Cody Stipes '10 Wants a Career in Education
by Gary James '10
For sophomore Cody Stipes, progress is the watchword. He thinks there is always room for improvement: for his country, for his local community, and especially for his passion, education. But Stipes doesn’t just want to see progress in those areas; he wants to help create it. And he has.  The Bunker Hill, Indiana, native would be the first to admit he has big goals. He wants to change lives as an educator, a math teacher and later an administrator. He sees the education profession as the best way for him to make a difference in the world, not just by teaching lessons about math but about life.
"I’ve always told people ‘I don’t want to be a teacher, I want to be a difference maker,’ " Stipes said, who graduated from Indiana Academy for Science Mathematics and Humanities in 2007. "I want to help shape young minds and young lives to make this country better and to make students’ lives better. And I think education is the best way for me to do that." Stipes has been influenced positively by many of his teachers, but he was first inspired by Mr. Jackson, his fourth grade instructor. Mr. Jackson taught him to set goals for himself. Stipes, who said he wasn’t a bright student at the time, had problems staying focused. But by setting specific goals, Stipes became what he describes as "a driven person." And he credits Mr. Jackson for tapping into that aspect of his life. Stipes wants to do for others what Mr. Jackson did for him. After college, the math education major may return to Indiana Academy to be a Student Life Counselor. Or he may join Teach for America, a national program that places recent college graduates in underserved rural or urban classrooms for two years. Stipes is particularly interested in serving in inner city public schools in places like Indianapolis, Chicago, or New York City. He believes those schools and students need the most help, and he thinks he can provide it. Stipes also wants to nurture gifted students who may not be getting enough attention. He spent eight weeks researching unique Indiana high school through the Present Indiana Program. He focused on the Culver Academy, the Indiana Academy, and the International School of Indiana. Stipes gained insight into the challenges facing gifted students in public schools while interviewing Vickie Barton, Indiana Academy’s Executive Co-Director. Stipes said Barton likened gifted students to diamonds in the rough. "Places like the Culver Academy, the Indiana Academy, and the International School of Indiana take those diamonds and they polish them; they cut them," Stipes recalled. "They transform them into the best diamonds that they can be. And that in turn helps Indiana and America because we are getting more educated young minds going off to great institutions and making differences in this world." Although education is Stipes’ passion, he also volunteers locallyl. He is the first Wabash student ever to sit on the Board of Directors of the AHEAD Coalition of Montgomery County, which deals with substance abuse issues. He co-founded the Clean Air Coalition at Wabash, and he is the treasurer of the Progressive Students Movement of Wabash College, which seeks to get students involved in politics.  Stipes finds the most fulfillment being the Martindale Hall representative to the Student Senate because he has been able to make positive changes. At the end of freshman semester, he successfully convinced the Student Senate to use its budget surplus to install printers in every dormitory.
"I was the Chairman of the Student Senate Committee on Technological Advancements," said Stipes, who heard about Wabash from a friend at high school. "Instead of having to rush to the library before class, student can now print in their own living units. That was a big achievement for us in the senate, especially that committee and for myself too. Wabash is very unique. I would recommend every male to at least come and look at Wabash because I think there are a lot of opportunities for men to come here and thrive." Addtionally, he spent eight weeks of his 2008 summer in the Lilly Endowment funded Present Indiana program. Stipes studies Indiana’s unique high schools and developed a presentation to share with others.
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