Executive Assistant and Marketing Coordinator at Capital Design Associates, Inc.

I was homeschooled through high school on the Kolbe Academy accredited homeschool curriculum out of Napa, California. I wanted to get a solid B.A. from a college where I wouldn't be coerced into enrolling in "Sexual Diversity" seminars and hearing ideology instead of truth in the classroom from my professors. I wanted a school small enough that real learning would be fostered in and out of the classroom but large enough to give me access to a full range of extracurricular activities and opportunities that are so crucial to a well-rounded undergraduate experience. I found out about Hillsdale from the career fair Kolbe Academy hosted and posted on their Web site, and while it was not my first choice at the outset of my college search (I was looking for a Catholic college), it quickly proved itself to be exactly what I was looking for after I visited the campus and spoke with other students. I enjoyed my four years there more than I can say, and the friends I met there I still consider among my closest. I know this may sound trite, but Hillsdale really changed my life and changed the way I thought about so many things. The liberal arts education I received there was easily one of the best this country has to offer, and no matter what field you want to specialize in later, the strong foundation Hillsdale gives you is indispensable. After graduating, I worked for a year in Charlotte as an executive assistant and sales representative while I waited for my fiancee, Tim Nielsen, to finish his Hillsdale degree. After our wedding in June of 2007, we moved to the Greenville area where we currently reside.

The liberal arts are a lifestyle. Learning what it means to be human is a lifelong pursuit. The desire for a deeper and deeper acquaintance with truth doesn't leave you after you walk the stage after four years at Hillsdale - you just no longer get graded on it.

Don't sacrifice real learning for mere career training as an undergrad. Your years as an undergrad shape you as a person more then you can imagine right now, so put that power (and that money) in the hands of an institution you trust to help form you as a person. Career training can come from anywhere, and will. Also, don't worry about the money. Hillsdale has a wonderful financial aid department, and no deserving student is overlooked. Besides, you'll never take out a loan for a better cause: education for life.

(see biography)

(see "What was the most important thing you learned while attending Hillsdale College")

The friends! This included the professors and the friendships I made with them. I know now I will never again be in a place where there are so many people so close and so willing to discuss Dante or The Conservative Mind or how phenomenology affects the evangelical mission of the church in the 21st century. Classroom learning came to life over the lunch tables in Saga where discussions would often carry on for hours. Nowhere else will you be able to share inside jokes using lines from a T.S. Eliot poem. It's the Hillsdale culture I miss so much. The people made the culture, and Hillsdale people are one in a million. We sadly live in a very anti-intellectual (or faux-intellectual) culture, where honest and fearless pursuit of truth is just not to be found. And I miss that camaraderie.

alyciamegan@gmail.com