Alumni Profile: Anita Bateman ’98

Hope’s purpose is to develop informed, broadly educated citizens who think deeply about fundamental issues and who will become leaders in their professions and their communities. How well has Hope College done in reaching its goals? The answer lies in the personal and professional lives of the approximately 30,000 men and women who claim Hope as their alma mater. Many of these alumni have brought honor upon themselves, their professions, and Hope College through exceptional achievement.

Anita Bateman has grown to greatly appreciate her education from Hope over the years as she recognizes the valuable lessons Hope taught her beyond her computer science degree.

One of the lessons Anita values most is how to apply her Christian faith to her everyday life. “Understanding and thinking about how my faith applies and how I live out my faith is something I learned about in my religion classes, and it’s still something I really think about today,” she says.

Anita also appreciates that she was able to take courses outside of her major and learn from those. “Some of the things I learned about myself and about how I work with other people, I learned in my core requirement and elective classes,” she says.

After graduating from Hope, Anita signed on with IBM as a software engineer. She later moved into a team leadership position, and now currently serves in an IT Architecture position, in which she enjoys developing some of IBM’s newest software. Throughout her career she has found that Hope’s department of computer science prepared her well, and she feels lucky to have had access to the great resources at Hope.

Outside of academics, Anita participated in Nykerk, I.VE League, Mortar Board, Summer of Service, and Fellowship of Christian Students. Through such activities, she was constantly interacting with others, and she recommends that same amount of involvement to other students.

“Find an activity or community within the college that you enjoy and get involved in that,” she advises.

Those interactions with student communities, as well as courses within and outside of her major, allowed Anita to gain an education that she feels serves her exceedingly well.

“Through Hope, I gained the ability to develop other skills that people sometimes don’t think about,” says Anita. “Things like problem solving, communications, relationship building, and cultural awareness—all of which are extremely important in businesses of all kinds and in life.”

This profile was written by Danielle K. Johnson, a 2008 Hope College graduate from Kalamazoo, Mich., for the 2008-09 Hope College Catalog.

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