On Tuesday, April 1, Skeptics attendees will have the privilege of hearing from Waggonner & Ball senior architect and project manager, Dixon Jelich ’07. In his first Skeptics event, Mr. Jelich plans to discuss how his career in architecture began—tracing it back to an opportunity he had while attending Blair. 

“My dad drove me 20 minutes to school every day from the time I was in kindergarten to eighth grade,” shared Mr. Jelich in a pre-event interview. “We lived in a rural area and the ride to school was very scenic. As the years went by, I observed more fields and natural resources being turned into monopoly developments.”

Little did Mr. Jelich know that his keen observation as a young boy riding in his father’s car would soon be met with an opportunity to fulfill an unknown passion of his—curating careful architecture projects.

“Looking back now, the architecture class that Blair offered gave me the experience to know that’s what I wanted to do as a profession. To this day, I credit Mr. Eli King for giving us hands-on experience and the rigor of learning, by hand, how to draft and properly letter. Even though we live in a digital world today, the experience of knowing how it was once done, and the instruction in attention to detail, has made me a stronger architect.”

After graduating from Blair in 2007, Mr. Jelich went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Tulane University. Soon after graduate school, he began accruing professional experience—first at bildDESIGN, a three-person contemporary residential design/build firm, then at Albert Architecture as a designer on residential and commercial projects both historically significant and new construction. Now,  as a senior architect for Waggonner & Ball in New Orleans, Mr. Jelich works at a firm at the crossroads of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, coastal resilience and the concept of “living with water.”

When the alum is not busy at work, he dedicates his time to  mentoring other students and young professionals. When back at the hilltop, Mr. Jelich looks forward to sharing his experiences and offering valuable advice to pay it forward and think big.

“I love being a mentor. I love being someone whom others look up to and learn from while doing the same with those whom I can learn from.”

For Blair students, he urges them to “Not be afraid to try and/or fail at something. Take (calculated) chances. You miss the shots you don’t take, and even if you miss, you learned something—whether negative or positive. You can learn something from everyone you encounter and the challenges that life throws at you.”

Click "play" below to watch Mr. Jelich's Skeptics presentation.

History of Skeptics

The Society of Skeptics was established as a forum for students and faculty to discuss and debate important global issues; it has grown to become one of the premier high school lecture series in the United States. Each week, speakers from the political, social, scientific, economic and literary arenas share their unique perspectives with students, who are encouraged to engage with presenters, asking questions and debating points of view.

The program, which is funded in part by the Class of 1968 Society of Skeptics Endowment Fund, is an outgrowth of the Blair International Society, begun in 1937. Forty years later, former history department chair Elliott Trommald, PhD, Hon. ’65, established the modern Skeptics program as a regular forum for student discussion and debate; history teacher Martin Miller, PhD, took over in the mid-1980s and molded the program into a weekly lecture series, one that has since continued without interruption. Under the tutelage of Dr. Miller and his successor, history department chair Jason Beck, Skeptics has featured a wide variety of speakers who are thought-provoking, engaging, accomplished in their respective fields and often controversial. For a listing of upcoming Skeptics programs, please visit Blair’s website.