For one week beginning Friday, Kalamazoo’s KP Cinemas will be one of 25 theaters around the country to screen He Went That Way, a thriller co-produced by alumnus Hugh Broder’77 and based off a chapter in a book written by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry. The film will show daily at 10 a.m.
Hilberry interviewed the imprisoned Kalamazoo-area serial killers Larry and Danny Ranes in 1976, influencing his 1987 book Luke Karamazov, which details the brothers’ lives through the pseudonyms Ralph Searl (Larry) and Tommy Searl (Danny).
In 1964, Larry Lee Ranes confessed to killing five men over a period of three months and was sentenced to prison for life. Eight years later, his older brother, Danny Ranes, in a separate case, was sentenced to prison for life for the murder of four young women. The events described in Luke Karamazov reflect real events, spotlighting the two killers, their friends, the woman who married both of them, and prison officials, while addressing the men’s lives, thoughts, reactions, brutal childhoods, and lives in prison more than their crimes.
Hilberry’s story piqued Broder’s interest when Broder discovered it years later in a Michigan authors display at a Detroit bookstore, and it inspired him to pursue a personal goal of creating an independent film. Hilberry provided Broder with the interview tapes, and after digitizing the recordings, Broder heard one of the Ranes brothers say, “You guys all ask me about the five guys I killed. Why don’t you want to hear about the one I didn’t kill?”—inspiring the story Broder decided to tell.
He Went That Way premiered last summer at the Tribeca Film Festival and reflects the real-life account of celebrity animal trainer Dave Pitts, the sole survivor of Larry’s killing spree. The film stars Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi with Quinto playing Jim Goodwin, a character based on Pitts, and Elordi portraying Bobby Falls, a character based on Larry. The two have a fateful 1964 meeting along Route 66 that pairs the 19-year-old serial killer with the celebrity trainer and his American TV darling, Spanky the chimpanzee, for three days on the road. The men and their personalities continually conflict as their shared journey becomes treacherous.
In addition to the KP Cinemas screening, the movie also will be available through video on demand starting January 12. Learn more about the film and hear from Broder in our news story from last May.
Alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 (middle), is the co-producer of “He Went That Way,” a film based on “Luke Karamazov,” a book by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry. Zachary Quinto (left) stars as Jim Goodwin and Jacob Elordi (right) stars as Bobby Falls. The two characters meet along Route 66 in 1964, but their personalities conflict in their journey.
Kalamazoo College alumni continued to distinguish themselves locally, nationally and around the world through personal accomplishments, professional achievements and efforts that will make a difference in the educations of K students for years to come. Here are their top 10 stories of the year as determined by your clicks at our website. In case you missed them, we also have our top 10 stories about students, and faculty and staff.
Aramide Apo-Oyin ’22 will complete graduate school through a Payne Fellowship before working on the front lines of pressing global challenges such as poverty, hunger, injustice, disease, climate change, conflict and violent extremism with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Tina Stoecklin ’87 was elected president of one of the foremost change ringing organizations in the world, the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, after her predecessor suggested that she consider running for the role.
Tina Stoecklin ’87, sixth from left, poses with other women at the end of a bell-training day. Stoecklin recently was named president of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Kelly Estes ’05 worked for 10 days last summer as Fulham FC’s team physician after her employer, the Cleveland Clinic, won the bid to provide sports medicine services to the English Premier League during the soccer organization’s East Coast tour.
Kelly Estes ’05 (right) helps an injured soccer player during the Premier League’s 10-day East Coast tour.
Quincy Isaiah ’17, a celebrated actor fresh off his role as Magic Johnson in an HBO series, and up-and-coming movie producer Adam Edery ’19 returned to campus in November, seeking a chance to change society’s views regarding marijuana incarceration policies through their film, Grassland.
Quincy Isaiah ’17 (left) and Adam Edery ’19 returned to K to screen their independent film titled “Grassland.”
Steph Guyor ’22 was introduced to topics in restorative justice, a newer community-based practice that helps society do more than hold law breakers accountable in a criminal justice system, through a senior seminar at K. She now works as the restorative justice coordinator at Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo.
