Religion

I grew up just south of Kansas City, in Overland Park, Kansas. I went to a large public high school where I was involved in the Kansas Association for Youth, the debate and mock trial teams, and my church. I spent my free time biking, used-book-hunting, kayaking, and doing community service (to this day, I call a mean game of bingo). Up here in Hillsdale, I’m in the Honors Program, am a member of the firearms club, work at my church’s nursery, and am one of the captains of the mock trial team.

I was hugely impressed by the students and by the professors. I knew I wanted to study the humanities, and I wanted to study them under people I could trust intellectually. All too often in high school I found myself having to fill in details myself, or disagreeing with what was being taught. I knew I wanted an experience where the instructors were dedicated to discerning truth rather than imparting their own beliefs, and Hillsdale’s method of study (with heavy use of primary source documents) shows this school’s dedication to that principle. I also remember being really, really impressed by the students here, and I decided I wanted to attend a school that attracted and turned out such outstanding people.

The people. Granted the school’s reputation for academics, during the application process I was afraid that Hillsdale College would be peopled with a lot of, at best, noisy ideologues and, at worst, crotchety academics. I was wrong on both counts. What I found instead was a body of students and faculty genuinely interested in not only living the life of the mind, but also living adventurously. I’ve had great conversations about what it means to be a man, or comparing Hedda Gabler to Hamlet, or contrasting Cicero, CS Lewis and the Apostle Paul’s view of the natural law,– but I’ve had these conversations while on day trips to Chicago, while pelting snowballs off the roof of classroom buildings, while blasting clay pigeons, and while gorging down spicy garlic chicken wings in the next town over. Hillsdale has a vibrant intellectual world that complements, rather than crowds out, the social scene.

Hillsdale College was my first taste of classical education, but since coming to this school, I’ve come to realize what a classical education is and why a classical education works. I really believe that the type of education Hillsdale College has preserved is the best bet in combating a lot of the problems our communities face, and that said, I’d like to work to advance classical education in the United States as a teacher, a principal, or as a legal or legislative advocate.

While a prospective student, I happened to run into Dr. Kiledal, the director of the Speech Department. I loved doing mock trial in high school, so I sort of facetiously told her that my main hesitation about Hillsdale was its lack of a mock trial team; without blinking, she told me that if there was interest, the College would start a program. After coming here, and after rustling up some interest in the program, the College hired a coach, registered us with the American Mock Trial Association, and provided the funding to start a team. We’ve competed at colleges and in courtrooms throughout the region, and while learning a lot about the law, about performance, about decorum and about effective argument, I’ve also spent great time and become close friends with some of the nicest students and brightest minds from both Hillsdale College and other schools in the region.

During American Heritage class, Dr. Birzer delivered a lecture on Hillsdale College’s involvement during the Civil War. We spend a lot of time learning about how Hillsdale students had put those ideas into practice. To make that point, Dr. Birzer took us out to the war statue in order to describe the sacrifice our alumni made during the Civil War, and he explained that as students, we share a heritage with men who closed their books about Plato’s Republic and took up arms to defend their own republic in numbers surpassing every non-military college in the country.

I walked away with a new appreciation for what we do here. Discovering the truth, and Hillsdale is a place dedicated to discovering the truth of things, comes with a heavy responsibility: once you’ve found it, you’re obligated to defend it. I learned that day that Hillsdale College has always risen up to defend it. I hope that in my life, I will defend it just a fraction as valiantly as they did.

In 1875, Hillsdale’s graduating class gave a really weird class gift; they poured a little block of concrete and inscribed it with two words. The block still sits outside of Lane Hall today, proudly challenging passing students to “PROVE IT.” The core curriculum has taught me how to do just that – to prove things, rather than merely accept or assume them. That ability, to ground myself firmly in the concrete, permanent things, and to be able to prove them, has done for me just what it did for the class of 1875; it has opened my mind, helped me to examine and understand my life and my purpose better, and has encouraged me to challenge other people to “prove it” in their own lives.

egage@hillsdale.edu