By Hayden Sampson

When you think about places to visit, Michigan might not come up first in your mind. It might not even come up at all. For seniors Maya Kostov and Clara Moffitt, however, Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan was a perfect place to travel to.

Both Maya and Clara were invited to visit Hillsdale College, where they would tour the campus as well as compete for scholarships. Touring a college is an extremely helpful way to decide on a college, something both Maya and Clara will have to do in the near future. In fact, they applied to 46 in total. With big decisions looming, this trip to Michigan was very helpful on their road to making a college choice.

When it comes to the on-campus help, Hillsdale was very accommodating.  To aid them in acclimating to Hillsdale, an actual student of the school was assigned to them as a mentor. Clara says, “The mentors were in the same field we were interested in, so they were super easy to get to know.”

Not only did Maya and Clara work hard to gain possible scholarships, they also were able to meet really cool people and do some things they had never done before. Kostov says that “everyone was very outgoing and easy to get to know.”

The social experience was much different than one might expect. Maya says, “Because the college scene at Hillsdale is a little different than in most places, instead of drinking or partying, they go swing dancing.” That might sound strange or outdated, because it is. However, Maya and Clara both had a great time, and both claimed that it was much more enjoyable than they expected.

They also got to take classes at Hillsdale that were similar to something they would actually take if they chose to go there. Clara mentioned that it was very similar to a typical HL class, and that the teaching was even similar to some that she has had at Tempe Prep.

After the classes, Clara and Maya participated in the scholarship competition, where they were split up into groups and spent multiple hours on presentations. True to TPA form, both of our seniors did a fantastic job.

Even though they might not both go there, Maya and Clara were very thankful for the opportunity. Maya gave her advice, “Visit as many colleges as you can, because you never know what school you might really want to go to.” Clara agrees, and says she will never forget her experience at Hillsdale.

We have some amazing seniors at Tempe Prep, and these two lead the pack. Whether or not we see them at Hillsdale in the future, Maya and Clara will definitely be impacted by this experience forever.