Jim McFarlin ’74 to Be Inducted into Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame

Hope graduate and Trustee Jim McFarlin ’74 is one of six outstanding journalists being inducted into the 2023 class of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. The Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame recognizes reporters, editors, publishers, owners, photographers, broadcasters, educators and others who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. McFarlin, who is an award-winning …

Death of DAA Recipient Douglas Neckers, Formerly of Chemistry Faculty

Dr. Douglas Neckers ’60 of Perrysburg, Ohio, a 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient whose accomplished career as a photochemical scientist included several years on the Hope College faculty, died on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. He was 84. He was retired from the faculty of Bowling Green State University, where he had established the Center for …

Customized Coffee Blend Supports Hope Forward

Hope Forward is a creative new approach to funding a college education, so what could be more appropriate than finding a creative way of helping make the initiative a reality? Dan ’09 and Kara Dornbusch ’12 Guy, owners of the Espresso Bay coffee shop in downtown Traverse City, Michigan, have done just that by creating …

Allison Utting ’18 Burkhardt Named Michigan’s Recipient of Prestigious James Madison Memorial Fellowship for Secondary Teachers

Allison Utting ’18 Burkhardt, who teaches United States history at West Middle School in the Byron Center Public Schools, has been named the state of Michigan’s recipient of a 2022 James Madison Graduate Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. Recognized as one of America’s most prestigious awards in constitutional history and government for …

Form and Function, Past to Present | Mural Painted by Ashley Mary ’07

Where once were bare walls, a playful, abstract mural now lives. Painted earlier this summer, it runs throughout the Student Development office block in the Jim and Martie Bultman Student Center, greeting visitors as they arrive and traveling across the central collaborative gathering space shared by student organizations. And it’s the work of one of …

From Mentor and Student to Grad-School Peers

At Hope, Ellen Tanis ’90 Awad and Nancy Benda ’17 were mentor and student. Three years later, they have each completed graduate studies at the University of Georgia as friends and peers.Both pursued advanced degrees in student affairs at the Mary Frances Early College of Education of the University of Georgia at Athens. Awad earned …

Memories of an Epic Road Trip Home

In 1927, distance travel by automobile was less common than today. The U.S. had only recently introduced the numbered highway system, using existing roads, and the interstate freeways were still some three decades in the future. Even so, a trip home to Long Island from college in Holland mightn’t normally have merited a story — …

Book on Forgotten African American History Puts Author Anna-Lisa Cox ’94 in the Spotlight

  As a scholar of 19th-century U.S. history, Anna-Lisa Cox ’94 isn’t accustomed to being in the spotlight. With the forthcoming publication of her book The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality, however, she’s found herself the subject of numerous media interviews, recipient of multiple invitations …

Sufjan Stevens ’98 to Perform during Oscars

Although he’s had songs featured on other soundtracks, singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens ’98 had never written specifically for film before being asked to contribute work for Call Me by Your Name. The result has earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for “Mystery of Love,” which he will also be performing during the 90th …

The Hope Set Before Us

Greg Olgers ’87 is editor of News from Hope College and director of news media services at Hope. He has been writing about the college’s people, places and activities since joining the staff in October 1988. It is a both rewarding and (for lack of a better word) strange experience, remaining at one’s alma mater …