Playing football pushed me to also achieve my academic goals

Ben Weepie ’22 was looking for a college that allowed him to be an athlete while still pursuing a rigorous degree. Wartburg allowed him to pursue both with the added bonus of being close to his hometown of Fairbank, Iowa.

“I was looking for a place where I could balance being in athletics and going to the school and doing what I want to do. They both fit here, and it wasn’t too far from home. I liked that aspect as well,” Weepie said.

When he arrived at Wartburg, Weepie knew he wanted to do something in the sciences but was unsure on which route to take. It was after some exploration in his first year that he found his passion – environmental sciences and studies.

“I decided on that major because I originally came in as an open science major. I took mainly science courses my first year, and I decided that I really liked the environment. I think that really stemmed from when I grew up, I used to play outside a lot and in the river as a kid,” Weepie said.

As he continued at Wartburg, Weepie was able to find opportunities for research that were needed for his major and would allow him to eventually present his work at a conference.

“As part of my major and being a part of the science concentration, we have to go through Biology 455 and 456, which are research methods classes. When we did that, I did swine gut microbiome research. Our abstract from that was actually accepted to a conference called the American Society for Microbiology,” Weepie said.

The feeling is not one that Weepie is likely to forget nor are the lessons he learned about research.

“It was awesome. The whole course itself is very involved. It is challenging and quite time consuming, but you get a mentor at the beginning of class, and they help you out a lot. It really is the whole process. You use the first portion of the class to get your funding for research and then you carry that out in the second half. It covers everything that you would need to build a good base for research. It really is a helpful class,” Weepie said.

Weepie was thankful for the influence that the class had on him, but it was not the only opportunity that he had found at Wartburg. He also chose to study abroad in Peru during his final May Term. Before leaving he said:“It is going to be unedited and raw. We are going to be out in the Amazon rainforest. We will be hiking and observing and doing a little bit of research while we are down there. It is the type of experience that you wouldn’t really be able to do without being somewhere like Wartburg College. The amount of stuff you get with the deal with the staying in the lodges in the rainforest and guides. It is stuff you would not be able to get if you just decided to book your own trip,” Weepie said.

With all of these experiences, Weepie is set to join the “real world” and will be pursing a career as an environmental scientist or consultant with hopes of making a real impact in the world around him.

Looking back, it can seem hard to believe that he was able to manage to fit his time with these experiences while being a part of the football team for the last four years. He attributes his success to the flexibility of his coaches and the faculty.

“Obviously, the coaching staff and faculty have been doing this for years, and they know our majors are really involved. They have built in study tables, which you are required to do your freshman year if you are an athlete. It really gets you on the right track and makes your time management skills excellent, so you can do all those things. With science majors, we always have labs and things that would bump up with practices and events, and they were always great with that. They want you to be able to do both. Within the football team, they wanted you to achieve lofty academic goals, and that was the first goal before athletics. A real change from other schools,” Weepie said.