Hope College isn’t just a place; it’s a community. A regular feature within “Stories of Hope,” People of Hope explores what that means by highlighting some of the students, faculty and staff who help make the campus family what it is.
Owen Harries
Sophomore, Lexington, South Carolina
As a sophomore at Hope College Owen Harries reflects on his first year saying, “If you’re worried about not finding your crowd, don’t be. Your people will find you.”
And Owen found his people, who include both professors and students. The sophomore, pursuing a degree in biology and in English, commented, “The professors really seem to care about their classes and students. I am quite close with a few of my profs, and one may even be helping me draft the novel I’m writing. If you’re interested in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] there are plenty of professors looking for help in their labs and a wide variety of different projects to get involved with.”
It’s those personal touches that drew Owen to Hope in the first place. “The moment that fully sold me on choosing Hope College was probably when I received THREE handwritten Christmas cards (from admissions as well as my track and cross country coaches),” Owen said. “The personal touch Hope brings to the table cannot be overstated.”
Owen has found many ways to foster his community at Hope. “I run cross country in the fall and track in the spring, serve on both Student Congress and HAS [Hope Advocates for Sustainability], am a member of the Arcadian fraternity and Hope Forward, and formerly wrote for the Anchor,” he said. “It [Hope College] does a good job of being a small school with a tight knit community without feeling TOO small. Very fun, good balance of social life vs academics (maybe a bit on the academics side, but probably better to be that than too party heavy).”
In terms of his academics, the opportunities provided by Hope’s commitment to the liberal arts enable him to pursue his dream of practicing medicine while continuing to write. “The goal is to one day balance the two, working as a doctor and writing on the side as a hobby,” he said.
Owen credits the Hope Forward program with making it possible. Hope Forward is the college’s initiative to fully fund tuition for all students by asking them to contribute to the college after graduation, supporting future students as they were supported, rather than pay tuition in advance, so that they can follow their calling rather than focus on repaying loans. The program, which also explores the concepts of generosity, access to college and community, has been piloted with 80 students while Hope seeks to raise enough funds for the entire student body. “Hope Forward has made the journey much easier financially and has given me more options for medical school since I won’t be burdened with debt from college,” he said.
When thinking about his plans as he begins his sophomore year, Owen commented, “I had great experiences as a freshman with upperclassmen on my cross country team and in my various clubs (Student Congress, Arkies). A lot of older guys showed me the ropes and really made me feel welcome at Hope. I look forward to being in that position this year, getting to act as a guide for the next wave of new students coming to our school. I’d like to give them the same great mentorship experience I had.”
The Hope Academy of Senior Professionals gave a gift to the entire community in October, extending an open invitation to the group’s monthly meeting, which was featuring a presentation by Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman.
The result was a full house in the 800-seat Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts for the 9:30 a.m. event on Tuesday, Oct. 10. The response even included an entire high school history class, and parents who brought along their children after pulling them from school just for the opportunity.
At age six, Friedman was one of the youngest of the 7,000 prisoners found alive when the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in southern Poland on Jan. 24, 1945. “Thank you so much for being here,” she said as she began her remarks. “Because without you being here, the story and everything that happened to me and to other children would be lost.”
She noted that she speaks around the country, even now at age 85, with a sense of responsibility for those whose voices were silenced, and to do what she can to forestall the death of innocents in the future.
“The only thing I can do is talk about it,” she said. “I have no idea what good it does, but you know, even if there is no hope, your obligation is to hope.”
“Because without [hope] we can’t live,” she said. “I could not have survived Auschwitz.”
Tova Friedman
As explained by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, six million Jews, mostly from Europe, were murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies between 1933 and 1945. Of those who were killed, more than one million were murdered at the Auschwitz complex. The six million included 1.5 million children.
By sharing her story, Friedman sought to bring a relatable perspective to the statistics, and to bring attention to the destructiveness of hatred.
“Who can envision six million?” she said. “So let me tell you about one person. And the reason that I’m telling you: The story isn’t only mine. Because one person’s story is not that significant — it’s interesting, but it’s not significant. It’s a story of all the children who aren’t here.”
“I was not richer. I wasn’t smarter. My parents didn’t have special kind of, you know, knowledge. No. A lot of it was luck. 95% was luck,” Friedman said. “And you know, sometimes when people say to me, ‘You were chosen to live,’ I say, ‘No. No. If I was chosen to live, why were the other children chosen to die? What did they do? They weren’t even aware that there was a war, and they were shot and killed.’”
Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman noted that she speaks around the country, even now at age 85, with a sense of responsibility for those whose voices were silenced, and to do what she can to forestall the death of innocents in the future.
Planned by HASP months in advance, the talk was originally envisioned as a way to consider historical context with the rise of anti-Semitism and prejudice in the world. It acquired additional immediacy in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel and the ongoing conflict resulting in civilian deaths on both sides.
“So I want to take you back and tell you what hatred did 80 years ago, and then you can see what hatred is doing now,” Friedman said. “Very scary, very upsetting, to me and I’m sure to all of you, because when people are murdered somewhere in the world, I think it’s a problem for all humanity — all of us — because we have much more in common as human beings than we have differences. We may be different religion, we may be different color, we may have different ideas, but basically we want the same thing. We want to live in peace with our families. That is the basic idea of most people.”
Friedman also stressed that understanding the intent and scale of the Holocaust today should be accompanied by understanding that what was to come wasn’t recognized in the years before it began.
