Class of 2002
Jordan Yelinek
Liberally Educated
In Jordan Yelinek's world, science and art and business and academia live in perfect harmony, and Washington College helped him connect the dots. The 2002 graduate, who recently earned a Ph.D. in cell biology from Yale University, took advantage of the best that Washington College had to offer—adding a drama major to his biology/chemistry course work. He thrived on the academic rigors of the sciences as well as the creative outlet he found in the drama department and the personal relationships he developed.
"It was fantastic because I started the morning with really rigid scientific thinking in class and then switched to theater in the afternoon. It gave me a great balance so I never really felt like I was tapped out," he says.
Jordan was also active in student government, academic societies and Greek life.
"It's really easy at Washington College to be involved in a lot of things," says Jordan, who was a member of Beta Beta Beta, the Cater Society of Junior Fellows, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Silver Pentagon Society, the Order of Omega and the Kappa Alpha Order. He also served as Speaker of the Senate and President of the Interfraternity Council and was awarded the College's top honor, the George Washington Medal, at graduation.
When Jordan moved on to the Ph.D. program at Yale, the focus was purely science, but that didn't stop him from incorporating his theatre background.
"We had an outreach program for struggling New Haven-area schools," he recalls. "We'd take cool science gizmos and give lectures, and I'd get up and put on a song and dance to get the students engaged and excited about what we were doing."
In his work as a biotech consultant in San Francisco, Jordan draws from his experiences in a college chemistry course with Professor Frank Creegan.
"His class in o-chem [organic chemistry] used a problem-based approach that really engaged us, to the point that I can still understand o-chem because of the way it was taught, taking really complex problems and breaking them into bite-sized pieces," Jordan explains.
"That's one of the great things I took away from Washington College," he adds, "because now I can take really complex concepts and break them down to communicate them to clients."
Jordan's intellectual processes can best be described as cross-pollination: theatre informs science; science informs business; business informs academia.
"There's a disconnect between academia and business. They're two different languages, and consulting helps me to understand both sides," says Jordan, who worked with the College's Board of Visitors and Governors and also sat on the Yale Corp.
"I'd love to end up in academic administration, and I attribute that to John Toll," says Jordan. "He is the paragon of everything I would want to be—a leader, a scientist, a friend."
The relationship he developed with the former College president, as well as with others at the College, has had a lasting impact.
"I still have friends in Chestertown—people I had lunch and dinner with and who were mentors for me," Jordan said. "I was able to develop as a person at WC. Really and truly, the most valuable thing I have is my liberal arts education, and I am so grateful to Washington College for that."