Blog - Page 51 of 147 - Life at Hope College

Dress For the Job You Want Next

Not the job you have now.

Repeatedly throughout the time that I’ve known him, my step-dad has thrown out the statement: “Dress for the job you want next, not the job you have now.”

I’m a student blogger. Most of the time, this job consists of sitting in my PJ’s on a Sunday night and drafting a post about my past week. Rarely do I make an appearance in the actual Admissions Office, besides when we have meetings. It’s a really fun, creative job, but it’s not exactly the kind that gets you out of the dorm.

I also work in an office on campus. This gets me out, but just far enough (from Phelps Hall to the DeWitt Student Center) for me to be shut back in again. I sit at a cubicle in an office with no windows, scanning alumni files to a database for ten hours a week.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities that I have to work on campus, but they aren’t professional jobs. I’m lucky enough to know what I want to do after I graduate – teach.

Lately I’ve found myself jumping into the teacher mindset. It started out with noticing my placement teacher’s clothes – they were comfortable, cute, and classy (I dub these the three C’s of teacher-dressing). This led to remembering what my step-dad had said before – “Dress for the job you want next.”

I started a Pinterest board titled ‘Teacher Outfits’, and from then on, it’s been history. Sure, I’ve had my off days where all I want to where is a comfy sweatshirt and leggings, but I’m pretty sure teachers wear that when they’re home alone at night snuggled into the couch watching HGTV or The Bachelor.

It doesn’t sound like much. All I did was change the way I dressed, but my entire mindset and the way I act began to change as well. Suddenly, everything is in the perspective of my being a future-teacher. I ask myself what I can do now that will further my career later, what I would do in certain situations, how I should treat people, etc. It affects the way I read books, the way I hold myself in public and when with friends, and the way I feel.

I’m not saying that dressing well is the key to success. I’m just saying that if something’s on your mind, you’re going to act like it is. I’m constantly thinking, “I’m going to be a teacher,” and that changes my entire week, not only in the outfits I wear but in everything else mentioned above.

In short, I needed another outlet to express how excited I am to teach some day. I also wanted to share my step-dad’s words of wisdom and how they’ve rubbed off on me the past few weeks.

“Dress well, test well,” is another mantra that I’ve heard, so basically you should probably just try to look nice.

Thanks for reading,

Brooke.

If you have any questions for me you can contact me at brookelyn.wharton@hope.edu, through Facebook, or my Twitter @hopebrooke18! I’d love to answer them!

Nykerk from a New Morale Guy’s Perspective

The Nykerk Cup.

Song, play, oration.

As guys, we morale the girls, who perform. I’m a play moraler. Play moralers build the set, buy the girls flowers and candy, and do funny skits to keep them happy after rehearsal. Does it sound awesome?

Nykerk proved its awesomeness at the rally on Monday.

All the odd and even year moralers choreographed a dance, and speaking as someone who does not dance, I can say without a doubt that we did a great job. I danced across the stage by myself in one section of the song, which was probably a brilliant idea. I knew exactly what I was doing one-hundred percent of the time. So did everyone else. We are total experts.

The girls laughed, too. That was nice.

Goofy stuff is good, and Nykerk morale is super goofy, so obviously it’s awesome. Plus, you get to help girls create something really cool, and according to the coaches, they fall in love with you afterwards.

This won’t be a waste of time.

It’s Okay to Ask for Help

Have you ever felt like you had the weight of the world on your shoulders? Whether it was stress, a failing grade, or personal issues bringing you down, you just felt stuck. You didn’t know what to do or who to turn to to talk things through. Maybe you have been in this situation, or maybe you have been lucky enough not to have experienced this (are you even a real person, though?) In case you didn’t know, there is an incredibly beneficial and useful resource on campus called CAPS, also known as the center for Counseling and Psychological Services. I can honestly admit that there was always that hesitant voice in my head that prevented me from even walking into the office. I wish I could turn back the clock and tell myself, hey, it’s okay to ask for help.