“All these atrocities don’t happen suddenly,” she said. “I didn’t wake up in Auschwitz one day. It happened so slowly that you weren’t even aware that it was going on.”
“We can live our private lives, but you’ve got to be aware of the outside society,” Friedman said.
“So let me tell you how this started,” Friedman said. “And again: slowly. There were rules. The Germans made all kinds of rules: ‘Jews cannot go to school with the other people’; ‘They cannot go the movies’; ‘They can’t use the libraries.’ It happened very slowly.”
“They had book-burning parties,” she said. “They called it decadent writing.”
“And once, I asked my father, I said — he was a very smart man — ‘You heard what was going on, why did you just keep on, you know, doing business as usual?’ You know what he said to me? ‘Oh, yes, we heard all about the crazy man in Germany. And you know what we decided? Somebody’s going to kill him, assassinate him. Who’s going to listen to this crazy person?’ Well, millions and millions and millions of people listened to that crazy person, and that’s how he was able to do all of it. He couldn’t have done it alone.”
“[W]hen people are murdered somewhere in the world, I think it’s a problem for all humanity — all of us — because we have much more in common as human beings than we have differences. We may be different religion, we may be different color, we may have different ideas, but basically we want the same thing. We want to live in peace with our families.”
Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman
Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. In 1940, Friedman explained, the Nazi forces reached her town, and immediately killed the Jewish teachers, elderly (including her grandparents), children, intellectuals, rabbis, doctors and lawyers. The Jewish members of the community who remained, she said, were isolated in a ghetto (she survived because her parents succeeded in hiding her). The killing continued, and illness and starvation also claimed lives.
All the while, she recalled, trains of cattle cars were taking people away. She and her parents endured, but eventually it was their turn as the Germans decided to clear the ghetto. Even as they were packed into the cars standing up, not everyone could fit.
“The shooting started because the cattle cars were full, and there were still people in the ghetto,” Friedman said.
After 36 hours on the train, she said, with no food and no place to go to the bathroom except where they stood, they arrived in Auschwitz, where upon arrival they were stripped of their clothes and forced to proceed naked while being inspected; those too weak to work could be removed and sent directly to the crematorium. She was allowed to stay with her mother (her father was sent elsewhere), although after later contracting and recovering from scarlet fever she was moved to a barracks with other children.
The deaths, she recalled, continued. The 12-year-old girl in the bed near her died of starvation. At one point, Friedman was sent with other children to the gas chamber, but it malfunctioned and they were returned to their barracks.
As the Russians approached in January 1945, the Germans burned what they could of the camp while rounding up some 50,000 survivors to march away. Her mother located her in the chaos and, with her mother knowing herself too weakened for the journey, they hid among the dead in a barracks. Friedman’s mother placed her under a sheet next to the corpse of a woman who had died so recently that she was still warm, warning Friedman not to breathe in a way that would cause the sheet to move.
After the camp was liberated — on Jan. 27, 1945 — Friedman and her mother reunited with her father and the family was initially placed in a camp for displaced persons. Later, she said, they learned that out of the 15,000 Jews who had been in their town before the war, only 200 survived.
She noted that she initially went to school while still in Poland, but even in the aftermath of the Holocaust other children called her a “dirty Jew” and a “Christ-killer,” so she stopped attending. “I didn’t learn to read until I was 12,” she said.
The family eventually immigrated to the United States, but her mother didn’t live long, dying at about age 45 when Friedman was 18. Sorrow, Friedman noted, played a role — her mother had lost 150 family members, including 10 siblings and all their children. “She missed the family and she felt such guilt for being a survivor that she died,” Friedman said. “My mother could not talk about it at all, except she cried when she thought of her family.”
In adulthood, Friedman directed a nonprofit social service agency for 25 years, and she continues to work as a therapist. In 2022, she published the memoir The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope, which she authored with journalist Malcolm Brabant. Her grandson has also helped connect her to the online platform TikTok, where she has reached an estimated 90 million people.
She noted that she is aware of only five Jewish children from her town who survived, one of whom remained in Europe; two of whom also came to the U.S. but have since died; and one of whom who, although in the U.S., is 90 and not as active. Recognizing her own mortality, Friedman closed with a request of the audience.
“Please remember my story. There’s nobody else to tell it after I’m gone. I’m going to speak as long as I can, but please: Now that I’ve told you my story, it’s your story. Please share it with other people,” she said.
“If you ever meet people that tell you that it didn’t happen, that it’s all a made-up story, you know it happened. And especially the young people in the audience who will be going to high school, college and jobs, you’ll always meet somebody who says, ‘This is just a ridiculous thing. People don’t do this to other people.’ They do. And let me tell you, they do more than I could possibly even describe to you. It’s absolutely indescribable,” Friedman said. “Share it with anybody you can. That’s the greatest gift that you could give me.”
Established in 1988, the Hope Academy of Senior Professionals (HASP) that brought Auschwitz survivor Tova Friedman to campus is a voluntary, lifelong learning program designed to enrich the intellectual, cultural and social lives of its more than 750 retired members. Through a variety of classes, lectures, book discussions, service projects, special-interest groups and events, members pursue avenues of study and engage in the exchange of ideas. More information about HASP is available at hope.edu/hasp.
