featured Archives | News from Hope College

Race at the Center

Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Ferguson. Baltimore. Alton Sterling. Chicago. Black Lives Matter. Freddie Gray. Charlotte. Dallas. Philando Castile. Baton Rouge. Terence Crutcher. Tamir Rice. The steady, mournful drumbeat of racial unrest, senseless death and reactionary violence reverberates across our nation. Through social media, the Internet and other vehicles, details of each tragedy send shock waves… Continue Reading →

A Place for Everyone

This is not the staid and stuffy scene you might expect in an art museum: Happy voices echo as children, parents and college students huddle around tables coloring, cutting and folding Dia de los Muertos crafts. A preschooler pages through a gallery catalog. A young family draws on the entryway sidewalk with chalk. But then,… Continue Reading →

With love, now and always

The emotions experienced by parents as they bring their newly minted freshmen to college are, to say the least, complex. There’s of course, and first and foremost, hope that the coming years will be joyous and help pave the way to a fulfilling future—whatever that might be for their child. There’s pride in each young… Continue Reading →

Leading the Way: Lessons from the Corporate Century Club

It’s not a blueprint, but a new book by Vicki TenHaken ’73 of the Hope management faculty offers insights for business leaders who’d like to see their organizations thrive in the long-term, examining five traits shared by U.S. companies in the “Century Club”—firms that have lasted at least 100 years. Lessons from Century Club Companies:… Continue Reading →

Merging Majors

Senior Elizabeth Ensink discovers new opportunities through Hope’s interdisciplinary approach to liberal arts. This summer, senior Elizabeth Ensink of Hudsonville, Michigan, participated in one of the United States’ most competitive undergraduate creative writing fellowships, “Nature in Words.” The 10-week fellowship, based at Hastings, Michigan’s Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for environmental education, provided a unique opportunity… Continue Reading →

Going Coast to Coast

As voluminous waves rose and flowed more than three miles off the Holland shore, Brian Kieft ’01 looked out over the black-green topography of Lake Michigan and scoured the waterscape. His small boat, as well as his eyeballs, bobbed up and down with each swell, rolling like marbles on a parabolic joyride. The undulating motion… Continue Reading →

Sport and Religion

In America — with its foundational tenet of religious freedom and expression and with its fanatical devotion to sport participation and consumption — a prominent and perplexing marriage weds fierce competition and sincere faith on our playing fields, televisions, and newsfeeds. In kneeling Tim Tebow and post-game-midfield prayers, in evangelistic Athletes in Action and in… Continue Reading →

Boerigter Institute

A new, college-wide initiative at Hope, the Boerigter Institute, will help ensure that every student is robustly prepared for career success and professional growth. This significant effort is made possible by a major gift from SoundOff Signal in honor of Founder and Chairman George Boerigter ’61 and his wife, Sibilla. A task force of Hope… Continue Reading →

Hands-On Learning from Day1 and Beyond

As Eleda Plouch, a freshman from Greenfield, Indiana, prepared for her first semester of college last summer, various thoughts raced through her mind. Would she enjoy her classes? How would she deal with the stress of schoolwork? And would she find a core group of friends? Those concerns all dissipated though, as soon as she… Continue Reading →

Living History, Active Learning

Picture Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and George Washington on the Hope campus, more than two centuries removed from the creation of the United States Constitution, discussing the story of how the document that has guided the nation throughout its history came to be. That’s what happened as Hope’s DeWitt Center main theatre was… Continue Reading →

King of Diamonds

In the time it takes you to read this — just the word “this” — DJ Reyburn ’99 will make up his mind. In fact, in the time it takes you to read this — “this” now being this entire story — DJ Reyburn will make at least another 50 decisions. Ball, strike. Fair, foul.… Continue Reading →

The Heart of Hope

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Hope’s faculty make a tremendous difference. Talk to any alum, no matter the era, and he or she will share stories of a mentor — and usually many — whose enthusiasm, guidance and personal interest, running in tandem of course with their scholarly expertise, were transformative. The eight faculty… Continue Reading →

Presidential Transition

John C. Knapp Leaves Hope to Lead Washington & Jefferson College As noted by Interim President Dennis Voskuil, John C. Knapp has left his position as president at Hope to lead Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. Washington & Jefferson College announced Knapp’s appointment on Friday, April 21. Invited by Washington & Jefferson College… Continue Reading →

How on Earth?

Challenging Borders for the Good of Hope in the World By Eva Dean Folkert ’83 To look at the Earth from above, as a bird sees it or from an astronaut’s stratospheric view, is to see a gloriously blue-green-white sphere as one splendid whole. Rivers and mountains cross expanses unabated; oceans flow uninhibitedly from one… Continue Reading →

Awakening a Deeper Faith

Sixteen-year-old Sydney Mycroft expresses her Christian faith through playing the drums with a praise team at her home church in Orlando, Florida. But Sydney learned far more than how to improve her musical skills during the recent Awakening summer institute at Hope College. She gained a deeper understanding of her faith and developed skills for… Continue Reading →

Role Reversal

In Dr. Kenneth Brown’s analytical chemistry laboratory, details are amenable obsessions. Precise measurements, exact reaction times, specific compound properties, meticulous journal notes — it all requires a special law and order of the chemical kind. While the terms bantered about in Schaap Science Center lab 2116A would make any layperson’s head spin with their particular… Continue Reading →

Something in the Water

Two of Michigan’s best-known breweries — New Holland and Founders — are celebrating their 20th anniversaries this year, but that isn’t all they have in common. They both brew high-quality, unique beer. They’re both known, at least in part, for their bourbon barrel-aged stouts (Dragon’s Milk and KBS, respectively). And they were both founded by… Continue Reading →

Into Africa

The destinations themselves are memorable, but it’s the focus and sense of family that make the Alumni Travel Program magical. Always led or co-led by a faculty member with expertise in the region, the tours are not simply sight-seeing expeditions but educational opportunities with a global emphasis, reflecting the college’s ongoing commitment not only to… 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 →