History Majors: Past, Present and Future

Where can majoring in history take you?

Opportunities for history students are limited only by their imagination and initiative. Hope history students have studied in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, worked in internships at nationally-known museums, organizations such as Human Rights Watch, and government agencies such as the United States Department of State, and taught in schools in a variety of communities, from urban settings to rural villages.

Beyond that, what does a student do with a History major after graduation? Well, here's what some of our graduates have done. Can you see yourself in one of these settings?

Museums and Libraries

• Amy Weber ('09) completed her M. A. in art history from the University of Illinois and now works as a project coordinator at the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Anna Cook '05 completed a joint History and Information Technology graduate program at Simmons College and is now working for the Massachusetts Historical Society.
• Alicia Irvine '02 Reinhardt completed a MA in library science at the University of Maryland and is now a reference and local history librarian at Henrietta Publlic Library in Henrietta New York.
• Jacquelyn Funk-Huss is Curator of Education at the Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon, Michigan.
• Cynthia Bachhuber earned a MLS from the University of Wisconsin and is currently the Campus Librarian at Globe University in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Teaching and administration

• George Klupchak '08 completed a M. Ed at the University of Notre Dame and now teaches at Chicago Bulls College Prep in Chicago.
• Jessica Patrick '04 teaches history at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia.
• Melissa LaBarge '01 is a history teacher at Bloomingdale High School.
• Jason Rubel '97 serves as the Principal of East Hills Middle School, Bloomfield Hills Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
• Mark Bray teaches history and coaches at Detroit Country Day.
• Donna Rottier '94 teaches high school in San Diego, California.
• Dirk Weeldreyer '86 serves as Superintendent of the Fennville, Michigan School District.

Legal profession

• Tina Panayides '94 is Staff Attorney, Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
• David Kraska '89 is an attorney in the legal department of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco.
• Amy Hinderer Feltus, law degree from Vanderbilt, practices public finance law in Phoenix.
• Whitney Leigh, law degree from Stanford University where he was president of the Black Law Students Association, specializes in civil litigation and criminal defense with Gonzalez & Leigh in San Francisco.
• Barbara Timmer has a law degree from the University of Michigan, serves as legal counsel for MyPrimeTime, Inc., an integrated media company.
• Tim Fry, who recently completed law school at Northwestern is now at the Chicago office of McGuireWoods, working on transactional and regulatory health care issues.

Higher education and scholarship

• Noah Haiduc-Dale '99 recently published Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948 (Edinburgh University Press). He teaches at Centenary College.
• Hannah Perez '12 is working on an M.A. in Museum Studies through Johns Hopkins University.
• Lauren Berka '08 is in the graduate history program at Arizona State University.
• Samantha Miller '08 completed her M. Div. and is working on a Ph. D. at Marquette University.
• Michael Douma '04 earned his Ph.D at Florida State University and is an Assistant Professor of History at James Madison University.
• Brett Bebber '00 teaches history at Old Dominion University in Virginia. He has just published Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain (Manchester University Press).
• Matthew Sterenberg '98 is is a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan.
• Anna-Lisa Cox '94, Ph.D, who recently published A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith is an independent scholar living in Kalamazoo.
• Hayley Froysland '88 is a professor at Indiana University, South Bend, Indiana.
• Lauren (Hinkle) Janes completed her Ph.D. at UCLA and is a visiting Assistant Professor at Hope.
• Brett Geier '94 is assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of South Florida Polytechnic.
• Elizabeth Morgan is Registrar & Director of Institutional Research at Claremont McKenna College in California.

Business

• Jeffrey Harrison, '12, Project Manager at Mindscape at Hanon McKendry, a West Michigan marketing and advertising firm.
• Brian Pageau, Business Development and Marketing for Midwest Energy Group.
• Geordie Mackenzie '06 works as an account executive with the Fleischman Hiller public relations firm in San Francisco.
• Jeff Bates '98 is Open Source IT Program Manage at Google.
• Amy Strassberger '98 VanStee lives in Chicago where she is an editorial manager with a health information publisher, and a freelance editor. She earned a Masters in Writing from DePaul University.
• David Charnin '96, law degree University of Michigan, is now general counsel for a financial services company in Greenwich, CT.
• Rick Lumsden '93 is Institutional Sales Manager, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
• Barbara Good '87 Van Heest is is a vice president and relationship manager for Chase’s business banking group in West Michigan.
• Doug Holm '86 is Vice President for Communications/Research with MacFarlane Partners, a real estate investment management firm in San Francisco.
• Meg Smitley '97 owns Sproulee Solutions, a web design firm in London.

Consulting and communication

• Erica Puntel '00 is a senior publicist for CNN in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Daniel Stid '87, a Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Ph.D. and author of The President as Statesman: Woodrow Wilson and the Constitution, is a partner in the Bridgespan Group, a consulting firm in San Francisco.
• J. Scott Carpenter formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy is now the Deputy Director of Google Ideas in New York City.
• Banu Demiralp ('00) is co-founder of Anka Rising, which provides a platform for private enterprises, governments, and non-governmental organizations to combat modern-day slavery.

Government and public service

• Jason Burns '06 is Executive Director for Equality Wisconsin.
• Louis Canfield '01 earned a Masters in Public Administration and is Development Center Coordinator for the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Rafael Diaz '98 is on Holland’s police force and is currently working on a law degree.
• Ryan Kreider '94 is Senior Director of Financial Management and Control, EastWest Institute, New York City.
• Shannon Craig Straw '09 is Press Secretary at the Public Religion Research Institute in Washington D.C.

International affairs

• Jordan VandeBunte '05 recently received a Masters in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and works for the U.S. government.
• James Plasman '03 earned a Masters in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a Foreign Service Officer; he is currently in the political affairs office of the American embassy in New Delhi, India.

Serving the church

• Jonathan Schakel '94 is the organist and co-director of Music Ministry at Westminster. Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia
• Seth Weeldreyer '91 is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Marshall, Michigan.
• Kirk Slater '90 is a missionary in Uganda.
• Phil Tanis '87, former mayor of Holland while he was at Hope is currently Manager of Information Technology for the Reformed Church in America.
• Ryan Sweet is Associate Pastor at Addisville Reformed Church in Richboro, Pennsylvania
• Michael Golden is a student at Dallas Theological Seminary.
• Molly Mead is a student at Western Theological Seminary.