Friedman’s visit to Hope developed through her long-time connection with HASP member Milton Nieuwsma ’63 of Holland, Michigan. An Emmy-winning writer, Nieuwsma had interviewed her and two other women who had been among the children liberated — Frieda Tenenbaum and Rachel Hyams — for his 1998 book Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah, and wrote and co-produced a documentary with the same title based on the book and produced in 2005 by PBS affiliate by WGVU of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The film centers on Friedman and Tenenbaum as they returned to Auschwitz in the summer of 2004 accompanied by their own children and reflected on both their experience at the camp and their lives before and since.
She previously spoke at Hope in conjunction with a screening of Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah on Jan. 27, 2010, the 65th anniversary of her liberation from the Nazi death camp. The January 27 anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp was designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.
The film was shown at Hope again on Oct. 9, to provide context in advance of her HASP-sponsored talk. The screening included a panel discussion with Nieuwsma; Ken Kolbe, who was the documentary’s executive producer and retired in 2021 as general manager for WGVU Public Media; and Phil Lane, who was director and cinematographer, and is director of content for WGVU Public Media. Following the Oct. 10 presentation, Nieuwsma also moderated a question-and-answer session with Friedman and her daughter, Taya, who is also in the film.
Watch the recorded livestream of Tova Friedman’s presentation:
Organized by the Asian Student Union in collaboration with the Kruizenga Art Museum, the campus commemoration of the historic Mid-Autumn Festival linked programs and people in celebrating the diverse traditions represented by the members of the Hope community of Asian heritage.
As a metaphor for connection, the moon was an apt symbol during the Mid-Autumn Festival held at the college’s Kruizenga Art Museum on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
Organized by the Asian Student Union in collaboration with the museum, the campus commemoration of the historic festival linked programs and people in celebrating the diverse traditions represented by the members of the Hope community of Asian heritage. A mix of students, faculty and staff attended the event, which featured a musical performance and poetry readings, hors d’oeuvres from a variety of Asian cultures, and the opportunity to craft paper lanterns and practice calligraphy — all amid the museum’s two gallery spaces and major fall exhibition, “A New Art for a New China: Modern Chinese Prints from the Ihrman Collection.”
When the Kruizenga Art Museum asked the students of the Asian Student Union if they were interested in partnering in some way during the exhibition “A New Art for a New China: Modern Chinese Prints from the Ihrman Collection,” they jumped at the chance. “A very big part of our work as the Asian Student Union is dismantling the myths that Asian culture and cultures are monolithic… For the art museum, as a college department, to reach out to a student organization I think is an incredible way to foster that sort of engagement in the community.”
—Carole Chee, Hope senior and ASU president
Hope senior Carole Chee, who is president of the Asian Student Union (ASU), noted that a version of the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in multiple East- and Southeast-Asian cultures, including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, each with its own traditions.
“It’s just a very big cultural and also a community event in a lot of cultures,” she said. “You can kind of think of it like Thanksgiving, where it’s a time for family to come together and celebrate.”
The Chinese version of the festival, sometimes called the Moon Festival or the Mooncake Festival, dates back some 3,000 years, and celebrates harvest time when the moon is full (the Hope event was a few days early — the actual festival was on Sept. 29 this year). Lanterns are displayed as symbolic beacons to light a path to good fortune, and mooncake pastries are a staple.
Charles Mason, who is the director and Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga Curator of the Kruizenga Art Museum, shared the concept of the moon as a way of connecting people when he opened the evening’s performances with a reading — in both Chinese and English — of the poem “Quiet Night Thought,” by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (701–762), which Mason explained is often associated with the festival:
Before my bed lies a pool of moonlight I could imagine that it’s frost on the ground I look up and see the bright shining moon Bowing my head I am thinking of home.
A specialist in Asian art, Mason was introduced to the poem while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Chinese language and literature at Cambridge University in England. Far from his native United States, he was feeling homesick when a friend encouraged him to find comfort in the poem’s imagery: that he could look up and see the moon at the same time that his family was seeing it, and perhaps feel the distance less.
Following Mason’s reading, Dr. Dennis Feater, associate professor of social work and social work program director, read the poem “Mid-Autumn Moon,” by Li Qiao; freshman pianist Rachel Chia Yen Ning performed “Moonlight in the City”; and senior An Ha read three original poems: “Me Con – a story of motherhood,” “Ancestors” and “A Love Letter to My Mexican Sisters.”
ASU has celebrated the festival, honoring the tradition’s many expressions, for several years, but usually in a smaller venue such as the Keppel House, which is home of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion where ASU is based. When the Kruizenga Art Museum asked the students if they were interested in partnering in some way during the Aug. 26–Dec. 16 exhibition, they jumped at the chance.
“A very big part of our work as the Asian Student Union is dismantling the myths that Asian culture and cultures are monolithic. Every individual experience within those cultures and with those cultures is unique,” Chee said. “We thought it would be a fun way to continue the tradition, and maybe expand it a little bit, especially our audience and just what the event would look like, being able to share that through the art, and through the performances and discussions with attendees.”
“All of our events — I’m speaking for ASU, but I think for all the MSOs [multicultural student organizations] — are open to anybody,” she said. “Maybe you’re entering a group where you might not know a lot about its history or what it represents — just come open to learn. We will welcome you with open arms in a spirit of mutual respect and recognition that we are all humans and we’re all on this earth.”
“The college emphasizes ‘Bring hope to the world,’ and we want to bring the world to Hope… And we want our students and faculty and staff and the community and people in this area to know that they can learn about and be engaged by different things, and in a safe space, in a way that they maybe wouldn’t in their day-to-day lives.”
