Brock Sempsrott ‘12 is a student athlete living in College Hall, and is engaged to be married. A lover of friends, family, his fiancée, and dirtbikes, he seems like an average student. However, unlike most of his fellow Wabash men, Sempsrott has been deaf since birth, and wears cochlear implants to grant him the miracle of hearing.
"My parents didn’t know I was deaf till I was two," Sempsrott said. "They always wondered why I never talked. Then, when I was two, my mother dropped a bag of cans near me and I didn’t react. So my parents took me to the doctor, and I was diagnosed with hearing loss."
However, with his implants, Sempsrott has the ability to live life as a normal college student, especially in the world of athletics.
"I’ve been wrestling since high school," said Sempsrott, a graduate of local North Montgomery High School. Despite a shoulder injury he received his junior year, he became a state qualifier his senior year, as well as breaking several school records. However, the challenge of collegiate wrestling greatly outweighs the difficulty of high school wrestling, something Sempsrott, a smaller wrestler in the 125 pound weight class, will attest to.
"It [collegiate wrestling] is more physical than high school wrestling. There is more mentality involved. If you mess up in a high school match, then you correct yourself and take the guy down. If you mess up in college, you’re screwed. The challenge is something. There are tournaments where I end up in the top three, and there are tournaments where lose the first round."
Despite the challenge, Sempsrott says he plans to continue wrestling all four years of college, "as long as I [Sempsrott] stop getting hurt."
In addition to his athletic life at Wabash, Sempsrott is faced with the difficult intellectual life of a Wabash student, one that, according to him, has had a rocky start.
"In high school, I had above a 3.0 GPA," Sempsrott said. "But here, things are much more difficult. I’m struggling now because I have bad writing skills, so my grades dropped a little in the fall. But I’m doing my best to bring that back up."
Like all freshmen, Sempsrott had trouble adjusting to the rigors of college level academics. Though he is doing well in the first four weeks of his second semester, the first few months of college were stressful.
"I wasn’t well adjusted. I didn’t get enough sleep, and I was always stressed. This went on till winter break, which helped calm me down. I needed the time to rest. And this semester is going better: I’m awake for classes on time, I have more energy, and I have more focus."
In addition to his improved time management and life skills, Sempsrott receives assistance from the College in terms of his academics. In his first semester, Employment Self Help (ESH) students wrote supplementary notes for him during class, and in the spring Julia Rosenberg has arranged for a secretary to pen down a verbatim account of what the professor discusses in class, in case Sempsrott doesn’t catch every word.
Wabash professors have also proved extremely accommodating, taking great pains to always face Sempsrott when they speak, so that he will hear all that is said.
"The professors are great. They always ask me after class if I caught everything. I never thought that I would see professors doing stuff like this. I assumed they would come, teach, and leave. But they always look at me when I’m talking, and make sure I know about the homework assignments."
As if this load wasn’t enough, young Sempsrott is also faced with the prospect of marriage to his high school sweetheart, Katie.
"We were best friends in childhood. Then, she moved away, and I had no idea where she went. All of a sudden, a few summers ago, I ran into her at a birthday party, and we’ve been in love since." Despite his many challenges and youthful stage of life, Sempsrott said he is not afraid of marriage and thinks it will work out fine.
Even though Sempsrott didn’t receive his implants until he was nearly three years old, and couldn’t speak until for another few years, he is now able to display a remarkable mastery of speech.
"I can hear, and I can talk. Without the implant I wouldn’t be able to do either. I can hear nearly ninety percent of normal hearing, which is pretty amazing, and for that I’m thankful."
Sempsrott wishes to thank the College for giving him the opportunity that it has given him, and also wishes to thank his mother, "who has never stopped believing in me."