Hope College Public Relations    
hope college > public relations      

 
Google Hope College
Hope Phone/Address Search


About Hope <
Hope Today <
Contact Hope <
Getting to Hope/Holland <
Academics
at Hope
<
The Arts <
News and Events <
Services to the Media <
Publications <
Sports Information <
Hope Souvenirs <
Hope Links <
 

Faculty, Staff & Student Achievements


ACADEMIC YEAR 2009 - 2010

August 2009


August, 2009

August 25, 2009

Book Shows Service in
African Mission Work

A new book produced by the A.C. Van Raalte Institute at HopeCollege provides insights into the foreign-mission experience through the writings and correspondence of long-time medical missionary Tena A. Huizenga.

The book, "Aunt Tena, Called to Serve: Journals and Letters of Tena A. Huizenga, Missionary Nurse to Nigeria," focuses on Huizenga's service in remote Lupwe, Nigeria, through the Christian Reformed Church from 1937 to 1954. The volume has been published by the William B. Eerdmans Company of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Cambridge, United Kingdom, as part of the Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America.

"This intensely human volume guides us through 17 memorable years of Nigerian mission history," said Eugene Rubingh, former executive secretary of Christian Reformed World Missions. "Drawn from Tena Huizenga's own letters, the events are sketched through the lens of joy and tears, of small victories and unimaginable obstacles. Both candor and love transform mundane facts into a warm and lively account of a life poured out for God."

The book's managing editor is Dr. Jacob E. Nyenhuis, who is director of the A.C. Van Raalte Institute and provost emeritus and professor emeritus of classics at Hope. Serving as co-editors were Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, who is the A.C. Van Raalte Research Professor at the Van Raalte Institute and professor of history emeritus at Kent State University, and Lauren M. Berka, a 2008 Hope graduate who was a student research assistant at the institute and is now a graduate fellow in history at Arizona State University.

READ THE PRESS RELEASE


August 21, 2009

College Guides Include
Hope Among Top Schools

Hope College has been included in several college-guide listings in recent months.

  • Hope is among the approximately 330 of "the country's best and most interesting colleges and universities" featured in the new 2010 edition of the "Fiske Guide to Colleges."

  • The annual rankings compiled by "U.S. News & World Report" have once again included Hope College among the 100 best liberal arts colleges in the nation. The college is 92nd out of the 249 institutions that are considered national liberal arts colleges. In addition, Hope also continues to be included among the institutions that the publication recognizes for providing outstanding undergraduate research/creative projects opportunities.


  • The September/October 2009 issue of "Mother Jones" includes Hope as one of "10 cool schools that will blow your mind, not your budget," describing the college as a best value for artists with a spiritual side.


  • The Princeton Review selected Hope as one of 158 institutions it profiles in its "Best in the Midwest" section of its Web site feature "2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region".



    READ THE PRESS RELEASE


    August 19, 2009

    Hope a "Cool School"
    According to Mother Jones

    Mother Jones magazine (September/October 2009 issue) has included Hope College in a listing of "cool schools that will blow your mind, not your budget".

    Hope is one of 10 schools listed as a Best Value for different reasons. Hope is recognized as a Best Value for artists with a spiritual side.

    The editor said the list was created to recognize schools that "may not bother to juke their stats to make (the) U.S. News (and World Report) short list, but they still have plenty to offer -- for alot less dough."

    About Hope: This creative Christian college is known for its dance, theater, art, music and visiting writers programs. Indie rocker Sufjan Stevens is an alum."

    READ THE PRESS RELEASE



    August 18, 2009

    Poems Capture World
    of High School Basketball


    Basketball has been described by some as "poetry in motion." The world of high school basketball is shared through poetry itself in the latest collection by nationally-recognized poet Jack Ridl, professor emeritus of English at Hope College.

    Ridl's collection "Losing Season," being released in September by CavanKerry Press, follows a fictional, small-town high school team and its community in an experience lived out annually for decades across the country. Capturing the perspective of a mix of participants - coach, players, family, fans - and chronicling highs and lows along the way, the individual poems together create a composite view of a year of hope and defeat both on and off the basketball court.

    Poet Conrad Hilberry has called the volume "unmatched, I believe, anywhere in American poetry."

