Exec Life: A Different Perspective to Nykerk

Well Readers, as most of you know, the 81st Nykerk Cup competition took place last night and it was SO impressive! For a little taste if you didn’t see it, you can check out Odd Year’s song and read about the competition in this post from my fellow blogger, Kathryn.

Anyway, since you know all about Nykerk now and what the general gist of it is, I thought for this post, I’d give you a different perspective of it! I think I’ve mentioned before that I am on the Executive Board for Nykerk as the Junior (now Senior) Treasurer, so I’ll tell you all about what I did this weekend and what behind the scenes work went into making Nykerk go smoothly this year!

Starting with Friday, the exec board had to be in the DeVos Fieldhouse, the place where Nykerk was held, at 5 p.m. Run-throughs for Even and Odd Year Oration, Song, and Play started at 5:30 p.m. and ran until midnight that evening. At that point it was very cool to see all the hard work both years had put into their respective areas. What exec board did during this time was make sure that if any area needed anything, that it was taken care of. We did anything from tape foam to the bleachers where song would sing, to set up the DVD table where DVDs were being sold. It was very cool to see everything become smoother as the night went on. Total hour count in DeVos for Friday: 7 hours.

Then came Saturday. Exec had to be back in DeVos at 7:45 a.m. for rehearsals that started at 8:00 a.m. – woah! I am a morning person, so this was a wonderful time for me. 🙂 Seeing everything go from smooth to fluid was so fulfilling. Even though mornings are my specialty, I must admit that by noon, I was a little sleepy. Luckily, my fellow treasurer and I had an errand to do: we went to go get lunch for everyone! 22 sandwiches, 10 cookies and 10 bags of chips later, Jimmy Johns was the hero for Exec board and Nycrew (people that ran the spotlights, ran the sets for the plays, and basically did a great deal to keep the show moving).

Picking up the sandwiches at Jimmy John’s
Yes this is me with ALL THE SANDWICHES!

More run-throughs ensued until 3:30 when everyone went home to change for Nykerk that evening. Total time spent in DeVos before Nykerk took place: 14 hours.

My co-treasurer and I
My co-treasurer and I after all 14 hours of pre-Nykerk took place. We made it!

After all was said and done, Nykerk took place! It went off without a hitch and was very fluid and impressive. Sitting near the front, I couldn’t help feeling like Nykerk was my baby and it had just taken it’s first steps. I was so proud, as was the rest of the Executive Board. All our hard work had paid off into a great show that everyone enjoyed. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and hopefully if you went, you enjoyed it too!

The Nykerk Executive Board
This is the hard working Executive Board! They are an awesome group of girls that made Nykerk and unforgettable performance!

I hope your week starts off well, Readers!

Until next time!

Once Upon Another Nykerk

Nykerk, as put by the 2015 general chair, Claire Leitzen (AKA the “Queen of Nykerk”), is hard to describe. It is a really unique tradition that you kind of have to experience in order to understand. Last night I had the privilege of watching Nykerk for the third year in a row, and as always, it was so fun to watch. I love getting to experience things into which people have poured their heart and soul through all their hard work. Like seriously, I cry when I watch Cupcake Wars because the contestants work so hard to make good cupcakes. ANYWAY. So many people love Nykerk and have put more time and energy than they would care to add up into this one night of friendly competition, and I love getting to watch it all come together.

Nykerk is an annual competition between Hope’s freshman and sophomore women, consisting of song, play, and oration. The women are moraled throughout the weeks of rehearsal by men in their graduating class who perform skits for them and leave them notes and small gifts. Each year has their own traditions, so Nykerk seems to be a pretty cool community between the participants and the alumni.

Friends at Nykerk
My friend Molly played a squirrel in the freshman play last night. Odd Year play is known for their bold stage makeup and huge movements.

This year, the freshman class (“Odd Year,” because they graduate in 2019) was victorious, but every act from both classes was super incredible to watch. Everyone did a great job. There was not one act that I did not enjoy watching. I love watching Nykerk because the women involved in song, play, and oration all seem to form really cool communities, and it’s sweet to see how the men encourage them. The song girls even have a “secret sister” on the other team, and I love that, even though Nykerk is a competition, there is a sense of friendship between the classes.

