I traveled to Charlotte this week to interview Phillips (’93) and Leslie McLean Bragg (’91) for a story I will be writing about their mentoring and partnership with a Lost Boy of Sudan who has called Charlotte home since 2001. Together they are raising money for a school to be built in one of the most impoverished areas of southern Sudan, in the home village of James Lubo Mijak. (They will be featured in the summer issue of Wake Forest Magazine. Don’t miss it.)

Leslie is an assistant teacher in a ninth-grade English class at the Community School of Davidson High School, a charter school in Davidson. She mentioned in our conversation about how another Deacon, Carter Cook, had sent a wonderful e-mail answering a ninth grader’s queries about what makes Wake Forest “a special college.”

I got permission from Carter, who graduated in 1994 with a double major in history and business and earned his law and MBA degrees in 1998, to quote from the e-mail Leslie referenced:

“There are other places where you can attend small, intellectually stimulating classes taught by bright, experienced instructors who will know your name and remember you years after you graduate, even if you weren’t the best student.   There may be other places where undergraduates are able to work directly with their professors on major research projects and earn grants or have their work published.  There are certainly other places with a major college sports program that can successfully compete at the highest levels of the NCAA in several different sports.  I’m sure there are other places with a small enough student body that you can get to know many of your fellow students, and allow you to be a part of a network of alumni that look after each other long after graduation.  And of course, a lot of other places promote international studies and community service opportunities.  I honestly do not know of a place that does all of these things as well as Wake Forest, and that’s something that seems to be true for current and past students alike.”

Wake Forest is lucky to have him on board. He’s associate counsel in the University’s Legal Department, and, if I do say so myself, he’s making a fine argument for submitting an application and for reminding those of us who graduated how smart we were to have chosen Wake.