Most people just assume that CAPS is the last resort you turn to when things are going very, very wrong. Or the only people who go there are crazy or severely depressed–two very extreme assumptions that couldn’t be more wrong. CAPS is for anyone and everyone, yes, even you. I could try to explain what CAPS does in a few sentences, but I think their mission speaks for itself:

Counseling and Psychological Services is committed to helping students reach their full personal and academic potential as individuals. We work to support the development of the whole person: academically, personally, socially, spiritually, and physically through professional, ethical, confidential, and high quality counseling and educational services.

In other words, they are here to support you as a person. Stressed? Worried about your future? Grieving the loss of a loved one? Having a bad day? These are all valid reasons to stop by CAPS to talk to a counselor. I know you may be thinking that it may be hard to open up to a complete stranger, but that’s completely normal. What helped me get over my anxiousness was knowing that the person who was listening to me truly wanted to (1) listen and (2) offer any advice or help. Each session that you have with a counselor is strictly confidential unless you are having thoughts about harming yourself or others. If you feel more comfortable in a group setting, CAPS offers a few groups that cover a range of different topics, from reducing stress/anxiety, mindful meditation and even a creative arts group. There’s something for everyone!

So: if you’re thinking about going to CAPS, then you should go to CAPS! College will be full of ups and downs, but knowing that there are resources on campus you can turn to is incredibly helpful. If you’re thinking about going to CAPS, you can go and make an appointment in person in Dewitt (first floor) or you can call x7945 (on-campus) or 616.395.7945 (off-campus).

Thanks for reading! 🙂

#JustPhelpsScholarsThings: The Confederate Flag Controversy

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, a student from Durfee Hall flew the Confederate Flag on Hope’s campus. According to an email sent by President Knapp, “The flag was removed and the Student Development staff is now addressing this as a judicial matter with the students involved.” The controversial issue of flying the Confederate Flag has invaded social media and conversations not only now but also earlier this summer as a nationwide dispute; much like Donald Trump, everyone is talking about it, whether they care about its significance or not. On one side, defenders of the student argue that this is a freedom of speech issue and that anyone has the right to fly the flag because it symbolizes their Southern cultural heritage. In the middle are people who argue that it’s just a flag and the student who flew it probably did it for fun, not to harm or insult anyone.

And then there I was in my FYS class, three teachers with steely glints in their eyes reading off of President Knapp’s email to the class with gentle yet serious voices. A day after the flag blew up the campus, the Phelps Scholars advisors and teachers thought it was necessary to address the issue. Currently, Phelps Scholars students are reading “Acts of Faith,” a book written by Eboo Patel who had gone through several stages of ignorance, discovery, and finally understanding of the importance of dialogue between different cultures and religions.

As students took turns speaking, one of the teachers scratched simple yet impactful words onto the blackboard. Because of my goldfish memory, I can only remember two words she had written: FEAR and EDUCATION. The following is based on what the Phelps Scholars program has taught me through its discussions and its readings as well as prior knowledge.

FEAR: The Confederate flag, although simple with its red backdrop, blue ‘X,’ and white stars, is bogged down with a history of anger, hatred, ignorance, pride, and fear. Although slavery was not the only reason the South wanted to succeed from the Union and that perhaps the flag was flown for other reasons thereby representing other things to different people, one cannot argue that the flag was flown when people were lynched. It was flown years after the war to represent opposition against black people. Whenever this flag flew, people were scared. Even now it brings about false assumptions towards the flier and incredible fear and confusion for the onlooker who recognizes its history. Flying the flag at Hope College without a clear message unavoidably brought about the assumption that someone harbored hatred towards the black students of Hope. An anonymous source confirms that it was flown for fun, but for whatever the reason, the student needed to understand that a history that dark was not to be thrown around lightly.

EDUCATION: In order to combat future acts similar to this, we talked about how crucial it was to learn not only our history but other cultures’ as well. Ignorance breeds accidental and stupid actions. In turn, pride causes a purposeless need to defend oneself. To stop this toxicity from ever beginning, respect and communication are pivotal. What a crazy thing it was that here we were reading a book about understanding and love, there they were on the evening of GROW’s annual kick-off, and yet it was still happening: perhaps unintentional, but actions were created from misunderstanding and juvenility, birthing fear.

