A ceremony at Hope College on Saturday, April 27, will celebrate the college’s first two international graduates, who arrived from Japan in 1871, and their lasting, 153-year impact on both Hope and their homeland.

Hope College has received 2023 Tree Campus Higher Education® recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation, the sixth year in a row that the foundation has honored Hope for its commitment to effective urban forest management.

Awards and recognition will be presented to Hope College students during the annual Honors Convocation on Thursday, April 25, at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.

Baccalaureate and Commencement for Hope College’s Class of 2024 are scheduled for Sunday, May 5. Commencement will take place at 3 p.m. at Ray and Sue Smith Stadium, and Baccalaureate at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.

The words penned by the Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte when establishing the Pioneer School from which Hope grew are among the college’s most foundational: education as an “anchor of hope” for the future. Through all the decades since, that promise has been shepherded by generations of faculty mentors who have not only been at Hope, but in a real sense have been and are Hope. Across campus — in the classroom, in the laboratory, on the stage, on the playing field and in countless ways between and beyond — for a combined 205 years, the eight faculty retirees honored here have embodied and helped realize the vision of transforming tomorrow by shaping young lives today.

Hope College TRIO Upward Bound is the longest-running Upward Bound program at a private college in the country. Its 55th Anniversary Gala: Living Legacies on April 12, however, will not be about longevity but instead will focus on the thousands of lives that have been transformed.

The Saint Benedict Institute will host Dr. Jack Mulder of the Hope College philosophy faculty for a talk titled “Was Jesus an Only Child? A Biblical and Philosophical Exploration” on Wednesday, April 17, at 7 p.m. at Hope College in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.

“Responding to Hate on Campus: Is Free Speech the Answer?” will be the focus of an onstage conversation at Hope College with Nadine Strossen, who is a past president of the American Civil Liberties Union, on Monday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.

David Lee, who is advancement director at Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates and a Hope College graduate, will present the college’s 2024 Asian Heritage Lecture on Tuesday, April 9, at 4 p.m. in the Maas Center auditorium.

Retired English professor Dr. Peter Schakel, who across his nearly 50 years on the faculty earned national acclaim as a scholar and appreciation and respect from students and colleagues as a teacher and for his service, died on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. He was 82.

For the 19th consecutive year, Hope College has been named one of West Michigan’s “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For®.”

For the 25th consecutive year, hundreds of Hope College students put their time and talents into the campus-wide Dance Marathon fundraiser on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2.