Motorsports attorney. Communications vice president of an NFL team. Collegiate athletic director. TV play-by-play announcer of an NBA team. Professional soccer team head coach.
While participating Liberal Arts at Play, high school students from around the country discovered all of those fun and engaging careers in sports — and lots more — are possible with a liberal arts education.
In its first year, Liberal Arts at Play: Sports, Society, and Careers at Wabash College drew 80 applicants. The 24 students invited to participate came from Indiana, Arizona, California, Michigan, and Texas.
The week-long residential summer camp was funded by the “Indiana Youth Programs on Campus Initiative” from Lilly Endowment Inc., and created specifically for driven young men, ages 15 to 16, interested in a career in sports.
Liberal Arts at Play (LAAP) combined Wabash’s liberal arts curriculum with high-impact teaching practices to develop the skills in young men that lead to remarkable success at all levels of amateur and professional sports. These life skills include the ability to speak and write effectively, listen carefully, and think critically.
“One of the big goals for the program was to connect with high school students early and get them excited and exposed the pathways college that it can take them,” said LAAP program director Tyler Wade ’12, who is also the director of pre-college programs at Wabash.
“Our college-going rate as a state has continued to decrease over the years, and we want to see those numbers change,” he said. “We want to see more students, including new majority students (underrepresented minority students, first-generation college students, and students who qualify for federal Pell Grants), pursuing higher education.”
“The Liberal Arts at Play program is a great opportunity, and one I wish I had when I was younger,” added Chase Justus, Wabash’s youth programming and outreach coordinator. “I don’t think I set foot on a college campus until my junior year. By that point, I was behind. Being able to explore campus earlier and learn more about the different career paths you can take with a degree will make a big difference for high school students.”
Camp participants spent the week engaging with Wabash faculty and staff who led sessions utilizing current issues and topics in sports as a vehicle to introduce subjects like economics, rhetoric, and psychology — core to the liberal arts. Guests included alumni and friends of the College who work in sports. They connected their liberal arts experiences to their current work and engaged campers with discussions, case studies, and various media productions.
Guests included Chris Carr ’82, director of performance psychology for the Green Bay Packers, Steve Campbell ’92, vice president of communications and external affairs for the Indianapolis Colts, and Ron Rychlak ’80, distinguished professor of law and faculty athletics representative at the University of Mississippi.
“My biggest takeaway from the week was learning that there are so many opportunities in sports that I would have never thought of before,” said Jaeden Pollack, a junior from San Francisco, California. “That’s something I am seriously considering now after going through the program.”
Camp participants also had the opportunity to participate in two days of immersion trips around Indianapolis, which included visits to the NCAA Headquarters, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis Colts Team Facility, and IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium for an Indy Eleven soccer game.
Connecting with peers through fun hands-on learning experiences off-campus was one of Cohen McClamroch’s favorite parts of LAAP.
“It was a good time,” said McClamroch, a high school sophomore from Crawfordsville. “I really enjoyed being able to meet a lot of new people and make friends from around the country who are interested in pursuing different careers in sports like me.”
JP Driscoll, a sophomore from Cedar Lake, Indiana, and the younger brother of Brett Driscoll ’24, said he’d recommend the LAAP program to other high school students who want to jump start their college and career searches.
“Wabash and a liberal arts education can prepare you for anything you want to do in your life,” Driscoll said. “Join Liberal Arts at Play. It will help you learn a lot about yourself and all the different careers in sports.”
Based on the feedback from students and their parents as well as the College’s partners who connected with participants throughout the week, Wade said he believes the first year of Liberal Arts at Play was a success and is eager for next summer.