Nykerk is one of Hope’s most well-loved traditions, and it was great to see another performance last night! It is so different each year, but it always feels familiar. It is so fun to watch, and so many people I know who have taken part in it have had incredible experiences!

Thanks for reading! Keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17), Instagram (@kathrynekrieger), Etsy (LakesPointCollective), or email me at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

– Matthew 11:28

 

Choose Your Kingdom

There’s a kingdom that reigns in each one of us. A kingdom that was built to be explored.

I’ve been praying a lot lately. Praying that my career and life and all that is ahead would somehow fall into place before my eyes. But I know life doesn’t work that way.

So I celebrate the little victories and mourn in the little disappointments. I think that’s the one thing we miss sometimes. It’s hard to rejoice when we know others are in pain, and it can be difficult to be sad and not feel like a burden.

And one day in early August, I was sitting at a table outside of a restaurant in Scotland with my mom and I pitched to her an idea that has now changed my life forever.

I’ve been involved with the Hope College Center for Faithful Leadership Incubator since last January. It’s a program that sponsors students to develop ideas and support them as they begin their entrepreneurial journey. I worked with social media app development January through August; however, one of the most important tasks of an entrepreneur is to pivot.

So, I created a company. A company that is not so much a business as it is a company that provides a companionship for you reign your kingdom.

It’s called Reign Outfitters. It’s a clothing line designed for you and your journey. We know the importance in being prepared. But we go farther than your backpack and boots. It’s a clothing line designed for the health of your heart, mind, body and spirit.

Reign Outfitters
Photo credit: Haley Menzies Photography

I’ve spent the last month and a half preparing for our launch (sorry I haven’t been around!) but now that it’s here, I’m filled with great joy.

Take heart, my friends. You can start a business in college.

You can find great support, mentorship and assistance in doing so during your time at Hope.

We’re growing in community with one another every day, and what great joy it is build a company with a focus on real community. We’re a company with a focus on potential, one that strives to grow good seeds to build a community of real life with a faith influence.

I want to be okay with not being in control and watch in awe as I read the novel of my life.

And most of all, I want you to come with me. Whether you check out our website or take a rain check, my message is the same: darkness and light can’t dwell in the same place. You can decide what holds the truth in your life. Choose your kingdom.

10 Fall Things Every Hope College Student Should Do

There’s no particular order, but you should do all of these things at least once during your fall semesters as a Hope student. It’ll be fun. Trust me.

1. Make a leaf pile and jump in it too.

leaves covering the ground that two people are standing on.
See all those beautifully colored, crisp leaves at your feet? Take the opportunity while it’s here–go ahead and take a step back into childhood for a bit.

2. Go cheer on your peers at all the sporting events.

Even if you are not a part of the Dew Crew, it’s still fun to go and see what your classmates love to do when they’re not hitting the books. From cross country, football, soccer, hockey – lots of opportunity to get out there and cheer on your peers.

3. Go to Live Mannequin Night in downtown Holland.

8th Street gets shutdown and all the people come out to check out the unique window displays the shops create. This Mary Poppins themed window from The Warm Friend was this year's winner.
8th Street gets shutdown and all the people come out to check out the unique window displays the shops create. This Mary Poppins themed window from The Warm Friend was this year’s winner.

4. Decorate for Halloween.

My door is covered with spooky caution tape, glow-in-the-dark plastic spiders are scattered throughout the bathroom and hall, we have orange and black balloons taped to the walls – everything is more fun with decorations, I promise.

5. Participate in Nykerk.

Three girls holding glasses with candles in them.
It’s tradition. It’s fun. It’s Nykerk Love. Whether you get involved in Song, Play, Oration, or Morale you should do it at least once. This a picture of me and my Odd Year Song sisters at Candlelight.

