Gabe Wasserman: Season 2, Episode 5

Whitman College students tell their stories—about their unique experiences in choosing Whitman and being part of the Whitman community and what they love most. This is Gabe’s story.

Gabe Wasserman came to Whitman from Madison, Wisconsin. He immediately loved the community he found and believes it helped him grow and succeed as a runner and a student. Hear about his experience as a student-athlete, his enthusiasm for Blues and Whit City and how he fared at the "Jewish Olympics." 

The “Our Whitman, My Story” podcast is a collaboration between the Whitman College Office of Communication and author and podcaster John Moe ’90. To meet more of our talented students follow Whitman on social media.

Transcript

Everyone at Whitman has a story to tell how they got here and what happened once they did. And every story is different. This is our Whitman, My Story. Hi, my name is Gabe Wasserman. I'm from Madison, Wisconsin, and I am an environmental studies and sociology major.

So I ended up at Whitman after hearing about Whitman and Walla Walla for a few years. I played Ultimate Frisbee in high school, really competitively and followed College Ultimate. And the women's team here at Whitman was having a really successful year, and I saw them in the finals, and that was the first time that I heard about Whitman. A few years before that, I heard about Walla Walla from eating some Walla Walla sweet onion rings and thought, "Huh, Walla Walla, that sounds like an interesting place." And then it just kept on coming up in my life. And so those two things were how I first found out about Walla Walla and Whitman.

And then as I went through high school, I became really interested in running. I ran cross country and knew I wanted to continue with running in college. And so I was talking to a bunch of different coaches. I have a twin brother who was going to come to college out on the West Coast, so I thought that I would reach out to the coach here. I came here on a visit and got to spend 48 hours with the team, going to classes, staying in the dorms, going to practice, going on runs, and everyone was just incredibly nice. The men's team on the run, they were laughing, making jokes the whole time. It felt super loose. It felt just like a great team culture. So that sealed the deal.

Maccabi Games are a massive international, multi-sport athletic competition for Jewish athletes. It is, I believe, the second-largest sporting event in the world in terms of number of athletes. And so thousands of athletes come from over 50 different countries, many different sports, and over three weeks they come together and compete in their sports. I believe it was started in the early 1900s when Jewish athletes weren't allowed to compete in other athletic competitions. And since then, it's been a way for Jewish athletes to come together and celebrate their culture as well as compete in high-level international athletics.

So I first heard about the Maccabi Games from my family. My dad, as well as my grandparents, and my great-grandma all had participated in the Maccabi Games in previous years, both in swimming and track and field. And so I had grown up hearing about stories of the Maccabi Games, and as I became more competitive with my running, I started to realize that there was an outside chance that I could be good enough to go to the Maccabi Games. And as I progressed in college, it became more realistic. The pandemic hit and the Maccabi Games weren't really on my radar seriously. But the games I believe in 2020 got pushed back. And so that left more time to send in my times and qualify. And so I thought, "What the heck? I'll try it." I sent in my times and apparently it was top three of the people that had submitted their times and so I was offered a spot on the team.

So in high school, I was a good runner, but not a great runner. I wasn't the best on my team. I wasn't qualifying for state. But when I came to Whitman, I increased my mileage, started weight training, just spending a lot more time focused on running and becoming a better runner. And I think that was really driven by the team culture that we had. And with that, my times got a lot faster. And when my times got a lot faster, that's when I started believing in myself that I potentially could go compete at the Maccabi Games.

So at the Maccabi Games, I competed in the road race 10K, and the Track 5K, And they went really well. The 10K, I got the bronze medal in my age group, and I finished fifth in the 5K, So I was very happy with that. So the Maccabi Games were an opportunity that because they're not sanctioned by the NCAA I had to go to my coach and ask if he would be willing to let me do this outside of Whitman. So I was racing and representing the United States at the Maccabi Games

For the 10K Road race, it was in Jerusalem and it was at night. The streets were lined with people, so many spectators and Jerusalem, like any other city has streetlights and hustle and bustle. And so the start of the race is going through that part of Jerusalem, and then it pops into the old city, which is very dimly lit, quiet. And so you're racing through the streets and it's loud, and then you get to a point where it's silent. You just hear your footsteps and breathing around you from other runners, and then you exit the old city back into the streets that are lined with fans. And it was loud and lights and just an incredible race atmosphere. Whit City is the student section for Whitman Athletics. So at any Whitman Sporting event, students can come and be a part of the student section, cheer on Whitman Athletics.

So I have taken on the role of the Whit City leader. I don't know my official title, but when I was a first year, I was really good friends with one of the runners, his name is Mamoon, and he was the leader of Whit City, would go to a lot of the games, have a big Whit City flag, lead cheers. And I was good friends with him so I'd go to the games a lot and I really enjoyed it. And then the pandemic hit and he graduated. And Whit City pretty much died, mostly because spectators weren't allowed to any of the sporting events. And then once they were welcomed back, there was really no one to organize Whit City. And Mamoon, when he graduated, gave me his big Whit City flag that was super broken. And so I never used it, but I took that as a sign that I should be the one to try to revive Whit City.

And so then we incorporated it into the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, which I'm currently the president of. And so that's a group of student athletes that comes together to put on events for women athletics as well as the Whitman and Walla Walla community. And so we've taken on Whit City and tried to revive it. We got a whiteboard that we can write heckles on. That's super fun, people like that. And we had great success for the playoffs of basketball last year. So that was probably the highlight. We just got a full student section. Everyone was standing on their feet loud, fun heckles, nothing too disrespectful. And both of our basketball teams had a lot of success during those playoffs. And so Sherwood Center was just electric.

I'm an environmental studies sociology major. I came to Whitman and I thought I was going to be a math major because I wanted to become a math teacher. And I quickly realized that I didn't actually like math, but I still wanted to go into education. And my advisor my first year was an environmental humanities professor, and she was incredible. And she convinced me to take one of her classes, and it was the best class I had taken at college, and I decided that environmental studies was maybe a better route for me to go. I didn't love the humanities side, but thought social sciences also was a good place for me. And so I thought I would try some sociology classes and just loved it. I love all the sociology professors. They are incredible. So I started taking sociology, started taking environmental studies, and I've just been so happy with it.

When I went on my visit to Whitman, one of the runners brought me to their KWCW radio show, and I thought the studio was such a cool space. And so I knew that that was something I wanted to do when I got to college. And so my first year, I started a show called DJs in PJs with one of my friends, and we just went in there and wore onesies and played music every, I believe it was Monday night, and then the pandemic hit and had to put that on pause. And then after the pandemic, I have a teammate and we used to, we still do, we debate random things on runs, and we thought it would be pretty fun if we just made this into a radio show. And so we started a radio show called Disputed that is inspired by the talk sports debate show Undisputed. But we don't end up really talking about sports.

Anyone can apply to be a DJ at KWCW. You can talk about anything. You can play music, it can be really laid back. It can be a big part of your Whitman experience, whatever you want to make of it.

The memories that I think I'm going to take away from Whitman are mostly just runs out in the wheat fields we have around Walla Walla or up in the Blues Mountains. I think the sunsets and sunrises here are incredible, and that image is going to definitely stick with me just going out with my teammates and running in the most beautiful place. I think that's probably the thing that is going to stick most with me.

I'm Gabe, and this has been Our Whitman, my Story. There are more episodes of Our Whitman, My Story available right now wherever you get your podcasts. Music for this podcast provided by Big Joe, a band made up of Whitman students. For more information, go to whitman.edu/stories.