Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 50

a

PrESIDEnt'S perspective
Philip G. Ryken ’88, President

“Racial reconciliation
is an ongoing
work of the Holy
Spirit that requires
patience, sacrifice,
and persistence.
So we continue to
work hard to make
Wheaton feel like
home for students of
every ethnicity.”

64     W I N T E R   2 0 1 4

s I walked into the dining commons during orientation week, I happened to overhear
a conversation between two freshmen women. “I’m thinking about skipping the session
on academics,” one student said. “I’ve been to BRIDGE, so I already know all about
Wheaton’s philosophy of education.”
Part of me wanted to interrupt the conversation and tell both students how important it was
for them to attend our (mandatory) session on academic life at Wheaton College. But another
part of me just wanted to enjoy the moment for what it showed about how far we have come.
You see, the student who felt like she already knew all about Wheaton grew up in one
of Chicago’s minority ethnic communities. Although she was the first person in her family
to attend college, she was well prepared, and she knew it. Through Wheaton’s BRIDGE
program (Building Roads to Intellectual Diversity and Great Education), she had spent two
summers on campus taking courses with our faculty and being mentored by our students.
So when this young woman matriculated, Wheaton felt like home. She was an insider, not
an outsider. Furthermore, she was not alone: nearly a quarter of her classmates—roughly 140
students out of an incoming class of 600—were students of color.
Wheaton College has come a long way since the days when I was a student and there were
fewer than one hundred minority students on the entire campus. Today our students belong to
a community that more accurately reflects the ethnic makeup of the United Sta FW2