“It’s not what you do, it’s who you are,” Professor of Chemistry Lee Baron said.
Baron, faculty co-adviser for the Lamplighters — with Professor of Speech Kirstin Kiledal — said that membership in the organization is more than an activity and more than a mark on your resume. It is a shared way of life.
Each year, eight junior women are selected to represent the Lamplighters during their senior year. This year, juniors Christina Lambert, Sarah Onken, Anna Barhanovich, Carly Hubbard, Emma Vinton, Naofa Noll, Zoe Norr, and Anna Talcott were selected.
Senior Michelle McAvoy, president of Lamplighters, said that the selection process is based off of four core tenets of the Lamplighters organization.
“Everyone has to meet a certain GPA requirement,” McAvoy said. “That’s the initial step into Lamplighters. But we look for girls who are not only scholarly, but who have also shown exemplary leadership on campus. We look for women of unquestionable character. The final element is public service.”
The Lamplighters honorary was established on Hillsdale’s campus in 1949 in order to recognize young women of promise. Each year, junior women who fulfill the requirements are invited to apply. Of these, eight are selected to represent the Lamplighters the following school year.
These eight juniors are often deeply involved in very different parts of campus life, according to McAvoy.
“It brings together a broad range of people from across campus,” McAvoy said. “People from the arts, from the sciences.”
But despite such diverse representation, the Lamplighters have much in common. When asked whether there was a characteristic unique to the Lamplighters as a group, McAvoy laughed.
“I think we are all very determined and strong-willed people,” McAvoy said. “We are all very hardworking and it’s funny when we’re all in one room together.”
Senior Kelly Tillotson, secretary and treasurer for the Lamplighters, said she appreciated the intensity of the group’s interactions.
“It’s a very lively atmosphere,” Tillotson said. “It’s encouraging.”
The Lamplighters’ principles have informed her entire four years at Hillsdale College. According to Tillotson, she knew that she wanted to be counted among them as early as her freshman year.
“I had heard about the organization when I came to Hillsdale College for my interview,” Tillotson said. “My admissions counselor, who was a Lamplighter, told me about it. I used their principles to guide what I did in school, because I knew I wanted to be that caliber of a woman.”
Tillotson said she was honored to receive the invitation to become a Lamplighter during her junior year.
“It still gives me something to work toward,” Tillotson said. “I think that, later on, when I come back to the school, my membership will continue to remind me that I need to be a better volunteer, a better woman, and a better person as a whole.”
Personal growth is an important part of the group, in addition to a strong sense of tradition. Each member receives upon initiation a silver charm bracelet with the names of 10 Lamplighters who preceded her. This emphasis is evident even in the name of the group, taken from a novel.
“The Lamplighter,” written by Maria S. Cummins, is about a young orphaned girl and her path to maturity.
“It’s a story about the development of a young woman of character,” Baron said. “She was orphaned as a young girl. The lamplighter helped her with her development, took her on, was her benefactor. It’s a story about how a single, kind individual can make a lifetime of difference. That’s what being part of Lamplighters is all about. One small kindness can make that much of a difference in a life.”
