Interviews compiled by Micah Meadowcroft and Ramona Tausz:
Viktor Rozsa is from Chelsea, Mich., and majoring in physics and mathematics. He was a resident assistant in Niedfeldt and Koon residences, served on Student Federation for two years, played cello with the orchestra throughout his Hillsdale career, sang with both choirs on campus, and was involved in Science Olympiad. Rozsa is a member of the Honors Program, physics honorary, mathematics honorary, and the Hillsdale Camerata. After graduation, he plans to attend graduate school, having been accepted to seven different doctorate programs. His top choices are Northwestern University for materials science or University of Chicago for molecular engineering. Compiled by Micah Meadowcroft.
Why do you think you are the Outstanding Senior Man?
It’s a huge honor. I’m thankful to all of my friends and the faculty that have made my Hillsdale experience what it is. I’m not really comfortable with the title because I know so many outstanding men in my class. It’s a huge honor to get to represent them. It’s my greatest pleasure to get to know my senior class in different ways.
What about your Hillsdale experience are you grateful for?
Academically speaking, I’m grateful for the synthesis of classical liberal arts training but also being able to study physics and math and being in an intellectual climate where all these ideas are talked about. It’s incredibly unique to Hillsdale. It is critical to contextualize my studies of science and mathematics in their proper roles as they relate to the rest of the corpus of human knowledge and experience. Studying the humanities is crucial to being a good scientist.
On a personal level, I’ve never been in a place with a kinder, more gracious, really friendly and vibrant community than my friends and faculty. The friendships that I’ve formed at Hillsdale are dear to me and I know they will be permanent.
Music has been a big part of my life on campus. In addition to choir and orchestra, I’ve played cello for Ceilidh, snare drum for the Tulloch Ard pipe band, and am so grateful for the musical opportunities here at Hillsdale. When I think about my Hillsdale experience, some of my best memories have been formed through the music department or in playing music with friends. It’s incredible how musically talented the students on this campus are.
Do you have any advice for underclassmen?
Join the choir and sing in Handel’s “Messiah.”
If you could major in anything else, what would you major in and why?
English. Studying literature is one of the best avenues for encountering beauty and understanding how others have thought about human interaction and our relationship to the divine.
Who is an author that has influenced your thinking while at Hillsdale? How?
Johannes Kepler — he had a doxological view of science, in that his science aimed to glorify God. I find it fascinating to learn from and to appreciate Kepler’s fundamental beliefs about symmetry and harmony in nature.
Describe a memory that is representative of your whole Hillsdale experience.
Singing Irish songs at the Honors retreat freshman year and getting my first glimpse of the academic and spiritual brotherhood at Hillsdale.
Are you looking forward to being 21?
Embarrassed laughter. Yes.
You’re good friends with Caleb Whitmer, editorinchief of The Collegian. When did you meet? I thought Caleb was a really weird kid. I didn’t meet him till we started throwing water at each other in our dorm — we had ice cube wars in Niedfelt.
Mary Proffit Kimmel is from Pensacola, Fla. An English major and eight credits short of a Greek major, she will probably end up teaching or working in marketing or PR either in the Midwest or on the East Coast. She is a member of the Honors Program, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and the math, classics, and literature honoraries. During her time at Hillsdale she sang in chamber choir and volunteered at The Manor, a home for abused and handicapped kids. She works at Jitters and teaches Latin at the Hillsdale Preparatory School.Compiled by Ramona Tausz.
Why do you think you are the Outstanding Senior Woman?
I don’t know. I don’t feel as successful as Hannah Akin or Brittany Baldwin, the last two Outstanding Senior Women, and I really respect and love Jess and Grace Marie. As the whole process was happening, I was thinking, “People didn’t respect and love Hannah and Brittany because of their recognition and their fame, they loved them because they were humble and kind and selfgiving, and I want to be all of those things.” I’ve always felt really stressed and torn between my involvement and my responsibilities and my studies and my friends, and doing well in all of them. It finally feels like I’m getting the hang of it senior year. I’m actually hitting my stride and kind of balancing it.
What about your Hillsdale experience are you grateful for?
I’ve been really humbled in a lot of ways. Like getting a C on my first paper, and not getting hired to be a student ambassador. Just all those little things that wound your pride. I’ve been really humbled by how kind the people are and how giving the professors are.
Do you have any advice for underclassmen?
Multitasking is a myth, so if you’re going to study, hide your phone under a rock so it doesn’t distract you. A lot of the wisest things I’ve ever heard came from Dr. Stephen Smith’s syllabus, like, “You don’t need a nap, you just need to go for a brisk walk.” Staying focused is so beneficial. If you’re socializing, socialize all the way, but if you’re studying, study all the way.
If you could major in anything else, what would you major in and why?
Maybe economics, because I don’t know anything about it, and I feel like I’d know more about the world if I understood money and power and trade. I feel like that’s practical knowledge that’s really lacking in me.
Who is an author that has influenced your thinking while at Hillsdale? Why?
I guess it’s cliche to say Shakespeare and Dante, because they’re the two biggest authors of all time, but I did take them for a year in succession with Dr. Smith, and it was really informative, because they both just show you how sin contorts and twists everything, and how messed up everyone can end, and how all your little decisions can bring about this tragic result. And they show both how human action can end well and how it can end poorly, and the importance of the will and the intellect and how they interplay.
Describe a memory that is representative of your whole Hillsdale experience.
There’s always a Christmas party on Dec. 1 at the Treehouse, and people wear ridiculous Christmas pajamas. We all just sing Christmas carols on a school night and have a great time, underclassmen and upperclassmen. The fact that people are coming together with joy and they’re not embarrassed to wear ridiculous Christmas outfits. It’s really fun and we’ve done it every year.
Hillsdale’s Cteam in mock trial received a bid for an Opening Round Championship tournament after competing successfully in a regional tournament.
Both the A and B teams did not receive bids.
On Feb. 15, team 1030 competed at a regional tournament in Pennsylvania and won a bid to the next tournament.
One week later, teams 1028 and 1029 competed at a similar tournament at the University of Notre Dame, but ran into difficulties.
“We just had the lineup from Hell,” senior and 1029 captain Abby Loxton said.
They competed some of the hardest teams in the tournament, and came close to earning a spot at the next tournament, but fell just short.
Sophomore Jack Shannon, a captain of 1028, said the tournament measured a statistic called “combined strength” that gauges the difficulty of each team’s schedule by the number of ballots their opponents win. Team 1028 had the third hardest schedule, and 1029 had the second hardest.
“This is the highest level of competition that we’ve had all year, and we did extremely well under a lot of pressure,” Shannon said. “Due to some unusual circumstances we had in the rounds, we had to adapt, and we ended up giving some of the best performances we’ve had all year.” Loxton said she was disappointed with results that did not reflect the way the rest of the season had gone.
“We won a tournament, we placed in every other tournament we went to — we were in the top eight — except the one that mattered,” she said.
Nevertheless, she was proud of her team’s performance.
“I told my team, ‘If I had to lose an ORCs bid, I would want to lose it with you,’” she said. Coach Keith Miller agreed that both teams performed exceptionally well. He particularly mentioned 1029.
“I can’t say enough about how proud I am about the way our team competed,” he said. “This team was hard as nails, professional through and through, never flinched.”
Junior Philip Hammersley and sophomore Shaun Lichti were both named allregion attorneys at the tournament.
Team 1030 will be competing in Ohio during the last weekend of spring break.
