Hope College is located in Holland, Michigan, a small city just west of Grand Rapids. Originally opened by Dutch immigrants in 1851, the university is now home to a little over 3,000 undergraduates and offers 90+ majors across various disciplines.
It isn’t the city’s quaint Tulips or Dutch practicality that makes Hope College special, though. Rather, there is a certain mentality of humility that guides their university mission, a mentality in short supply today. The school’s current president, Matt Scogin, summed it up well in a podcast interview:
“[T]here’s this crazy sense in higher education … in which it must be the case that ultimately those who do get access to a great education somehow deserve it, like this meritocracy. If we really got what we deserved, we’d all be screwed… Everything we have is this unmerited gift, and then we’re just going to radically give it to the world so that we can be a blessing with the ways we’ve been blessed.”
He’s explaining the philosophy behind the school’s “Hope Forward” program. It’s a radical “pay-it-forward” funding model, where students receive a tuition-free education in return for making a commitment to give a donation, of any amount, to Hope every year after graduation. In short, they are crowd-sourcing college education. It’s a risky financial model for a university, but a reflection of their belief that attending college should not be dependent on a family’s net worth or zip code.
Scogin’s interview got me thinking about what I deserve. My mind wandered to my acceptance to Notre Dame, to the “so well deserved!!” comments on my Linkedin, to the semester of travel I’ve been enjoying abroad. Did I really “deserve” any of these things? Although I worked hard to get to where I am, lots of people work hard. Most of the time I feel more insanely lucky (and privileged), than anything.
One solution is to take it all in moderation. There are times when recognizing your self-worth is powerful. You can be proud of your accomplishments without these feelings teetering into a sense of arrogance and entitlement.
The other solution — the one that Scogin suggests — is to completely revamp your mindset and consider that you deserve nothing.
This isn’t a new idea. Many religions, including Catholicism and Islam, center around the idea that life is a gift from the divine and that life’s blessings are a result of God’s mercy, rather than personal merit. Yet, I don’t think you have to be religious to believe that we are not entitled to anything in this life. Losing a loved one, getting a job offer revoked, having your house burned down by wildfires — these are all universal, human experiences. The reality is that bad things happen to good people. To me, this is just life’s harsh way of reminding us that we’re lucky to be alive, and anything on top of that is just an added bonus.
Instead of sending us wallowing in the self-nothingness of our existence, I personally find that this anti-meritocracy attitude can be extremely transformative. You gain a healthy dose of perspective and gratitude when it comes to your own personal problems, suddenly equipped with the ability to zoom out from the situation until you conclude that most things are not an existential crisis. You’re just thankful to be here. Your capacity for giving also expands tenfold: having received unmerited blessings, it’s now your duty to share them. Service is not something you do out of the goodness of your heart, but as a debt you are repaying for the gift of life.
However, modern society makes it difficult to cultivate and maintain this disposition. Our culture encourages people to view themselves as the center of the universe: TV cameras linger on professional athletes doing victory dances after a literal two-yard gain, social media gives everyone their own platform to say “look at me!” and politicians and billionaires are given free reign to throw tantrums online.
How different our world would look if we revamped our outlook on life to the point of utter humility. Institutionally, Notre Dame might find Hope College as a source of inspiration to ensure all students and staff are looked after, even amidst the flurry of this past month’s executive orders. Personally, we might look outward and more readily embrace our role as our “brother’s keeper,” willing to protect our neighbor’s livelihoods and place in this country. We may be challenged to accept what a humble place we occupy in this universe, but stronger collectively because of it.
Allison Elshoff is a junior studying Business Analytics with minors in the Hesburgh Program of Public Service and Impact Consulting. Originally from Valencia, California and currently living in Badin Hall, you can find her unsubscribing from email lists or hammocking by the lakes. You can contact Allison at aelshoff@nd.edu.
