Hope College
AC-10: Support for Sustainability Research

--Students in every discipline can get involved with research at Hope College.
"Hope is consistently awarded more National Science Foundation grants for undergraduate research than any other liberal arts college in the country and was ranked fourth behind the University of Michigan, Stanford and MIT for undergraduate research and creative activity in the initial rankings by US News & World Report."
http://www.hope.edu/research/opportunities-for-students.html

--Beginning in 2017 the Sustainability Institute has recognized student sustainability research during Hope's Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA) which takes places in the spring. Each year sustainability projects are recognized in a special brochure and with a green ribbon on their poster. An example from the 2022 CURCA Celebration can be found at: https://blogs.hope.edu/sustainability-institute/uncategorized/2022-sustainability-research-projects/?_gl=1*1bsof48*_ga*MTI4MTY3MDIwOC4xNjUxNTE5ODI0*_ga_RF3LGY13Y9*MTY3NjY2OTE3NC4zNTguMS4xNjc2NjcyNjQ4LjUyLjAuMA..
More information about CURCA can be found at: https://hope.edu/academics/celebration-undergraduate-research/

--Since the summer of 2016 the Hope College Green Team has sponsored students to conduct research on campus focused on various aspects of sustainability. Research projects are supported through the Summer Hope Academic Research Program (SHARP) Program and have included topics such as energy, water, a campus garden, the history of sustainability at Hope, transportation, a revolving fund, cottage energy/water conservation, campus policies, marketing/communication, and projects to reduce our campus carbon footprint. This has been a huge success and the group is looking to continue and possibly expand it in the future. This opportunity has been open to all majors.
Information about SHARP can be found at: https://hope.edu/offices/provost/research-scholarship/undergraduate-research/summer-research.html

--Hope College offers a program called "Day One" which helps students plug into hands-on research projects and solve real-world problems in laboratories and in the field, right from their first day on campus. As part of the program students can:
Investigate water quality and help the local community address issues
Design a product to meet the needs of the community
Learn professional geology skills while exploring Northern Michigan
Discover a new virus and investigate its genome
Study environmental issues in the Great Lakes region
Live with other Day1 students during their first year
Additional Information about the program can be found at:
http://www.hope.edu/academics/day1/

--In March of 2022 Hope College Officially launched the Global Water Research Institute. The Global Water Research Institute enables water-centered research that can transform the health and well-being of local, regional and global communities. Our interdisciplinary, collaborative student and faculty research provides improved understanding of water and equips communitites to make data-driven decisions about their water use.
Program:
https://hope.edu/research/global-water-research-institute/
Fellows:
https://hope.edu/research/global-water-research-institute/fellows.html

--Hope College also launched the Global Health program which unites faculty and students from the divisions of Natural & Applied Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities in collaborative learning, research and service.
Program:
https://hope.edu/academics/global-health/
Interdisciplinary Faculty Council Leadership:
https://hope.edu/academics/global-health/faculty-staff.html

--Another example of an on-going interdisciplinary research project is TreeSap Research Project which includes staff, faculty, and students from departments across campus as well as community partners. Campus departments have incluced Computer Science, Biology, Grounds, and the Office of Sustainability.
https://hope.edu/offices/sustainability/holland-hope-college-sustainability-institute/trees/

--While it is not specifically for sustainability Hope College received a major grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) which has enabled the college to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones as the college continues to emphasize its acclaimed model of teaching through faculty-student collaborative research in the sciences. The HHMI program, has supported research and teaching in science, mathematics, psychology and education at Hope. The program led to the development of several interdisciplinary research programs at Hope and the peer-advising FACES program in the sciences. https://hope.edu/academics/faces/
Emphases has included enhancing research efforts in the biomedical sciences at Hope, with particular attention to collaborations with other institutions; increased emphasis on training K-12 science and mathematics teachers; increasing diversity in science, both at Hope and beyond; and initiating and participating in efforts to promote and develop scholarly lessons concerning teaching and learning at the college as well as within the broader higher education community. The full story can be found at: http://www.hope.edu/news/2008/04/22/major-grant-emphasizes-external-research-ties.html

There is no written policy on interdisciplinary research, but faculty that have interdisciplinary research are often hired and obtain tenure and promotion. Within the Natural and Applied Sciences Division there are faculty that have joint appointments between multiple departments. The goal of those joint appointments was to support the further development of interdisciplinary research.

--Solving the biggest problems in the world requires bringing to bear multiple academic disciplines. A hallmark of liberal arts education, learning to think between and across disciplines prepares you to face the complexity of real work and real life. A Hope College education begins and ends with interdisciplinary thinking in the First-Year Seminar and Senior Seminar programs. In between, there are particular opportunities to study at the intersection of multiple disciplines. See a list of special IDS courses. Hope also features a wide variety of interdisciplinary pathways and programs that link multiple disciplines in the study of a common topic or field of study. These pathways and programs include both general education and upper division courses. Your choice of general education courses can lead to further study that allows you to build connections across multiple courses. Interdisciplinary pathways can enrich a topic of study within your major. Interdisciplinary programs can give you a supplementary area of expertise beyond your major.
https://hope.edu/academics/interdisciplinary-studies/
https://hope.edu/academics/interdisciplinary-studies/pathways-programs.html

--An article from 2016 showcases a student's interdisciplinary program "majoring in both biology and English with a writing emphasis" can be found at: https://magazine.hope.edu/winter-2016/merging-majors/

The library at Hope does not currently have a website/resources devoted to sustainability research but they do have hundreds of resources (journals, books, digital, written, audio/visual, etc...) that can aid in research on such topics. https://hope.edu/library/
Over the past few years we have added additional resources to the library with support from our Green Team Fund Dollars. These have ranged from films to books for both adults and children.