—Allie Lewis, visitor services coordinator, Kruizenga Art Museum
“For the art museum, as a college department, to reach out to a student organization I think is an incredible way to foster that sort of engagement in the community,” Chee said. “Allie Lewis, the museum’s visitor services coordinator, was incredible in creating that outreach, being able to spread a little visibility, and providing us more resources to make this an event that we could welcome a lot of people to.”
Serving as a resource, writ large, for the campus and Holland communities has been the museum’s mission since it opened in 2015.
“We try to connect with as many student groups as our calendar allows through the year,” Lewis said.
“For example, we are working with all but one multicultural student organizations this year, plus we’re doing things with Hope Sustainability, Hope Catholics and STEP [Students Teaching and Empowering Peers],” she said. “We have a variety of events, and they vary in scale. For our major exhibition this spring, ‘New Roots, Deep Shoots: Contemporary and Modern African Art,’ we worked with the Black Student Union and Pan African Student Association to go through what we were thinking for the exhibition, because we wanted it to represent them and we want the students to come.”
In the same way, the museum engages with academic departments.
“Our collection has 8,000 objects. And one of the reasons that it is that size is so that when a professor comes to us and wants to know how art relates to something like chemistry or art architecture or what’s happened historically, or dance, we can pull from those 8,000 objects and share art that is relevant to all of these topics. Or, we can add to our collection to meet the needs of the curriculum,” Lewis said.
“The college emphasizes ‘Bring hope to the world,’ and we want to bring the world to Hope. So, we have a broad representation of different cultures and people and styles represented within our collection. It features European-American art, but it also features African art, and we have a huge Asian art collection,” she said. “And we want our students and faculty and staff and the community and people in this area to know that they can learn about and be engaged by different things, and in a safe space, in a way that they maybe wouldn’t in their day-to-day lives.”
In the case of “A New Art for a New China: Modern Chinese Prints from the Ihrman Collection,” Hope is one of the few places in the world that people can even see the art in person.
The collection includes more than 1,500 prints donated to the Kruizenga Art Museum in 2021 by Michigan native Dr. David Ihrman, who had collected them between the late 1980s and early 2000s with his late wife, Huang Dong Ihrman. Other museums were in the running to receive the pieces, with Hope selected due to a combination of Mason’s expertise and the scale of the college’s extant Asian collection, and family ties (David Ihrman’s parents were Hope alumni: Donald ’49 and Lynne VanWeelden ’51 Ihrman).
“The Ihrman Collection is, I believe, the largest and most important collection of modern Chinese prints in the United States and perhaps the second most important collection of modern Chinese prints outside of China,” Mason said. “The other one is in England.”
In the case of “A New Art for a New China: Modern Chinese Prints from the Ihrman Collection,” Hope is one of the few places in the world that people can even see the art in person. “The Ihrman Collection is, I believe, the largest and most important collection of modern Chinese prints in the United States and perhaps the second most important collection of modern Chinese prints outside of China.”
—Charles Mason, director and Margaret Feldmann Kruizenga Curator of the Kruizenga Art Museum
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The exhibition “A New Art for a New China: Modern Chinese Prints from the Ihrman Collection” runs through Saturday, Dec. 16. There will be a public reception on Thursday, Nov. 16, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Kruizenga Art Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. More information is available at https://hope.edu/arts/kam/
More information about the college’s multicultural student organizations (Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, Hope Advocates for Invisible Conditions, Latino Student Organization, Men’s Enrichment Network, Pan African Student Association, PRISM and Women of Color United) is available at https://hope.edu/offices/center-diversity-inclusion/student-organizations.html
Hope College isn’t just a place; it’s a community. A regular feature within “Stories of Hope,” People of Hope explores what that means by highlighting some of the students, faculty and staff who help make the campus family what it is.
Marcus Fila
Associate Professor of Management
Dr. Marcus Fila
The first thing that Dr. Marcus Fila — one of the college’s management faculty, as well as the Director of the Leadership Minor — wants students to know about his chosen fields is that they are for everyone, and not only those interested in a career in business.
“It’s about managing people (starting with yourself!) and resources, which is hugely important because it’s ubiquitous,” Fila said. “Most people are going to manage somebody else and resources on some level, so it behooves students to have a good foundation on what that stewardship means.”
Fila, who is originally from England, initially worked in executive recruitment and other business development positions in both the U.K. and the U.S., dealing with senior leadership figures very early on in his career. After 10 years of this (which included earning his MBA in London), he felt a yearning to teach and mentor young people. “I really felt God’s call to transition to higher education,” he said. He went back to school, completing an MS in industrial/organizational psychology, and a Ph.D. in leadership and organizational analysis, and is now in his 11th year at Hope.
With respect to teaching, he is excited for this academic year. “I’m happy to be piloting a new course on organizational behavior, which is where my greatest passions lie.”
Fila’s primary area of research is the relationship between people and their work in the context of occupational healthy psychology, stress at work, and employee turnover. “As a headhunter, I was amazed at how powerfully excessive work stress through controllable, but unmanaged, circumstances at work could affect even the highest caliber of people. My greatest roadblock is people’s belief that there’s nothing we can do about it. Fifty years of research says otherwise. We don’t, for example, say the same thing about fear. We find out the root cause of fear, attribute it, and make adjustments to ourselves and the situation (where possible), and deal with it. We can absolutely do the same thing with work stress.”
