Daniel Clark will attend the private, liberal arts university to study physics and religious studies.

“The liberal arts aspect of the college was very vital to me,” Clark said. “I really wanted to be educated in a wide variety of topics. I have a lot of different academic interests, so that was really important to me.”

Clark’s interest in attending W&L University grew after spending the fall semester of his junior year in Washington D.C., working for the United States senate.

“I really fell in love with Maryland, Virginia, D.C. area at that time, so getting back there was really important to me,” Clark said. “W&L had all of those aspects that were really important to me. It’s a really great school, with an incredible reputation and a lot of history. It’s George Washington and Robert E. Lee, so that’s pretty special on its own. As far as why I chose to go there, the scholarship was a big aspect of that.”

Clark received W&L University’s Johnson Scholarship. The school awards 30 members of each incoming class the scholarship, which covers full tuition to the school and room and board.

“It covers everything, except for books,” Clark said. “It even provides a stipend every summer for extra curricular activities, like if I wanted to do an internship, travel abroad or do independent research.”

The selection process for the scholarship included an application and essay as well as interviews.

“The initial application was actually pretty simplistic,” Clark said. “They had an extra essay that you could write for it on a variety of topics. It was a pretty challenging essay. After I wrote that, they picked the finalist pool. There were about 300 finalists. From there, we went up to W&L. I flew up there by myself for a weekend. It was just a long process of interviews and open houses. It was pretty intensive and that’s how they narrowed it down from there.”

Clark hopes his journey at W&L University leads him down the path to becoming a physician. He also plans to get involved in the school’s outing club and one of its A capella groups.

“They have a really cool thing called the outing club,” Clark said. “I really love the great outdoors. Basically, you pay a flat fee at the beginning of the year and then you can be a part of these outings they go on every weekend. They’ll go white water rafting, hiking. (The school) is in Virginia, so there are tons of different opportunities there. I also want to be involved in some of their A capella groups. They have three great groups, two of which I could join because one is co-ed and one is all male. Also, I want to remain in theater.”

Clark believes all of the experiences and extracurricular activates he participated in during high school prepared him to attend W&L University.

“The most formative extracurricular activity I was a part of is — I participated in the Brookhaven Little Theater,” Clark said. “I started that my sophomore year and I’ve been really involved ever since then. I’m actually in Hairspray right now. That played a big part in me gaining the confidence to speak publicly, form my opinions, express myself and be more communicative — which is obviously very important in an interview process. I’d say my time on the Brookhaven tennis team, as well as my time in the boy scouts also helped. I got my Eagle Scout around my sophomore year. Being in boy scouts helped me learn how to rally people and develop leadership skills. I also did a lot of tutoring and I think learning to translate information into simpler terms and learning someone else’s way of thinking was really helpful to me. It helped me to become a better student, as well as a better teacher.”

Clark said he would not have achieved all that he has without the support of those around him.

“Without a doubt, I could have not gotten the scholarship or even gotten into the school’s that I got into, if it weren’t for the influence of so many different people,” Clark said. “Foremost among those being my parents, but also my teachers and the Brookhaven School District. You know, it really does take a village to raise a child, and I owe a lot of people a lot of things. My parents have always been very good about pushing me toward those opportunities that are best for me, but at the same time letting me make my own mistakes, letting me make my own choices. I really think they achieved a good balance between giving me the freedom to make my own path, but also guiding me every step of the way.”