6. Pick some apples.

a girl grabbing an apple on the other side of a tree.
Go with your friends, take silly pictures, enjoy the outdoors before the bitter cold of winter soon arrives, and finish with a fine stash of quality apples.
A bag filled with apples
They won’t last as long as you think they will, but they’re delicious while they do.

7. Go to the Homecoming Hoedown.

Line dancing, apple cider, donuts, hay rides, a bonfire, more flannel and cowboy boots in one night than you’ve seen in your life. And did I mention all the animals that you can pet?
Who doesn’t want to spend their Friday night watching baby goats do parkour? Just go.

8. Carve/paint/decorate a pumpkin.

Pumpkin with Disney's Goofy carved in it.
My dorm had a pumpkin carving party! Amanda created this Goofy pumpkin that’s my favorite

9. Dance the night away at Club Durf – in costume.

Whether you consider yourself a dance person or not, you should go to Club Durf. Don your favorite Halloween costume or something you threw together in five minutes and go have fun. If you see someone rocking a shark costume it’s either me, or someone I need to be friends with.

10. Experience Nykerk.

This year’s Nykerk Cup Competition is on October 31, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. in DeVos Fieldhouse. If you didn’t participate, you should go and see what your peers have been spending 2 hours every night putting together for the last three weeks. Here are the Even and Odd year Song performances from last year’s competition.

Thanks for reading and have fun!
~Erin

For more fall pictures and thoughts from my vantage point you can follow my Twitter (@HopeErin18) and Instagram (@e_delaney333) 🙂

Nykerk Is Here!

Hello Readers! I hope your week is going well so far and you aren’t too busy. Any weekend plans? No? Well let me tell you about an event this weekend that you won’t want to miss: Nykerk!

What is Nykerk, you ask? Good question. Nykerk is an amazing performance put on by the freshmen and sophomores (odd year and even year) in a competition which includes song, play and oration. This year it will take place on the 31st of October (yes, that’s Halloween) at 7 p.m. in DeVos Fieldhouse. I am on the executive board for Nykerk as the junior treasurer and am so excited for this event to take place so that you all can be a witness to what the exec board and the participants have been working so hard to put on for you!

If you’re interested in what the song part of Nykerk looks like (which I was a part of last year) you can check it out here. It was so satisfying to perform it in front of a crowd and do it well. If you make it out on Saturday, you can expect some cool hand motions and some awesome play moves.

Tuesday night, as a part of Nykerk, everyone involved in Nykerk got to go to Nykerk Candlelight, which is a way to form camaraderie between Even and Odd year before the big show on Saturday. The tradition is that all participants of Nykerk go to the President’s house to sing the Alma Mater to him with candles made for them by their secret sisters. Secret sisters are sophomores girls that have been moraling a freshman girl for the three weeks leading up to Nykerk. Tuesday was when everyone found out who’s secret sister was who.

Nykerk Candlelight
This is just a glimpse of what candlelight looked like from the front porch of Kelly Knapp!

Again, Nykerk is this Saturday, October 31st and you can buy tickets at the ticket office, online, or call there to reserve them! Tickets are $7. I hope you all can make it out on Saturday! Can’t wait to see you there!

Until next time readers!

Hope Coll in the Fall

You guys, there are few things I love more than fall at Hope. The sunsets are ridiculous. The trees are so beautiful that I actually get sad when the leaves fall off of them. Temperatures, while often unpredictable, are generally pretty nice. And the apples. Oh, the apples. I’m an apples and peanut butter kind of gal, so when those big Michigan apples start coming in, I am a very happy camper. I love fall, and I love Hope College in the fall.

Look at this place.

The Pine Grove at Hope College
I snapped this photo in the Pine Grove just three days ago. The trees are STUNNING. That orange one in the middle is a big sugar maple and it’s my favorite tree on Hope’s campus!

Look at this apple orchard (Crane’s!).

Apple orchard
Last year, my boyfriend and I went to the corn maze at Crane’s and skipped over all the actual apples… This year we did the opposite and it was much less exhausting.

LOOK AT DIMNENT CHAPEL.

