Meet the 2019 Rearden Foundation Scholarship Recipients
Congratulations to Jack Lindquist and Tom MacPhee, our 2019 Rearden Foundation Scholarship Recipients.
Left to right: Courtney College (Board Member), Gretchen Hock (Founder and Board Member), Jack Lindquist, Tom MacPhee, Kyle Stults (Board Member), Bob Hanisch (Board Member).
Jack Lindquist
Jack graduated from Evergreen High School with a 4.0 GPA. He was in the upper 25% of his graduating class and was named Outstanding Male Graduate for the Class of 2019.
In addition to his high school diploma he also received the Seal of Biliteracy which is a diploma endorsed certificate that is given to a high school graduate who is proficient in two or more languages. He was a member of the National Honor Society, The National Society of High School Scholars and a 4-year lettered varsity lacrosse player.
He was a pack leader for the Mountain Backpack Program and was an assistant coach for the EPRD Junior Mountain Bike Program.
Jack is now a freshman at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a Leeds Deans Fellow in the Leeds School of Business and is a Cadet in the Air Force ROTC program with Detachment 105.
Tom MacPhee
Tom MacPhee, the co-valedictorian of Faith Christian Academy for the Class of 2019, graduated with high honors and with a cumulative weighted GPA of 4.315 and a cumulative unweighted GPA of 4.0. While in high school, Tom also pursued several extracurricular activities, including student government, mock trial, debate, golf team and chess club. In student government, he served as Treasurer his junior year and as Student Body President his senior year. As the captain and a member of the mock trial team, Tom received "All-State" recognition as a Best Witness and a Best Lawyer. In fact, Tom was recognized as the top scoring lawyer at the State Mock Trial Tournament in 2019. As the captain and a member of the debate team, Tom won the CHSSA Lincoln Douglas Debate state finals two years in a row. Tom varsity lettered Men's Golf and served as co-captain during his senior year. Finally, Tom founded and served as president of the FCA Chess Club, the largest student club activity on campus.
Tom is currently enrolled as a freshman at Hillsdale College where he is majoring in Accounting with a minor in Economics. After completing his undergraduate degree, Tom hopes to attend law school.
what is the value of merit in today’s society?
by Tom MacPhee
In a healthy civilization, merit should function as a central and integral principle in human affairs. Unfortunately, we live in an era where the role of merit has been diminished and even, degraded. This perspective has had corrosive effects on our society.
According to the Free Dictionary, merit is defined as: “superior quality or worth; excellence … a quality deserving of praise or approval; virtue …. [d]emonstrated ability or achievement.” In a civil society based on ordered liberty, as contemplated by Edmund Burke, merit plays an essential role. In economic affairs, it elevates products and services to maximize benefits between producers and consumers. In the academic sphere, it promotes scholarship, art, and research. And even in governmental affairs, it pressures politicians to demonstrate character, experience, and knowledge.
Despite the economic, cultural, and political achievements of what has come to be known as “the American Century,” the dystopian intellectuals of our modern age have been successful in propagating an anti-merit ideology. Today, much of our society elevates things like “victim status” above merit. As a result, we see academic scholarships, career opportunities, and political achievement predicated on membership in a particular intersectional group. Take, for example, the current field of presidential candidates in the Democratic Party. The discussion in the media is not centered around track record or experience or any other form of merit. Instead, the base of the Democratic Party seems more interested in whose skin is which color and whose father was an absentee parent. The damage of this flawed value system on society is far reaching and severe. In the political context, such politicians cultivate discontent, division, and envy in a country founded on the notion of e pluribus unum. In the academic context, the ramifications are that students admitted to institutions based on victim status rather than on merit are not equipped to succeed. The results have been predictable: 1) decreased matriculation rates; and 2) watered down academic standards in universities. The area of society least impacted by the “anti-merit” ideology is the economic sphere. To the extent that government regulation does not otherwise distort free market exchange, consumers generally demand excellence and thus, producers are forced by competition to deliver.
Regardless of the fashionable ideology of our modern era, I personally believe that the pursuit of merit is essential and healthy on an individual basis. Thus, I have worked hard to achieve success in my academic and extracurricular pursuits. Going forward, I plan to maintain that approach to life, as I continue my education at Hillsdale College.