As president of the Wabash College Glee Club, Dalton Kuhn ’26 knew exactly what waited for him at the end of Commencement.
After the diplomas were handed out and the ceremony began to close, Kuhn stepped forward one final time to conduct the Glee Club.
“When I do that final conducting of the alma mater, I know I’m going to cry,” he said weeks earlier.
The moment felt far removed from his first days on campus, when he was uncertain whether Wabash was the right place for him at all.
“It took me a while to fit in,” Kuhn said. “I tried out a fraternity, and it just didn’t work out for me. So I left and went independent, and it just felt like I would go to class, go back to my dorm, do my homework, go back to class. It felt like a continuous cycle, and my dorm was almost like a prison cell.”
The biology major with minors in chemistry and Spanish nearly left.
“I wanted to,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want to. I wanted to give it at least two years.”
Kuhn, who grew up in Mount Vernon, Indiana, near the state’s southern border, said the transition to college felt especially difficult without an immediate built-in community. Glee Club helped, but belonging took time.
“I knew all along I wanted to go into the medical field, and I know how long that process is,” he said. “In the back of my head, I didn’t really want to get too close with the people here, because I was just going to leave after four years and go to med school.”
Now a college graduate, Kuhn finds himself reflecting on how deeply connected he became to the people and place he once struggled to embrace.
“The Glee Club helped out a lot,” Kuhn said. “正规赌钱软件app got a new director my junior year, and he has just been phenomenal. Dr. Juan Hernandez cares so much for the Glee Club. I started to build connections with my biology professors and Jill Rogers, my Global Health Initiative advisor. They made me finally feel like, ‘Okay, this is a place I can really see myself sticking with and looking back on fondly.”
“Dalton’s presence in the Glee Club has set an example of commitment,” said Hernandez. “During a time of transition for the ensemble, Dalton remained dedicated to the Glee Club and played a key role in maintaining its continuity and spirit. He did not miss a single rehearsal since I arrived at Wabash.”
Music had always been part of Kuhn’s life. He sang in high school and initially was unsure whether he wanted to continue in college. But during Ringing In, Wabash’s orientation week tradition, he watched the Glee Club perform and immediately felt drawn in.
“It just reminded me of home,” he said. “After making so many big changes for college, I really wanted to go back to something that made me feel like that.”
Home remains central to everything Kuhn hopes to do next.
Earlier this year, he was accepted to the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he plans to pursue pediatrics with the long-term goal of returning to Posey County to practice medicine.
“My goal is to be my county’s first pediatrician,” Kuhn said.
Posey County has no hospitals. Residents often travel to Evansville for specialized care, including Kuhn himself during years of ongoing health challenges that began in high school.
“I just really wanted to give back to my community that gave me so much in my greatest time of need,” he said.
Kuhn said chronic fatigue and related medical issues forced him to give up competitive swimming as a teenager, despite dreams of pursuing the sport at a high level.
“I wanted to be an Olympian,” he said. “It was tough because I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
The health struggles continued throughout college, often making long days of labs and coursework especially difficult.
“There have been times at Wabash that it’s been especially hard,” he said. “My body is always tired.”
Still, Kuhn never drifted far from opportunities to help others.
He strove to support younger students he saw struggling to find their place, much like he did as a freshman.
As a supplemental instruction leader for introductory biology courses, he discovered he enjoyed teaching. He credits both his mother, an elementary school teacher, and his fiancée, who is studying elementary education, for reinforcing that interest.
“It’s been really cool teaching the younger guys biology and helping them progress,” Kuhn said.
He also found purpose through internships with the Global Health Initiative. One project involved writing a grant to expand access to Narcan for first responders in Posey County.
“That Narcan ended up saving a person’s life,” Kuhn said.
The experience introduced him to broader questions surrounding rural healthcare and public health infrastructure in underserved communities. He has since applied to pursue a dual M.D. and master of public health degree.
Kuhn said Wabash’s liberal arts curriculum also shaped how he thinks about medicine and leadership. One class in particular — "Fatherhood,” taught by Professor of Psychology Eric Olofson — left a lasting impression.
“It started out as kind of an extra-credit class,” Kuhn said. “But I learned a lot about the kind of father that I want to be, my relationship with my own father, and skills that I think would be really beneficial as a pediatrician.”
Now a Wabash College graduate, Kuhn holds dear memories of late afternoons outside Sparks Center with friends, singing with an amateur Latvian choir during a Glee Club trip to the Baltics, or simply walking across campus and seeing familiar faces.
“There are many more little moments that built up to create a great Wabash experience,” he said. “For students who aren’t immediately in a group or on a team, it starts out really hard. But sticking with it, getting involved, and building those relationships has a way of changing you.”