Hope College conducted a ceremony on Friday, Oct. 3, to inaugurate the 12 flagpoles newly installed outside the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication.
The flags highlight the college's international connections. The flags that were initially flown honored the members of the freshman Class of 2012, who are from Armenia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Kenya, Mexico, Palestine, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and the United States.
The ceremony included welcoming remarks by Hope College President Dr. James Bultman and an overview of the legacy of international education at Hope by Alfredo Gonzales, who is associate provost and dean for international and multicultural education.
The college plans to feature different groupings of flags representative of the home countries of the student body throughout the academic year. The Hope student body this school year comes from 31 countries, including the United States.
The poles stand along the north and west sides of the building, six on each side. When installation is complete, the flags will be lighted.
The Martha Miller Center for Global Communication houses the departments of communication and modern and classical languages, and the offices of international education and multicultural life. The building opened in the fall of 2005 and is named after the late Martha Miller, a member of the college's Class of 1924 who died on May 16, 1999, at age 96, in honor of an estate gift that she made to Hope.
The event took place in conjunction with the college's Homecoming Weekend.