Hope students and alumni receive prestigious fellowships!

One Hope student and two Hope alumni received National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships in 2019: Garrett Fogo, Rebecca Johnson, and Philip Versluis were selected to receive fellowships in this highly competitive programs–less than 20% of applicants are selected to receive an award. Additionally, five Hope students and alumni received “honorable mentions” for their …

Strategies for Successfully Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers

A recent article in Ecology and Evolution highlights successfully strategies for successfully mentoring undergraduate researchers.  While this appears in an ecology journal, the strategies proposed apply to most academic disciplines that involve faculty-student research experiences (whether in STEM, arts, or the humanities). For example, faculty interested in fostering interest in traditionally underrepresented students in their …

Tips to Craft Your Proposal Need Statement

The Need Statement of your proposal is the most important sections of your grant–it justifies why you need to complete your project.  That’s why it’s so important to get it right–it sets the stage for the remainder of your proposal. Grants.gov has developed an excellent blog post about developing a Need Statement.  While it features …

Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers!

On 12 April 2019, Hope College hosted its annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity at the DeVos Fieldhouse.  This year, 327 students from 27 departments and programs presented 202 posters! Of course, our Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity is only a piece of the overall dissemination plans of our students’ work.  …

Virginia McDonough receives new NIH award

Virginia McDonough, Professor of Biology, received a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) award of $246,972 for a project titled Regulation of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase by dietary fatty acids.  The award period is 1 April 2019 through 31 March 2022. This project will determine some of the normal mechanisms of regulation of gene expression of a …