Student aces LSAT and looks to fight injustice abroad

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What was the first thing Swiss-born Josiah Kollmeyer wanted to do after acing the Law School Admissions Test?

“Relax and eat some clam chowder and do nothing for a while.”

In the past academic year, only 34 people in the world received a perfect score of 180 on the LSAT.

That is 34 people in a pool of 112,115 test-takers, an elite group in itself, considering those that take the LSAT are typically higher achieving college juniors and seniors.

Hillsdale senior Kollmeyer received a perfect score in his first attempt at the test. Well, second, if you count the one practice test he took months before.

Even if this were Kollmeyer’s only accomplishment, it would be an impressive one, to say the least. But Kollmeyer is a man of brilliance and balance.

In the spring of 2011, Kollmeyer took Dr. Samuel Webster’s linear algebra class. Webster described the course as challenging even for good math students.

Kollmeyer received a 100% in the class. He literally did not miss a single point the entire semester.

“I couldn’t find a valid reason to deduct a single point from any of his computational or theoretical work,” Webster said. “I’ve never seen that and I don’t know if I will again, especially in that course.”

Kollmeyer is a history and math double major who came to Hillsdale from Midland, Mich., where he attended Dow High School. Even in high school he showed genius, and not just in the classroom.

“I’ll never forget, we were in the seventh grade and it was our talent show, and he played the fiddle and it was ridiculous, just really good,” Hillsdale senior JP Gurnee said of his long-time classmate. “He’s pretty much good at everything.”

Kollmeyer is a member of Mu Alpha, the Honors program, Hillsdale Christian Fellowship, Galloway Dorm, and is an officer of the swing club. Senior Sam Stoneburner, one of Josiah’s best friends, wonders at how Kollmeyer does it all.

“We speculated for a long time about when he did homework because we never saw him doing it but he always gets it done,” Stoneburner said. “He must be very efficient about it, because … he does very well and I see he has startling amounts of time to do other things. I don’t know if it’s just his effort or he’s that much more intelligent and can do things that much better.”

It’s probably both. Kollmeyer has always had a high academic aptitude, which he attributes to the adults that have helped him grow throughout his life.

“Building the sort of mind that I have did not happen on its own. That was the product of teachers, parents, mentors, friends,” Kollmeyer said. “I would never call myself a self-made man. That’s arrogant. God made me. Others formed me.”

Specifically, Kollmeyer said he owes a lot of his intelligence to the fact that from the time he was a baby, his mother was reading good books to him.

“My mom read to me from time I was born, if not earlier,” Kollmeyer said. “I know that she and my dad always put a lot of stock in that.”

In fact, Kollmeyer’s goal to attend law school and become a lawyer stemmed from a book he read when he was 13 years old. The book was called “The Good News about Injustice” by Gary Hougen, who founded the International Justice Mission (IJM). The group is a human rights agency that works to secure justice for victims of sex trafficking, exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression.

“I think it is God at work in my life,” Kollmeyer said of the calling he feels to join this organization. “Also I’ve had a long term interest in chivalry and rescuing those who are oppressed or are in danger, and that fits that pretty well.”

Anyone who knows Josiah knows that his knight in shining armor image is not merely a façade, but a part of Josiah’s identity and character.

Stoneburner gave the example that for Kollmeyer’s break from paper-writing during finals week, he walked around the student union, encouraging freshmen who were writing papers of their own.

“I can think of no person with a stronger servant spirit,” Stoneburner said. “Josiah is always ready to lend a hand when sees a need, and he always looks for the need. He goes beyond the minimum and makes himself available to serve.”

Kollmeyer is hoping to attend Harvard Law School, where he can indulge in all the fresh Atlantic clam chowder he wants.