Story by Alan Babbitt; photo by Tom Renner
Elly Douglass '04 Jordan carries with her what she learned as a runner for the Hope College cross country and track and field teams as she commits her life to serving others.
Now a supervising attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Jordan has committed her career to serving others, working on making her community safer and a place where all can achieve their God-given potential.
"The lesson you learn is delayed gratification," Jordan said Monday before receiving the "H-Club Hope for Humanity Award" during an afternoon ceremony at DeVos Fieldhouse. "I was never the fastest runner. Over time, you learn you're not going to see the benefits of each run for months, perhaps even years. Over the course of a season, it's those hard practices that would eventually pay off at the end of the season.
"When I tried to go to law school and do all the things that felt hard, just beyond reach, knowing that I had logged all those miles, done all those hard things over and over again with the support of my community totally changed everything for me and made it seem possible."
The H-Club Hope for Humanity award is presented to Hope College alumni athletes who have demonstrated Christian commitment and service to others in their careers after Hope.
Upon graduation from Hope College with a degree in social sciences, Jordan moved to El Salvador to work as a missionary with the SHARE Foundation. Upon realizing she was in a position of privilege and could use that to do more to serve, she attended law school, where she excelled.
After graduating from law school, Jordan worked as a law clerk for the US Court of Appeals, then joined Warner Norcross and Judd, LLP. She left Warner to work as the Supervising Attorney at the Michigan State University College of Law Immigration Clinic, focusing on fulfilling the calling to "help the least among us".
Jordan then served as the Lead Attorney for the Survivor Law Project at the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.
In her current role at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Jordan leads a team in providing trauma-informed legal services to refugee and immigrant kids who have experienced persecution and human trafficking.
"This means so much," Jordan said of the Hope for Humanity Award. "Hope is really a place that fosters a group of cohorts that go back and look at their humanity. They're the people that are going to go seeking their vocation, seeking to meet the world, go out, change it for the better, and make it better for people. To be singled out among this group of people amazed me."
