The Hillsdale County Fair opened on Sunday. Jack Cote | Collegian
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Vol. 146 Issue 6 - September 29, 2022
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Q &A: Fall Pulliam Fellow, Alexandra DeSanctis By Thomas McKenna Collegian Freelancer Alexandra DeSanctis is a staff writer for National Review and a visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. As the fall 2022 Eugene C. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Journalism, she taught a one-credit course on campus called Reporting in an Age of Controversy. Her recent book, co-written with Ryan T. Anderson, is “Tearing Us Apart: How Abortion Harms Everything and Solves
Nothing.” How did you first get started writing and reporting? When I got to Notre Dame, I became a staff writer for the Irish Rover, which is the independent student newspaper. I wrote for that paper as a freshman, and then throughout college, I just kept rising up the ranks of the paper. I ended up as executive editor my senior year and managed layout for two years. By the time I graduated, I was able to get a fellowship at National Review as a writer. Once I got there, I just never
really wanted to leave. What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned while writing for National Review? The most important thing for a young writer is to build expertise and credibility. I didn't necessarily do it intentionally or consciously. But I really made a place for myself at National Review by finding a few issues that I cared about, building up my knowledge, and writing about them frequently to the point where my editors and my readers began to trust me on those issues.
How did you choose abortion as the focus of your journalism? I grew up in a very prolife home. I didn't graduate college with the intention of becoming an abortion beat reporter. I wouldn't have considered something like that even existed. But when I got to National Review, I was given a lot of freedom to write about what I cared about, even to do opinion writing. The more I was given the freedom to find what I was passionate about, the
more I just came back to the life issue. I've always felt that this is the greatest human rights tragedy of our time. I've always felt very strongly that I had a responsibility to do something about that. It just happened that I was in the right place at the right time with the talents I had to do a small part. What advice would you give to young aspiring writers and journalists here at Hillsdale? Write a lot. Read a lot. Those are the first two things you can do to become a better writer in general. When it
comes to journalism specifically or media, I think it's a very specific calling. It's not something that one should just do because they can write. It's not something you go into if you want to be a millionaire. You really do have to feel called and feel a sense that this is how you’re called to use your talents. At that point, I think it’s just about finding where you fit. How do your talents and your desires fit into the media landscape?
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Composer to debut song for Choral Evensong By Elyse Apel Opinions Editor
Sophomores Sarah Gregory and Dominic Pappalardo enjoy lemonade at the fair. Jack Cote | Collegian
The Hillsdale College Chamber Choir will perform a Choral Evensong service commissioned by the college and composed by Andrew Maxfield Oct. 2 at 2:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel. “I’m excited that this is ours and it is written specifically for Christ Chapel,” said James Holleman, professor of music. “It meets Dr. Arnn’s vision of music in Christ Chapel and it brings everything together.” The service is the culmination of a multi-year project. “Going back several years, Dr. Arnn had the idea when we were building the chapel to have Evensong on a regular basis, so I thought, ‘Let’s commission an original setting of an Evensong,” Holleman said. Maxfield is a world-renowned composer and was a Composer Fellow of the National Collegiate Choral
Organization and Composer-in-Residence for Newburyport Choral Society and Southern Virginia University. Holleman first met Andrew Maxfield in 2019 and decided to approach him about composing an Evensong service in 2020. “We locked him in during the spring of 2020, and he started writing that summer, so this has been a really fruitful relationship with this young composer who’s getting his music performed all over the world right now,” Holleman said. “He’s doing great things, and he’s just a terrific person.” Maxfield arrived in Hillsdale on Wednesday, which allowed him time to practice in person with the choir, something junior Paul Lindauer said he is looking forward to. “Maxfield is a young and talented composer with an engaging personality,” Lindauer said.
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Hillsdale Community Foundation grants GOAL $25,000 By Maddy Welsh assistant Editor The Hillsdale County Community Foundation has awarded $25,000 to the GOAL programs to fund volunteer efforts for this academic year. The funds will be split between the 26 GOAL volunteer programs, junior and GOAL Coordinator Mary Ann Powers said. The Hillsdale County Community Foundation is a nonprofit that provides funding and grants for local service groups and frequently works with Hillsdale’s GOAL program. “Since GOAL is so focused on being involved with the wider local community, the Hillsdale County Community Foundation really wants to help strengthen that as much as they can,” senior and GOAL Director Lucy Cuneo said. GOAL leaders had to write grant proposals and give presentations about how they would use the grant money in their respective programs. They could request up to $1,500 each and had to have a plan of what they would do if they did not receive every
dollar they requested. “They use that money to do things from volunteer appreciation to getting materials to help with the volunteering programs,” Cuneo said. “It's a really wonderful way of being able to serve the community and direct the funds from HCCF towards places that we see need.” GOAL hopes to expand its reach this year, and the grant money will help with that, Powers said. “Our goals for this next year are going to be to expand our impact on the community with our two big service projects," Powers said. “This year, we’re hoping to, one, expand the impact of our service projects by increasing the number of volunteers, and two, unite the campus volunteers with the actual community members.” Cuneo, who was the GOAL coordinator last year, said she has noticed an increase in service since she has been involved in the program. “Day of Service has only been going on for three years,” she said. “The second annual Day of Service had about 250 people in attendance. The third annual had 300. For this next Day
of Service, we are aiming for 500.” Junior Emma Widmer, who runs the Humane Society GOAL program, said she plans to use her grant money to promote the program and provide volunteer appreciation for people who consistently visit the animal shelters included under the program’s umbrella. She said she wants to see students get more involved with the community at large and hopes the things she’s able to do with the grant money will help. “I’ve been trying to get people at the shelters as much as possible and really get the connections between the college students and the community to be really solid,” Widmer said. Senior Beth Potwardowski runs the Community Health Outreach program, which encompasses multiple volunteer opportunities such as semesterly blood drives, the free clinic, and hospice care. “They’re all super small nonprofits that really do rely on our volunteers to make their daily operations run smoothly,” Potwardowski said. “The grants help fill in the financial gaps that a lot of the
organizations basically run on a daily basis.” She said she will also use some of her funds for volunteer appreciation. Cuneo said she encourages students to look be-
yond themselves and serve the Hillsdale community. “College is a time when you’re able to be selfish,” Cuneo said. “So it takes a real act of will to get beyond yourself, which is
Junior Mary Ann Powers and senior Lucy Cuneo hold a $25,000 check addressed to GOAL. Courtesy | Emma Purdy
essential if we’re reading Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, all these things – they tell us to be virtuous, not just to think virtuously but to act in accordance with that.”