Abigail Snyder: Hillsdale College Scholarship Recipient
Below is a letter from the BCRP’s most recent recipient of the Hillsdale College Scholarship, Abigail Snyder. Abigail provides an overview of her past spring semester at Hillsdale and touches on an exciting internship opportunity that she was a part of in DC.
“To the members of the Beaufort County Republican Party:
I hope this update finds you well.
My name is Abigail Snyder, and I am a junior at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI, studying English and biology. I was born in Pennsylvania, but have called Beaufort home since 2008.
I wanted to update you all on my semester because you have truly partnered with me in my education. As the oldest of eight kids, I am certain I would not be able to attend Hillsdale without support from people like you. So, thank you! Your generosity allows me to attend the college of my dreams.
I take my education seriously because I want to learn all that I can in the relatively short time I have at Hillsdale, but I also recognize that I represent you all—the members of the Beaufort County Republican Party—because of your personal investment in my education. Please know that I think of you all often and I am very grateful for your generous financial assistance.
This semester at Hillsdale, I am taking a few classes for my major (English), a class for my minor (biology), and two classes as part of the Core curriculum requirements (Hillsdale has a variety of required courses that all students, regardless of major, must take. AP or college credit from high school does not count toward these courses. The required courses include biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, philosophy, history, English, music, the Constitution, and more. Hillsdale embraces the liberal arts, and, accordingly, it is paramount that students are well-rounded in their education).
My class schedule is as follows:
• English: Renaissance British Literature. (We’ve spent the first month of class reading a great deal of Shakespeare. Later in the course, we will study Milton, John Donne, and Edmund Spenser, among other authors.)
• English: History of the English Language. (This course helps students understand the origins of language and then specifically emphasizes the development of the English language.)
• Biology: Evolution and Biological Diversity.
• Core course: Logic & Rhetoric. (This is a required course. The first half of the semester is spent studying Aristotle and his approach to logic. The second half examines his approach to rhetoric.)
• Core course: Philosophy. (This is another required course that tries to give students an overview of philosophy, from the first philosophers— the “pre-Socratics”— to the more modern ones.)
When I’m not in classes, I am usually at the radio station or in the music building. At Hillsdale, I have a radio show called “The Virtual Voyage: The Armchair Travel Show with Abigail.” It is a site-by-site virtual tour of the land of Israel. I try to make people feel like they are in Israel standing at the actual site—and they don’t have to leave their car, living room, or dorm room. I have produced 45, 22-minute episodes. In October 2021, the show was awarded 2nd place nationally by the College Broadcasters, Inc. for “Best Regularly Scheduled Entertainment Program,” and it has been nominated as a national finalist for “Best Specialty Show” by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, with the winner to be announced later this month. If you are interested in listening, the link to the show’s playlist is here. I also enjoy honing my skills as a radio producer by doing other editing/production work for the station.
Additionally, I am a jazz guitarist in Hillsdale’s music department. Each week, I take a guitar lesson with the guitar professor, and I have played in a variety of ensembles and bands over the past several semesters. I have enjoyed the experience of working with other talented musicians and learning from Hillsdale’s music faculty.
In the fall of 2022, I went to Washington DC for a study “abroad” program Hillsdale offers upperclassmen—the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. I interned during the day at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the world’s largest legal organization protecting fundamental and God-given freedoms for all people, and took classes at Hillsdale’s DC campus at night.
I thoroughly enjoyed interning for ADF. As a social media intern in the communications department, I was responsible for a variety of tasks: writing captions for social media posts, scheduling content across our various platforms, performing social listening and tracking trends so we could respond on social media, and managing the community by answering direct messages and comments. Ultimately, I was able to extend my internship with ADF, and I now continue interning for them remotely, even while I am here at Hillsdale. I work around 20 hours per week assisting my boss, the social media manager, and our copywriter.
It’s a blessing to have found an organization that aligns so closely with what I believe. ADF boldly defends the right to free speech, religious freedom, life, and other fundamental rights. I hope to involve myself with ADF or a similar organization following my college graduation. As I remind myself when the state of our nation is so dismal, as long as there are organizations like ADF still defending our constitutional rights, our nation is not lost. When we believe that our country is too far gone, however, and when we simply sit back and lament, instead of acting—that is the beginning of the end. I do believe America can change, and, using all I have learned at Hillsdale College, I hope to be part of the return to our Founders’ intentions for the United States.
Thank you again for your support of my education at Hillsdale College. I am very blessed to attend this school, and it is largely made possible by you. I am sincerely grateful.
All my best,
Abigail Snyder
Hillsdale College ’24”
