Chad Wiedmaier

Classroom

Wiedmaier majors in Sociology with a certificate in Environmental Studies. He wrote his senior thesis on how poverty in Uganda, specifically in rural areas, negatively affects schools and education systems. Wiedmaier has also won best in category in the OIP International Eye Photography Contest the past 2 years.

Character

As team captain, Wiedmaier took a lead role in the team’s support of 10-year-old Nicholas Bates, the son of coach Chris Bates, during the final weeks of Nicholas’ mother Ann’s life. Ann Bates passed away from cancer in November. Chad and the other two captains organized team efforts to ensure that Nicholas was rarely alone, was able to get to all of his activities and was surrounded by the lacrosse players at his events.

Community

Last summer, Wiedmaier spent six weeks working with Fields of Growth in Uganda. Fields of Growth started a school, the HOPEFUL School, in a village called Kkindu. Fields of Growth pays for the tuition of its students, who are all orphans mostly from parents with HIV/AIDS and would otherwise not be able to go to school. When it started, Fields of Growth had been paying for the school’s books, materials, building costs, teacher salaries, etc. Earlier this year, FOG bought three plots of land around the school to create three agricultural co-op businesses: pineapple farming, pigs and chickens. With FOG covering the start up costs to get these projects rolling, the hope is that the businesses will take off, and that the profits from the farms will be used to pay the farmers working the land but primarily to fund the entire school. The food from the farms will also help to feed the students. This is a very unique idea for a self-sustaining school, which hopes to break the usual situation where the taxes determine public expenditure on schools in their area, which is unfortunate for rural areas because there is almost no tax revenue. The plan with this school and these new sustainable agriculture projects is to breathe life into the community, to create a quality form of primary education for the students and to inspire others in the community.

Competition

Wiedmaier is a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection. He could become the first Princeton player (and second and/or third in league history) ever to be a four-time first-team All-Ivy selection. Wiedmaier enters his senior year as a preseason first-team All-American after being selected seventh overall in the 2012 Major League Lacrosse draft. In the last three years, he’s been honored twice as a second-team All-American and once on the third team.