The Rivalry: Sport versus Religion?

A team of Hope and Calvin professors and students presented their research on sporting rivalry at the Inaugural Global Congress on Sport and Christianity at York St. John’s University in York, England during the summer of 2016. What they learned in the collaborative effort gets at the heart of Christ as well as their own.

The Joy of Forgiveness

A newly released book featuring the wisdom of two of the world’s greatest spiritual leaders – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama of Tibet – cites research on forgiveness by Dr. Charlotte van Oyen Witvliet of the Hope College psychology department.

Team Hope Meets Team USA

Led by Professors Chad Carlson and Becky Schmidt of Hope’s kinesiology department, Hope students spent a week in Colorado — at the USOTC and at other professional sports venues like the Broncos Stadium of the NFL – to learn how elite athletes are developed and resourced. Carlson and Schmidt collaborated to create this first-time May Term to show students some ways that sporting pipelines fill and flow to produce wins and records for the United States.

Laugh Just for the Health of It

Some research has indeed proven that “laughter is the best medicine..” And Dr. Jayson Dribble, an associate professor of communication at Hope, told a LaughFest audience why and how when he was given a mic to not so much be funny – though it turns out he’s a pretty puny guy – as to teach about why being funny matters.

Hopeful Health for Kids in Holland

“Foundations of Fitness,” a multidisciplinary program that provides Holland area families with age-appropriate structured exercise and lifestyle education, is a Hope College-based childhood wellness program that seeks to reduce childhood obesity and overweight percentages locally and has been funded with about $250,000 in grants from Herman Miller Cares over its two-year lifetime.

CFL and SHI: Partners in Ideas, Innovation and Leadership

A unique and collaborative partnership between Spectrum Health Innovations (SHI) in Grand Rapids and Hope College’s Center for Faithful Leadership (CFL) is providing opportunities for both parties to glean the benefits that any good partnership seeks to achieve: combining ideas and labor toward reaching desired outcomes. For professionals at SHI, the objective is to create …

Breaks Away: Dede Johnston

Happiness is a choice, positive psychologists say, but the ways we choose to be happy and how we express that joy can vary from the grandiose to the sublime across cultures, Dr. Johnston is discovering. Taking a portion of her yearlong sabbatical to study happy emotions found in thousands of pictorial images of people in ## countries, Johnston is quick to relay that what may seem simple to define is actually complex.

David Myers on Gratitude and Happiness

Dr. David Myers has been called Hope’s happiness guru, not only for this writings on the topic, but also for his ever optimistic, ever smiling, ever encouraging disposition. He is also Hope’s newly elected Fellow of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Serve, Volley, Set, Read

With her 2015 volleyball season recently concluded, Becky Schmidt,  Hope’s head coach and assistant professor of kinesiology, undoubtedly used a page or two out of her own book in coaching the national championship-defending Flying Dutch to another NCAA appearance (their eighth in a row) and a 24-7 overall record. And not just her own playbook but her own textbook, too. …

Breaks Away: Deborah Van Duinen

Any endeavor that goes from big to bigger requires effort, vision, and good old-fashion gumption. So when Dr. Deborah VanDuinen, assistant professor of education and Towsley Research Scholar, decided to take the highly successful Hope-Holland Big Read of 2014 and create the Bigger Read of 2015, she was fortunate to have a sabbatical leave to focus her efforts and vision, but especially her gumption, on the next version of bringing a community together by reading one book.