HILLSDALE, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan News Source reporter Lauren Smyth is a renaissance woman. She’s only 20-years-old but that’s not stopping the Hillsdale College sophomore from pursuing all of the things she is interested in. And that’s a long, long list.
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She isn’t just a writer and broadcaster for Michigan News Source and Michigan Talk Network, she’s also a Hillsdale College student majoring in Economics and minoring in Journalism, a multi award-winning author and broadcaster, a journalist, podcaster, video game writer, jewelry-maker, writing educator, small business entrepreneur and more. And she hopes to be an attorney someday.
She’s been awarded for her efforts many times over the years including being recently recognized with two awards at the 2023 Michigan Student Broadcast Awards hosted by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters (MAB) on March 15th. MAB hosts the awards each year to recognize the best work in television and radio from college stations across the state of Michigan.
Smyth took home a 2nd place award for “Lauren Smyth News” a daily newscast/news feature on Hillsdale radio and she received a 3rd place award on-air personality award for her radio show and podcast “Grammar Minute.”
The Grammar Minute is a one-minute radio show and podcast where Smyth goes over interesting, weird and useful rules of the English language, the meaning of words and other fun facts about words and grammar. Her website is also another small business for her which offers freelance writing and editing services.
These two awards aren’t the only ones that Smyth has received over the years – or even recently. Last year, she received a 2nd place award for newscasts from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters; a CBI (College Broadcasters Incorporated) award for Best Newscast; and was a finalist for an IBS (Intercollegiate Broadcasting System) award for Grammar Minute. She also recently won a Foundation Scholarship from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. To see a full list of her accomplishments and awards, you can visit her Grammar Minute website here.
The Hillsdale College’s radio station, WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7, also received top honors at the 2023 Michigan Student Broadcast Awards by winning “2023 College Audio Station of the Year.”
Smyth, who was homeschooled all of her life, is not originally from Michigan. She’s from Las Vegas, Nevada and is a military kid. She said her family moved around from place to place about a dozen times when she was growing up.
When asked why she chose to go to Hillsdale College, she said, “I had enrolled at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. But when I went to visit the school and looked at the school on the news to see what was going on there, I saw that they were having a lot of protests on campus because of having Robert E. Lee in the name. He was president of the school so that’s why he was there. But it had really bothered the student body to the point where they were disrupting classes, they were breaking stuff and just didn’t really want to go to a school where I knew that would be the case.”
She went on to say, “And then I saw Hillsdale. And Hillsdale is a very peaceful school. It’s a very small school. We actually have to sign something that says we’ll never protest on campus so campus is very quiet. I was drawn to that atmosphere.”
Hillsdale College is an independent, nonsectarian, Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies.
When asked about her favorite thing about being at Hillsdale, she said, “I really like the freedom to do lots of different things.”
She talked about a project she worked on during her second semester when she was a freshman. She has an Etsy shop with jewelry and she wanted to get people together to do a Valentine’s Day market with jewelry, notecards and other items. She organized the event in about a week with posters and got permission to use the Student Union. There was no pushback. In fact, there was encouragement and resources made available by the school. Smyth said, “The freedom to propose ideas like that and just run with it and do it is just a really cool thing about Hillsdale.”
She said that because Hillsdale is a small school with many resources to help the students, the faculty and staff are open to assist the students with whatever they want to do. Around the same time as the Valentine’s Day event, the school started an entrepreneurship program which Smyth is now a part of.
In addition to all of the previously mentioned projects and jobs, Smyth also works for Hillsdale’s marketing department where she writes a blog for them, showcasing campus life for donors and students. And when she was only 13, she signed her first publishing contract. She’s written three young adult action/adventure novels and has also contributed to the Into the Unknown science fiction anthology.
When asked about what she wants to be when she grows up, Smyth said that she wants to go to law school and be a lawyer. She also added, “But I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing. I love journalism, I love fiction writing as well…I don’t think those things will ever go away. No matter what I do, those will be still be a part of whatever I do.”
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