“It’s about managing people (starting with yourself!) and resources, which is hugely important because it’s ubiquitous… Most people are going to manage somebody else and resources on some level, so it behooves students to have a good foundation on what that stewardship means.”
His view of management and leadership is one reason that he was drawn to Hope, which as a liberal arts college takes a holistic approach to education. Just as students majoring in other areas can benefit from management courses, students in economics and business — as is true for students college-wide — take courses throughout the curriculum.
“So if you’re in say, business or management, you’re also doing philosophy, sociology, psychology, political science, etc., and those things massively complement what you’re doing in your major area,” Fila said.
The result, he explained, is that the college’s graduates not only have depth in whatever their major field of study is, but a breadth of understanding that enables them to navigate change and complexity. Fila echoes Hope President Matt Scogin’s ethos that, “We’re not teaching people what to think. We’re teaching people how to think.”
Hope students, he noted, are up to the challenge, collegial and committed at the same time. “Hope students are quite team-oriented,” commented Fila. “They are generally well-tapped into who they want to be and where they want to go in life. I enjoy guiding them on career discernment, and other facets of personal and professional development.” Students appreciate Fila as well. In 2022, he received the college’s Hope Outstanding Professor Educator (H.O.P.E.) Award, presented by the graduating class to the professor who they feel epitomizes the best qualities of the Hope College educator. He was also invited by the 2022 senior class to deliver the college’s Commencement Address.
Hope College isn’t just a place; it’s a community. A regular feature within “Stories of Hope,” People of Hope explores what that means by highlighting some of the students, faculty and staff who help make the campus family what it is.
Michelle Bombe
Professor of Theatre
For Michelle Bombe, the connection with Hope College was immediate. “I first came to Hope in 1984 as an acting intern for Hope Summer Repertory Theatre,” she said. “I was in love.”
She initially participated in the college’s professional summer theatre program (now called Hope Rep) because she was interested in a career in theatre, but felt drawn to Hope College’s campus and continued to return to Hope Rep after completing her MFA. The next year, a position at Hope became available. That was 32 years ago. Not only does she continue her art through theatrical design, she also teaches and works with students as chair of the Department of Theatre.
At Hope, learning about theatre includes creating theatre, with opportunities to perform on stage and serve behind the scenes in multiple productions throughout the year. Bombe is committed to training students to become what she calls citizen artists. “I think many of our students come to us wanting to find out how they can use their passion for art to create good in the world,” she said. “I love having the opportunity to expose our students to amazing theatre programs across the world that are using art to serve people in different ways.” A proud moment was seeing one of her students, Danai Mendebvu, present at the Aspire Program through the National Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) about her dream of bringing theatre back to her country of Zimbabwe. “I often sit in the theatre and get a bit weepy during our productions as I think of all of the growth and development of our student actors, designers and technicians, and to see them showcase their abilities for our audiences through our production program is quite gratifying,” Bombe said.
“I think many of our students come to us wanting to find out how they can use their passion for art to create good in the world.”
Michelle Bombe
Her career-long dedication to teaching and producing theatre earned her national recognition, as she just won the National Kennedy Center Gold Medallion, which is the most prestigious national award presented by KCACTF. She concluded her term this summer as the National Chair of the organization.
“It has been my pleasure to guide the organization through the difficult years of the pandemic and I am so proud of the changes we have made to the organization during my tenure,” she said. “We implemented the RED initiative that stands for Representation, Equity, and Diversity. This program has been a game changer for our organization. We made significant structural changes to KCACTF and we now have BIPOC participation and representation in all areas of our organization and have increased access to all of our programs. When I look at the rich diversity of students who come to the Kennedy Center for the National Festival, I know that our work is making a difference.”
Of the upcoming academic year, Bombe used the words “energize”, “growth” and “transition” to describe what she hopes the theatre department will experience. She has two new faculty members coming on full-time this fall. Rhett Leudtke will direct and teach theatre history and acting, and Bianca Washington Ciungan will teach acting and theatre history, and also direct in the production program.
With this transition also comes the retirement of Daina Robins. “We came to Hope in the same year, and I can’t think of a better collaborator,” Bombe said. “She is an incredible teacher, mentor, and director. Her work is brilliant, and I have been so fortunate, as our students are, to work with her all of these years.”
Hope College isn’t just a place; it’s a community. A regular feature within “Stories of Hope,” People of Hope explores what that means by highlighting some of the students, faculty and staff who help make the campus family what it is.
Clara Voskuil
Senior, Bloomington, Indiana Co-Director, 2023 New Student Orientation
Elsie Craig
Junior, Minneapolis, Minnesota Co-Director, 2023 New Student Orientation
Clara Voskuil and Elsie Craig
Clara Voskuil found Hope College through her parents’ history as students. “Hope College has always been near and dear to my family. My parents both attended Hope, and I grew up visiting family in Holland, attending different Hope camps in the summer months.”
Elsie Craig found Hope College through her desire for a liberal arts education in a specific location. “When looking at colleges, I looked at a lot of liberal arts schools. I am from Minnesota – and while I love Minnesota, I wanted to live in a different part of the Midwest.”
Both found a similar reason to say yes to Hope. During an independent tour of campus, Elsie encountered a few students sitting in the Pine Grove located in the center of campus. “I remember talking to them for probably an hour. They were generous in their time and shared their experiences at Hope,” Craig said. “Those two students framed the culture of Hope College for me.” Similarly, Voskuil remarked, “When I realized that Hope could offer me not only the classes and degrees that I wanted in a four-year college, but also a close-knit community dedicated to progress and student relations, I was excited to call Hope my home.”
