Category: Winter 2017

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 →

Just Call Him Dennis

Those who know the Reverend Dr. President Dennis Voskuil well — and more tellingly, many who don’t — skip over any one of his titular honorifics, earned and respected as they may be, and go straight to Dennis. Just call him Dennis, that’s all he wants. The new, 13th president of Hope College even signs… Continue Reading →

One of the Best

Hope continues to earn national recognition for its long-standing tradition of teaching students through participation in research experiences. The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) has presented Hope with a 2017 Campus-Wide Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishments (AURA) for the high quality of its program. Now in its third year, the award draws from CUR’s Characteristics… Continue Reading →

Serving Winning Opportunities

Hope has become one of only eight colleges and universities in the nation to offer Professional Tennis Management (PTM) certification, providing students with access to a career path with nearly 100-percent placement for new graduates. PTM programs serve as a platform for aspiring students and professionals to pursue careers in the tennis industry. Hope is… Continue Reading →

Let’s Talk

In today’s America, a craggy schism rocks almost any brand of public discourse, leaving deep welts of incivility on families, communities, the workplace and, of course, college campuses. For a country that has (or had?) prided itself on open dialogue, a remarkable number of people now shy away from controversial discussions for fear of immediate,… Continue Reading →

Community in Christ

The muffled tap of felt-bottomed pieces on a chessboard. Queen to king’s rook 3. Knight’s pawn captures pawn. And then a mistake. An unnoticed piece slides diagonally to take the queen, and one of the players quips with a grin, “You Protestants — always forgetting about the bishops.” Sure, it sounds like the punchline to… Continue Reading →

The Long Shadow of Vietnam

The 2017 Vietnam May Term was the first-ever such experience offered to Hope College students. For two weeks, eight fierce young women helped their two gasping male professor chaperones keep up as we traveled across the immense beauty of Vietnam. At the risk of sounding like a cliché, the Vietnam May Term was a life-changing… 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 →

The Taste of Freedom

He had freedom in his hand in June of 1991, and he couldn’t reach it. Nineteen-year-old Andrei Rukavishnikov was one of 19 students from the Soviet Union en route to the U.S. to spend the year at Hope College when his flight made a scheduled stop in Ireland. The disembarked passengers were each given a… 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 →

The Right Chemistry

Dimnent Memorial Chapel has hosted many alumni weddings through the years. Frequently, Hope peers are in the party. Often, treasured faculty mentors are invited to attend. And sometimes, members of the faculty or staff (typically religion, or Campus Ministries) have even officiated. Saturday, July 29, was almost certainly the first time, though, that chemistry professors… 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 →