Closing Look: The Way of Tea

Hope shared a unique opportunity to observe the Japanese Tea Ceremony on June 8 during a return visit by Ikuko Okada of Kawasaki, Japan, who attended the college in 1975-76 and during May Terms in 2006 and this spring. She has been trained and licensed in the centuries-long tradition by the Urasenke International Association of… Continue Reading →

Distinctive Hope: Surprise Visit

The musical ensemble Mucca Pazza pays a surprise visit to Phelps Hall Dining Hall while at Hope in November through the Great Performance Series. Beyond contributing to campus and community cultural and intellectual life through public events, each year’s many guest artists and speakers further enrich students’ experience by providing additional opportunities to interact with… Continue Reading →

Quote, Unquote: Convocation 2017

The table offered an apt metaphor as speaker Dr. Cady Short-Thompson welcomed the members of the incoming Class of 2021 during the college’s Opening Convocation on Sunday, Aug. 27, in the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse. “I have found community at many tables in my life — the dinner table, the communion table, the classroom… Continue Reading →

Campus Scene

FRESHMAN SWEEP The freshman Class of 2021 swept both the Pull tug-of-war and the Nykerk Cup competition this fall. The freshmen were matched against the sophomore Class of 2020 in the two historic contests. The Pull was first held in 1898, and Nykerk in 1936. The freshmen defeated the sophomores by a narrow six feet,… Continue Reading →

Where Artwork Grows

The Leona M. and Jacob E. Nyenhuis Sculpture Garden complements the Kruizenga Art Museum, itself designed as a piece of interactive sculpture, by extending the celebration of art beyond the building’s walls to the grounds that gently surround it. Dedicated on Saturday, Oct. 14, during Homecoming Weekend, the space features five works in the Abstract… Continue Reading →

From Seed to Harvest

They couldn’t always engage in conversation, but through the universal languages of sport and selfless service they had no trouble communicating. Hope student-athletes have a unique opportunity to share their talents as well as their faith and passion for helping others through SEED (Sport Evangelism to Equip Disciples). The new international mission- and service-focused program… Continue Reading →

Window to Hope’s History: Hello?

The 10th anniversary year of the iPhone provides an opportunity to reflect on how much making or receiving a call on campus has changed for students through the years. A couple generations ago, students in residence halls shared a pay phone by floor. By the time the parents of today’s students were students themselves, each… Continue Reading →

Always Invested

Billy Mayer, who died unexpectedly at his home on Saturday, Nov. 11, at age 64, made it clear that it was possible to take art seriously and still have fun. As an example of the former, the sculptor-professor had this to say in a 1994 feature in The Grand Rapids Press: “I try to find… Continue Reading →

Generational Students

Conventional wisdom says that a repeat customer signals a good experience, but that’s not really an appropriate model to use for a college (although Hope welcomes students who have left and return!). In the end, it’s more meaningful that many parents who attended Hope are happy to see their children do the same. Pictured are… Continue Reading →

Closing Look: Timeless Classics

The Pull tug-of-war and the Nykerk Cup competition travel as living history, journeying across generations to the present from the last decade of the 19th century and the fourth decade of the 20th. Although on the most basic level they express class rivalry — freshmen versus sophomores, even-years versus odd-years — the differences only matter… Continue Reading →

Hope College Dune Research Group

When wind blasts dunes on Lake Michigan’s east coast, complicated windflows develop on the side away from the wind — producing turbulent eddies like those around Hope geologist Dr. Edward Hansen (right) and whirlwinds like the one swirling around an ultrasonic anemometer (at left, behind Hope mathematician Dr. Brian Yurk) in fall 2017 on the… Continue Reading →

Student-Faculty Research

Honored repeatedly in 2017 for the quality of its undergraduate research program, Hope College is a magnet for students who want to dive into genuine scholarly work as undergraduates. Mentored collaborative research happens year-round — during the fall and spring semesters, in specialized May Term and June Term courses, and during the summer. Hope’s program… Continue Reading →

The Play’s the Thing

Diversity and fresh starts were hallmarks of two of Professor Rich Perez’s 2017 projects. Summer took him to Chicago to direct the UrbanTheatre Company’s production of Richard Montoya’s Water & Power; Perez and Montoya updated the script to shift the gritty drama’s setting from Los Angeles to Chicago, with turns of phrase and cultural references… Continue Reading →

True North

The lone crow on the lone pole where the weathervane used to whirl insinuates my need for misdirection. He is an arrow of skittish attention, of scant intention: the cock and hop, the flick and caw toward anything on the wind. Now angling east, now south by southwest, he designates with beak then disagreeing tail… Continue Reading →

Inviting Local Churches to Focus on Vocation

In 1998, Dr. Jonathan Hagood completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas with both a professional degree in architecture and a bachelor’s in Latin American Studies. After working in architecture for a few years, he started an IT consulting firm in San Francisco before answering the call to pursue graduate study in history… Continue Reading →

Join the Conversation

A sampling of Spring 2018 presentations and performances by Hope College faculty and students through May 19 CULTURE, COMMERCE AND CRITICISM Kruizenga Art Museum With content and presentation developed in collaboration with Dr. Anne Heath and her Art 361 seminar, an exhibition of 50 prints exploring how Western artists have used them to transmit knowledge,… Continue Reading →

Future of Fitness

More gain, less pain — in America’s fitness-focused society, that’s something everybody can get behind. In summer 2017, Dr. Brian Rider of the Department of Kinesiology tested the effects of wearing compression stockings during exercise. Working with student collaborators, he recruited 10 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 39 to work out on treadmills… Continue Reading →

Real Systems, Real Clients

For Dr. Ryan McFall, scholarship often takes the form of software. “I work with my students to build real systems for real clients,” says McFall, a professor of computer science. Many of those clients are colleagues from the Hope community. In 2017, Hope’s Physical Plant staff came to McFall with a request: find a more… Continue Reading →

Distinctive Hope: Growing Faith

Students on Hope’s spring-break immersion trip to New Orleans work the land at a local schoolyard program that seeks to improve area wellbeing by integrating hands-on organic gardening and seasonal cooking into the curriculum. The trips — 15 this year, around the country and abroad — likewise nurture their 200 Hope participants. Coordinated by Campus… Continue Reading →