Dimnent Memorial Chapel exterior
Holy wow, Dimnent Chapel. You are stunning, even on rainy days.

Hope’s campus is so beautiful and sometimes I just get so excited about it! I’m also excited because it’s almost November (the best two months of the year are about to start, everyone!) and it’s still been nice enough outside to hammock in the Pine Grove. That, my friends, is a real blessing. Hammocking in the Pine Grove is often super-peaceful (especially on a Sunday afternoon!) and is a different, really enjoyable way to get outside and get some homework done. One thing I really love about Hope is how well we use our outdoor space, and Michigan fall does us a lot of favors. While I love winter because it means Christmas and Christmas music and more excuses to eat cookies, I am sad that fall will soon be over because it is just so beautiful at Hope. I always love it while it lasts!

Thanks for reading! Keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17), Instagram (@kathrynekrieger), Etsy (LakesPointCollective), or send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu!

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

The Sabbath

Sundays at Hope rock. For me specifically, this past Sunday was extraordinary. My Sunday’s start off around 10 a.m., which is when I lazily roll out of bed to get ready for church. Two of the seniors on the soccer team then swing by my dorm around 10:50 and we go to Engedi Church together. I absolutely love Engedi, and every Sunday I feel very refreshed after the service. Now that I’m away from home, and church is no longer a place that I HAVE to go to, I enjoy it more than ever before.

After church,  all members of the soccer team were invited over to the Blom household for a soup lunch. Toby is one of our senior captains, and his parents, Kel and Connie, are excellent hosts. In addition, Connie is the best cook I have ever met (sorry mom, your lasagna still trumps everything else!). This Sunday, twenty-nine hungry collegiate young men were greeted by the aroma of Dr. Pepper-chocolate chili, tortilla soup, cheesy garlic bread, and, my personal favorite, blueberry cobbler. We ate until our stomachs were on the verge of explosion, and then gathered around the TV to watch football. Talk about a great start to the day.

Blueberry cobbler

Chili and garlic bread

After an hour or so, most of the guys had to head back to campus. However I stuck around, soaking in the feeling of being at an actual house again. In fact, Kel challenged me to take the entire afternoon off and use it to rejuvenate my body, spirit, and mind. That was all I needed, I was not about to turn down a day filled with napping, NFL football, and more food. I can honestly say that Sunday was the first day all year that I have not opened my backpack. It was amazing. It now makes a lot more sense to me why God commands that we insert a day of Sabbath into our week.

I know it’s not always easy to step back from our busy lives and take time off. After all, in today’s society there are countless amounts of things that demand our attention nearly every hour of the day. Many people, including myself, buy into the lie that we constantly need to be plugged in, fearing that we’ll miss out on something big. That’s why my encouragement to you is to drop some of your responsibilities every once in a while, and just enjoy the here and now. God has provided so many wonderful things in this world, and often times I think we’re too “busy” to appreciate them. Here and there, take a minute and slow down. The bible does tell us to, “not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself”, remember?

Speaking of wonderful things, my Sunday ended with some SpikeBall at the beach, accompanied by a pretty dope sunset. We serve an awesome God!

The beach at Lake Michigan  

Sunset on Lake MichiganPraying you all have a blessed week. Take some time off, stop and smell the roses, or something like that!

With love,

Steve

#JustPhelpsScholarsThings: The Chicago Trip, Part 3

Read Part 2 here.

Group picture in Chicago

Step 3: Magnificent Mile, Chicago

It was refreshing to be back in a city filled with tall buildings packed tightly together, traffic noises, chain restaurants, and all kinds of people. Many of the West Coast students’ attention tunnel-visioned onto the nearest Starbucks.

They dropped us off a little ways away from the Bean, a huge silver bean sculpture at the center of Millennium Park. We would usually have an hour and thirty minutes to roam the streets, but because the church service took longer than expected, we only had an hour of freedom. After the group picture, we split into smaller groups and headed out into the city.

