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Student Support Services Inspired by Former Campus Leader
by Sable Adams
Jason Wunsh as SGA President in 1996
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As a very young child, Jason Wunsch loved school, was outgoing, and seemed to be bright. Then at age eight he was classified as having a learning disability because he wasn't good with written work.
"Experts said he couldn't accomplish a lot in life," said his mother, Debi Drecksler.
The experts were wrong. Wunsch, a 1996 graduate of Mars Hill College and of the Student Support Services program, went on to law school and became a lawyer.
His parents told his story at the Student Support Services 20th Anniversary Banquet on April 17. Wunsch was listed as banquet speaker, but his parents agreed to speak on his behalf when he could not attend.
Today (far left) with his law office group
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After the experts told her that Jason wouldn't accomplish a lot, Debi went home with her son and fixed dinner. As she was cooking, she suddenly realized that Jason was nowhere to be found. Finally Debi found him crying alone in a closet. "Why are you crying?" she asked him. Through his tears he said, "Mommy, I am nobody. I am never going to accomplish anything."
Debi explained to her distraught child that if he believed in himself, he could accomplish anything, and that she believed in him.
High school rolled around and teachers continually kept preaching about the SAT college entrance exams, and how if the students' scores weren't high enough, they wouldn't get accepted to a college. That was when his mother started to worry again.
Wunsch ended up doing fine on his SATs, and the despair of worrying about high school left him. Now his focus was on finding a college that would help him with his disability.
Mars Hill College accepted Wunsch for an interview. Wunsch began by apologizing for his disability. The interviewers stopped him and asked him what MHC could do for him, because they also believed that he could succeed.
Wunsch was accepted as a full-time student at Mars Hill College. During his four years he was elected vice president of the freshmen class, president of the sophomore and junior classes, and, during his senior year, president of the student body.
He graduated from Mars Hill College in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, focusing on secondary education.
Rather than teaching, Wunsch continued on to Campbell University School of Law, where he earned his J.D. degree in 1999.
Wunsch's parents
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He went on to become a lawyer and has private law offices in Lillington, N.C. and Holly Springs. His practice areas are criminal law, traffic violations, real estate and civil law. To view Wunsch's website go to: www.wunschlawfirm.com.
After his graduation from law school, he and his new wife adopted a little girl who is now about four years old. As a baby, before they adopted her, she had been found in a drug-induced coma because her parents were using drugs. From the beginning, the adoption agency told Wunsch about the problems this little girl had. She had been in numerous foster homes. But even without seeing her, he and his wife decided to adopt her. Wunsch wanted to love her unconditionally, no matter what her circumstance was. He knew he wanted to love her because of the problems that he had been through himself. He never even saw a photo of her, but just took her right into his home.
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