Category: Alumni

Carpet Diem

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Alumni David Landskroener and Marianne Stine
David Landskroener ’14, Marianne Stine ’12, and Oscar ’13 getting the red carpet treatment.

David Landskroener ’14 is a self-described “movie junkie.” So when he won two coveted tickets to sit on bleachers alongside the famed red carpet at this year’s Oscar extravaganza in Los Angeles…well, it was a Hollywood ending.

“It was cool to see Anne Hathaway and George Clooney in person,” said David, a double major in Theatre Arts and English who also has a concentration in Media Studies where he’s learning about film.

Even cooler, he said, was when the interviewer in front of him pulled up K alumnus David France ’81 to talk about ‘How to Survive a Plague,’ his Oscar-nominated documentary.”

“He gave an insightful interview and seemed really at ease. It was so awesome to have that K connection on the red carpet, with me, a current student, only thirty feet away. K people are everywhere!”

David made the trip to LA from his home near Minneapolis where he’s been since returning from study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland. K friend Marianne Stine ’12 joined him in a long security check-in process and a seven-hour wait in the bleachers before the stars came out.

“Luckily we had food and drink provided the entire day, and we got to watch the actual awards ceremonies from the nearby El Capitan Theatre. We both held an actual Oscar, and are those things heavy!”

Prior to his view from the bleachers, David’s most meaningful glimpse into a possible future career came during summer 2012 when he served an externship through the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, a nonprofit institute that develops new plays and nurtures playwrights. He stayed with Bethany (Kestner) Whitehead ’98 who works at The Playwrights’ Center.

“It was a great opportunity for me to see that a career in that field is possible and how to work towards it. Staying with Bethany and learning about her career was just as rewarding and instructive as working at the Center itself.”

Although he looks forward to being back on campus this spring to continue his classroom and extracurricular studies, David said he also looks forward to returning to the Oscars one day, not for a seat in the bleachers, but for the full red carpet treatment.

“Studying English, theatre, and film myself, I dream of someday walking down that same carpet.”

Alumna Speaks in Mumbai on the Value of the Liberal Arts

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Hema Shroff Patel '86
Hema Shroff Patel ’86

The Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) invited Hema Shroff Patel ’86 to speak at a college fair in Mumbai, India. The Indian students attending the fair were potentially interested in attending colleges in the GLCA, including Kalamazoo College. Patel spoke to them about her liberal arts education experience and how it led her to a life in Mumbai as a businesswoman. She had special praise for Kalamazoo College.

Patel had planned on attending the University of Michigan to earn a degree in economics, but she began her freshman year after the semester’s start at U of M. Her solution was to begin her studies at K, with its later start date due to the quarter system, and then transfer. Patel hadn’t counted on falling in love with K.

“I ended up spending the four best years of my life at K,” Patel told GLCA members and students. At K, she learned how to be flexible and adaptable, she said. Patel studied economics, political science, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. She learned how to view opportunities from many different perspectives, how to find innovative solutions, and how to work with people from varied cultural backgrounds.

Her skills and education came together into a textile and weaving business called Amba that Patel began in Mumbai in 1999. Born in the United States, she moved to India 22 years ago to join her family and establish her business of traditional forms of weaving, block printing, and eco-friendly natural dyeing. Amba is a social entrepreneurship that supports craft heritage in rural India.

“I marvel at how much I have used my liberal arts education in textile revival,” Patel said. “I use my communication skills with people of many different backgrounds. I interact with weavers who speak no English. I apply political science when I apply for grants, and economics and finance in running my business. A liberal arts education opens doors to the global village our world has become.”

From Kalamazoo to Kyrgyzstan

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Kalamazoo College alumna Britta Seifert
Britta Seifert ’12 knows she can do this, because she already has.

Britta Seifert ’12 is headed to the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan for a 27-month assignment with the Peace Corps. She has no idea where she’ll be living or what she’ll be doing, but she couldn’t be happier.

“There’s something intriguing about going to a part of the world people here know absolutely nothing about,” she recently told a Battle Creek Enquirer reporter.

Britta, from Marshall, Michigan, said her best preparation for this trip was her Kalamazoo College study abroad experience in India.

“It will be a great help knowing that if I’m completely overwhelmed, I can push through to the point where I can enjoy it. I know I can do this.”

Read more about Britta and her next big adventure in this Battle Creek Enquirer article.

Photo by John Grap, The Enquirer.

No Foolin’

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Winter Quarter 2013 is in the history books. Classes have ended, finals are over, and most students have bugged out. Grades are due from Faculty March 26. Spring Quarter classes begin April 1. No foolin’! Residence Halls re-open Saturday, March 30, at 9 A.M. And the first meal served in the cafeteria will be Saturday’s (March 30) brunch. For some alumni reminiscences of Spring Break adventures, check out the College’s Facebook page.

Lux Esto. Forever.

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Jillian McLaughlin shows her Lux Esto tattoo
Jillian McLaughlin ’10 knows how to “be light.”

What would you do to remind yourself and others just how much you loved and appreciated your college experience—assuming you only have about $100 to spend?

You’ll have to go a ways to top Jillian McLaughlin ’10 who recently treated herself to a tattoo just below her left ribcage of “Lux Esto,” K’s Latin motto that means “Be Light.”

“In the past few years, I have really come to appreciate the unique undergraduate experience I had at K and the friendships forged,” said Jillian, a Grosse Pointe (Mich.) native now working for an anti-poverty think-tank in Boston.

