HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, Aug. 28, 2022) – As Hope College students get embedded into the Holland campus for the start of classes, the newest members of the Orange and Blue received words of encouragement on Sunday.
“Invitation to Hope: Knowing, Doing, Being” was the title of the keynote address by Dr. Deborah Vriend Van Duinen during the Opening Convocation at DeVos Fieldhouse. The Associate Professor of Education at Hope and founding director of the Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read Lakeshore programs challenged the newcomers to think about this upcoming chapter in their lives.
Aug. 28, 2022; Holland, MI, USA; Featured speaker Dr. Deborah Vriend Van Duinen of the Hope College education faculty delivers the address “An Invitation to Hope: Knowing, Doing, Being” during the college’s Opening Convocation, held at the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse. (Hope College Photo by Steven Herppich)
“I invite you to a transformative experience at Hope College, an experience that involves a messy mix of knowing, doing, and being, an experience that isn’t handed over to you but one that requires your active engagement,” Van Duinen said. “My prayer for you is that the stories that you live here be ones that allow you to know, do and be as people at Hope in our broken world and people who live within a larger story, not just for the next four years but for the rest of your lives.”
According to school officials, approximately 950 first-time students registered for the first semester, breaking the previous record high of 904 in 2012, and was over a hundred more than last fall. Although numbers won’t become official for about three weeks, Hope is anticipating overall enrollment above 3,200, slightly higher than last year, but still about two hundred below the record set eight years ago.
Classes for the 161st Academic Year at Hope College begins on Tuesday.
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