Tips for future Chicago Trip goers: plan ahead. It was fun and my group and I were able to make it down the Magnificent Mile, a popular shopping strip, but we were only able to go to a Ghirardelli Chocolate and a Hershey’s store with a short pit stop at Starbucks. Most of the time it was rushed, and as much as I’d like to say that I had the best time ever, I wished Step 3 lasted a little longer. Rather than exploring the Magnificent Mile, I recommend checking out the park or anywhere close to the Bean.

We made it back twenty minutes late, chocolates in hand (the rest of the Scholars sniggered at as from inside the buses and our advisors shook their heads in mock disappointment). They gave us sandwiches, juice boxes, celery sticks, and carrots for dinner. Most of us stashed it away since the buffet still sat heavily in our stomachs.

By the time we reached Scott Hall, it was 9 p.m. and the long-awaited trip had officially ended.

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VanderProv – Hope’s Student Improv Group

I’m finally taking the time to write about one of my favorite groups here on Hope’s campus: VanderProv. VanderProv is Hope’s only student improv group. They perform about once a month in the DeWitt Theatre. Unless I’m really sick or I have a prior engagement, I’m always in the audience.

If you’re unsure about what improv groups are, they take theatrical and comedic games and use the audience to create quite interesting situations. For example, in one game they ask the audience for a word. Last night when they performed, it was nostalgia. The group then began to share stories from their lives of what nostalgia reminds them of. When about four people have shared, the group begins to use the stories to create improvised, hilarious skits.

I’ve seen quite a bit of improv throughout my time. Most of it was not the greatest in the world. VanderProv? They’re actually one of the best groups I’ve seen. I’m not just saying that because I go to Hope. Not only are they funny and witty, but they’re also appropriate for everyone. I would feel safe taking my fourteen year old brother to one of their shows.

You can watch a video of the VanderProv group at TEDxMacatawa below! They’re playing the game that I described above.

If you’re ever on campus when VanderProv is performing, I highly suggest going to see one of their shows. Fair warning, you have to be a little earlier than you might think to Vanderprov to get a good seat. The main seating fills up really quickly, and if you aren’t there sooner than about 6:40 p.m. (when the show starts at 7:00 p.m.), you’re probably going to have to sit in the balcony.

Thanks for reading,

Brooke

Homecoming Weekend!

Happy Sunday, Readers! I hope you’ve been taking part in the wonderful events of Homecoming this weekend, but if you haven’t, I’m here to tell you all about them!

For those of you who didn’t know, it was Homecoming weekend this weekend. That means there were a bunch of alumni on campus to celebrate their class reunions and see the new things that have been happening around Hope’s campus. (If you didn’t notice the crowds, trust me, there were a lot of people on Hope’s campus!)

As for events, there were a lot of alumni events, but there were also events for students. On Friday, there were departmental reunions, as well as Sorority reunions, and an event called Homecoming on 8th Street, where alumni and students could go to the Knickerbocker Theatre and visit the shops downtown. The students also enjoyed the Homecoming Hoedown on Friday night which is put on by the Student Activities Committee and is a great event full of dancing, food, and a petting barn, complete with the cutest bunnies!

Saturday kicked off with the Homecoming 5K run for alumni in the morning, and more reunions for sororities, fraternities, and residence halls. At noon, everyone on campus had the opportunity to go to the Dow to sample the Taste of the South lunch Hope put on. Then at 6 p.m., there was the Homecoming football game to round out the night.

Sunday was the day I enjoyed the most throughout the weekend. I am a Student Ambassador, and the groups main goal is to bridge the gap between students and alumni, making the transition smooth. Our task for the day was to go to the Dimnent Heritage Society Brunch at the Haworth Hotel and converse with special donors to Hope who have given significantly in some way to Hope. It was so fun to have conversations with people who love Hope so much and to see how Hope has changed throughout the years through their stories.

It was a wonderful weekend, and I hope you got to enjoy some of the events! Enjoy this week, readers! Until next time!

Fall colors at Hope College
Sesquicentennial AND Fall colors = winner winner chicken dinner!