Lake County Gazette

Ed Wingenbach ’91 has spent his career emphasizing the importance of a liberal arts education. In July, he’ll promote that value internationally as he leads the American College of Greece as its next president.

Wingenbach’s passion for liberal arts education factored heavily into his choice to attend Lake Forest College. The College's option to create your own major, along with the generous financial aid provided and research opportunities available, solidified his decision to attend.

Designing his own course of study in politics, philosophy, and religion, Wingenbach aimed to research the question of how communities create meaning, structure, and organization for themselves.

“Creating my own major allowed me to look at all three of these fields in a variety of ways and assess how they intersect, something I couldn’t have done if I had only studied one of them,” Wingenbach said.

Customizing his education in this way influenced how Wingenbach approached graduate school and his career. He pursued his PhD at the University of Notre Dame, which was the only school where he could take courses in multiple departments, and is currently the president of Hampshire College, where every student designs their own course of study.

“My education at Lake Forest has been really important to everything I’ve done since,” Wingenbach said. “It prepared me to be successful in any path I might have taken.”