The Hillsdale Collegian

10/09/2025

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10/07/2025

NEWS | Seniors Cecilia Jansen and Andrew Winter won Homecoming Queen and King on Saturday.

Q: What does this mean to you as you begin your senior year?

Jansen: As a lowerclassman, I remember taking note of the many different virtues I admired in the women on court, and I’m very humbled to be in their place as a senior. I’m excited to continue their legacy by trying my best to put those virtues into practice during my last year on campus!

Winter: It is of course very fun being king. It is also a little tiresome, what with everyone coming up to me and kissing my hand and kneeling down in homage. But it is a huge blessing to see so clearly that the student body loves and appreciates me greatly, and honors me even as I prepare to leave Hillsdale. May God help me to use the gift of this publicity this year!

🖊Written by Ellie Fromm.
Read the full Q&A below.

Andrew Winter and Cecilia Jansen after being crowned Saturday. Emma Kate Mellors | Student Activities Board Seniors Cecilia Jansen and Andrew Winter won Homecoming Queen and King on Saturday. Q: What was your experience with the nomination? How did it happen? Jansen: My sister and my housemates toss...

10/06/2025

CULTURE | When senior Charlie Cheng made the homecoming video for his team, the Bloc, in 2023, he developed a love for film that would one day lead him to produce a short film in China.

While Cheng was visiting his family in China this past summer, he produced a three-minute film called “Stain.” The film uses no dialogue, but instead leans on calligraphy, music, and acting to capture the concept of childhood trauma.

“Film is my passion, because there are times when I feel inspired to portray something beautiful or ask a question that is not easy to answer in words,” Cheng said. “Film is a very sophisticated way to do that for me.”

🖊️Written by Jamie Parsons.
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When senior Charlie Cheng made the homecoming video for his team, the Bloc, in 2023, he developed a love for film that would one day lead him to produce a short film in China.

10/06/2025

OPINION | “The U.S. government shutdown has begun,” a news notification told me at 12:06 a.m. Wednesday morning. The follow-up came seven hours later: “What the government shutdown means for you.”

What does the shutdown mean for you? In reality, not much.

Despite the hysteria from news outlets and Democratic lawmakers, students attended classes as usual. Hillsdale residents bought food at Walmart and gas at Meijer. The Collegian’s editors spent the afternoon putting the paper together.

Maybe the shutdown will be over by the time the paper reaches campus. Maybe Congress will still be deadlocked after fall break. No matter when it ends, the shutdown is a blip in the political landscape, not a catastrophe.

🖊️Written by Caroline Maxwell.
Read the full story below.

“The U.S. government shutdown has begun,” a news notification told me at 12:06 a.m. Wednesday morning. The follow-up came seven hours later: “What the government shutdown means for you.” What does the shutdown mean for you? In reality, not much. Despite the hysteria from news outlets and Dem...

10/02/2025

CULTURE | Hillsdale’s Tower Players opened their first show of the fall semester on Oct. 1, a pairing of the anonymous medieval play “Everyman” with “I’m Not a Mourning Person,” written by Hillsdale alumna Emily Griffith ’25.

Griffith won last year’s student playwriting competition. Professor of Theater James Brandon said he picked her play to go along with “Everyman” after noticing the similarities between the themes of the two pieces.

“Being in the zone for ‘Everyman’ and then hearing that script read at the staged reading — it was the perfect complement,” Brandon said. “It gives us a medieval and then also a contemporary approach to pretty much the same subject.”

🖊️Written by Evelyn Kniffen.
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09/30/2025

CITY NEWS | After meeting the deadline to bring its facility up to code, Camp Hope is preparing to transition into a standalone nonprofit under the new name HOPE Harbor.

While the homeless shelter’s day-to-day operations will remain the same, the change will allow it to operate independently from Hillsdale Community Thrift, which has supported it financially since 2023. The shelter will now be located in a former storage building behind Hillsdale Community Thrift.

“There’s already a board of directors, and we’re in the filing process now,” Camp Hope Director Missy DesJardin said. “This will take the financial burden off of Hillsdale Community Thrift.”

