John Fahrenbach
Spring 2025 John Jay Fellow
Hometown: Lake Forest, IL
College: Hillsdale College Van Andel School of Statesmanship, University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business
Degree: M.A. in Politics; B.B.A. in Business Analytics, Minor in Theology
John Fahrenbach graduated from Hillsdale College with a master's degree in Politics, concentrating on the study of political philosophy and American government. His time at Hillsdale was spent learning about the foundation and development of American institutions and classical models of statesmanship. During his graduate studies, John spent his summers conducting research for both Hillsdale College and the private sector in Washington, DC. Pursuing a graduate-level education at Hillsdale has taken him from Palo Alto to Bratislava, with opportunities to participate in the Hoover Institution’s Summer Policy Bootcamp, the Institute for Human Ecology’s Civitas Dei Fellowship, and the Free Society Seminar. Before Hillsdale, John received his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in Business Analytics where he also minored in Theology.
After his undergraduate education, John worked as a financial services consultant for PwC. This time working engendered within him the desire to better understand the foundation of the United States and how to uphold the nation's founding principles in the modern age. This is the same motivation that inspired him to apply to the John Jay Fellows Program.
John is interested in a career in Public Service, focusing on the areas of National Security, Foreign Policy, and Defense. This interest was strengthened during his time at Hillsdale while studying the statesmen of antiquity and modernity. During graduate school, John served as the President and Secretary of his program's graduate student society. While at Notre Dame he spent all four years as a member of the University's marching band, where he played trombone and served on the band's Core leadership team. John is also an alumnus of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), where he spent one month hiking the Wind River Range in Wyoming.