An Undergraduate Dad

Upon arriving in Cambridge, many freshmen struggle try to find enough hours in the day to balance extracurricular activities, classes, and college life.

But when John K. Wand ’74 showed up at Harvard four decades ago, he was faced with an added challenge: fatherhood.

After learning that his high school sweetheart was pregnant, Wand married her during the summer after his senior year in high school, and the two moved together from Boise, Idaho, to Cambridge, where their son was born. But his new wife soon left Wand to raise his son and handle Harvard on his own.

Wand’s experience provides the inspiration for a new movie, Freshman Father, which is showing on the Hallmark Channel tonight at 9 p.m.

Though some details of the story have been changed—the movie is set in the present day, and the events have been condensed to fit within freshman year—Wand told the Boston Herald that the movie is a mostly accurate reflection of his life.

He said that he and his son, now 39, both planned to watch the movie.