Student Stories: Thinking

"Last fall, Reed and I were looking at my schedule and I realized I needed two more credits to graduate this spring. He encouraged me to take LDRS 201, but only if I was willing to be open-minded. He told me that by taking this class, I wouldn't just learn about leadership, but also find a way to understand who I was as a leader. I wasn't able to answer that question last fall, but I am now. I want to thank you for this experience." -- Ty Tanis

"Just because this class didn't have quizzes and tests in no way means that it wasn't as hard or as much work as a traditional four-credit class; in fact, in a lot of ways it was more challenging and required a lot more work because it contained a real-world application." -- Will Bowser

Students transform their minds (and ours).

Community engagement opportunities, properly structured, help us educate students for lives of leadership and service (Hope's mission). They do this by making us aware of the world and of ourselves, helping us transfer our learning, and creating a venue for empowerment.

Engaging community—such as the urban community—puts us in touch with “the real world.” By engaging the real world, we learn about ourselves—our passions and strengths.

Engaging community also helps us transfer and enhance our liberal arts learning by allowing us opportunities to apply our critical thinking and communication skills to real world issues.

Engaging community is also empowering. Empowerment refers to beliefs that we have about our role in the world. When we are empowered we see ourselves as being free to bring about change, personally connected to society in a meaningful way, confident in our competencies, and able to make a positive difference.

To be empowered is a choice. To lead and serve involves empowering others. Community engagement is the venue for this.

In short, engaging community helps us, both faculty and students at Hope College, live into our mission to educate students for lives of leadership and service.

Feeling stories
Reflecting stories
Doing stories

Changing ourselves
Changing the world/student servant leaders