Throughout my two years (!!!) at Hope, I have had the great blessing of meeting all sorts of people from a variety of backgrounds. However, it didn’t take long for me to notice that there some characteristics that several Hope students seem to have. Keep in mind that not all students fit into these categories and some students may be in more than one!
Type one: The Renaissance Man/Woman
Because Hope is a liberal arts school, it gives students the benefit of exploring many different subject areas and having the ability to not only have a major, but a minor, and double major, and even a triple major! Meet Nicki Hames. My lovable roommate from freshman year is using her college years to earn complete double majors in psychology and sociology, and has loads of extra credits from other departments. She is the perfect example of someone who is making the most of her classroom time!
Type Two: The Martha Stewart
I don’t know about all of you, but none of my friends in high school ever crafted. So I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I came to Hope and met so many people crafted all the time. And they didn’t make mediocre stuff either; some of the things I have seen put Pinterest and even Martha herself to shame. Meet Kelly Pierce. To all of her friends, she is known as the crafting queen. She started crafting seriously her senior year of high school and gets motivation to craft from seeing things in stores and recreating them at the fraction of the cost. Check out some of Kelly’s handiwork!
Type 3: The Always Involved
This might be a little self-indulgent, but this is me all the way. With the many different clubs that Hope has, it can be hard to not get involved. However, I think I may have gone a little overboard. My activities this year include being in the Kappa Beta Phi sorority, vice president of the Black Student Union, Ballet club, Hope Democrats, being a student blogger, Nykerk, and CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ). How I do it all? I have no idea.
Type 4: The Giver
Hope’s Reformed Church affiliation naturally attracts students of the Christian faith who have had all kinds of extraordinary experiences through their churches. One common experience that many students share is a mission trip, or in this case, multiple mission trips. Meet Melissa Pace. She has been on mission trips to Iquitos, Peru, La Carpio, Costa Rica, and Detroit. From all of the trips, Melissa has learned the importance of being grateful for life’s blessings, though they may not all seem like blessings. In particular, she took away the gift of a good education, and wants to use her education at Hope to help give more opportunities to those in need.
Type 5: The Dew Crew Fanatic
A long standing student activity at Hope is to join the student section of the basketball games, otherwise known as the Dew Crew. Some people only casually attend the games, but these people go all out, sporting impossible-to-miss orange shirts and chanting encouragement to the players. Though you may never become one, you are bound to befriend one. Meet Destini Pulido. A freshman and avid Dew Crewer, she loves being a part of anything that supports school spirit. She has also enjoyed meeting some of her best friends at the games and being a link in the chain of the crazed fan section.
Of course, these categories aren’t two dimensional; there is more to everyone than a label, and there are people at Hope who may not fit into one of the categories described here.
Hope people: do you agree or disagree with the five types of people? High school seniors: which type of person are you most excited to meet? Tweet me or leave a comment!
-Rachael