Steph Guyor ’22 works as the restorative justice coordinator at Ministry with Community.
Mike McFall ’93 knows a thing or two about leadership. After growing his coffee franchise from one to 370 locations across 13 states, he understands that people are the most critical ingredient to any successful enterprise, and he shared his hard-won wisdom with students.
BIGGBY Coffee Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike McFall ’93 visited students in November to discuss leadership and progressive practices in business and the workplace.
If you need an antidote to the disappointment you may feel while watching world news, take heart that Sarah Fuhrman ’07 is doing what she can to stand up for international human rights and social justice through her work as the director of humanitarian policy at InterAction. The alliance of non-governmental organizations and partners in the U.S. mobilizes its members to serve the world’s most vulnerable citizens while making the world a more prosperous place.
Sarah Fuhrman ’07 visits the Roman ruins in northern Jordan.
Although he doesn’t think of himself as a philanthropist, Erran Briggs ’14 embodies the 2023 theme of Black Philanthropy Month, Love in Action, by mentoring and advising people such as high school students from his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan, who are applying to college; K students, particularly those who are considering a path like his, taking advantage of military scholarships to get to medical school; and younger medical residents, especially Black male residents.
Erran Briggs ’14 lives his philanthropy by mentoring and advising people in whose shoes he has been.
The 2023 Tribeca Film Festival included some K ties thanks to He Went That Way, a thriller co-produced by alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 and based off a chapter in a book, titled Luke Karamazov, by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry. Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi star in the film. The book was inspired by real-life Kalamazoo-area serial killers Larry Lee Ranes and Danny Ranes, who were brothers, but didn’t participate in each other’s crimes.
Kalamazoo College alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 with Zachary Quinto (left) and Jacob Elordi.
A record number of 10 recent graduates, including six from the class of 2023, are overseas this year, serving the world as Fulbright fellows. Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92 also is representing K through as a U.S. Scholar Program selectee in Australia.
A Kalamazoo College alumnus is one of the people behind an international nonprofit’s efforts to prevent suicide and homelessness in youths in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities.
You might recognize the name Jonah DeChants ’09 from reports with media outlets such as NBC News, Time magazine, USA Today and PBS, where DeChants has spoken about his work. He is a senior research scientist for The Trevor Project, an organization important to young people who need somewhere to turn when they’re in crisis. The Trevor Project also fights for policies to protect LGBTQ youth; conducts research to improve services for at-risk youths; offers peer support through safe spaces and social networking; and promotes public awareness.
“I think our services are incredibly important, particularly for LGBTQ people, because we know that their mental health tends to be poorer,” he said. “In our research, we attribute that to what we call the minority stress framework. It’s the idea that if you’re a marginalized person experiencing anti-LGBTQ sentiments, that will impact your mental health and make you more vulnerable.”
Jonah DeChants ’09 says Kalamazoo College prepared him well to serve The Trevor Project and its mission.
DeChants said K prepared him well to serve the organization and its mission. The lessons he received taught him to effectively evaluate research and arguments. Plus, his study abroad experience in France—where he had to navigate boldly in a second language—increased his confidence in public speaking.
After graduating, DeChants stayed in Kalamazoo to work for AmeriCorps VISTA for two years while assisting PeaceJam, a local nonprofit that offers social justice programming for youths from kindergarten through college, as well as training for adults working to address pressing humanitarian issues. He later moved to Philadelphia to pursue a master’s degree in social policy at the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on LGBTQ issues. In Philly, he worked at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, administering a grant that focused on housing for young people who aged out of the foster care system.
Upon moving west, DeChants began a doctoral program at the University of Denver—where he examined youth homelessness with a focus on the LGBTQ community—before a postdoc at Colorado State University that emphasized social justice and social work programs.
The pandemic then left jobs in his chosen field hard to come by. However, that proved to be a blessing in disguise as his background made him a perfect fit for The Trevor Project.
“I feel very fortunate to be working with Trevor,” he said. “It was not something that I really knew was an option before I started here. I went into the doctoral program because I wanted to be a professor of social work, and I mostly wanted to be in the classroom and doing research there. But changing gears has been a good detour.”
