The speakers in the auditorium shook with the whirring of a winter wind. Flakes of simulated snow carpeted the seats as students and soldiers alike braced themselves for the biting cold. Tonight, they crossed the Delaware together.
 
Hillsdale’s Spring 2023 WHIP class recently visited Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington. Students were treated to a tour of the grounds, full museum access, and lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn.
 
Junior Evalyn Homoelle found it “especially meaningful” to visit the estate, as she is currently a George Washington Fellow.
 
The grounds and buildings were thoughtfully maintained with an eye towards bottling up the exact spirit of the moment Washington occupied it—students admired the land he once surveyed, took in the art he hung on his walls, and lived through the war he fought in the adjoining museum’s 4-D Revolutionary War experience, complete with ambient effects to capture those cold nights at Valley Forge.
 
The inner walls of the home spoke to a man of refined taste and exceptional hospitality. Washington was not only a great statesman, but the quintessential embodiment of those virtues we still consider integral to the American character. His aesthetic eye, made manifest in part by the trinkets which ornamented his house, was complemented by the simplicity of heart and earnest friendship, which compelled so many great artists to donate their work to him.
 
Claire Gaudet, another Washington Fellow, couldn’t hold back a smile when asked for comment: “I've been to Mount Vernon twice before, but this was definitely my favorite visit.”
 
Konrad Verbaarschott is currently a Washington Hillsdale Internship Program undergraduate student and is currently interning in the U.S. House of Representatives