If you have a say in this issue, please don’t be afraid to speak up. Comment below with your thoughts. Communication and listening are the only ways to make clear of murky, controversial issues after all.

Fun, Money Making, and Camp Away From Camp

One thing I’ve come to both admit about myself and appreciate about myself over the past year or so is that I was made to make stuff. I was super into drawing and arts and crafts when I was little. Shrinky-Dinks were my JAM. I had a little mini potter’s wheel at my house. I have a legitimate easel at home that Santa brought one year. I should really do something productive with that. In middle school and junior high I loved my art classes, and I took four years of art in high school and was enthralled by every project I got to work on except for figure drawing. Figure drawing in charcoal was the worst, you guys. Anyways, when I got to college, I kind of got out of the groove of making stuff. I would run to Hobby Lobby from time to time or whip out the colored pencils I had stashed in the back of my desk drawer, but for the most part, my creative endeavors besides music were pretty few and far between.

Then this summer when I worked at camp, part of my job was to run arts and crafts almost every day. I made ALL the friendship bracelets and even some things that are currently hanging up in my cottage. I took any spare minute I got to make bracelets or embroider my backpack or doodle in the margins of my journal. If it involved anything that could even closely resemble “art,” I craved it. I even wood-burned one time. It was awesome.

Side note: Check out my arts and crafts playlist from camp this summer!

During the last couple of weeks at camp this summer, I started to get really bored of all the old t-shirts I’d been wearing every day for the whole summer. I looked down at the friendship bracelet I was making one morning while waiting for kids to show up at the archery pit during team adventure time, and I realized that the embroidery floss I was using for the friendship bracelets could be used to actually, you know, embroider stuff. I came up with the idea to start embroidering t-shirts. I even sketched out different ideas of where the embroidery could go on the shirt. The shirts were going to be simple, but noticeably unique – Something I would enjoy wearing and maybe even be proud to say that I created. I knew I didn’t have time to make a shirt while I was still at camp, so as soon as I got home at the end of the summer, I took the $3 pocket tee from the men’s section at Wal-Mart that I’d been wearing all summer, and I embroidered it until I got too excited that I had to stop. Seriously. I only did one sleeve. Anyways, I was so excited about it and I couldn’t wait to show other people.

Lakes Point Collective Tee — Here’s me wearing my shirt (notice the difference in the sleeves) at a Campus Ministries dodgeball and foursquare tournament a couple weekends ago. I am so happy with my handmade shirt and hot dog!

I wore the shirt around Hope a couple of times this fall and had a lot of people ask me about it. After multiple people told me they’d be interested in buying one, I decided it was time for me to make the initial investment in materials and get to work!

So far, I’ve made three shirts, and I started an Etsy store (something I’ve wanted to do for a long time) where I have them up for sale! I also have one gold ink print up for sale right now, and I am hoping to add some watercolor pieces soon as well. It is so cool to me that I can spend my time doing something I love, something I believe I was made to do, and perhaps even make some extra money for it along the way! It’s a college student’s dream, everyone. I’m telling ya.

It would mean so much to me if you checked out my store! It’s called Lakes Point Collective, and 10% of the sale price of every shirt is donated to scholarships for kids to attend Covenant Harbor Bible Camp, where the idea for these shirts was born!

I think it’s pretty neat that it’s possible to find ways in college to make money while doing things you enjoy. I also work at Glik’s in Downtown Holland, which I think is so fun, and I know a few other people that have started little businesses of their own, some of which are also on Etsy! Be creative – You never know what hobby could start to serve you in more ways than one!

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

“Let all that I am praise the Lord;

with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.”

– Psalm 103:1

Life’s Twists and Turns

Wow, readers, what a week. I say that all the time, but it has been a crazy week leading up to Fall Break. What are you all doing for break? Camping? Going home? I bet you have some crazy and relaxing plans that I’d love to hear about.

What I want to talk about in this post is how twisty and life actually is, and how wrapped up in ourselves and self-centered we all can be most of the time. This happens to me all the time and there was one instance the other day that really jolted me out of my own little world inside my head and it made me realize how self-involved I actually am.

