2023 Homecoming King and Queen Truman Kjos and Julianna Undseth share their thoughts on homecoming court. 

What was your experience with homecoming nomination and court? Did you expect things to unfold as they did?

Kjos: My friends decided to nominate my name in the ballot box, which you can do to any senior guy or girl you want to. My name was among the top three independents, and then after that some friends made posters and memes to put online and on Instagram. It was an honor to be nominated and be on the field with the court, because it was a great group who were there. It was very humbling. I was also happy to win with Juliana, who’s been a close friend of mine since freshman year. 

How has this impacted your overall Hillsdale experience?

Truman: I was talking with my parents about it and my dad said, “Well when we sent you to Hillsdale I did not expect you to be homecoming king.” He didn’t mean that in a bad way, it was just more like, “Oh wow that was a surprise!” Freshman year, I just kind of existed. Around sophomore year, I started to push myself to really get involved in things. I got into radio, I got into film club, and it was then that I started to push myself to things outside of school work and began to socialize much more. 

Did you expect to hear your name called? 

Undseth: Oh no! I wasn’t expecting it, for sure. I had been told that a Greek woman has won it for the past 20 years. I think for me, I was hoping an independent would win just to challenge that. Twenty years of Greek winning makes it sound like independent women are not as influential, but I have not experienced that. I am obviously an independent woman, and I have really appreciated the community of independent women on this campus, and the things that we do to create community and to love each other. I just really love what I am a part of as an independent woman, and I wanted to represent that in the homecoming court.

As a senior reflecting on your time at Hillsdale, did you ever think about winning homecoming queen? 

Undseth: I did not expect it. But I consciously try to be approachable and to be kind and compassionate towards people. I think that there are plenty of people who were not on the homecoming court who  have the same qualities and demonstrate them better than me. But I like to think that being on homecoming court is a sign that I have had an impact in the way that I have been trying to show people the love of Christ.