When they arrived at Hope as freshmen they participated in New Student Orientation, a multi-day introduction to Hope and college life organized and led by students. And it was because of their experiences with New Student Orientation that they are now co-directors. “The ultimate goal of orientation is not necessarily to overwhelm students with information about Hope College and what to expect the next several years; rather, our team is working to ensure both students and families the smoothest transition possible in what can be an incredibly formative period in an individual’s life,” Voskuil said.
“The ultimate goal of orientation is not necessarily to overwhelm students with information about Hope College and what to expect the next several years; rather, our team is working to ensure both students and families the smoothest transition possible in what can be an incredibly formative period in an individual’s life.”
Clara Voskuil
“Orientation creates space for students to transition into a new phase of their lives and the orientation staff is prepared to support the new students and represent the culture of Hope College,” agreed Craig.
It’s clear that Elsie and Clara are grateful to have a partner in their role as directors. “I think I lucked out with the best co-director, Clara Voskuil. Before orientation, we did not know each other, but this summer we have become really close friends and I am very grateful for her. She leads with empathy and compassion and deeply cares about other people and orientation,” Craig said.
“Orientation creates space for students to transition into a new phase of their lives and the Orientation staff is prepared to support the new students and represent the culture of Hope College.”
Elsie Craig
“Working alongside Elsie has also been just an absolute joy and privilege for me personally. I have never laughed or learned more while still managing to get a job done. It’s amazing what riding a tandem bike with another person for an entire summer will do for team bonding,” Voskuil said. “I believe that both Elsie and the larger Student Life staff perfectly symbolize Hope College as a whole: generous, involved, honest, and FUN!”
And generous and involved are perfect ways to describe both Clara’s and Elsie’s perspectives of life after college. “I am still not quite sure what I want to do for my career,” Craig said. “It is really important to me that I have a job where I can lead well and continue to learn and grow. This summer has also taught me that I want a role where I can laugh with others and have authentic relationships.”
“Due to varying opportunities like engineering research, math classes, and work as orientation director, I feel consequently drawn to varying career paths, such as engineering professor, high school math teacher, or some position in higher ed,” Voskuil said. “I’m currently giving some thought to going to grad school for engineering education centered around diversity, equity and inclusion in the engineering workplace, but we’ll see what happens!”
A Graduating Senior’s Journey Includes Three National Awards and Discovering a New Destination
Claire Benedict ’23
When Claire Benedict ’23 of Ada, Michigan, was a student at Forest Hills Eastern High School engaged in the college search, it didn’t take long for Hope to make the top of the list.
“I wanted a really strong science program where I could do research starting as a freshman,” she said. “It was also important to me to grow in the Christian faith and study the liberal arts so that I could make good ethical and moral decisions in my career with that faith background.”
Hope has turned out to be a good choice for Benedict, who graduated this May with majors in chemistry (the college’s American Chemical Society-certified Bachelor of Science degree) and Spanish. Her experiences the past four years helped her find her calling, and she is completing her undergraduate career having earned three major national awards supporting her interest in research, including two of the most prestigious available to recent college graduates.
As a junior in the spring of 2022, she received a $7,500 scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for mathematics, science and engineering students — out of only 417 presented nationwide — for the 2022–23 school year.
“I wanted a really strong science program where I could do research starting as a freshman. It was also important to me to grow in the Christian faith and study the liberal arts so that I could make good ethical and moral decisions in my career with that faith background.”
Claire Benedict ’23
This spring, she received both an award through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to conduct research abroad for the coming year, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the latter of which provides financial support for graduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.
It’s a significant achievement for a graduating college senior or recent graduate to receive either, let alone both. There aren’t statistics available for the number of Fulbrights this year, but the NSF has only awarded 2,552 of the research fellowships, with another 801 applicants receiving honorable mention. (Hope students and graduates, not incidentally, are consistently recognized through the programs. As noted in the sidebar below, Benedict is one of three from Hope to have received Fulbright recognition this year, and one of five to receive either a fellowship or honorable mention from the NSF.)
As it happens, recipients of both may only accept one of the two. Benedict has chosen the Fulbright, through which she will conduct research in Switzerland during 2023–24, and has the opportunity to apply again for an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship next year. She will begin graduate work at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2024.
Hope provided the opportunities that helped lead to the recognition that Benedict has received, but she made the most of them. She participated in collaborative research throughout her time at Hope, including part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer.
As a freshman, she worked with Dr. William Polik, who is the Edward and Elizabeth Hofma Professor of Chemistry, performing an in-depth analysis of laser and optical systems part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer that followed. Already in her first year, he noted, she stood out.
“Claire is very dependable, self-confident and self-motivated,” he said. “She communicates and interacts well with others. She sets high goals for herself, and works diligently to achieve them.”
“I am most impressed with Claire’s independence in the lab, her enthusiasm for learning new things, and her willingness to take on challenges,” Polik said.
From her sophomore year onward, Benedict worked primarily with Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, professor of chemistry, during both the school year and summer. The research focused on reaction development using carbon-carbon bond activation, where carbon bonds are broken to create new reaction pathways.
During the spring of 2022, she participated in off-campus study in Seville, Spain, during which she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Agustin Galindo, a member of the organic chemistry faculty at the University of Seville. She helped develop metal complexes derived from amino acids that have antibacterial properties.
