Hillsdale College Awards Patrick McDonald ’26 the 2026 Edward Everett Prize in Oratory
Students competed for cash prizes with speeches on ‘Artificial Intelligence — Paradise and Paradise Lost.’
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College’s Office of the Provost and Department of Rhetoric and Media hosted the annual Edward Everett Oratory Competition on March 3. The theme of this year’s competition was “Artificial Intelligence — Paradise and Paradise Lost.” This is the 26th year that the competition has been held. Patrick McDonald ’26 won the first-place prize of $3,000.
“The Everett competition is one way that Hillsdale educates students for self-government,” said Professor of Rhetoric Kirstin Kiledal, who oversees the competition. “It cultivates thoughtful deliberation, rational argument, and civil debate about complex and important topics, which are essential skills for citizens of a free republic.”
“The Everett competition is one way that Hillsdale educates students for self-government.”
Five finalists presented their speeches to a panel of judges that included Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn; entrepreneur and motivational speaker Don Tocco; and Clark Judge, former speechwriter to presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
In his winning oration, McDonald described a lawyer who had begun using AI to draft his legal briefs — and then realized he couldn’t explain the reasoning himself.
“He was becoming worse at the very reasoning that made him a good lawyer because he was outsourcing his profession to technology,” McDonald said. “The problem wasn’t that the AI was bad, but that it was too good. And that is the paradox that AI presents: it’s becoming so effective and efficient at doing our work for us that it’s making us worse at being ourselves. And so, just as that lawyer had to be wary of outsourcing his profession, we must be wary of outsourcing our judgment.”
“The problem wasn’t that the AI was bad, but that it was too good.”
Jon Hovance ’27 won second place, and Ariel McDowell ’27 won third. The other finalists were Gabriel Zylstra ’28 and Alex Mooney ’27.
Through an endowment from the Saul N. Silbert Charitable Trust, Hillsdale College hosts the annual Edward Everett Oratory Contest to encourage Hillsdale College undergraduate students to hone the craft of public discourse and reasoned debate. Undergraduate students in good standing compete for prizes of $1,000 for third place, $2,000 for second place, and $3,000 for first place. The first-place winner also receives a historic artifact associated with Edward Everett, the 19th-century American orator who is the competition’s namesake, gifted by a friend of the College.