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Hope is the recipient in the category that includes educational institutions, government or business from across the country; an honoree is also being named from among non-profit or community organizations.  The awards were presented during the NCDA鈥檚 2025 conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday-Friday, June 18-20.

outstanding service in developing and implementing thoughtful and innovative initiatives that support career development.  Criteria include overall mission, services, vision and goals; collaborations with internal groups such as students and external groups such as local employers and non-profits to enhance services; how the recipient measures impact and overcomes challenges; and plans for future growth. 

Hope鈥檚 Boerigter Center for Calling and Career is a college-wide initiative that seeks to inspire students to engage in lifelong practices of career development by emphasizing discernment, preparation and pursuit.  Programming for the Boerigter Center is designed to enable all Hope students, beginning in their first semester, to understand their strengths, engage in experiences that directly connect to career preparation, discern vocational and life goals, and ascertain clear next steps toward their future.

The center provides guidance and opportunities for career exploration throughout students鈥� years at Hope.  In their first year, students take assessments to help them better understand their strengths and interests, and gain information about academic majors and careers related to those strengths and interests.  As sophomores, they declare a major and can pursue internships in their fields of interest, a process that continues the next year.  The junior year focuses on networking and interview preparation and practice, with the senior year emphasizing the job search or graduate-school planning.

The Boerigter Center for Career and Calling, which opened in the fall of 2018, was made possible by a major gift from SoundOff Signal in honor of founder and chairman George Boerigter, who is a 1961 Hope College graduate, and his wife, Sibilla. Based in Hudsonville, SoundOff Signal provides high-tech safety lighting solutions across the globe.

The Boerigter Center for Calling and Career has received a variety of other national awards through the years, including the 2022 PeopleGrove Innovator鈥檚 Award; the 2022 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Technology Excellence Award, received with the college鈥檚 Van Wylen Library; and the 2021 American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Commission for Career Services Group Innovation Award.  In addition, an interactive career-resource monitor providing students with a visual representation of jobs around the country that can be pursued through the center, designed for the center by a team of Hope computer science students, was the college winner of the 2022 Technology Excellence Award presented by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.