“I suppose I could have bought a T-shirt or a mug but a tattoo of ‘Lux Esto’ seemed more epic. So that’s what I did.”

Jillian’s K experience was a full one. She ran on the Hornet cross country team, wrote for The Index student newspaper, worked as a student sustainability coordinator in the College’s Facilities Management Division, and conducted research into political ideology with K Professor of Psychology Gary Gregg. She also served as an intern in U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s office in Washington, D.C.

During her senior year, the political science major earned a departmental award to travel to Spain and conduct interviews on international human rights law for her Senior Individualized Project, or SIP.

“It sounds corny, but no matter where I am, I feel like I’m at home when I’m around other K grads,” Jillian said. “As I get ready to attend graduate school [in pursuit of an MBA on nonprofit management and impact investing], I wanted a reminder of that experience.”

She said the tattoo idea was the brainchild of her K classmate and friend Anne Renaud ’10.

“She joked about getting ‘Lux Esto’ tattoos before we graduated. It didn’t happen but the seeds of my decision were planted.”

Thanks for honoring your alma mater, Jillian. You’ll be glad to know that your tattoo complies with the College’s new branding guidelines for typefaces!

K alumnus and trustee Eugene Bissell ’76 is a Hall of Famer

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Eugene Bissell ’76 didn’t know much about propane when he started in the industry in the 1980s. And yet, the Kalamazoo College and Wharton School of Business graduate listened and learned along the way, ultimately becoming president and CEO of AmeriGas, the country’s largest propane retailer, and one of the industry’s most influential people. Read about Eugene’s long and winding road to the top of his profession (including a stint as a truck driver) while maintaining a commitment to elder care, community service, and to K.

Oscar Nominated Documentary Continues to Make News

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Even though the Oscar-nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague” (by David France ’81) did not win the Oscar, it continues to garner a great deal of attention. ABC Studios has bought rights to France’s film with the idea of potentially making it into a dramatic miniseries.

France, who co-wrote and directed the documentary, would prepare the adaptation, which could go broader and deeper into the subject of his documentary, he said in an article in the Hollywood Reporter.  France also was recently interviewed about his work on National Public Radio’s Here and Now. His film has been widely honored, receiving awards for the best documentary film of 2012 from the Gothic Independent Film Awards and the Boston Society of Film Critics.

The documentary frames the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and the efforts of activists to call attention to the disease and mobilize appropriate treatment and prevention responses by the government and health care establishment. These efforts were mounted in the face of withering and hostile anti-gay sentiment and general public indifference. France collected footage and documented stories of activists and veterans from the revolutionary era.

If you missed the film or the articles on France’s work, you’ll have a chance to see it and speak with him. France will visit K’s campus for a public screening and director talk-back on May 5. A 7pm screening in the College’s Dalton Theatre is free and open to the public.

Jaime Franks ’10 Featured by Social Workers Michigan Chapter

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Kalamazoo College alumna Jaime Franks
Jaime Franks ′10

Jaime Franks ′10 is featured in the Jan-Feb 2013 magazine of the National Association of Social Workers — Michigan Chapter. Jaime is pursuing an advanced degree in social work at Wayne State University. After graduation, she intends to help children and adolescents in a hospital setting.

While at Kalamazoo College, Jaime played on the women’s soccer team, and served as the Athletic Leadership Council’s treasurer. She majored in psychology and worked as a teaching assistant in the department. Her SIP was on body image and eating disorders.

Well done, Jaime!

David France ’81 Talks about His Oscar-nominated Documentary on NPR

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Protest featured in “How to Survive a Plague”
An image from an ACT UP (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power) protest, featured in “How to Survive a Plague.” (Donna Binder)

David France ’81 was interviewed on the National Public Radio program “Here and Now” on Friday March 8 talking about “How to Survive a Plague,” his Oscar-nominated documentary about the early days of the AIDS crisis and the response to that crisis by activists, health officials, politicians, and the public.

David will host a showing of his film on Sunday, May 5, at Kalamazoo College. More details will follow soon.

Meanwhile, click here to listen to David’s NPR interview.

K alumna is both medical student and medical detective

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Medical student Sarah Allexan
Medical student and sleuth, Sarah Allexan ’11

Sarah Allexan ’11 is the lead author of a research paper published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics that looks into the cause of blindness in Mary Ingalls, older sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the popular “Little House” book series.

Ingalls Wilder wrote that Scarlet Fever caused her sister to lose her eyesight. Allexan and her research team determined otherwise. Their findings have attracted a lot of news media attention, including an article in USA Today and an article in the New York Times. Sarah also participated in an interview with WMUK radio (102.1 FM), the NPR affiliate at Western Michigan University.

Originally from Englewood, Colo., while at K, Sarah majored in biology, studied abroad in Ecuador, ran on the Hornet cross country team, and sang in the Limelights student a cappella group. She also served as a bi-lingual tutor for first-graders at a Kalamazoo Public School, and completed both an internship at the Seattle Aquarium and an externship at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

Shortly after her K commencement, she took a job as a research assistant at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While there, she became involved in the Ingalls research project.

“It was fun tracing Laura’s journey and playing medical detective,” Sarah said. “This was my first real exposure to lineal reasoning and prepared me well for medical school.”

Sarah is now enrolled at University of Colorado School of Medicine. “But I bleed ‘Orange and Black!’” she said.