Will Veitkus became acquainted with Hillsdale College through the Imprimis newsletter as well as the High School Study Abroad Program. He studied Classics, History, and Philosophy at Hillsdale and graduated in 2017. Will fell in love with teaching after working at a charter school in Florida. He especially enjoyed: Founding and chairing the Classics Department at Classical Prep; teaching middle school Latin; and, coaching soccer. As someone who is deeply committed to the liberal arts, Will is grateful for Hillsdale’s approach to education. Through the Masters in Classical Education program, he hopes to become better equipped to share his passion for the moral, intellectual, and classical education of souls.
Recent professional developments: Foundation and Chairmanship of Classics Department at Classical Preparatory School in Spring Hill, FL.
Post-graduation plans: Upon graduating, Will plans to pursue either a Ph.D. in Education, or to work in an organization that fosters far-reaching educational reformation. Will has a passion for human interaction with teachers, parents, and general stakeholders, and would like to pursue consulting as a means of general educational advancement
Extracurricular academic activities: Willis currently working to prepare and publish academic articles in relevant journals to contribute to dialogue both in the world of Education and Classics.
What has been the thing you’ve appreciated most about your time here: Without a doubt, my greatest appreciation since being back at the College is the ability to have questions answered and to join in academic discussion with professors and peers. As a teacher, I spent a great deal of time giving answers to curious young minds, but I found that my own wondering fell into an abyss. So here in the Graduate School of Education, despite my depth of teaching experience, I find that I don’t bring five years' worth of answers to the table, but in the spirit of Socratic Humility, I bring five years' worth of questions to the table, and the ability to engage in those questions with likeminded, intelligent, individuals has been the most fulfilling aspect of this program for me.
What has been your greatest academic challenge thus far: Prioritization of loves. I love everything that we are learning and I see endless possibility in what we encounter on a day-to-day basis. I want to synthesize every idea instantly and when you encounter great minds and great literature from the tradition, there is a temptation to want to fully digest every word and every ideal instantly, but one must have humility in the undertaking, and realize that we must treat our heritage with respect and reverence and “make haste slowly” loving what is most beautiful but also realizing that we cannot perfectly digest millennia of tradition and scholarship overnight.
What is distinctive about Hillsdale’s Graduate School of Classical Education: I think that the name speaks for itself. Hillsdale is doing something unprecedented. I know all too well the shape that advanced degrees in Education can take. Almost universally they do not aim at telos, but rather at technicality and cutting-edge analysis. This program is the only one of its kind. Here we seek to give meaningful expression to the very purpose of education. Education, in the modern parlance, is nearly indistinguishable from “indoctrination”. Whereas, in this program, our understanding of education is deeply concerned with the cultivation of the soul and the ways in which the soul is cultivated. So, what's unique about this program is that we seek ends, not simply means. Contemporary education is predominately means driven, but here, we stop, we pause, we take time to think about the ends of a human being, the inherent dignity and value of each individual soul, and that, I think, sets us worlds apart from all other programs that would claim to be “educating”.
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