Campus Scene
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS AT HEART OF NEW PROGRAM
Holland’s connection to author L. Frank Baum’s beloved Oz series — he penned portions of his stories while summering at Macatawa Park — inspired the name of a new program at Hope designed to connect the college with community partners to address the city’s most pressing needs.
Titled “There’s No Place Like Home,” the initiative has been established through a 42-month, $800,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It is linking the talents of Hope faculty and students in the arts and humanities, and financial support, with local organizations in developing projects focused on bettering the community and its quality of life. Selection and review of proposals are underway, but the organizers are anticipating projects focused on local challenges such as inclusion, housing, health care, environment, technology, infrastructure, education, incarceration, employment, social mobility, entrepreneurship, economic development and civic culture.
LEED HAT TRICK
The new van Andel Huys der Hope Campus Ministries house, which opened in August, has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council with LEED v4 certification based on the sustainability of its materials, systems and utility use.
It is the third building on campus to earn LEED certification. The others are the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts (LEED Silver), which opened in 2015; and the Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center (LEED Gold), which opened in the 2017.
FACULTY COMPOSER HONORED
Dr. Benjamin Krause of the music faculty has received Honorable Mention in the 2020 National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Composition Award program.
He was chosen for his composition “Six Lowell Songs” for soprano and piano. The work is based on the poetry of Amy Lowell (1874-1925), who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.
It is the second year in a row that Krause has received major recognition as a composer from a national music-teachers’ organization. In 2019, he was named the 2018 Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association.
HAWORTH INN RENOVATION
The college’s Haworth Inn and Conference Center is undergoing a complete renovation, the first major updating of both the space and its role since the building opened in 1997. Through the project, the facility will further evolve as a community resource and create a design destination in Holland, with an expanded function as a welcome center for visitors to the college including alumni, community members and prospective students.
The transformational project includes all conference and hotel rooms, rebuilding the lobby and adding a full-service coffee shop that will be open to the public. The project is made possible through a gift from Haworth Inc. and has been led by Patricia Urquiola, an award-winning designer and architect based in Milan, Italy, who has worked with the company for several years.
The work began in November and the facility is currently closed. The guest rooms and main-floor lobby are scheduled to reopen in May, and the coffee shop and conference spaces to be phased in during the summer.
WINTER SPORTS REPORT
Before the COVID-19 crisis shuttered winter NCAA championships and regular spring seasons, several Hope teams and student-athletes achieved league and national honors. For the No. 1-ranked, undefeated and MIAA champion women’s basketball team led by head coach Brian Morehouse ’91, junior guard Kenedy Schoonveld was selected as the league MVP and named an All-American by the WBCA. Sophomore Kamaron Wilcox became Hope’s first-ever MIAA Most Valuable Diver after he won titles on both the 1- and 3-meter boards. Led by head coach Kevin Cole ’88, the women’s indoor track and field team won its second league title in three years, helped immensely by senior Mitchel Achien’g who earned her second Most Valuable Field Athlete honor. Junior swimmer Emma Schaefer was also crowned the MIAA’s Most Valuable Swimmer.
GIANT AWARD RECIPIENT
Senior Brandon Fuller of Kentwood, Michigan, was honored as the 2020 collegiate recipient of a Junior Giant Scholarship during the 38th annual Giants Banquet and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 22.
The annual Giant Awards recognize African American individuals or organizations for their exceptional contributions in shaping the history and quality of life in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, community, with a total of 14 honored this year in a variety of categories. Fuller received the Dr. Patricia Pulliam Leadership Scholarship, awarded to a nominated student who demonstrates leadership, community involvement and impact, academic and athletic accomplishments, or academic achievement/academic progress.
He is the third member of the Hope community to receive a Giant Award in the past 12 years. Vanessa Greene, who is associate dean of students and director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion, was honored in 2008, and former music instructor Edye Evans Hyde in 2017.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
President emeritus Dr. Gordon Van Wylen turned 100 on Thursday, Feb. 6, a milestone birthday celebrated with several hundred well-wishers two days later, during the Hope-Calvin men’s basketball game held at the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse. The brief on-court ceremony emceed by President Matthew A. Scogin ’02 provided a chance to recognize and thank Van Wylen, whose tenure as Hope’s ninth president from 1972 to 1987 continues to have a significant, positive impact on the college.
Hope In Pictures
This year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Lecture featured a speaker who worked with the revered civil rights leader and his wife. Xernona Clayton, a nationally renowned activist, television personality, CEO and philanthropist, presented “MLK: A Legacy of Love, Faith, Commitment and Sacrifice,” on Monday, Jan. 20, in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
She encouraged the audience to honor the civil rights leader by spending his birthday living his message — and if that seemed overwhelming, to start with one person. “Love one person today,” she said. “Ask that person to do another one, and another one. And after a while you have the problem solved.”
Please visit Hope online for photos from the occasion as well as for galleries featuring a variety of events in the life of the college.