The college's 135th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 7, and approximately 565 seniors will be participating.
The college's 135th Commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 7, and approximately 565 seniors will be participating.
The Commencement speaker, chosen by the graduating class, will be Dr. C. Baars Bultman of Fremont, who is an associate professor of education at Hope and younger brother of Dr. James Bultman, who is in his first year as the college's president. The Baccalaureate sermon will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. Gregg Mast of East Nassau, N.Y., who is the 1999-2000 president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America and senior pastor of The First Church in Albany.
Commencement will be held on Sunday, May 7, at 3 p.m. in Holland Municipal Stadium. Baccalaureate will be held on Sunday, May 7, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
Bultman, who is a 1971 Hope graduate, has been on the college's education faculty since 1987. In addition to his work at Hope, he continues to teach a class at Fremont High School. He joined the Fremont staff in 1972 as a social studies and English teacher at Fremont Junior High School, and has taught social studies and literature at the high school since 1974. Prior to coming to Fremont, he taught English at Newaygo High School for a year.
Among other teaching honors, Bultman is a multi-year recipient of Newaygo County's "Excellence in Education Award." He has had reviews or articles in publications including "Christian Scholars Review," "The Church Herald" and the "Muskegon Chronicle," and poems in "Moral Education Forum" and "Yankee Forum."
Bultman holds his master's in American history from Western Michigan University and his doctorate in American studies from Michigan State University. He and his wife Margo, who is a 1973 Hope graduate, have two children: Marta, who is a sophomore at Hope, and Peter, a sophomore at Fremont High School.
Mast, who is a 1974 Hope graduate, is a member of the college's Board of Trustees. He has served on the board since 1994, and has also served on a variety of denominational boards and committees. Prior to coming to The First Church in Albany, he was minister of social witness and worship for the Reformed Church in America. He was also pastor of Second Reformed Church in Irvington, N.J., and an assistant pastor with the Andrew Murray Congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mast has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center in Albany since 1988, and was president of the board from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he received the Carlyle Adams Ecumenical Award from the Capital Area Council of Churches for the founding vision for the Ecumenical Witnesses at Baptism Program.
He holds his master of divinity degree from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a master's and doctorate from Drew University. He and his wife Vicki, who is also a 1974 Hope graduate, have three children: Andrew, and twins Katherine and David.
In the event of rain, Commencement will be held at Zeeland High School, located at Riley and 96th Avenue in Zeeland. Admission to Baccalaureate, and to Commencement if indoors, is by ticket only.