DeChants now works remotely and concentrates his efforts on writing for peer-reviewed journals or The Trevor Project’s website. He also performs statistical work and takes great pride in what he produces, especially when someone recognizes his research as something that comes from The Trevor Project.
“I think it’s been particularly meaningful to be doing this work in the last two to three years when we’ve seen this historic rise of anti-LGBTQ, anti-trans and anti-nonbinary legislation,” he said. “Our data consistently show that young people are paying attention to politics. They know what’s being said and they know what it feels like to have their humanity debated in the media, at a school board meeting or in a state or national legislature. I think we’re giving people information about these issues at a moment when legal rights are in the balance.”
DeChants knows he makes a difference in the world because he assures and amplifies The Trevor Project’s outreach.
“I’m frequently pleasantly surprised at the number of people who attend a presentation I’m giving in a conference and then say, ‘I know someone who used your services and I just want to thank you for being there for them,’” he said. “It’s one thing to see the number of contacts we serve on a spreadsheet or in a report. It’s another thing to actually have multiple people in multiple settings and states say, ‘This was important to me’ or ‘Someone I love really needed it.’”
Help is Available
The Trevor Project has recently extended its partnership with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Trevor Project is one of seven centers helping to ensure that LGBTQ people who contact 988 receive LGBTQ-competent and inclusive care via phone, text and chat. The organization also provides options to connect to a crisis counselor 24/7 through its website. If you or someone you know is in crisis, visit The Trevor Project to connect via phone, chat or text.
Tina Stoecklin ’87 has come a long way from her first experiences on Kalamazoo College’s campus in the fall of 1983. A long way both literally—more than 3,500 miles from Kalamazoo to Glasgow, Scotland—and figuratively—from sitting in a lecture “with a piece of paper with some lines scribbled all over it, waving a couple of handbells around,” to 40 years later being elected president of one of the foremost change ringing organizations in the world, the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
That initial lecture on bell ringing was not what Stoecklin expected, yet she found herself carried along by the charisma of the late T. Jefferson Smith, a long-time beloved K math professor and the driving force behind the establishment of change ringing at K and the installation of eight English tower bells in Stetson Chapel.
“Because of the K system [with many students studying abroad or completing internships and career preparation], the rest of the College bell ringers were not on campus that term,” Stoecklin said. “I learned on a Texas Instrument bell-ringing simulator that Jeff had written. He used to sit me down in a room, and I would just plunk away with my fingers, and do this whole simulation. Then in my second term, some of the ringers came back, and I gradually met them all.”
The appeal of the K ringing community pulled Stoecklin more firmly into the world of change ringing.
“I just wanted to be part of it so much,” Stoecklin said. “Then there was the whole history and tradition of it, and once I got far enough in, I was hooked.”
The chapel’s tower still stood empty at that point, so Smith’s ringers used handbells.
“I learned to ring handbells first, which is very unusual for a bell ringer, especially in the UK,” Stoecklin said. “Then at the end of my freshman year, the bells went into Stetson with a big dedication ceremony. The bell hanger from England stayed over the summer, teaching us all to ring, and I drove back and forth to K [from the Ann Arbor area] to get my handling lessons, and we went on from there.
“Initially, I think we did a lot of ringing almost every evening, because they were new, and we were excited, and it was fun. We were all learning together, which is a really, really special way to learn. Traditionally, you’re surrounded by some experts, and you’re brought in gradually—and we had to wing it, really. Jeff knew how to ring, and a couple of the other older ringers knew how to ring, but we were pretty well making it up as we went along, and it created such a strong sense of camaraderie. I’m still in touch with quite a few of the K bell ringers.”
Stoecklin also participated in other campus activities; she sang in the choir for a time, worked on the literary magazine The Cauldron and helped run poetry workshops in addition to completing double majors in English literature and Spanish language and literature. While studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, she embarked on a Senior Integrated Project involving oral history of lingering Francoist influences after the death of Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as a dictator from 1939-1975. She completed a career development term in Washington, D.C.—a decision based at least in part on access to bell ringing in D.C.