In addition to collaborative research, Benedict’s activities at Hope included tutoring, serving as a teaching assistant, playing piano, participating in bilingual activities, and the college’s intercollegiate indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
Claire Benedict’s experiences at Hope the past four years helped her find her calling, and she is completing her undergraduate career having earned three major national awards supporting her interest in research. As a junior, she received a scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for mathematics, science and engineering students. This spring, she received both an award through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to conduct research abroad for the coming year, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Interested in making a difference to others, Benedict had started out pre-med, complementing her chemistry major with Spanish so that she could more effectively serve a variety of communities. But, she enjoyed conducting research so much that she changed her focus, realizing at the same time that researchers — and the progress and benefits to humankind and the world that they make possible — make a difference, too.
“When I wanted to be a doctor, it was because I wanted to do something to positively impact people and that would be difficult and challenge me,” she said. “Once I started in research, I realized how challenging that was and how it aligned with my gifts, and that it was also a way that I could have a positive impact on people.”
Her career goal is to earn a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and conduct research in organometallic chemistry at a national laboratory. While in Switzerland, she will work with Dr. Martin Albrecht, who is a professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Bern, optimizing and developing Iridium-based dehydrogenation catalysts. When she enrolls in the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago, which awarded her its Robert R. McCormick Fellowship, she will conduct research focused on fundamental organometallic mechanisms.
With her time at Hope concluding and her journey to follow about to begin, Benedict is asked what advice she would give to current high school students considering or about to start at Hope. The answer comes easily.
“I just hope that people would get involved with research just because it’s a great opportunity here,” she said.
“You don’t have to become a research chemist — there are all kinds of disciplines where you can do research,” Benedict said. “I was just at CURCA [the college’s Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, held in April] and saw every kind of research discipline, which is really, really cool.”
Established in 1946, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program awards grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
The NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program is the country’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in various STEM fields, and was established as the first program in the NSF’s history. Since 1952, the NSF has funded more than 60,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants. The awards provide a three-year annual stipend of $37,000, along with a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees.
Hope students and recent alumni have consistently been among the Fulbright and NSF-GRF honorees. Since 2004, 42 have received Fulbrights, most for English teaching assistantships but some, like Benedict, for research, with several others named alternates or semi-finalists. In the same period, 41 have received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, with another 40 receiving honorable mention.
This year, Jessica Korte ’19 also received an NSF fellowship, supporting her doctoral studies in biomedical engineering at the University of California, Davis, with honorable mention recognition for Sarah Grimes ’23, who will pursue a Ph.D. in forestry and natural resources at Purdue University; Erik Schoonover ’21; who is pursuing a Ph.D. in petrology at Pennsylvania State University, University Park; and Jacob VanderRoest ’21, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry, focused on ecological sustainability, at Colorado State University.
In this year’s Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Justine Watson ’22 was named an alternate for a master’s degree program in business in Italy; Molly Douma ’22 was recognized as a semi-finalist for a research grant in interdisciplinary studies in Peru; and Gabrielle Kosiba ’23 was recognized as a semi-finalist for an English teaching assistantship to South Korea.
On February 3, 2023, when Provost Gerald Griffin announced promotions approved by the Board of Trustees, one of the faculty members promoted to the rank of professor, Dr. Chad Carlson ’03 (kinesiology, since 2014), was the third generation in his family to achieve this distinction. His family’s legacy on the Hope College faculty spans 95 years.
Dr. Lamont Dirkse ’50
His grandfather, Dr. Lamont Dirkse ’50, had been promoted to professor of education in 1975. Dirkse joined the faculty in 1964 as assistant professor of education, after a career in public education; he was promoted to associate professor in 1968. He chaired the Department of Education from 1968 to 1975 and from 1987 to 1992; he also served as dean of students from 1983 to 1987. Lamont’s wife, Ruth De Graaf ’50 Dirkse, served on the staff of the Academic Support Center from 1986 to 1992.
Dr. Clarence T. De Graaf
Chad’s great-grandfather, Dr. Clarence T. De Graaf, had been promoted to professor of English in 1942, and held that title for the next 30 years, when he became professor emeritus. De Graaf had begun his teaching in 1928 at The College High School (known as the Holland Academy from 1855 to 1900, and as the Preparatory School from 1900 to 1928). At the time, he had an A.M. degree in English from the University of Michigan; he continued his graduate studies there for the next nine summers, until he earned an Ed.D. degree in English.
Carlson’s research is focused broadly on the socio-cultural aspects of sport. His areas of specialization and interest include the philosophy of sport, the history of sports and their role in cultural trends, and the connection between sports and Christianity. During the 2021-22 academic year, he conducted research on the origins of the Hope-Calvin men’s basketball rivalry through a Visiting Research Fellowship from the college’s A.C. Van Raalte Institute. The institute will sponsor a lecture by him about the rivalry on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Fried-Hemenway Auditorium of the Martha Miller Center for Global Education. Admission is free.
Students in the ethnobotany class taught by Dr. Jennifer Blake-Mahmud received a hands-on lesson in culture and history during their exploration of traditional ecological knowledge earlier this semester.
Guest speaker Kelly Church of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe), whose family has practiced the art of black-ash basket weaving for generations, taught the students about indigenous land management, her family’s history in the area and the threats to ash trees from the emerald ash borer. In addition to having studied the tradition, which is known across the Great Lakes region and Northeast where black ash trees range, Church is a respected basket weaver herself — one of her pieces is even in the college’s Permanent Art Collection in the Kruizenga Art Museum.