So the short version of the story is that my sister tore her ACL. My family is generally healthy and hasn’t had any major injuries, praise God, even all throughout my sister’s and mine high school careers where we played every sport under the sun. In high school when everyone else was tearing and icing and recovering, we were playing and running and picking up slack where there were open holes.

Also a little bit about my sister: she is crazy awesome, crazy athletic, and the proudest girl I’ve ever met. She has an extremely high pain tolerance and hates going to the doctor for injuries because, in her mind, she can and will just shake it off and rub some dirt in it, like coaches always tell their players to do.

Well the other day my sister was playing in a flag football game and, like always she was playing her hardest and got tackled in the end zone (even though the game was, ya know, FLAG football). She felt something weird and didn’t play the rest of the game to be cautious and didn’t give it a second thought because she’s used to feeling some pain due to sports. But the next day, just to be sure, she went to the Health Center here at Hope to get it looked at, got an MRI and found out she tore her ACL all within a couple of days (Props to the Health Center for being so on top of everything for her. The Health Center ROCKS).

When she told me the news after her appointment, she was pretty shaken up, but I think I matched her anxiety about it. As I said, my family has never had any major injuries like this, so I was pretty taken aback when I heard about her significant injury. The news jolted me and made me realize that I had been too caught up in the thoughts in my own head to realize what was going on in her life.

The point I’m trying to make is that she didn’t plan to tear her ACL. It was something unexpected that just happened and she has to deal with it. Life handed her this, and woke me up as well to what was going on around me. It is not the perfect situation, but it is one that we will both learn from. So, readers, I challenge you this fall break to wake up and get out of your own head; to really realize what is going on in the lives of those around you. It may not be easy, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.

Until next time!

Questions about what I wrote? Check the bio and shoot me an email!

Men’s Night Out

This past Friday was the Campus Ministries Men’s and Women’s Nights Out. I cannot personally speak for the women, but as for the men, we had an absolute blast! Friday was just another glimpse into what an awesome place Hope College is.

Under the supervision of Paul Boersma (and many other influential, spiritual leaders), over two hundred men, freshmen through seniors, were bussed off to a local church for a night filled with dodgeball, pizza, and testosterone. There are not many institutions that so readily offer an alternative Friday night hang-out event similar to that of MNO. Where else in the country can you play Bunco with a few hundred of your closest friends and classmates?

The night was highlighted by two speakers, each coming from very different backgrounds. Their ideas unified when they both attempted to paint a picture of what it looks like to be men compared to being boys. “Boys break things”, they stated, “While men fix them.” It is an extremely special environment when so many young, influential, and capable guys are in the same place hearing such a powerful message. In small groups, we were given the opportunity to digest that same message, and talk about how we, as collegiate males, could apply it to our everyday lives. We were asked to imagine what Hope College would look like if our campus was filled with these type of men.

Now I understand the old saying that, “Boys will be boys.” Do not get me wrong, I am the most flawed human being this world has to offer. However, God is moving in the culture at Hope. I know that us boys can be transformed into men and completely transfigure our campus!

Until then, allow me to challenge you. What would it look like in your life if the boys acted like men, and the girls like women? How would your world be altered? This week, dare yourself and those around you to exceed the roles they play in every day life. I reckon you will be pleasantly surprised to see what occurs when we go the extra mile.

Praying you have a blessed week!

With love,

Steve

A Filling Weekend

Hello!

I hope your Mondays are going well and aren’t as stressful as mine is (Three exams in one week?! Crazy talk. But it’s happening.) I can’t complain much though, because instead of locking myself in my room this weekend and studying like I should have, I went to a lot of events.

On Friday was Women’s Night Out – an event sponsored by Campus Ministries. We went to Tunnel Park, ate pizza, and had a huge game of capture the flag. While my team lost, it was still really fun and I met a lot of people I wouldn’t have otherwise. After playing capture the flag we walked to the beach and found an area where we could all sit down. Here, our new chaplain Lauren Taylor led us in a small worship, discussing how we are the women of Hope College and we need to be here for each other. We sang and began a cool new tradition where the upperclassmen wash the feet of the underclassmen as done in the Bible. It was a much needed night after a week of exams and papers.