Yet, “within a very short time, a bell ringer was what I was known to be,” Stoecklin said. “My trips to Spain were probably my last non-bell ringing K activities. Certainly, by the time I finished at K, bell ringing was me, and it was something I wanted to keep doing.”
Bell Ringing Beyond K
With Smith’s encouragement, Stoecklin applied for a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a one-year grant awarded to graduating seniors for purposeful, independent exploration outside the United States.
“I became a Watson fellow on the strength of a bell ringing-based project,” Stoecklin said. “I traveled all over the UK for 18 months, visiting various bell towers and taking photographs and learning from various people and doing all the things you do as a Watson fellow, which is just basically soaking it in and then spitting it out in some way.”
The fellowship cemented Stoecklin’s interest in bell ringing.
Tina Stoecklin ’87, sixth from left, poses with other women at the end of a bell-training day. Stoecklin recently was named president of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Handbell ringing at the wedding of Stoecklin and Simon Gay, featuring John Schreiner ’87, who learned to ring with Stoecklin at K.
Stoecklin and Jeff Smith, a late professor emeritus, ring handbells together at K.
“I spent about five or six years drifting back and forth and between North America and the UK in various roles and jobs and things until I finally settled over here in the early ’90s. There was a year where I was living near Philadelphia, which has also got a ring of bells in it, and a group of about four of us women used to travel up and down the East Coast going to bell-ringing practices, and I’m still friends with all of them.”
Stoecklin spent about 10 years in Oxford, then a couple years in London, and worked for a bell-ringing magazine for a time. In 2000, her husband, Simon Gay—a computer science lecturer—was offered a job at the University of Glasgow. They moved to Glasgow and have been there since.
“I moved into e-commerce, and so my professional life has got nothing to do with my ringing life, but I’ve always been very active in ringing,” Stoecklin said. “I met my husband through bell ringing. He comes from a bell-ringing family. In fact, there’s a fake bell in our attic that my husband’s father installed for us so we could teach our children to ring. This is the family I married into.”
A typical week for Stoecklin includes Monday night ringing with the five-member handbell band she and Gay have built over the past 12 years. Tuesday brings tower practice night, where Gay runs the ringing and Stoecklin helps the training team teach the basics to new members before they can be incorporated into a ringing band. On Sundays, she participates in service ringing at the tower. Weekends often include other ringing opportunities and training sessions.
She estimates she has rung bells in a few hundred towers—“nothing like the 5,000 that some people manage. It’s a feature in bell ringing called tower grabbing; there’s a directory of all the bell towers that have ringable bells and people buy a book or use a website and tick off all the towers they have rung at. People will have special trips where they cram in as many towers in a day as they can, which is possible in England, because they’re so close together.
“I tend to go back to the places I like and ring with people I know. It is fun ringing on different rings of bells, but it took me a couple of years to realize that wasn’t for me. What I really like is ringing with people in community and doing activities to push my skills, rather than chasing variety.”
A New Role in Ringing
Stoecklin has a big smile, a big heart, and a laugh that peals out like her bells. She has been involved with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers off and on for more than 20 years, 12 as a representative for the Scottish association, and was invited to run a workgroup in 2022. Yet she was surprised when the past president suggested she consider running for the role after his retirement. She took some time to consider the workload on top of a full-time job, the impact on her local ringing activities, and her family’s input before deciding that she wanted to “be in the room.”
“People have always encouraged me to get more involved at the council level,” Stoecklin said. “I know a lot of people around the world, I know a lot of bell ringers personally, and I cared very much about how we were running things.”
The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers represents 65 affiliated societies, comprised of local companies who ring bells in the English tradition with rope and wheel, in the British Isles as well as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S., South Africa and Italy. The council’s object is to “advance the practice, heritage and appreciation of bell ringing as an enjoyable mental and physical exercise and unique performing art for the public benefit of both church and community” (cccbr.org.uk/).
