Lauren was born and raised in a small town outside of Grand Rapids, MI. The eldest of three children born to a pastor and his wife, she grew up in ministry and there discovered her love for working with and for children. She is a graduate of Hillsdale College, where she pursued a degree in English and played violin in the Hillsdale College Symphony Orchestra. After graduating from Hillsdale, Lauren moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she taught sixth grade and coached cross country at a classical Christian school. Teaching quickly proved to be her deepest passion, and she is eager to leave Hillsdale’s Graduate School of Classical Education better equipped to offer her future students the education they deserve.
What brought you to Hillsdale?
Growing up in a public school, it always felt like there was something missing from my educational experience. I loved school and often had more questions than I had answers, but the explicit goal of “producing graduates ready for college admission or employment” was one that I found deeply troubling. But one day, a Hillsdale College representative came to my school and told me about Hillsdale’s philosophy of education, and it felt as though all my unanswered questions had finally been put into words. Never before have I witnessed an institution speak about education so intentionally, beautifully, and deeply. My time at Hillsdale changed me wholly, and as someone who has had my eyes opened to the beauty of the human life, it seems a moral duty and holy joy to take my turn in guiding others in the same. To my delight, I found that the one thing more beautiful than being a student of classical education is to guide others in it as a teacher, and in order that I may better teach, I have comeback to Hillsdale to further my education for the sake of my future students.
What is distinctive about Hillsdale’s Graduate School of Classical Education?
Hillsdale’s Graduate School of Classical Education is focused on deeply grounding its students in understanding the ends of things—what things are ultimately made for. Understanding what man is made for is foundational to determining how best to educate. Spending such significant time discussing man’s end before getting into the logistical aspects of education means that graduates of the Classical Education program are deeply equipped to guide their future students towards lives rich with meaning and beauty. Believing that people are created for more than career-oriented success or societal fame means that the products of this program, both those with M.A.s and their students, will experience lives of significance, and nothing is more beautiful than that. I could not be prouder to be a part of such a program.
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