Alumni Panel to Speak About Creative Jobs for English Majors

At 7pm on November 18th, the English Department will co-host The Hope College Connection LIVE: Creative Jobs for English Majors. This will be a virtual event featuring a panel of alumni ready to share their advice and give some direction for landing an exciting and rewarding career. In advance of that event, the English Department …

Alumna Feature – Kasidee Karsten (’13): “There’s No Right or Wrong Way.”

Kasidee Karsten ’13 took her English degree into the social media realm, working for the past few years as Social Media and Content Manager for the National Football League Players Association. She shares with us her insights on how her English courses at Hope led to her success. What are you up to now? I …

Alumnae Feature: Shanley Smith (’19) on Community Building in Romania

Recent grad Shanley Smith (2019) spoke with the English Department about her post-Hope path, which included mission work in Romania and a sudden return home to Holland in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “What do you plan on doing with your degree?” Of all the answers I had prepared throughout my years of undergraduate, …

Alumnus Highlight: “Why Visit America” author Matthew Baker (’09)

English Department alumnus Matthew Baker (2009) is still on a roll. His new story collection, Why Visit America, was named one of Esquire‘s “20 Must-Read Books of Summer 2020” and received a starred review from Booklist, which wrote: “Bold, captivating, and deeply relevant, Baker’s imaginative stories offer approachable, optimistic perspectives on morally ambiguous topics facing …

“The Art of Attention and a Hope Education”: A Faculty Feature from Alex Mouw (’14)

During the spring of 2014, I’d walk into the south entrance of Lubbers Hall and pass the oil painting of President and Mrs. Lubbers playing a diligent game of chess. I’d round the corner onto the stairs and proceed to the second floor where a cross listed English and philosophy course on Existentialism met each …

Alumni Interview with Stephanie Mouw (Browne ’13)

What are you doing now? I’m a writer/editor for Purdue University’s Marketing and Media department and work primarily on Admissions pieces, including anything from the university’s viewbook to visit day invitations. I also have the chance to work on ads, magazine stories, and a myriad of other projects for many Purdue colleges and offices. How …

“To Reclaim Reading”: A Faculty Feature from Dana VanderLugt (’01)

As an English teacher who races from my 8th grade classroom over to Hope to teach a late afternoon  composition class, I spend a lot of my time with young people in life’s messy middles: in the midst of adolescence, in the midst of the semester, in the midst of the academic year. When we’re …

Alumni Feature from Sara Sanchez ’14

  Since graduating three and a half years ago, I have been called Ms. Sanchez, Sanchez, or Sanchi at Holland Christian high school, teaching Spanish Language Arts and Psychology for two of those. And in the middle of that two-year teaching stint, I was a full-time M.Ed student at Calvin College. My intended plan after earning my …

Alumni Interview with Kian Hashemi-Rad ’14

What are you doing now? Right now, I’m one semester away from finishing my M.A. in Leadership in Student Affairs at the University of St. Thomas. I currently work as a graduate assistant at St. Thomas in the Department of Campus Life. I also have a few side hustles: I clean at a yoga studio …