“The Central Council is to be the voice for bell ringers and to represent them to other agencies and government bodies, because collectively we can negotiate about access issues, sound control issues, safety issues, safeguarding issues and things like that,” Stoecklin said. “We also keep reference collections. We have a very large and significant library of books about bell ringing which is unequaled anywhere else in the world. We have a duty of care to that, and we keep software libraries and the database of bells that people use to tick off their towers. We also offer advice services and try to find general ways we can make ringers’ lives a little bit easier if we can with our very minimal pot of money.”
Stoecklin ran unopposed for the role of president of the council and was elected in September 2023 for a three-year term. She is the first American (and American-trained) change ringer and the third woman to hold the office. Her deputy president is also a woman, marking the first time the council’s top two roles have both been held by women.
“For the last few years, I’ve been preaching a ‘say yes’ attitude to help make women more visible in ringing,” Stoecklin said. “There are tons of women in bell ringing, but somehow we don’t filter up to these high-visibility positions in the right proportion. I’ve been involved in local initiatives with other women bell ringers to evidence this problem and take some practical steps to address it. One of the things we say is, if somebody asks you to do something, say yes. Don’t say, ‘Oh, I’m not sure, I might make a mess of it’—which we say, because we want to be perfect. We’re very hard on ourselves. That issue of visibility and representation and stepping up is really, really important to my leadership style, and this is the biggest ‘say yes’ I can think of, really.”
Ringing in Change
Stoecklin’s priorities for the job may seem familiar to anyone involved with an often-traditional nonprofit: addressing recruitment challenges, shifting the culture to be more inclusive, and improving the online experience for both potential recruits and existing members.
As church enrollment and engagement have declined in England as well as other places, historic channels of recruitment have suffered.
“We have the twin problem of, we’re not sure how many places are going to be closed to us, because the bells don’t belong to us—they belong to the institution that houses them, and how many of those places are going to be closed to us in the next 10 years? Along with, how do we replace that recruitment stream that was so comfortable and easy for so many years?” Stoecklin said. “Not to mention the fact that our close ties with churches can prevent us from recruiting from other groups. I’m not religious at all, I’m not a member of my congregation, and I value bell ringing for the openness it has for people from all walks of life, but it’s very, very hard to look that way.”
In addition to recruiting more—and more diverse—ringers, Stoecklin would like the council to set a tone for the ringing community of consistent welcome, inclusion and support.
“We are establishing the code of conduct we want to see for ringers and the way we want to welcome new ringers in and how we want to recruit new ringers,” Stoecklin said. “We’ve been working on language and tone of voice for a marketing campaign to make us think about our placement, our choices, who we encourage and who we don’t encourage. I think often people who feel sidelined might find it hard to speak up, and if I’m there speaking up, that helps them to speak out as well. It’s not just a woman thing, although that’s very important to me, but also about coming from America, where the towers are very spread out, and ringing in Scotland, where it’s relatively remote. A lot of the thinking on the council has always been skewed toward the English experience, which is very particular to England. Yet places like Australia and the States are thought leaders in new ways of working, new ways of organizing, new ways of motivating people. We are meant to be an international organization, and we have to start acting like it, and I think I’m well-placed to be that voice.”
Stoecklin’s work experience with website and digital projects drives her interest in improving the online experience for those interested in ringing.
“Ideally, I want somebody from Chicago, or Ambleside, or York to be able to explore what bell ringing is about in a nice, friendly, accessible way online, and maybe click on a button to find out where they can go see some bell ringing or maybe have a sample lesson—and that experience is the same for every person who tries to do that. That spills on, then, for our already established ringers, if we can give them a similar experience where if they want to visit another part of the country or something, it’s very easy for them to make contact. It’s about making communication better.”
Forty years ago, sitting in that change-ringing lecture with Jeff Smith, Stoecklin could never have imagined how thoroughly bell ringing would shape the course of her life.
“Running an organization like this is a great opportunity to meet a whole different group of ringers than the people I normally see,” she said. “It’s far removed from how I imagined my life as a ringer, doing a lot of bell ringing and not really thinking about the rest of it that much. This is different; this is work in a way, and it’s been very satisfying so far. I see myself as a facilitator, I have a very collaborative leadership style, and I have a great team backing me up.
