Tag: featured

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 →

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 →

The Topic No One Wants to Talk About. Until Now.

Q&A with Sara Dorer Reports by multiple well-known female celebrities. The trial and conviction of Dr. Larry Nassar. The revocation this past fall of the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter. High-profile news has made sexual assault a national conversation, building awareness of the problem, empowering victims, and turning a spotlight on organizations and how they respond.… Continue Reading →

Serving and Protecting the Garden that is Earth

The Hope College campus buzzes with energy expended, resources in use. Students learning and living. Staff and faculty providing services, teaching classes, doing research. Classrooms, dining halls, housing and offices. All that energy, all those resources support the college mission of educating students for lives of leadership and service. But the activity reflects another calling,… Continue Reading →

A Fond Farewell to Faculty Retirees

While every path to teaching at Hope is unique, among the college’s dedicated faculty there are also at least two traits that are omnipresent: a love of a discipline, and a passion for inspiring and mentoring new generations. This year’s three retiring professors are no exception. One flew above the skies of Europe and honed… Continue Reading →

A Gift with Gratitude for an Unforgettable Act

Search for Dr. Latif Jiji’s name online, and you’ll find articles in publications like The New Yorker and the Washington Post about his unique role as owner, with his wife Vera, of Manhattan’s only vineyard — in the couple’s 15-foot by 45-foot backyard. You’ll find information about the respected texts that he wrote during his… Continue Reading →

Hope to the Nth Degree

Creating a Bridge Ismael ByersA Journey of Democratic Proportions Irene GerrishReturn of the Renaissance Woman Taylor MillsResearcher, Dancer, Scholar, Niece Nia Stringfellow Creating a Bridge By Josh Bishop Trying to separate Ismael Byers’ story into distinct threads — language goes over here, identity is over there; this one is medicine, that one is public health… Continue Reading →

The Nation’s Best

Being named the best in the nation? That’s a great day on its own. Receiving multiple honors that affirm a distinctive quality of the college’s Department of Theatre and celebrate the efforts of students and alumni together? It doesn’t get any better. Every theatre production is a team effort, but The Line Between was doubly… Continue Reading →

Champions on Ice

If you want to know all about the Hope College hockey program’s past history, current state or future hopes, you really only have to talk to one person. Just one conversation with one guy is all you need to find out the team’s passage from its humble, eclectically skilled beginnings in 1996 to winning the… Continue Reading →

A Journey through Hope

It could be the way that the light plays across a glass façade or an unexpected perspective on a staircase, but it is distinctly Bruce McCombs’ style and subject matter. Mesmerizing movement of light, reflections and shadows created on surfaces continue to capture his imagination. Cities, small or large, and diverse architectural elements within have… Continue Reading →

Generation Spark

To really wrap your mind around the work of Generation Spark, you first need to get a handle on the nones and the dones. Let’s start with the “nones,” a term used in the media as a shorthand way to talk about those who identify themselves on surveys and polls as having no religious affiliation.… Continue Reading →

A Call to Duty

“Where were you, what were you doing on 9/11?” That question, now asked annually every September since 2001, leads to an answer that has two-sided significance: It reminds us of our nation’s history and makes us recall our own. “Where exactly were you, what exactly were you doing when planes crashed in New York City,… Continue Reading →

Hope’s Aspirational Faith

For the first time in more than 150 years, Hope College has adopted a formal statement of its Christian character. Why now? And what does the college expect to do with it, anyway? To be fair, for the first 100 years, Hope had no need for such a statement. As a denominational school of the… Continue Reading →

Food for Thought

You recently finished one holiday meal and will soon belly up to another. As you sit down to partake of whatever traditional Christmas menu is yours, put your fork on pause and consider this: How many things does your food affect? Health. Check. Culture. Check. Economies. Check. Arts and science. Check. Dispositions. Check. Your waistline.… Continue Reading →

Always an Anchor of Hope

Nearly a decade ago, Jazmin Martinez was a shy, quiet elementary student in Holland, Michigan, who was nervous about an upcoming choir concert at her school. At the time, Jazmin was receiving tutoring support through the Children’s After School Achievement (CASA) program that meets at Hope. A student mentor from the college offered to help… Continue Reading →

Gift of a Lifetime

In a sense, the long and winding road that led to a unique exhibition of contemporary Ethiopian Orthodox Christian art at the college’s Kruizenga Art Museum this fall began at Hope as well. Dr. Neal Sobania ’68, a former director of international education and history professor at Hope who is retired from Pacific Lutheran University,… Continue Reading →