First, listen to this:
Wow….So this weekend, I and members of the Hope College Gospel Choir and the Black Student Union had an amazing opportunity to go to a Black Sacred Music Symposium. This was an event hosted at the University of Illinois that focused on what Black Sacred Music was as well as putting that into action. What I mean by that, is we got to hear from numerous speakers focusing on topics like “How to prepare for singing gospel music,” “The calling of being a director,” “The lyrics behind the songs,” and so much more. Not only did we get to learn all this insightful information, but we also got to learn different genres of gospel songs and sing them with a mass choir at a performance on Sunday (which was more than a performance – it was using the voices and the soul of everyone in the room as well as the lyrics behind the songs to give Jesus praise.)
This event was amazing, but you know what made it ever greater, it was FREE! Ahhh, one of my favorite words….free. 🙂 We got to stay in a nice Hyatt Hotel for free.
We got to be apart of this symposium for free. We got to Campaign, IL, on a Hope bus for free. The only thing I spent some money on was two meals. This was possible through Dr. Trent-Brown setting everything up (SHOUT OUT) and through Hope providing the money for us to be able to do this stuff for free. Hope really values the opportunities that student life can provide, and thus Hope Administration Staff is often very willing to work details out with clubs so that students can pay less to nothing at all.
Man, this conference was amazing. Hope’s willingness to provide for students is amazing. I love this place.
For more about me, follow me on twitter @hopejohnluke17 or on Instagram at johnlukehawkins. If you have a question you can email me at john.hawkins@hope.edu. Until next time!