“I’ve been so lucky to have really, really supportive groups of ringers around me, who support me and challenge me to do things I would never have imagined I could have done, and this is one of them.”
A celebrated actor fresh off his role as Magic Johnson in an HBO series and an up-and-coming movie producer, both alumni of Kalamazoo College, returned to campus last week, seeking a chance to change society’s views regarding marijuana incarceration policies.
Quincy Isaiah ’17—an actor known for Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty—and Producer Adam Edery ’19 met students for a conversation about social justice in the entertainment industry and screened their new independent movie, Grassland, with a discussion panel and a private audience at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.
Grassland is expected to premier at a variety of film festivals in 2024 with Isaiah, Edery and Consulting Producer Shon Powell ’18—a third K alumnus—among those in its credits. The movie, set in 2008 during the Great Recession, follows a single Latina mother whose illegal marijuana business is jeopardized when her son befriends new neighbors, a young white boy and his police officer grandfather. According to production research, Latino people were four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people at the time, while Black people were seven times more likely.
Actors Mía Maestro and Jeff Kober star alongside Isaiah, who plays Brandon. Maestro’s credits include the 2014–15 TV series The Strain and the 2012 film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2. Kober’s credits include TV series such as The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy and China Beach. His movie roles include a part in the 2016 film Sully.
Edery was among the first to join the project with one of his jobs being to secure funding for it, a role he relished considering the film’s subject matter.
“For me, I feel like my participation in the creation of the film was because of my K experience,” Edery said. “I was an anthropology-sociology major, and even before I had anything to do with film, I wanted to go into social justice and activism. A lot of the early projects that I produced were comedy based or random opportunities. There was nothing that felt like, ‘Wow, this is the type of story I want to tell.’ And then I read the script for Grassland. It was like a light flipped on in my head. The passion to do this project was inspired by me coming to K.”
Edery had previously reached out to Isaiah to connect as both were in Los Angeles, both were in the entertainment industry, and both were K alumni. Isaiah didn’t have a lot of time to meet until his work with Winning Time had finished, but when they finally got together, their networking proved to be mutually beneficial.
“We met for lunch and Adam slid the script to me,” Isaiah said of Grassland. “I read it and I loved it. It was beautiful and it had a lot of heart to it. I think that’s what pulled me to it, and with the K connection, I think there’s a different expectation you feel about certain people. Just meeting with him and hearing his thoughts about social justice made me feel very comfortable to work with him. I felt a kinship.”
Edery never had a doubt that Isaiah would flourish in his role as Brandon, but the producer said watching Isaiah act in person was amazing.
“I was blown away while watching him on set,” Edery said. “I always knew that Quincy is a super nice, hard-working, super talented actor, but I had never been there before to see him physically act. I remember a graveyard scene where it felt like I was looking at a different person. I think that’s a testament to how great Quincy is as an actor and how he crushed the role by pouring himself into it. When we watch it on screen, it almost doesn’t register that I’m watching Quincy. It’s like me and Quincy are watching Brandon.”
Beyond the film’s acting talent, Edery hopes the film will be known for asking its audiences an important question: How did we get here?
“The movie takes place in 2008 and something Quincy and I talk about is that this film has no villain,” he said. “It doesn’t say the police officer is the villain or that Sophia, who is growing weed, is the villain. It points at the system in place. Then being in 2023, it forces us to ask, ‘What are the systems that allowed us to have 40,000 people in prison for something that’s legal in Michigan now?’”
Isaiah said the film’s importance, in his opinion, is about viewers seeing different perspectives while following characters on a journey of emotions.
Actor Quincy Isaiah ’17 (left) and Producer Adam Edery ’19 returned to Kalamazoo College to screen their independent film titled “Grassland.”
Isaiah performed in plays such as “Raisin in the Sun” and “In the Heights” in his time at K.
Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Executive Director Emily Williams introduces Isaiah and Edery at the “Grassland” screening.
Edery, Isaiah and Williams were among the people who participated in the panel discussion after the “Grassland” screening.
“These are people you could pass on the street and never pay much attention to, but when you see their story on the big screen, it’s right in front of you,” he said. “You have to pay attention and care about them.”
