From Marion to Spain, IWU’s Impact is Strong: Navar Watson

By: Dezaray Barr

Navar Watson, photo by Glen E. Devitt

If both of your parents attended and graduated from a specific university, that would naturally be the last place on your list.

This was the case for Navar Watson. “My parents are both alumni of IWU, so naturally, it was the last place on my list of colleges to attend,” Watson explained.

“Then I did an overnight visit on campus and enjoyed it very much. IWU beat out any other college or university I was considering. The communication department offered plenty of hands-on experience and extracurriculars.”

Watson graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) in 2016 with a degree from the IWU Division of Communication & Theatre in convergent journalism, and he said that his time at IWU was fantastic… something he wouldn’t trade for the world.

“I developed some of the strongest relationships in my life with fellow students; I developed incredible relationships with my professors as well. I loved them, and I could tell they genuinely loved and cared about me. I can’t be thankful enough for that,” Watson elaborated.

It wasn’t just the relationships that he made during his time at IWU that changed his life – it was also the impact IWU had on his spiritual life.

“I can’t begin to describe how much IWU impacted my faith,” Watson said. “What benefited me the most was exposure to people – students, professors and faculty members – whose personal backgrounds and perceptions of God differed from mine. It’s critically important to understand faith through other people’s eyes, and experiences with other people helped shape, and continue to shape, my own understanding of it.”

Navar Watson

Immediately after graduating from IWU, Watson jumped into a journalism career working with the Chronicle-Tribune newspaper in Marion for a year and a half.

Now, Watson is in Spain teaching English as a foreign language.

In both career paths, Watson’s education at IWU has been incredibly influential.

“My classes, professors and experiences at IWU helped establish a confidence in myself and my abilities. That confidence allowed me to excel in my newspaper career (gaining three state journalism awards in the process), take risks in life and more recently, move halfway across the world and embrace an unknown future,” Watson explained.

There are two pieces of advice Watson wishes to share with IWU students, because he wishes someone had told him these things.

One, “Don’t sweat life. It’s fun. It’s one big video game.”

And two, “Don’t worry about figuring everything out right now. In the words of singer Tony Bennett, ‘Life teaches you really how to live it, if you can live long enough.'”

Written by Dezaray Barr, PR Specialist for the IWU Alumni Office. Dezaray is a senior Strategic Communication, Journalism and Honors Humanities triple major at Indiana Wesleyan University in the John Wesley Honors College. Visit Dez’s website at www.dezaraybarr.weebly.com.

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