Bio:

of Bothell, WA, is a philosophy major, and attends Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, where he has started several extracurricular intellectual and service organizations. He founded and is president of the Edmund Burke Society, a conservative intellectual discussion group. It has covered topics such as the free market, the necessity of religious practice to sustain a free society, and the importance of a core curriculum, and has discussed the ideas of philosophers such as Chesterton, Coleridge, and Aquinas. He also founded and is president of the Gonzaga Socratic Club and the Gonzaga We Believe Catechism study group. He is a leader in the campus Right to Life club and Knights of Columbus. He has contributed to several periodicals, including Gonzaga's campus paper. "I (believe) that a free society is entirely dependent on the nurture and exercise of public virtue," Tom says. "Without Judeo-Christian social norms, our society would crumble, for these norms are found at the heart of the Constitution and the values set down in it." Says a professor: "Tom is an exceptional leader who is clear-thinking, highly principled, and deeply committed to the philosophical foundations on which this country stands." Another says: "Tom is a bright conservative student who not only initiates an activity but is able to bring it to completion. I'm not exactly sure what he does that the others didn't, but his presence and impact [at Gonzaga] have been truly remarkable."

School: GONZAGA UNIVERSITY