On Reflection: Students I’ll Long Remember 
April 2011

As my time at Butler grows short, I find myself thinking about the many exceptional students I’ve encountered over the last 10 years. I want to tell you about a few of them. Their stories are all different, but they all show how Butler graduates young men and women who go on to lead lives of purpose.

Angela Cruse was one of the first students to meet with me when I came to campus as a candidate for the presidency. We sat down over lunch at Atherton Union and talked about what it was like to be a student at the University. Angela, who is African-American, told me that Butler is a place that would benefit from a greater diversity of students. The University was trying to attract students from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, she said, but her hope was that if I came, I would be an advocate for diversity. I promised I would.

Angela graduated in 2004 and went on to teach for a few years. She returned to Butler for her master’s, which she earned in 2009, along with her EPPSP (Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals) certificate. She is now an assistant principal in Indianapolis and goes by her married name, Angela Cruse Jones.

Warren Morgan, who was SGA president during Butler’s sesquicentennial celebration, always impressed me. Warren came from modest circumstances but demonstrated leadership gifts that were especially evident when he helped organized activities associated with the sesquicentennial in 2005. He was a member of the contingent that greeted former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush when they visited campus. After graduating in 2006, Warren went to work for a year in the Illinois State Legislature before joining Teach for America for two years. He is now a principal in the Chicago Public Schools and working on his doctorate in urban educational leadership at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Two of my favorite former students, Drew Streicher and Jenna Gross, are now husband and wife. When I got to know them, Jenna was a cheerleader and Drew was a basketball player. Jenna, who graduated in 2007, was one year ahead of Drew and was accepted to the IU School of Medicine. Drew was a pharmacy major who walked on to the basketball team and was eventually offered a scholarship. He decided the rigors of pharmacy didn’t permit him to do justice to his studies and his sport, so he switched to pre-med, finished his undergraduate work in three years, and in his fourth year earned his MBA, which usually takes two years. In his last season he was named an Academic All-American. He followed Jenna to med school. Drew and Jenna exemplify how people can achieve as top students and in extracurricular activities.

Michael Hole helped found the Butler University chapter of Ambassadors for Children and encouraged members to make a humanitarian service trip to Uganda. They learned that Uganda has no public school system, and that poor youth there struggle against terrific odds to gain an education. Michael Hole came to me at the beginning of his senior year and confided his hope of raising $35,000 to build a school in Uganda. I wished him and the chapter the best of success, but I wondered if their goal exceeded their reach. My misgivings were unfounded; within that school year, the students raised $43,000. That same trip energized basketball player Avery Jukes to start the Jukes Foundation for Kids to underwrite the cost of books and fees for children attending the school.

Michael, a 2008 graduate, is taking a year’s hiatus from Stanford medical school to do public service in Haiti. His long-term goal is to work at the intersection of medicine, education and public policy. Avery, meanwhile, graduated last year with a math degree and currently is finishing his engineering degree. He’s also continued to pursue his foundation work. That trip to Uganda has been life-changing for these two young men — and for the many people they’ve helped.

Whenever I hear anyone talk about illegal immigration, I’m reminded of Josie Villaneuva, a spring 2010 graduate. Josie was born in the United States, but her parents were illegal immigrants. While she was a student, she tussled with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service to gain legal status for her parents. Ultimately, her mother and then, later, her father were granted permanent resident status. Josie is now working for U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Then there’s Brooke Moreland. I met Brooke went she was applying for the Kiwanis’ Abe Lincoln Scholarship, which she eventually won. Brooke came from a homeless family that, for a time, lived out of a car. In May, Brooke will graduate from Butler. She is considering either dental school or a graduate program in student affairs at Indiana University.

Exceptional people, all.

I want to leave you with one other memory — a chance encounter I had with a Butler student who said she transferred here from a large university. She told me she had felt lost at her former school. But the first time she was sick at Butler and missed some classes, two professors called to see where she was and how she was doing. “I learned,” she said, “that at Butler, you can run, but you can’t hide.”

We make a promise to prospective students and their parents: Butler will provide a personalized education. We will know every student by name and face. That’s the kind of care and support we offer. We don’t do that to shield them from hard choices; we do that so they know they have the support they need to make choices that are consequential for their lives. I think the stories of Angela, Warren, Drew and Jenna, Michael, Avery, Josie and Brooke all exemplify that.

Dr. Bobby Fong
President, Butler University