A Blog on McConnell Center Life

Will Randolph ('22) What is the point of a college education? This is a question that I have unceasingly asked myself over the past year, and after spending almost all of that time studying the meaning of a liberal education with the McConnell Center, I have been driven to find an answer. Some people suggest that college is supposed to serve as a kind of job training. The entire purpose, they say, is to prepare oneself for a successful career, and almost anything else serves as a distraction from that mission. I would disagree with that notion. College is not simply meant to be a 4-year career training center. I do not mean to say that job training is invaluable, or an unworthy thing to pursue. For many people, it is the key to a happy and successful life. Preparing oneself to get a job in the future is certainly an important part of higher schooling, but a college education means much more than seeking success. What then, is the true purpose of going to college? As I see it...

Malcomb Haming ('21) As long as we’re together, I’ll judge you by your color, I’ll judge you by your lover, I’ll take away your thought, I’ll let your reason rot. Please don’t ask questions, Let your eyes decide elections, Forget that you are you, And remember what we should be, When we say something you say it too, For Progress that’s the key. So Please... Make your spine a feather, Let your mind change like the weather, As long as we’re together. Malcomb Haming , of Louisville, Ky., is a sophomore McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville, where he studies political science and history. 

--> Madelin Shelton ('22) “I can’t, I have to study for my next exam.” The amount of times my friends and peers have heard me utter this statement, or one similar, is probably too numerous to count. In high school, my entire focus was preparing for college. Study for the right exams, participate in an extensive amount of extracurriculars, and do the right things to get into the best programs. During my sophomore year of high school and after, even the coveted McConnell Center and its incredible opportunities became ever present in my mind as a goal to check off my list of college preparation. Now, what I am not saying here is that high school students shouldn’t think about and plan for college or that one should not set high goals for his or her self. However, my life’s focus became centered around obtaining a high grade point average, studying for an excellent test score, receiving desired rewards, and earning prestigious scholarships. My identity became how we...

Bella Beilman ('22) Three years ago, my life completely changed; I experienced the hardest eight months of my life. In spring of 2016, my mother was diagnosed with stage four, small cell lung cancer. Eight months later, I said my last goodbye after coming home from picture day of my junior year of high school. Now, I sometimes feel as if nothing has changed. I have a father and brother who unconditionally love me. But every now and then, I get hit with a tsunami of sadness. I guess three years is not enough time to fully come to terms with the fact that you will never have a mother again. Three years is not enough time to escape from the tug on your heart strings every time someone mentions their mother. And three years is not enough time to understand that your mother will never meet the love of your life or be at your wedding. Quickly enough, the tsunami passes and only leaves red eyes and a runny nose in its place. The majority of the time, I have accepte...

Claire Gothard ('19) In my last undergraduate semester, I have been tasked with discussing Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics thrice. Apparently, the age-old question of how to live a happy life is answered in this ancient text (or, as Charles Murray told a group of us, “Groundhog Day” is a more than adequate replacement for reading the Ethics). Aristotle and his idea of the eudaimonia are seen as a golden standard of how to be happy. Recently, at an AEI seminar, we read the chapters on friendship. All too often, the conversation about transitions and graduation focuses on how individually we should have the courage and resilience and confidence to take a step out of the protective university environment and into the “real world.” One topic that is not frequently covered, and anecdotally may be the largest challenge of becoming an adult, is how to make and keep friends. The idea of moving halfway across the world is thrilling and nerve-wracking. I ha...

Austin Dillon ('22) “How was school today?” asked my mother, beginning her daily barrage of questions regarding the rather uninteresting nuances of my high school career. She asked me what I did in each of my seven classes, seeming as though she was checking boxes off some mental list. My response to her, almost every day, was the same: “My day was fine. Please don’t interrogate me about the busywork I am doing in class.” Nothing annoyed me more than discussing the menial details of my day. I am an individual with passions, ideas, and aspirations - but all my mother seemed to care about was a surface-level description of what I did at school.   Now, almost a year after I moved out of my home and started my new life in Louisville, there is nothing I miss more than my mother’s daily inquiries. What I realize now that I did not realize then is that my mother, whose concerns are remarkably opposite of my own, was trying to find common ground on which...