HOLLAND — A team of two Hope College professors have been selected to participate in a fellowship program to “engage the intersections of Christian thought and practice with the academic vocation.”

Faculty members Chad Carlson and Deborah Van Duinen were named Lilly Faculty Fellows by the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities. The fellowship includes funding to start a faculty-development project at Hope.

Carlson and Van Duinen are part of the fourth cohort of the program.

According to the organization’s website, the program is meant to “refresh and enliven a sense of calling for participants as people of faith, as teachers, and as scholars” and “provide a space for creative exploration of how Christian thought and practice intersect with the academic vocation.”

The professors will receive $8,000 in start-up funds to establish and pilot a program at Hope. They’ll also each receive $4,000 for their participation.

Carlson and Van Duinen will attend four conferences as part of the fellowship. The pilot program is scheduled to take place during the 2025-26 academic year.

Carlson has been a faculty member since 2014. He’s a professor of kinesiology and the director of general education. His research focuses on the socio-cultural aspects of sport.

Van Duinen, with Hope since 2010, is the Arnold and Esther Sonneveldt Professor of Education and founding director of the Hope College NEA Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read Lakeshore. She’s also the director of Hope’s Senior Seminar.

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In 2016, she won the Michigan Reading Association’s Individual Literacy Award for her work with Big Read and language education.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollansentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope professors chosen for fellowship that studies academics, religion