Hope Faculty Study Abroad, Too

Since the summer of 2018, 42 Hope faculty members have ventured away from the college to do what they encourage many of their students to do — study abroad. Each professor took part in a unique, faculty-only Hope College program that instills the same benefits as students who study abroad receive: empathy, education, personal development, …

To China with Hope

This past spring, for the first time in Hope’s history, not one but two May Term classes traveled to China. In “China’s Modern Growth,” students examined the nation’s economic policies and business development while touring four major cities as well as Hong Kong. In “China: Land, Wildlife and Culture,” students explored the ecosystems of China’s …

Humans of Syria and Japan

This year’s Critical Issues Symposium – opening today on Hope’s campus – addresses “Engaging the Middle East.” Professor Megumi Hirayama of Meiji Gakuin University (MGU) in Tokyo has been doing just that for more than decade. Hirayama, a visiting professor at Hope since last fall who specializes in public health and taught a comparative social …

Hip Hop a Hit in Japan

This past September, Professor Crystal Frazier walked into a Tokyo dance studio to teach a distinctly American art form and immediately encountered a vibe that was uniquely Japanese. A class of 40 college students stood eagerly at the ready – respectful, disciplined, hospitable. An interpreter, earnest to translate, barely needed to speak. Hip hop would be the vehicle to move bodies and relationships across cultural lines; dance would be their universal language.