Laura was raised in southern Ohio and always felt drawn to education and European culture, as was introduced to her by her family growing up. She reified that love by studying abroad in France her junior year of high school, and furthered it in her undergraduate studies at Hillsdale College, where she took many courses outside of her major, including Music, Art, Education, and History. Upon completing her degree in three years, she and her husband settled in the greater Green Bay area, where she worked professionally as a bilingual account manager for Kohler Co. and was later called to teach for Providence Academy, a Classical Christian School, for eight years. There she founded their modern foreign language program where she innovated how to teach French classically to high school students. Laura also redesigned, wrote, and taught their middle school literature and composition curriculum. Laura is thrilled to be back in Hillsdale with her wonderful husband Jack, also a ‘07 graduate, and their five children, where they can pursue classical education as a family. She is looking forward to seeing how God will call her to combine her experience as a graduate student, teacher, and parent to reify her loves.
Research interests:
Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Medieval Paideia, Classic Children’s Literature, Christian Education, and Mechanical Arts Education.
What has been the thing you’ve appreciated most about your time here?
Being able to sit and learn under great minds with rich conversation is irreplaceable. I love entering into the worlds, histories, and philosophies of the literature we study. Right now, reading is my job, but it is also my delight. Learning alongside my fellow MACE students brings a synthesis of challenge and joy. We are not only being instructed in classical education, we are being educated classically in the process. I am fully conscious of the intellectual lineage I am inheriting, which triggers a response of immense gratitude and responsibility. I am reminded of how blessed I am every day I walk up the hill.
What has been your greatest academic challenge thus far?
Balance. A married graduate student with children must be ready to correctly order one’s loves. We are here at this particular place, for a brief time, for a particular purpose. A commitment to the program is a commitment to doing what is best for this season. You and your family must be all in- together.
What is distinctive about Hillsdale’s School of Classical Education?
The students, professors, guest lecturers, and the minds we study are hallmarks of the program, but what does that actually mean? It is commonplace to praise an institution’s faculty and program, but my studies have made me acutely aware of the influence of single places and individuals throughout history. As we read in John Henry Newman, “There has only been one Judaea, one Greece, one Rome; one Homer, one Cicero, one Caesar, one Constantine, one Charlemagne.” Though this institution and its faculty may seem small in the course of human events, they are certainly shaping mine. There is only one Hillsdale, one Arnn, one Coupland, one Whalen, one Ellis, one Diener, one Smith, and one Beier. Come and let them shape you, too.
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