Michele Mules ’10
BY ABIGAIL HILL ’12

When Michele Mules ’10 came to Wes­ley Col­lege, she came with a men­tal check­list. She wanted a small school, Divi­sion III ath­let­ics and pro­fes­sors with heart. She also is a young woman with her eyes set on the prize. After just grad­u­at­ing from Wes­ley in May, she feels sat­is­fied that her under­grad­u­ate goals have been met and she is pre­pared for her next step in life. This August, she will head to Uni­ver­sity of Chicago in Illi­nois with a pas­sion to fol­low cor­po­rate law. Mules came to Wes­ley to play bas­ket­ball, and found that the school had a lot more to offer. Shortly after arriv­ing, she found her niche at Wes­ley and pros­pered from her involve­ment on cam­pus. As a dual-sport ath­lete in bas­ket­ball and soft­ball, she learned how dif­fi­cult it can be to man­age being a part of a team while keep­ing up with aca­d­e­mics. How­ever, sports became her sav­ing grace and taught her valu­able life lessons. “Sports have kept me on track and taught me time man­age­ment,” she explained. “I have also learned team­work, and that it is always okay to ask for help.”

After find­ing her way on and off the court, Mules began con­tem­plat­ing her future aspi­ra­tions. She pur­sued a dou­ble major in Eng­lish and legal stud­ies, hop­ing to set­tle on her career path. Mules expressed, “The small class­room sizes and the oneon– ones I have had with my pro­fes­sors have been very impor­tant to my edu­ca­tion.” She gives credit to the fac­ulty for pro­vid­ing an intel­lec­tual and per­sonal col­lege edu­ca­tion. “Our pro­fes­sors care,” she stated. Through the efforts of fac­ulty mem­bers such as Dr. Linda De Roche, a provider of guid­ance, and Dr. Flora Hessling, Mules’ inspi­ra­tion, she found her pas­sion and chose to pur­sue it.

In addi­tion to allow­ing her the oppor­tu­nity to shine in the class­room and among the cam­pus com­mu­nity, the small school envi­ron­ment at Wes­ley also afforded Mules a chance to shine on the play­ing field. A three-year starter for both the women’s bas­ket­ball and soft­ball teams, she improved each sea­son. On the bas­ket­ball court, she estab­lished her­self as a strong defender and her 122 career three-point field goals rank her among the school’s all-time lead­ers. On the soft­ball dia­mond, she emerged to lead the team with a .370 bat­ting aver­age as a junior.

Res­i­dence life at Wes­ley was one of the most mean­ing­ful ingre­di­ents in Mules’ col­lege expe­ri­ence. It offered her a sense of com­mu­nity of which she will for­ever feel a part, know­ing that many indi­vid­u­als she met will become life­long friends. In the College’s future, she hopes that res­i­dence life pro­grams will con­tinue to rein­force the Wes­ley com­mu­nity bond and thus help keep more stu­dents on cam­pus, active and out of trouble.

“Res­i­dence life has taught me about the impor­tance of pro­fes­sion­al­ism,” Mules said. This les­son will serve her well as she moves on to law school and her future career. She may be trav­el­ing across the coun­try to pur­sue her next edu­ca­tional goal, but she will always have a home back at Wesley.