Grace Thieke grew up in central Minnesota before moving to southern California to attend Biola University. She graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biological science and a minor in chemistry, and as a perpetual member of the Torrey Honors College. After graduation she spent a year working at Orange County Classical Academy before moving to Michigan to pursue her master’s degree in classical education at Hillsdale College.
What brought you to Hillsdale?
After graduating from college, I came across Hillsdale’s master’s program in classical education in my search for a graduate program that would allow me to continue studying the books and ideas I had been exposed to in my undergraduate studies. Growing up in public school, my first exposure to classical education was in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. In this program I read, studied, thought, and wrote about the greatest books in the Western tradition. I fell in love with studying the good, true, and beautiful, and found I desired to continue contemplating these things, and wanted to share this passion with others. After graduation, I had the privilege of working with students at Hillsdale’s classical charter school in Orange County. I witnessed the power these ideas have on the formation of young minds and hearts, through the means of a classical education. Through Hillsdale’s master’s program, I saw the opportunity to continue studying the books and ideas I love and to participate in the formation of future generations.
What is distinctive about Hillsdale’s Graduate School of Classical Education?
Hillsdale’s graduate school is a place where knowledge is seen as intrinsically good, and worth pursuing for its own sake. In this program, students have an opportunity to be prepared to teach in a transformational way. Classical education shapes individuals toward virtue, and its work is foundational—work that lasts. It shapes students’ understanding of what education is and what it is for, through an understanding of what the human person is. This program values the wisdom of classical works and through an intentional and intelligent community of life-long learners, seeks to form its participants to become educators and leaders who will bring this wisdom to the students they teach.
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