Taking Computational Chemistry to the Next Level

For many, chemistry brings to mind the apparatus: ethereal blue flames, miles of plastic tubing with interestingly-colored chemicals snaking through, and — perhaps above all else — test tubes and beakers of all shapes and sizes. But for Dr. Brent Krueger, chemistry research often occurs on a computer screen, in the form of molecular models.… Continue Reading →

For the Next Generation of Batteries, a Plentiful Compound Shows Promise

Dr. Jennifer Hampton is captivated by interesting materials — especially those in the electrifying world of electrochemistry. She’s currently studying iron hexacyanoferrate, better known as Prussian blue. This name, unsurprisingly, comes from the compound’s striking hue. Prussian blue has been used as a colorant in numerous applications, from the paint of van Gogh’s “Starry Night”… Continue Reading →

Mapping the Trees’ Tree of Life: The Genetic Lineages of North American Hazelnuts

Life — in all its varied forms and interactions — is one of the Earth’s most studied mysteries, one that scientists have spent centuries unraveling. Among them is botanist Dr. Jianhua Li, who is ranging through continents and (thanks to the insights of DNA) through time to uncover the branching trees of life of various,… Continue Reading →

History’s Paradoxical Lessons of Love in War

As a Marine veteran and military historian, Dr. Fred L. Johnson III is regrettably too familiar with the atrocities of war. As a college professor, he has not tucked away that horrific knowledge, but instead is adding a new perspective to it. Johnson recently gravitated toward extraordinary stories of friendship and forgiveness during times of… Continue Reading →

Faith of Our Foremothers

The Rev. Dr. Lynn Japinga has spent years telling the stories of the women of the Bible and, in many cases, doing her level best to redeem the reputations with which she feels they’ve been unfairly saddled over the centuries. “I joke that stories about women are always about either sex, violence, or sex and… Continue Reading →

Bringing Fresh Vision to a Classic

Before the swirling coats were contemplated, before he resolved how 18 roiling bodies would storm across a stage without colliding, before his reimagined storyline took shape, Professor Matthew Farmer spent a year filling his head with Igor Stravinsky. In his car, on his phone in the breaks between classes and appointments and choreographing other pieces,… Continue Reading →

Capturing the Intangible

Lisa Walcott can’t recall just what the item was. A blouse, perhaps? But she can picture the open drawer and the garment tossed across it. She was struck by the fabric’s fluidity — how much, draped there, it looked like liquid. But why would water trickle down the front of a bureau drawer? Why, indeed?… Continue Reading →

Rhetoric, #MeToo and Television

Dr. Sarah Kornfield likens the cultural effects of television to a distorted reflection from a funhouse mirror, and she doesn’t mean it in an amusing way. When she thinks about TV’s reflective light, she does so as a rhetorician who studies the portrayals of gender in mass media. Using that lens to look closely at… Continue Reading →

“Reinventing” Student Teaching with Mentoring at Its Core

Conceptually, the changes Professor Nancy Cook and Dr. Susan Brondyk engineered in Hope College’s student teaching model seem straightforward: More mentoring. More teamwork. A new tool to guide student teachers and seasoned professionals in a collaborative process of goal-setting, strategizing and regular assessment of each student teacher’s growth. But leading organizational change is anything but… Continue Reading →

Medical Role Models Matter

Dr. Aaron Franzen has been curious for years about the “hidden curriculum” of medical schools — the undercurrent of norms and expectations for behavior that medical students learn outside their official curriculum. “It’s the social water in which all of them swim, so it matters — whether they recognize it or not,” he says. Until… Continue Reading →

Investigating the Dynamic between Health and Faith

Dr. Alyssa Cheadle is a Christian and a psychologist. In the United States, it’s an unlikely combination; according to Cheadle, psychologists are among the least religious academics. As a health psychologist, she develops insights into many aspects of physical health that are affected by mental health, and vice versa, in her prolific research output. But… Continue Reading →

Distinctive Hope: How can I help?

Becoming a front-line worker in the fight against a global pandemic was never in a job description at the college, neither for the clinicians of the Health Clinic nor for anyone else. And yet, when Hope established its rapid-testing center as a component of the college’s multi-pronged strategy for monitoring for the presence of COVID-19… Continue Reading →

From the President: Matthew A. Scogin ʼ02

Dear Friends and Family of Hope College, Spring is a time full of hope. After a Michigan winter, spring is always welcome on Hope’s campus, and this year more than ever. From budding trees in the Pine Grove to students emerging from their dorms to study in hammocks, the hope of barrenness being brought back… Continue Reading →

Campus Scene

GRADUATION ’21 Baccalaureate and Commencement for the Class of ’21 are scheduled for Sunday, May 16, with several adjustments from the events’ traditional formats due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The day will include a Baccalaureate service in the morning with two Commencement ceremonies in the afternoon to facilitate physical distancing. Baccalaureate will be for… Continue Reading →

Being Intentional

Kamara Sudberry ’15 joined the Hope staff in January in a role that is likewise new for the college itself, as engagement officer for diversity, equity and inclusion with Alumni Engagement. Counting from when she was a first-semester freshman, the Flint, Michigan, native has been a member of the Hope family for nearly 10 years.… Continue Reading →

A Guide for the Journey

The basic pitch for the Boerigter Center for Calling and Career sounds deceptively simple: “We’re here to help students figure out everything from finding a major to finding a job and everything in between,” said Shonn Colbrunn ’94, executive director. As with most things, though, the reality is more complicated than it sounds. The Boerigter… Continue Reading →

Making Music with a Mission

As the world grappled with the intensifying COVID-19 health crisis last spring, there were those in the U.S. who began referring to the plague disparagingly as “the China virus” and the “kung flu.” Concurrently, according to Time magazine, the STOP AAPI HATE center founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council has received more… Continue Reading →

Bringing Back the Birds

Each year, we in more northern climes appreciate when various bird species return to our regions on the fresh wisps of spring. In fact, we eagerly anticipate their arrival with high seasonal acuity. After our muted long-winter life, “Hey, I saw my first robin today!” is as much a rite of spring as spotting college… Continue Reading →

Playing Toward the COVID Endgame

Just two months into 2021, a year that rang in with oxymoronic anxious optimism, heavy reality struck the Hope College athletics program with the force of a 500-pound barbell dropped from 1,000 feet. One of the longest-standing, tradition-laden staples in Hope athletics’ diet was removed from a limited menu of competitive offerings on its plate.… Continue Reading →