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Come Saturday, come the Pull. If you don’t know what the Pull is, you should read this blog post from my fellow blogger, Jakub Myska. You can’t exactly call it “just a big game of tug-of-war”, because it’s a lot more than that. It’s a full physical, mental, and emotional experience for those who participate. This year I got to watch four of my sorority sisters, moralers and coaches, participate on the even year side. Here are some pictures from my time at the pull!

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In the end of a super eventful weekend, my hall went apple picking together at Crane’s! We picked out our apples, which are great to have in the dorm and personally one of my favorite fruits. I wasn’t able to stay long because I had to get back to campus for a meeting, but it was still a cool way to spend time with some good friends.

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It was a busy and fun weekend, but now it’s back to the books. I’m full of experiences and memories that will last for years to come with people who mean a lot to me.

Thanks for reading,

Brooke

Tradition… Hope’s got them ALL.

Hey Everyone,

So as you all know, The Pull was this past weekend, and yes, Even Year were the winners! This is one of the many, many cool things about Hope College. Sure you may think the people who do the pull are crazy, 3 hard weeks of grueling training, with little time to do anything besides pull on a rope. I will tell you though, when you watch it, you see how much passion and heart goes into this tradition. It’s not just a tug of war. It is not just a dumb college tradition. This is the longest college tradition in the United States. This is history.

Hope College not only has the Pull, but it has Nykerk as well which is another record-breaking tradition. This just proves that there is a lot of history to this place we call Hope College. As an RA, I not only wanted to support my year’s Pull team, but I watched my freshman residents put their time into the Pull, not just their first semester of college, but in the first half of their first semester. They blindly came in and put so much time, effort, and heart into the Pull. So of course, the least I could do was go watch and support them. It was amazing the turnout of families, friends, and alumni that show up for the Pull.

I am saying all of this to show you that Hope is a place where many people have called home, it is a place where many graduates still come back to in order to support the things they once called their own. Hope College is a place people call home in their hearts for the rest of their lives. Sure they may not live there after they graduate, but they will always be a Flying Dutchmen, and nothing can ever change that.

Thanks for reading guys! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Pull.

This past Saturday, September 27, was The Pull. If you are a current or former Hope College student you exactly know what I mean. But for those of you who do not know about The Pull tradition, here is what is it from the international student perspective.

The Pull is an unbelievable tradition that started in 1898. This 115 years old tradition is made up of two teams. The ODD year team and the EVEN year team. For this year, the ODD year team are the freshmen and juniors because their year of graduation is odd (2019 and 2017). The EVEN team it is the sophomores and seniors (2018 and 2016). This is the difference between two teams, but the structure of the teams is the same. The younger students (freshmen and sophomores) are the pullers, and the upperclassmen are the coaches. Both teams train Monday through Friday for a tiring three hours and on Saturday the practice is for eight, yes eight, hours. The training process is about 3-4 weeks long. Anyway, now that you know what The Pull is, you will understand more what I am talking about.

I came there with a no idea of what should I expect from it, but I left The Pull with a great impression about the students at Hope College and its spirit. The pull itself was breathtaking. I have not seen a people in general who would went through so much pain and struggle by their own choice. For those who have not seen it, The Pull is not life dangerous event. It just the students push themselves to their absolute limit, so they are very exhausted and in a lot of pain. Just wanted make sure that you do not think that the Pull is something that is life dangerous to the student body! It is not.

The Pull illustrates a great image about the Hope College´s spirit. The spirit of pushing your classmate, friend or teammate shows that students are not selfish and students want Hope College to succeed. Also, it shows the willingness of Hope College be part of the school, traditions and campus life overall. I mean, I can not just from top of my head name people who would voluntarily would be pulling for three hours in a pain and dirt.

This year´s Pull, the winners were the EVEN team, so class of 2018 and 2016. Personally, I am extremely competitive and I hate losing, so I truly dislike to use the sentence; “Everyone is a winner”, but after what I saw this past Saturday, I gotta say: everyone who participated in the Pull is a winner.

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