Staff Profile: John Jobson
Assistant Dean of Student and Director of Residential Life and Housing

Dr. John Jobson says that he appreciates Hope for the importance the college puts on integrating the social part of life with the academic. His perspective stems from his own days as a Hope student.

“My experience as a student-athlete who also was involved with many other extra curricular activities would have been way outside the norm for lots of other places, but it was not outside the norm for Hope,” he says. “I love the ability that Hope gives its students to do all those things and have a well-rounded experience.”

Now, as an administrator, Dr. Jobson admires how the relationships between staff and students help shape that rounded experience in a positive way. “Students have a personal connection to the administrators and faculty, from the president to the provost,” he says. “Our president and dean of students eat meals with students on a regular basis, which is a really neat thing for our students.”

For his own part, Dr. Jobson hopes that students realize that his door is always open to them. “I try to help students find all the best resources that can be helpful to them,” he says. “I like helping students when they’re in a bind, because those are ways that I can feel like I made a difference.”

The connection to Dr. Jobson is beneficial beyond Hope as well, he notes. “One of the most rewarding parts of interacting with the students is when I get to write letters of recommendation,” he says. “I actually know the person I’m writing about very much beyond their resumes, so it’s very easy to say ‘I really do recommend this person, and here’s why.’”

In addition to student and administration relationships, Dr. Jobson says that Hope’s residential life program provides a very supportive environment in general, which he attributes primarily to a strong staff that includes many students as resident assistants. “There are more connection points for students to interact with people who have had training about the resources of the college: things to help make sure that the students are engaging academically, that they’re doing okay, and that they’re safe,” he says.

As residential life director, Dr. Jobson deals with a broad range of issues on a daily basis, but that is part of what he likes best about his position and about Hope. “There is a lot of blurring of boundaries,” he says. “There are so many things I deal with in a given day, but in some sense that’s a microcosm of what the whole college is about, which is that integrated ‘we’re-all-in-this-together’ mentality.”

This profile was written by Danielle K. Johnson, a 2008 Hope College graduate from Kalamazoo, Mich., for the 2008-09 Hope College Catalog.

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