With there being no villain in Grassland, Isaiah said any character could potentially resonate with any viewer at any time.
“Some might gravitate toward Brandon,” he said. “Some people will gravitate toward Sophia and John (a police officer) or even Sophia’s mom. She’s so good in it and it’s for such a short time, but there’s so much weight to her role. I think everybody will find some character they see themselves in and that’s what you want a movie to be. You want to see yourself represented on the screen.”
His own character, though, is somebody who feels stuck with few options for moving on.
“I don’t want to spoil the movie, but he’s just finding himself in tough position after tough position because of something he did as a child,” Isaiah said. “He’s looked at like a dog and that’s the story of so many people. I relate to Brandon because I want the freedom to mess up and not be reprimanded for life because of it. But as sad as his story is, there’s something in him that will allow him to have a second life. He just has to put in more effort than his counterparts, which is difficult, but it’s his reality and I think he’s strong enough to figure that out.”
Ultimately, Edery said the opportunity to screen the film at K felt obvious, especially after discussing the possibility with President Jorge G. Gonzalez and Associate Vice President for Development Andy Miller ’99 and connecting with Arcus Center Executive Director Emily Williams.
“Even when we were filming, Quincy and I were saying that we have to bring this film back to campus,” Edery said. “One of the reasons we made the film was the K connection, but this is a movie that people can engage with through debate and conversation, laughter and crying. I think K students are the perfect crowd for it because they’re thoughtful and they want to reflect. It was a no-brainer to bring it back to K.”
“I double down on that,” Isaiah added. “K students are thoughtful and open to conversation, and we’re alumni, so it’s like being back home. We met with some students and we were able to have some candid conversations about the film, about our roles and our jobs, and about their curiosity regarding us as people and professionals. There were some big questions, so it was an excellent experience. It’s so surreal to walk down that cobblestone road. Coming into K, I was a kid. When I left, I had the tools to figure myself out. I think the K influence is that I can be fully transparent and vulnerable on screen. That’s what I learned to do here: I learned how to be a man.”
With the movie complete, Edery and Isaiah will be among those teaming up to nominate Grassland for inclusion in film festivals such as Sundance while participating in social justice campaigns to advance its cause.
“We want to get it in front of as many people as possible whether it’s here at K, at film festivals or wherever,” Edery said. “I’m proud of it, and when people watch it, I hope it inspires them to change their hearts and minds. We’re also partnering with organizations like the Last Prisoner Project to support the work that they’re doing to get people out of prison or their sentences commuted if they’re in prison because of marijuana. If we could boil it down to one goal, I’d like us to focus on the people who are still locked up right now and push that charge to get people out.”
Isaiah hopes that one day he will hear stories about how the film changed people’s hearts and minds.
“Marijuana is everywhere now,” Isaiah said. “It’s not fair for people to be locked up for that and then be unable to find a job or feed themselves or their families because of a mistake they made 10 or 15 years ago when it wasn’t OK. If we can make a change for even one person, that would be cool because hearing their stories breaks my heart. I hope people will hit up their representatives, talk to a formerly incarcerated person, take a virtual prison tour or do whatever it is that the film inspires them to do to push for change.”
If National Philanthropy Day, celebrated every November 15, enables the country to recognize big and small acts of generosity—through giving, volunteering and charitable engagement—there’s plenty of room to recognize our own engaged Kalamazoo College communities such as the class of 1973.
Volunteers from the alumni group connected with their classmates as a part of their 50th reunion to secure more than $300,000 from 64 of its members to endow a scholarship supporting K students.
Scholarships open the doors to K’s transformative education and experiential opportunities. This year’s recipients of the Class of 1973 Endowed Scholarship include Shannon Abbott ’24. She recently reflected on her time abroad in Japan, an experience that she says broadened her horizons.
“I love language learning and wanted to try a new language while studying at K,” she said. “I chose Japanese because I already had an interest in Japanese culture and thought it was a unique language to have the privilege to learn. Upon taking my first Japanese classes, I made close friends and had lots of fun, so I continued to study Japanese. Although Japanese is difficult, I find it to be a very rewarding language to learn and practice.”