Kelly Church teaches black-ash basket weaving at Hope College.
She explained how for thousands of years the Anishinaabe people have journeyed to swamps to locate and harvest the trees, painstakingly rendered them into narrow strips and crafted them into baskets. Along the way, she guided the students in making baskets of their own, an opportunity to feel the pliable material in their own hands and to experience shaping it weave by weave into baskets of their own.
Church noted that although archeological examples are scarce because of the biodegradable nature of the material, fragments from as long as 2,000 years ago have been found. Today, Church explained, the millennia-long practice is at risk of being lost, with the invasive emerald ash borer having decimated Michigan’s population of black ash trees, killing some 650 million of the estimated 803 million of the black ashes that were in the state.
“It’s affecting the trees that we have used for our black ash tradition since before this country was a country,” she said.
Hope College’s ethnobotany course focuses on traditional ecological knowledge for the first third of the semester. “This first unit is all about trying to understand a different approach to ecology and the land,” said Blake-Mahmud, an assistant professor of biology. Other botanical topics for the unit include inventories of plant species used by various Inuit tribes in Canada, traditional methods of using plants to deter herbivorous insects in Ethiopia, grain fermentation practices in Eastern Europe, and partnerships between scientists and Aboriginal peoples for conducting controlled burns in Australia. Readings include peer-reviewed scientific literature along with the New York Times bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, a collection of essays by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
“I was really excited to learn about the intersection of plants and people,” junior biology major Ximena Figueroa-Enriquez said of her decision to enroll in the course. Reflecting on the day’s activity, she said, “It made me realize how difficult of an art form it is. It takes a lot of patience and intention.”
Junior biology major Ximena Figueroa-Enriquez weaves a basket out of black ash.
For the second third of the semester, the course explores forensic botany — how plants have been used as evidence in criminal cases, both historic and current. It will conclude with medicinal botany, examining the bioactivity of plants and their use by animals (both human and non-human) for medicinal purposes.
Church’s visit to the class was made possible through support provided by the college’s Provost’s Office. She will return to campus to deliver a public lecture on Thursday, March 30, at 7 p.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall, that will be co-sponsored by the Department of Biology; American and Ethnic Studies program; Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Department of History; Kruizenga Art Museum; and Women’s and Gender Studies program. The March 30 presentation is open to the community, and admission is free.
More information about the tradition of black ash basketry and Church and her work is on her website, woodlandarts.com.
Even at a college like Hope, which has a mission of preparing students for “lives of leadership and service in a global society” and which provides numerous opportunities for international and experiential learning, the Engineers Without Borders – USA Hope College Chapter (EWB-Hope) stands out as a stellar contribution to both of those elements — leadership and service — on the global stage.
Engineers Without Borders – USA is a nationwide organization that provides sustainable engineering solutions to meet basic needs in partnership with underserved communities. For the past 18 months, the EWB-Hope chapter has partnered with the community of Teodomiro, Ecuador, outside the city of El Carmen. The project kicked off during Covid travel restrictions, which made things difficult, but the team coordinated remotely via digital meetings to identify a need and develop a solution.
“Engineers Without Borders wants to make sure that projects are sustainable and community-driven, so there’s a lot longer partnership than maybe some other projects would have through other organizations,” explained Adam Peckens, engineering lab director at Hope and advisor for the EWB-Hope chapter. Hope’s chapter engages about 15–20 students each year.
“We began to work with the community to design and construct a schoolyard enclosure,” said Carolyn Atkinson, president of EWB-Hope chapter and the international project lead for the Teodomiro partnership. Atkinson has been involved with EWB-Hope since her freshman year, and she’s enjoyed seeing the chapter grow throughout its work on international projects.
“The construction of the enclosure provides safety and security for the school and ensures a better learning environment for the children,” Atkinson said. Because the school is located in a seismic zone, the installed enclosure needed to be customized to the local terrain and designed to meet seismic loads. Students from Hope worked with college mentors, including Peckens, external mentors from the United States, and an NGO and engineers in Ecuador.
With travel restrictions lifted, a group of eight students from Hope traveled to Teodomiro in July 2022 to kick off the installation of the fence. In total, the barrier fence was approximately 300 meters long; about half of it was constructed of concrete and cinder block, and the other half, through more wooded areas, was built with chainlink fencing.
“It was incredibly rewarding to see the construction of our design and the impact it made on the community,” Atkinson said. A local team in Teodomiro completed the installation after EWB-Hope returned to the United States.
“Traveling to Ecuador this past summer introduced me to a fascinating and beautiful part of the world,” said EWB-Hope’s Vice President Jenna Core. “I will always remember the hospitality that we were met with and the joy that the people in the community carried with them.”
Atkinson said that the chapter plans to travel to Teodomiro again in spring 2023 to assess other needs in the community and determine the future of their relationship.
“I realize that the partnership between EWB-Hope and the Teodomiro community will last longer than I get to be a part of it, but I feel really fortunate to have worked on the foundations of our relationship,” Atkinson said. “My involvement with EWB has impacted both my personal and professional growth. I feel blessed to be a part of it.”
Advisor Adam Peckens agrees that being involved with Hope’s EWB chapter is rewarding: “It’s inspiring to see students at such a young age invest so much of their energy into these types of programs,” he said.
Previous projects have included partnerships with the communities of Bondo, Kenya, and Nkuv, Cameroon, to provide accessible, clean water for their residents.