🖊️Written by Sydney Green.
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09/30/2025

CULTURE | Seniors Cecilia Jansen and Maria Schmid didn’t start painting the Off-Campus Coalition’s banner until Saturday. But by Sunday night, they had created the winning work of art for the first event of this year’s homecoming competition.

The top five teams in this year’s space-themed Banner Drop were announced Monday, ranking in order from first to fifth: OCC, Olds, Niedfeldt, Kalloway, and Simpson.

Jansen and Schmid came up with the Instagram theme of OCC’s banner on the porch of West Wing. They knew if they could cover all the bases the judges look for yearly, they could place.

🖊️Written by Grace Brennan.
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Seniors Cecilia Jansen and Maria Schmid didn’t start painting the Off-Campus Coalition’s banner until Saturday. But by Sunday night, they had created the winning work of art for the first event of this year’s homecoming competition.

09/29/2025

FEATURES | Hours away from civilization, sophomore August Enman spent his summer in the rugged and mountainous backcountry of New Mexico.

Enman worked as a counselor at Philmont Scout Ranch, the world’s largest youth camp, which spans 140,177 acres of mountainous terrain. His particular campsite, Whiteman Vega, was the northernmost camp at Philmont, located in the Carson National Forest. Whiteman Vega is one of around 35 staffed campsites that offer lodging and programming for visitors.

New groups of mountain bikers passed through the campsite every day. As a counselor, Enman took them on bike rides through the backcountry. Because Enman’s camp was far away from the ranch’s home base, most people stopped at Whiteman Vega while on 12-day treks.

🖊️Written by Skye Graham.
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Hours away from civilization, sophomore August Enman spent his summer in the rugged and mountainous backcountry of New Mexico.

09/28/2025

CITY NEWS | As reported cases of Lyme disease have nearly quadrupled in Hillsdale County in the last year, the Ambler Health and Wellness Center on campus has seen new cases for the first time in several years.

In the 2024-25 monitoring year, Hillsdale County has reported 18 cases, up from four cases in 2023-24 and five cases in 2022-2023, according to Kris Dewey, the health education and promotion supervisor for the Branch-Hillsdale-St. Joseph Community Health Agency.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can manifest as a bullseye rash, fever, and muscle aches. It is contracted from a bite from an infected tick.

🖊️Written by Gemma Flores.
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As reported cases of Lyme disease have nearly quadrupled in Hillsdale County in the last year, the Ambler Health and Wellness Center on campus has seen new cases for the first time in several years.

09/26/2025

NEWS | Men of campus will present their style, charm, and talent next week to compete for the title of “Mr. Hillsdale” at one of Pi Beta Phi’s annual philanthropic events.

“Mr. Hillsdale” will return Friday, Oct. 3, at 6:30 p.m. in Plaster Auditorium. Proceeds from the beauty-pageant-style event will benefit Pi Beta Phi’s national charity, which promotes children’s literacy according to junior Samantha Otting, Pi Beta Phi vice president of community relations.

“Mr. Hillsdale is definitely a big part of campus lore and campus culture,” Otting said. “It’s also a good way to support something that’s really important and affects everyone, because if none of us knew how to read, none of us would be here at Hillsdale.”

Men from dorms and fraternities across campus will be judged based on four categories: dress, a pickup line, a Q&A segment, and a talent showcase, according to junior Gia Coulthard, Pi Beta Phi chapter president.

🖊️Written by Martha Kennedy.
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09/25/2025

NEWS | Simpson leads the homecoming week competition after winning Wednesday night’s trivia contest on a tiebreaker question.

To break a four-way tie, judges asked competitors how far the Earth is from Mars at its most distant point. Simpson, with a guess of 232.5 million miles, was the closest to the correct answer of 249 million miles.

Sophomore and Simpson trivia team captain Thad Reudelhuber said the team found the answer with a last-minute calculation.

“We didn’t know the answer right away,” said Reudelhuber, who credited the estimate to teammates junior Andrew Hawken, freshman Isaiah Sebranek, and sophomore Luke Wilmington. “We calculated it because they knew the distance in astronomical units, and we just multiplied it by 93 million miles.”

🖊Written by Christian Papillon.
Read the full story below.
https://hillsdalecollegian.com/2025/09/simpson-takes-homecoming-lead/