As PHC celebrates the Class of 2025, we asked a graduate from each major to share their reflections on their time at college.
Classical Liberal Arts: Hannah Kim
Senior Hannah Kim came to PHC to study Classical Liberal Arts (CLA), not only to gain a strong foundation in the Liberal Arts but also to grow as a person.
“I view my education here as shaping me as a person, setting my priorities straight, and conforming me closer to Christ,” she said.
One of her favorite classes was Professor of History Dr. Robert Spinney’s Historiography class, where she learned how Christians should evaluate history and how to live as believers in a secular world. Hannah is planning on taking a gap year with maybe a couple of advanced math classes after graduating. Later, she hopes to go to graduate school for applied math in order to work in operations research. Operations research is the mathematical modeling of processes that maximize efficiency.
She is a not-so-typical CLA major because she has taken all the math classes that PHC offers. “Math is a very classical subject that people should know if they are going to be classically educated,” she said.
Kim came to PHC, not only because she knew it had the rich classical and spiritual environment to grow her as a person, but also because she is a firm believer in God’s providence. Even if it does take her a few years to get into a graduate program, she trusts that God will open the door for her.
“If He doesn’t, then I’ll have to figure something else out. But whatever works out ... I have confidence that it will be for the best,” she said.
Strategic Intelligence (SI): Isaac Rits
Isaac Rits sits in a chair in the coffee shop with a soft smile spreading as he recalls the memories he made at PHC.
Rits was influenced by his childhood abroad. By the time he graduated from high school, he was passionate about international politics and social issues in general. He started to reconcile his faith with his worldview and began to understand that they weren’t really separate.
When he first thought about college, he planned to major in violin performance, but eventually, he felt God was leading him to something in government. He chose PHC when he attended a U.S. History lecture by Professor of History Dr. Robert Spinney.
Spinney convinced him that PHC had something to offer him through his presentation of high academics with Christ at its center. His mother showed him the Strategic Intelligence (SI) scholarship and suggested he apply for it. When he received the scholarship, he was convinced that SI was his calling. 
His college years were filled with lessons both in school subjects and in life, but some of the biggest lessons were the ones that shaped his character. He realized other people saw the world differently than he did, and he struggled with giving grace to those with a different view. SI taught him to look at life differently on a global scale and also on the individual level. Rits began to see God’s signature in the subjects he studied and the people around him. While many lessons stand out to Rits as he remembers his time at PHC, one changes his smile to a more serious expression.
“One thing that stuck with me when I first got here was remembering that PHC’s main focus is to prepare you for the work that you’re going to do in this world,” Rits said. “But that doesn’t excuse you from being a Christian now. You should actively seek God’s calling in what your ministry is here, and that’s not always going to be just to this school. PHC is placed in this community for a reason, and we should be making disciples.”
Journalism & Digital Media: Faith Jones
High school senior Faith Jones was visiting the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, when she and her family heard about PHC for the first time. They were attending an expo fair at the Ark where they met Assistant Vice President and Director of Communication Stephen Allen. His presentation blew Jones’ mind as his passion for the school came through in the tears he shed while he talked about the commitment of PHC’s young people to make a difference for Christ in culture.
Wow, if I want to go to a school, I think I want to go to Patrick Henry. Yes, I can get a degree from another institution. But it was here that my character would grow, and I wanted that.
She thought of a communications or journalism degree even before considering PHC, which made her major decision easy. Her passion for politics and love of writing led her to declare Journalism with a political track.
In 2022, PHC hosted an episode of Fox and Friends. Jones got up at 4 a.m. to go help and learn as Fox held a town hall discussion in the library. Although she appreciated their dedication to the service they provided, Jones realized that this was not something she could do for her career or even for a shorter time. The fast-paced life was not for her.
Nevertheless, she still loved the Journalism program at PHC. She continued to learn from Professor of Journalism Dr. Les Sillars, who instilled in Jones the skills necessary to touch people’s hearts with a story. Now, as she hopes to pursue nonprofit communications after graduation, Jones finds her skill basket full of tools forged at PHC.
“You have an ambition or dream, and you come here very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and at some point in time, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed meets reality,” Jones said. “And there’s a duel that has to happen. [Either] you choose to cling to your dreams that may not be rooted in an actuality, or they have to be mended and reformed.”
Environmental Science & Stewardship (ESS): Griffin Tolbert
.jpg?width=246&height=354&name=Griffin%20tolbert%20(1).jpg)
“This is the strangest thing that I’ve ever seen in my entire 15 years as the head of the train and maintenance organization of this section of the Appalachian Trail,” said a guy hiking on the trail. “You’re going to ruin your coat and tie.”
Senior Griffin Tolbert, an Environmental Science & Stewardship major, was the one sporting the suit and tie. He only laughed and kept hiking. At the waterfall farther down the trail, one of the other PHC students in the group snapped a picture of him in his spotless suit and tie. Tolbert became an ESS major, at least in part, because he loves the outdoors—even to the point of hiking in his Sunday best after church. His short-term goals after graduating are to work for a land trust or a regenerative livestock farm. Long term, he wants to be a management consultant for a large property or farm.
Tolbert came to PHC because he realized he was going to have a hard time studying literature, philosophy, and history along with environmental science at a community college.
Last summer, he interned at a land trust in western North Carolina. “That was super, super helpful because it helped me to see that I really love the kind of work that I thought I would like to do,” he said.
He has a couple of favorite memories from working at the land trust, one of which was when he and some other co-workers were doing easement monitoring (making sure that landowners are properly following the restricted development abilities of land trust requirements). They came across an orchid up on a little knoll next to a tree, and Tolbert took a picture of it and sent it to their Conservation Director. The director texted them back saying, “I think this is something rare.” The director sent it to the plant monitor of North Carolina. Not long after, the National Heritage Program Director wrote back saying that it was indeed an extremely rare plant. Tolbert’s picture was only the second one taken of that type of orchid since 2000.
Tolbert has learned a lot academically, yet he has come to realize that education is much more than just academics.
“It’s important to think of your education not just as something that enables you to get a better job or to land you in a better grad school, but as something that you’re using to build your mind so that you can be a better servant of Jesus Christ,” he said.
This article was originally published in PHC's student-run publication, The Herald.
Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.
