Works in Progress | FALL 2023
Leading the Next Generation by Allie Northcutt
photo by Julia Moravec
W
hy wabash?
For Declan Chhay-Vickers ’26 —an intelligent, outgoing kid from Chicago who could have easily attended many other schools closer to home—the answer is simple. “It’s the relationships,” ChhayVickers says with a bright smile as he reflects on how far he’s already come over the past year and a half. Chhay-Vickers knew he wanted to enroll at a school that fostered connections, as he believed those future relationships with professors, staff, and peers would be key to his learning, well-being, and overall success. His first glimpse at those kinds of possibilities came when he met Kyle Vowell, senior associate director of regional admissions. As part of the Greater Chicagoland Initiative, funded by Walt ’68 and Kathy Snodell, Vowell works as the College’s Chicago-based admissions counselor. “Kyle was fantastic,” says Chhay-Vickers. “Out of all of the admissions representatives my dads and I met, Kyle was the most attentive. He genuinely seemed like he cared, which was a big thing for us.” Chhay-Vickers says education was always important to his family, as both of his parents are college graduates—one immigrated from Cambodia and attended University of Illinois and the other attended DePaul University.
“I knew my parents would support whatever I did,” he says, “but after meeting Kyle and learning more about the opportunities Wabash had to offer, I think they were happy to see me come here.” heather thrush, associate dean for student engagement and success, remembers being amazed by the grit and determination Chhay-Vickers displayed when he first arrived on campus. “Very early in his freshman year, he was already more engaged than most,” Thrush says of the Snodell Scholar. “He’s incredibly intelligent, was very involved as a leader at his high school, already had an internship under his belt, and was very focused on his studies. He was ready for college. Not all students have that confidence.” Kim King ’99, assistant director of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies (MXIBS), echoed Thrush, recalling the first time he met Chhay-Vickers. He was one of three students to join King and MXIBS Director and Dean for Professional Development Steven Jones ’87 on a trip to Anderson, Indiana, to watch a production of “The Meeting,” an award-winning play about an imaginary meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in 1965 in a hotel in Harlem during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
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