Question: Which academia social circle did this scholar , who later became president of the institute once called Alma college , co-found while in college ?

text: List of Washington & Jefferson College alumni
Academia
Andrew Wylie William Holmes McGuffey
Washington & Jefferson College is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, which is located in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County, Pennsylvania established by three frontier clergymen in the 1780s: John McMillan, Thaddeus Dod, and Joseph Smith. These early schools eventually grew into two competing colleges, with Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania being chartered in 1802 and Washington College being chartered in 1806. These two schools merged in 1865 to form Washington & Jefferson College. As of 2009, Washington & Jefferson College had about 12,000 living alumni. Before the union of the two colleges, Washington College graduated 872 men and Jefferson College graduated 1,936 men. The alumni association recognizes as alumni all students who have completed at least one college year as full-time students. These alumni include James G. Blaine, who served in Congress as Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time United States Secretary of State and the Republican nominee for the 1884 presidential election. Other graduates have held high federal positions, including United States Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin Bristow and United States Attorney General Henry Stanbery, who successfully defended Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. As a U.S. Congressman, Clarence Long was a key figure in directing funds to Operation Cyclone, the CIA's effort to arm the mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War.
Alumni Class year Notability
John Monteith Jefferson 1813 President of University of Michigania ( 1817-1821 )
William Caldwell Anderson Jefferson 1824 President of Miami University ( 1849-1854 )
George D. Archibald Jefferson 1847 President of Hanover College ( 1868-1870 ) ; President of Wilson Female Seminary ( 1873-1874 )
Thomas D. Baird Jefferson 1842 Principal of Baltimore City College ( 1857-1873 ) ; first Professor of Mathematics at Westminster College , Missouri
Simon Strousse Baker 1892 President of Washington & Jefferson College ( 1922-1931 )
James I. Brownson Washington 1836 Longtime trustee of Washington College and Interim President ( 1852-1853 ) ; Chair of the Board of Trustees at Washington & Jefferson College ( 1870 ) ; Presbyterian minister at First Presbyterian Church in Washington , Pennsylvania for over 50 years
William Burnett Jefferson 1832 President of Franklin College , in New Athens , Ohio ( 1839-1840 ) ; Associate Reformed Minister ; gave up ministry to head West
Frederick E. Grine 1974 Professor of Paleoanthropology at Stony Brook University ; expert in hominid taxonomy from the Pliocene era ; led the research team that dated the Hofmeyr Skull
George P. Hays Jefferson 1857 President of Washington & Jefferson College ( 1870-1881 ) ; Presbyterian minister
Andrew Dousa Hepburn Jefferson 1851 President of University of Ohio ( 1871-1873 ) ; President of Davidson College ( 1877-1885 ) ; Professor of Metaphysics , Logic , and Rhetoric ; Presbyterian minister
Frederick A. Hetzel 1952 Editor of University of Pittsburgh Press ( 1963-1994 ) ; founded Drue Heinz Literature Prize and Pitt Poetry Series
George Junkin Jefferson 1813 President of Lafayette College ( 1832-1841 ) ; President Miami University ( 1841-1844 ) ; President Washington College , Virginia ( 1848-1861 ) ; author of many theological books ; Presbyterian minister
John McDowell Leavitt Jefferson 1841 President of Lehigh University ( 1875-1880 ) and St. John 's College in Annapolis , Maryland ( 1880-1889 ) ; founder and editor of International Review ; lawyer , poet , author , and Protestant Episcopal minister
Francis Julius LeMoyne Washington 1815 Nationally known abolitionist , philanthropist , founder of the Washington Female Seminary , and benefactor of LeMoyne-Owen College , a historically Black college in Memphis , Tennessee
Jacob Lindley Dod 1794 First President of Ohio University ( 1809-1822 )
John Livingston Lowes 1888 Scholar of English literature ; wrote The Road to Xanadu : A Study in the Ways of the Imagination , in 1927 , the definitive study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge ; Dean and Professor at Washington University in St. Louis ( 1909-1918 ) and Harvard University ( 1918-1939 )
Samuel McCormick 1880 Chancellor of University of Pittsburgh ( 1904-1921 ) ; he moved the University to its current location in Oakland and fortified its tradition of teacher liberal arts
William Holmes McGuffey Washington 1826 Author of McGuffey Readers ; President of Cincinnati College ( 1836-1839 ) ; President of Ohio University ( 1839-1843 ) ; Professor of Languages and Philosophy
William McMillan Jefferson 1802 President of Jefferson College ( 1817-1822 ) ; first President of Franklin College , in New Athens , Ohio ( 1823-1832 )
James D. Moffat 1869 President of Washington & Jefferson College ( 1881-1915 )