Politics

I was born in Livingston, Montana, and moved to Federal Way, Washington, near Seattle at 18 months. I have two older brothers and one younger, all of whom are fantastic people that I adore. In elementary school, I took up the flute and Irish Step Dancing, the latter of which is still a strong passion of mine. Around middle school, I began to realize my interest in current events and thought that I might like to study journalism. As my understanding of history grew, this evolved into a curiosity to learn about the founding and history of the United States, why its existence was clearly an amazing accomplishment, and why the problems that we have today exist in the first place. In high school, I did the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and also became heavily involved in musical theatre, solo, and choir vocal performance. At the same time, I continued to have increasingly involved political and economic discussions with my parents and family, discussions which were either avoided or butchered terribly in my public education. Upon discovering Hillsdale's existence, I became intensely excited at the prospect of going to a college that focused on these things from the classical approach...so here I am!

I chose to attend Hillsdale because I wanted a small-school environment where I would be able to be part of a community of peers who cared about learning. I wanted a school where I would get to know my professors and could trust that they were experts in their fields who genuinely cared about teaching. Hillsdale is dedicated to providing a rigorous and excellent education, grounded in free thinking, that enables the students not only to make a living, but to grapple with the question of how to live well. This includes taking courses dedicated to the study of our nation’s history and founding, as well as the moral, political, and cultural foundations of Western Civilization. In terms of choosing where I wanted to go and what I wanted to support in pursuing a broad liberal arts education, there was just no competition.

Probably what I love best about Hillsdale is its size...in physical terms as well as the number of students and faculty. I've loved the relatively small size because at the same time that I've felt able to be part of a close and intellectually diverse community, I'm also constantly meeting new people. At Hillsdale, you are not a number and there isn't the same phenomenon of being alone in a crowd which often happens at larger universities. This also means that I've gotten to benefit from awesome relationships with my professors as well as my peers. That's something that can't be measured or portrayed on a brochure very well. And yet it has already been an indispensable part of my education that I know I wouldn't be able to experience at just any school.

I am not completely sure yet, but that's what I'm here to find out! I would love to attend graduate school right away if the time is right, hopefully to continue studying economics.

I've seen Josh Turner live at the Hillsdale County Fair, campaigned door-to-door in Ohio, played a puppet parrot in a play (alliteration not intentional), heard famous speakers such as Steve Forbes, shot my first gun, been in multiple ice storms, traveled to D.C. for the March for Life with friends, interned at the Freedom Foundation this past summer (an application I heard of through Hillsdale)...I could probably go on for a while.

My first semester, I was engaged in an on-going historical/political debate with a friend. After awhile I had so many questions that I wound up visiting a professor in his office, even though he was not my professor at the time. He was extremely receptive to me and also very helpful in offering fascinating information. When the time came to register for second semester classes, it turned out that I very much wanted to take one of his classes, but it was already full. As a freshman, I was at the end of the waiting list. When I asked the professor about it, he bumped me up the list and put me in his class because he remembered me from that one academic discussion that we had had.

I have learned more in three months here than I ever did in high school, and every day I thank God for the blessing of going to school to learn about things that I want to learn about...questions not only of academic knowledge, but also of what it means to be human and what it means to live a happy and full life. These discussions are constantly at the heart of Hillsdale's advocacy for pursuing truth through the lens of studying Western Civilization. Hillsdale's core is unique, and I believe it is providing a particular type of education that is not widely available and of which there is a great need.

pconant@hillsdale.edu