Henry Rogan Picks Kenyon College
Call him the practical senior. Henry Rogan is a thoughtful teenager who likes to do his homework. In this case, the homework concerned the Huntington High School Class of 2014 member’s decision to attend Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he also plans to play lacrosse.
“The summer before I started my senior year, I decided that I wanted to play a sport in college,” explained Mr. Rogan. So he went about getting on the radar of some NCAA Division III colleges “due to D3’s great balance of academics and athletics,” he said. “I enjoy athletics, but I know my education should always come first.”
The teenager attended several recruiting camps and participated in various showcases last summer. “The schools that I looked at were small, academically challenging liberal arts colleges,” Mr. Rogan said. The group included Tufts, Hamilton College, Bates College, Connecticut College and Franklin & Marshall.
“The catch with D3 athletics is that the coaches can only pull a tiny bit for you to get in, so you must be able to get into the school on your own,” Mr. Rogan said. “I originally didn’t know much about Kenyon and it wasn’t even on my radar. However after one of the camps I was at, the coach contacted me. I did some research and realized that Kenyon is academically on par with the other schools that I was looking at and has a lacrosse program that is getting better each year.”
Impressed by what he had learned about Kenyon College, Mr. Rogan was receptive when the college’s lacrosse coach asked the Huntington senior to fly to Ohio to tour the campus and facilities and to meet with folks at the school.
Mr. Rogan and his mother, Emily jetted to Ohio and found the campus to be “absolutely incredible,” the teenager said. “It’s on nearly every ‘Most Beautiful College Campuses’ list for a reason! I was especially blown away by the KAC; Kenyon’s incredible $70 million athletic center, built in 2006. I decided to commit, as Kenyon seemed like a great fit for me both on the field and in the classroom.”
Outstanding liberal arts college
Known as one of America’s finest liberal arts colleges, Kenyon is located in central Ohio on a stunning 1,000 acre hilltop campus, which includes a 480 acre nature preserve. The school enrolls 1,600 students, who come from across the nation and 44 countries. No classes are taught by teaching assistants.
Kenyon boasts actor Paul Newman and authors E.L. Doctorow, Laura Hillenbrand and John Green as among its more notable alumni. The Advanced Placement program originated at Kenyon.
“I know I will get an excellent education at one of the nation’s top liberal arts schools and will be able make great contributions to Kenyon’s lacrosse team,” Mr. Rogan said. The Blue Devil senior has played lacrosse all through middle school and high school and loves the sport.
The practical side of Mr. Rogan emerged when he started to question his commitment to Kenyon. Before making a possible mistake and going to a college where he might have ended up unhappy and wanting to transfer, he went through a period of reevaluation.
“As time passed, I began to have some reservations about my decision and second guessed myself a lot,” Mr. Rogan said. “However, these worries were quelled when I did an overnight [visit] in October. I stayed with a lacrosse player and met many of my future teammates, all of whom told me how great Kenyon is. Seeing the campus in action really reassured me and I knew I had made the right decision.”
Mr. Rogan applied for admission as an early decision candidate and was accepted. “Kenyon obviously isn’t a very well-known school, due to its small size and discreet location out in the countryside of Ohio,” he said. “Oftentimes when I tell people where I am going, they respond with ‘Where’s that?’ However, the people who do know Kenyon always tell me how great a school it is. Also, Kenyon’s popularity is increasing. My class, the class of 2018, had a record-breaking number of applications and 63 percent increase in applications compared to last year’s class. So slowly but surely, Kenyon is becoming more well-known.”
Interestingly, Mr. Rogan’s father, Bob played lacrosse at Denison University and two of his uncles played the sport at The College of Wooster. The two schools are among Kenyon’s biggest athletic rivals. (Mr. Rogan’s father and uncles are all Huntington graduates who played on the Blue Devil football and lacrosse teams.)
Mr. Rogan is still undecided on a college academic major. “I plan on figuring that out freshman year, once I get a feel for college academics,” he said. “The kids I spoke with on the lacrosse team told me that a popular and useful major at Kenyon is economics, so I might check that out.”
Favorite course is AP World History
Looking back over the past four years of high school, Mr. Rogan said his “favorite course” was AP World History with social studies teacher Camille Tedeschi. “I had a great time in that class creating funny skits and projects with my friends and I also learned a lot of interesting information about the world we live in,” he said.
The senior finds it tough to pick a “favorite teacher,” although when pressed he cites Joann Ferazi, a math department faculty member. “I was fortunate enough to have her for tenth and eleventh grade,” Mr. Rogan said. “She truly wants to see all of her students succeed and she did a great job teaching us the incredibly difficult and dreaded subjects of Algebra 2 Trig and Pre-Calculus. Even now my peers and I go to her occasionally to get help for AP Calculus.”
Mr. Rogan is looking forward to studying at and playing for Kenyon College. The school leads all NCAA Division III institutions with a total of 58 national championships and is second in NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Awards with 62.
As his time at Huntington High School nears an end, the teenager cast an eye toward those who will be following in his footsteps. “My advice to an incoming freshman would be to develop good study habits early,” Mr. Rogan said. “You might be able to coast by ninth and tenth grade without studying once, like I did, but eleventh and twelfth grade will be a rude awakening for you, as they were for me.”