    "I've never seen a poetry book as clearly focused as this one, as though a smart documentary filmmaker had hung around the gym all season filming until we can see and feel every hole and knot in the sad fabric of that failed year," he said. "These poems are so compelling, so varied, so familiar to anyone who has felt the impact of high school sports that they may well introduce a new genre."


    READ THE PRESS RELEASE


    August 18, 2009

    Hope Mortar Board Chapter
    Earns National Awards

    The Hope College chapter of Mortar Board received multiple awards during the national organization's annual summer conference.

    The event's awards program recognized activities during the preceding school year. Hope received a "Golden Torch Award" and eight "Project Excellence" awards during the conference, which ran Friday-Sunday, July 24-26, in Chicago, Ill.

    Hope's chapter was one of 32 recipients of the "Golden Torch Award," which honors chapters that have excelled in the areas of scholarship, leadership and service. For the third year in a row, the Hope chapter was also one of the top five "Golden Torch Award" recipients and a finalist for the national "Ruth Weimer Mount Chapter Excellence Award."

    READ THE PRESS RELEASE


    Hope is making a difference in its hometown of Holland as researchers at the
    college contribute to understanding of the Lake Macatawa watershed. From left to right
    are seniors Alex Behm and Morgan Willming, and area high school teachers
    Jennifer Soukhome and Carl Van Faasen ’91, who visited the
    Outdoor Discovery Center to collect mud samples from a pond for testing.

  • August 12, 2009

    Watershed Research Leads
    to High School Lab Manual

    Collaborative research by a team of educators studying the local watershed has led to the publication of a lab manual that will enable high school students to conduct explorations of their own.

    The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Press of Arlington, Va., has published "Watershed Investigations: 12 Labs for High School Students." The book is co-authored by Dr. Graham Peaslee of the Hope College faculty; area teachers Jennifer Soukhome and Carl Van Faasen; and William Statema, a recent Hope graduate now teaching in the Chicago area.

    The lab manual's exercises have been inspired by the authors' experiences working together to understand the Macatawa Watershed, but are designed to be used in any high school experiment-based environmental science curriculum. The projects are designed to be open ended, with students tasked with developing hypotheses and designing experiments to test the problems presented. The approach is intended to teach both about issues related to watersheds and the methodology of scientific inquiry.

    READ THE PRESS RELEASE




    August 7, 2009


    Aaron Lawrence Honored
    as Volunteer Mentor

    Aaron Lawrence, a Hope College junior from Grand Rapids, has been chosen to receive this month's "Senator's Award for Men in Mentoring" by State Senator Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland).

    Lawrence, who has been a volunteer mentor with the "Heights of Hope" program in Holland Heights since the fall of his freshman year, will receive the award during a ceremony at Zeeland's Huizenga Park on Monday, Aug. 10.

    Becky Midgley, a youth worker with "Heights of Hope," praised Lawrence for his consistent dedication, describing him as a model for others. "We as the mentoring program are hiring him in the fall to recruit more mentors because he does such a good job with it," she said.

    Midgley noted that the presentation was made at the park because it is a favorite place to go for Lawrence and the student he mentors. The award consists of a framed certificate signed by Kuipers and Governor Jennifer Granholm, and a $50 gift card to the BoatWerks Restaurant courtesy of Paul Kuiper. In addition, the award's recipients are listed on a plaque created by Superior Sports in Holland and on display in the restaurant's lobby.

    READ THE PRESS RELEASE


    July 31, 2009

    Princeton Review Names Hope
    among “Best in the Midwest”

    Hope College is one of the best colleges and universities in the Midwest according to The Princeton Review.

    The education services company selected Hope as one of 158 institutions it profiles in its "Best in the Midwest" section of its Web site feature "2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region" that posted July 27, 2009 and is located at www.PrincetonReview.com.

    Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's vice president for publishing, "We chose Hope and the other terrific schools we recommend as our 'regional best' colleges primarily for their excellent academic programs. We also work to have our roster of 'regional best' colleges feature a range of institutions by size, selectivity, character and locale. We choose the schools based on institutional data we collect from several hundred schools in each region, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of independent and high school-based college advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what each school's customers - their students - report to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey."

    READ THE PRESS RELEASE


  •