I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as the oldest of five children.  I had the privilege of having my parents educate me at home all the way through high school, a choice that gave me the opportunity to pursue studies in areas as diverse as the classics of western civilization and ornithology.  My parents also gave me an excellent spiritual education, and I grew up as an active member of my home church.  Here at school, I serve as the co-president of the Honors Program and vice president of Mu Alpha, a men's music honorary, tutor middle-school students as a volunteer for the GOAL Program, and assist Hillsdale Christian Fellowship with its campus-wide worship and teaching ministry, UNITE.  I also attend Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a church planted just last year and attended mostly by students.  There's also these things called classes...

My choice proved easy--I only applied to Hillsdale, and I was accepted early decision.  The liberal arts nature of the classes always appealed to me.  In both of my visits before I applied, however, I came away most impressed by the community that is Hillsdale College.  Even as a prospective student, I experienced for myself the closeness of the student body, and the intellectual community that comes about as a result.  I can't imagine a similar environment at any other school.

I continue to be amazed by how closely the professors desire to work with their students.  I myself have developed close relationships with a couple of my professors, and many of my friends do the same.  I have worked closely with professors on research projects, and I expect to do so even more in the future as I write my theses.  I have even eaten meals with professors and their families, all the while interacting over materials from classes.  I can't imagine similar interactions taking place anywhere else but here at Hillsdale.

I plan on attending law school to pursue my passion of defending the First Amendment of the Constitution.  I jokingly tell everyone that I want to study law at Pepperdine, although it would be nice if that turned out to be reality.  After law school, I look forward to settling down in my hometown, raising a family, fighting for religious liberties, and eventually getting involved in government.

One such experience that sticks out in my mind is the opportunity I had to travel as a student to Washington, D.C., as a member of the George Washington Fellowship Program.  With five fellow students, we attended the Churchill Dinner in Washington, D.C., a thrilling opportunity because of the star-studded lineup of guests--Fred Thompson and Justice Clarence Thomas among them--and a stellar speaker, Rush Limbaugh.  We also had the opportunity to spend two days touring Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area with three professors, and to interact closely with them in discussions on statesmen of the past and the nature of their leadership and constitutional principles.

My favorite professor story is the numerous occasions upon which we opened my U.S. Constitution class with Dr. Pestritto by discussing baseball.  As an Orioles fan, I had fun teasing Dr. Pestritto about his Yankees, but of course, he got the better of me, managing to cleverly associate Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists, and the Yankees.  Suffice it to say, I had no good responses.

My history classes often touch upon difficult questions of life, such as the nature of man, and how one can live well, but these are often beyond the purview of history.  Hillsdale's core, particularly in the philosophy and English classes, has encouraged me to think about and pursue answers to these questions.  One cannot be a complete human being without having considered these questions and having attempted to at least propose answers to them.  The core classes, and especially the humanities portion of them, have given me a guided environment in which to examine these questions.

aodell@hillsdale.edu