created by these experiences will give them a leg up as they step forward into futures many could not even have imagined when they first arrived at Wabash.
The stories of alumni, students, and teachers in this edition offer a taste of the ever-growing possibilities offered by a liberal arts education. Having sampled the work of some of the Wabash chefs featured in this issue, I can tell you that those offerings are delicious, too!
Contact President Hess: hessg@wabash.edu
Follow President Hess on Twitter at @PrezHess