Michelle Hoffman
“Tri Kappa is so different than it used to be. It’s more ‘sisterhood-y,’ ” laughs Michelle Hoffman, who has done two stints in the Alpha chapter.
“All the community-service projects we’ve been doing speak volumes to what we’re about. It’s one area where Tri Kappa has really blossomed.”
The year Shannon Eades asked her to become a Tri Kappa, Michelle also joined the Boys and Girls Clubs auxiliary. Those two commitments, plus working part-time and being a mom, proved to be too much. So Michelle went inactive in Tri Kappa.
Several years later, Amanda Burnham encouraged her to come back into the fold.
“I was at a Riley Red Wagon Brigade fundraiser,” Michelle says. “Amanda said someone had told her I used to be in Tri Kappa. She asked me to come back.”
That little nudge from Amanda was all it took for Michelle to take the plunge once again.
Born in Milwaukee, Michelle grew up in Ripon, Wis., and attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. She met her husband at a fraternity tea before classes even started her freshman year.
Michelle wanted to be a nurse but majored in speech and English with a minor in flute performance because Wittenberg didn’t have a nursing program. She got married after finishing college and moved to Ft. Wayne, where she worked for United Way and then Talbot’s clothing store.
After starting her family, she did part-time consulting for 24 years for a New York company that revamps college admission systems. During those years, she and her family moved to Btown.
Finally, after raising her daughters Rachel, Sarah and Sophia (two of whom are Tri Kappas), Michelle decided it was time to follow her dream and finally become a registered nurse. She signed up for the two-year program at Bloomington’s Ivy Tech Community College and now works in the emergency room at Bloomington Hospital.
“I love meeting new people in Tri Kappa,” Michelle says. “I meet people I would never had met normally — from all different ages, walks of life, occupations.
“I feel like we have more of a presence in the community today. We’re a group of women who really want to make a difference.”
More About Michelle:
Favorite book is “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett
Enjoys walking her two labradoodles
Is obsessed with babies, especially Tri Kappa sister Lauren Keenan’s boys
Recently traveled to Germany and the British Isles. Next stop: Italy
Joined the Kappa Delta sorority during college