After Graduation

Where can majoring in history take you?

In short? Anywhere! Hope history students have studied in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, worked in internships at nationally-known museums, organizations such as Human Rights Watch, and government agencies such as the United States Department of State, and taught in schools in a variety of communities, from urban settings to rural villages.

Visit our alumni page for info on resources and services 

Here's what some of our graduates have done:

Museums and Libraries

• Amy Weber ’09 completed her MA in art history from the University of Illinois and now works as a project coordinator at the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Anna Cook ’05 completed a joint history andiInformation technology graduate program at Simmons College and is now working for the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Teaching and administration

• George Klupchak ’08 completed a M.Ed. at the University of Notre Dame and now teaches at Chicago Bulls College Prep in Chicago.
• Jessica Patrick Majerowicz ’04 teaches history at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia.
• Jason Rubel ’97 serves as the Principal of East Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Legal profession

• David Kraska ’89 is an attorney in the legal department of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco.
• Whitney Leigh, law degree from Stanford University where he was president of the Black Law Students Association, specializes in civil litigation and criminal defense with Gonzalez & Leigh in San Francisco.
• Tim Fry completed law school at Northwestern is now at the Chicago office of McGuireWoods, working on transactional and regulatory health care issues.

Higher education and scholarship

• Noah Haiduc-Dale ’99 recently published Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948 (Edinburgh University Press). He teaches at Centenary College.
• Samantha Miller ’08 completed her M.Div. and is working on a Ph.D. at Marquette University.
• Brett Bebber ’00 teaches history at Old Dominion University in Virginia. He has just published Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain (Manchester University Press).

Business

• Jeffrey Harrison, ’12, Project Manager at Mindscape at Hanon McKendry, a West Michigan marketing and advertising firm.
• Jeff Bates ’98 is Open Source IT Program Manager at Google.
• Barbara Good ’87 Van Heest is is a vice president and relationship manager for Chase’s business banking group in West Michigan.

Consulting and Communication

• Erica Puntel ’00 is a senior publicist for CNN in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Daniel Stid ’87, a Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Ph.D. and author of The President as Statesman: Woodrow Wilson and the Constitution, is a partner in the Bridgespan Group, a consulting firm in San Francisco.
• J. Scott Carpenter, formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, is now the Deputy Director of Google Ideas in New York City.
• Banu Demiralp ’00 is co-founder of Anka Rising, which provides a platform for private enterprises, governments and NGOs to combat modern-day slavery.

Government and Public Service

• Jason Burns ’06 is the national political and communications director of the Victory Fund, Washington, D.C.
• Louis Canfield ’01 earned a Masters in Public Administration and is Development Center Coordinator for the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

International Affairs

• Jordan VandeBunte ’05 earned an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona and works for the U.S. government.
• James Plasman ’03, a Masters in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, is a Foreign Service Officer; he currently serves in the American embassy in Lagos, Nigeria.

Serving the Church

• Jonathan Schakel ’94 is the organist and co-director of Music Ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.
• Seth Weeldreyer ’91 is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Marshall, Michigan.
• Kirk Slater ’90 is a missionary in Uganda.
• Phil Tanis ’87, former mayor of Holland while he was at Hope, is executive secretary of communications for the World Communion of Reformed Churches, headquartered in Hanover, Germany.