Your Invitation: Live Vicariously Through Me

Hi, I’m Amanda.

Hope this year from Traverse City, Michigan.

My plans: major in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry with minors in neuroscience, mathematics, and Spanish.

My dream: to become a neurosurgeon, conducting cutting-edge brain research to advance what we know about how humans function, live, and think.

My blogging focus: To fully integrate you into my life so you can fully understand how awesome Hope College really is.

As you think about what you want from reading our student blogs, I encourage you to ask questions. You can leave a comment here on my post, email me at Amanda.porter@hope.edu, or tweet me (and follow me!): hopeamanda15.

Maybe you’ve heard of the book Colleges That Change Lives: 40 schools you should know about even if you’re not a straight-A student by Loren Pope. I’d heard of it, and that Hope was mentioned, but I had never gotten the chance to read through it. Here are some mentionable things Pope noted about Hope College: 

“[Hope] is a place where parents can send children of a wide range of abilities in the full expectation that their talents will be increased, vision broadened, and ethical acuity sharpened.”

“The sense of community was a common theme [at Hope], along with how interested the professors were in students’ personal as well as academic welfare.”

“ An economics professor who turns down offers from universities because he thinks what he’s doing here is more important says: ‘Here students spend time with their profs…At Harvard they’re talented when they come in, but what happens to them there? I wouldn’t leave Hope to teach at Harvard. Most of the [Hope] faculty could be making more money elsewhere, but they have a commitment to people, and it’s not self serving.’ “

Finally, I’ll leave you with some of the reasons why I made the decision to come to Hope College (not in any particular order):

• Hope College continues to hold more grants for summer collaborative student-faculty research from the National Science Foundation (NSF) than any other undergraduate college in the country
• 3,230 students (about twice the size of the high school I came from)
• Hope College faculty are nationally recognized teacher-scholars (in the Hope-Geneva bookstore we have a HUGE section devoted only to Hope authors –that definitely impressed me)
• There is a distinctive Christian character supported by a vibrant campus ministries program, which is neither required nor indoctrinating
• Hope has a plethora of study-abroad and even study-away-from-campus programs. If they don’t have a program you’re interested in, they’ll work with you to create one
• Every Hope College student I know or have talked to had done an amazing internship, gotten a fantastic job, or had worked on exciting research as an undergraduate because of Hope College and its professors
• It’s the perfect distance from my house (2.5 hours)
• Holland is right next to the water, just like Traverse City!
• The people I met on my two campus visits were SO friendly, helpful and made me feel at home

Read more positive highlights at http://www.ctcl.org/colleges/hope and check out Pope’s book.

Until next time,

-A