The 149th academic year at HopeCollege will begin formally with the college's Opening Convocation on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m. in the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse.

The 149th academic year at HopeCollege will begin formally with the college's Opening Convocation on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 2 p.m. in the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse.

The public is invited.  Admission is free.

The featured speaker will be Dr. Sonja Trent-Brown, assistant professor of psychology.

Residence halls for new students will open on Friday, Aug. 27, at 10 a.m., with New Student Orientation beginning later that day and continuing through Monday, Aug. 30.  Residence halls for returning students will open on Sunday, Aug. 29, at noon.  Fall semester classes will begin on Tuesday, Aug. 31, at 8 a.m.

The summer has provided an opportunity for subtle but significant upgrades to campus, including renovation of computer science and engineering laboratories in VanderWerf Hall; remodeling of the Health Center; a new roof for the Keppel House, which houses the campus ministries program; new windows at Gilmore Hall; and new furniture for student rooms in Durfee, Gilmore and Phelps halls.

Trent-Brown has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2005.  Her research interests include psychoacoustics and cognitive development.

In January she presented the seminar "Who Is It?  Voice Quality and Speaker Identification" during the annual Winter Happening coordinated by the college's office of public and community relations.  She involves students as co-investigators in her research, and this past spring she and her student research team received the inaugural "Social Sciences Young Investigators Award" for their project "Survey of Psychological Services Requested by the Public in Various Medical Settings."

Among other activity on campus, she is faculty advisor for Hope's Black Student Union (BSU), and has been a presenter in the college's Teaching Enhancement Workshop for new faculty.  She is among the faculty profiled in the "Hope People" section of the college's 2010-11 "Catalog."

Trent-Brown graduated from Harvard/Radcliffe University in 1989.  She completed her master's and doctorate at the University of South Florida in 1997 and 2004 respectively.