Hope College

In 1851, four years after settlers from the Netherlands founded Holland, the Pioneer School was established to meet some of the educational needs of the young colony. The school, the predecessor of Hope College, received direction and financial support from the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America. It evolved into the Holland Academy, which in 1862 enrolled its first college class. On May 14, 1866, the institution was chartered as Hope College, and on July 17, 1866, its first class of eight students graduated. The college’s name, seal, and motto came from a statement by Holland’s founder, Rev. Albertus C. Van Raalte, who said of the Pioneer School, “This is my Anchor of Hope for this people in the future.” In the decades that followed, a strong college of arts and sciences developed and continued to serve the church and the community.

Holland, Michigan · United States