At the end of the month, the Lilly Endowment Initiative in Higher Education at Wabash will come to an end after five years of encouraging students to go to college, improving retention here at Wabash, and motivating Wabash students to consider working in Indiana after graduation.
Nancy Doemel and Jamie Watson have spearheaded the efforts on campus for Wabash. Jamie led the L.I.F.E. Partnership program, the middle school/high school outreach program supported by the Lilly grant.
Through L.I.F.E., Wabash partnered with Southmont High School and Pike High School in Indianapolis to work with students from grades seven through twelve, and help them take the necessary steps to make a college education a reality. That included tutoring sessions, field trips, college visits, financial aid and scholarship planning, and a college-like experience on the Wabash campus.
Watson worked with counselors Steve House at Southmont and DiAnn Taphorn at Pike MSD in Indianapolis. Together they have influenced the lives, and college-going goals, of more than 271 students. Of those first generation college students, 93% are attending, or will attend this fall, either four-year or two-year colleges, junior college, or vocational education programs—a remarkable record, indeed!
One of the goals of L.I.F.E. was to bring students to the Wabash campus for academic experiences, and over the summer providing a "mini-college" experience for the students.
A program this large and this ambitious would not have been possible if not for the dedicated faculty and staff at Wabash, who made the summer sessions extraordinary for the student participants. Faculty who worked so diligently over the summers include Warren Rosenberg, Jamey Norton, Doug Calisch, Michael Abbott, Eric Wetzel, Denise Zielinski, Lou Sherburne, Robert Dion, Melissa Butler, Julia Rosenberg, Walter Blake, Trevor Weston, Todd McDorman, Cheryl Hughes, James Makubuya, Helen Hudson, Joy Castro, and Jeff Fulmer.
Wabash thanks those faculty and staff for their inspirational work with our L.I.F.E. students, whose lives were genuinely and richly changed by their experiences in the program.
The L.I.F.E. Partnership also had advisory committees that provided oversight and helped work with students and their families. Those included both Wabash and high school faculty members: Doug Calisch, Rich Clouse, Kari Harmon, David Polley, and Denise Rosentreter at Southmont, and Lou Sherburne, Austin Brooks, Deborah Butler, Donna Cracraft, Cal Ewing, Warren Rosenberg, and Tom Ruiz at Pike High School and Guion Middle School.
The program touched the lives of Wabash students as well. Ten L.I.F.E.Partnership participants became, or will become this fall, students at Wabash College. They include Jon Albright ‚06, Derick Busenbark ’03, John Dittmer ’06, James Cloud ’03, Wes Ambrose ’05, Clay Jones ’03, Jacob Brown ’04, Keng-Shen Tsui ’03, Sam Keesee ’04, and Blake Zachary ’03.
Another 16 current or past Wabash students served as summer counselors, role models, and tutors for the program. This year Josh Wilson ’03 and Mike Kresslein ’05 served as tutors for Southmont students during the academic year.
Officially, L.I.F.E. comes to an end on June 30. However the work of Jamie Watson and her dedicated team of partners will provide benefits for decades to come through the lives of the students who participated.
Today, the first L.I.F.E. Partnership participants have completed their college educations and already are leaving their indelible marks on the world.