The six-month study abroad experience allowed Abbott to meet new people through a homestay and an internship where she studied tea culture by learning sadou, a tea ceremony, and working in a tea shop. She also visited relevant sites in Kyoto before returning to K and applying her knowledge toward Japanese department events and its official social media.
Abbott added that she gained a clearer sense of independence that classroom experiences wouldn’t have provided.
“I think that being in an environment where you completely surrender to being a student—as a foreigner to the language, customs and norms—opens one up to new ways of thinking and thriving,” she said. “I believe I gained more life experience and experiential knowledge during those six months than I have throughout most of my adult life. I am extremely grateful for the funds I have received because they allowed me to live a dream. I made so many connections and friends in Japan, and I plan to go back and continue building those relationships.”
National Philanthropy Day is an opportunity to honor and celebrate the contributions of alumni and friends who support Kalamazoo College through their time, talent and charitable giving.
“The generosity of individuals and groups like the class of 1973 not only enhances educational opportunities for our students, it also inspires others to contribute to the growth and success of future generations,” Vice President for Advancement Karen Isble said. “This day serves as a reminder of the vital role that philanthropy plays in shaping a brighter future for students at K.”
Shannon Abbott ’24, pictured here on study abroad in Japan, is one of this year’s recipients of the Class of 1973 Endowed Scholarship.
A group of volunteers connected and engaged with their classmates to secure more than $300,000 from 64 members of the class of 1973 to endow a scholarship for Kalamazoo College students.
BIGGBY Coffee Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike McFall ’93 knows a thing or two about leadership. After growing his coffee franchise from one to 370 locations across 13 states, McFall understands that people are the most critical ingredient to any successful enterprise, and he’s ready to share his hard-won wisdom with students at Kalamazoo College.
The Department of Economics and Business will host an on-campus event with McFall at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14, in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall. All students, regardless of their major, are invited to attend to discuss leadership and progressive practices in business and the workplace.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics and Business David Rhoa said he’s had the honor of hosting McFall in his classes at least a half-dozen times with each encounter proving to be a new experience.
“I think our students find Mike such a compelling speaker because of his authenticity and honesty,” he said. “He shares his real-life experiences in a candid, sometimes even brutally honest manner. While many successful entrepreneurs tend to focus solely on their achievements, Mike fearlessly addresses the value of his failures, emphasizing their pivotal role in the journey to success.”
L. Lee Stryker Associate Professor of Business Management Amy MacMillan shares Rhoa’s enthusiasm.
“I feel tremendously grateful toward our alumni who share their time and expertise with our students,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have alumni—and community members—who support our courses in so many ways. But when Mike McFall, co-Founder and co-CEO of BIGGBY, comes to class, that turbo-charges the whole experience. By having made his big dreams a reality, he’ll help others to dream big, too, and believe in these dreams. By focusing not just on profits but also on people and purpose, he inspires others to do the same and to see what great business leaders can look like. He walks the walk, and while he does, he lays a footpath for others to follow.”
In 2019, McFall published his first book, Grind, which focuses on the commonsense strategies needed to turn a start-up idea into a positive-cash flow business. He recently released his second book, Grow: Take Your Business from Chaos to Calm, which addresses his experiences with leadership, a theme he expects to explore heavily with students.
BIGGBY Coffee Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike McFall ’93 will visit Kalamazoo College to talk with students at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14, in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall. All students, regardless of their major, are invited to attend.
“As leaders, we need to understand the impact we have on others,” McFall said. “Business needs to go beyond what it has been historically, which is to try to get as much productivity for the least amount of money possible. We need to start emphasizing human-centric leadership and what goes into making that happen. I also like to focus on progressive thinking in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion, and things like biomimicry. It’s a little bit of a look into what’s coming or what leaders should be focused on in the next five to 10 years to become more effective leaders.”
As an alumnus of Kalamazoo College, McFall places high value on his liberal arts background.
“So much of what I’ve learned in the world was built off of the foundation I had at K,” McFall said. “I’ve said forever that a liberal arts education is the best training ground for an entrepreneur because you get a much more well-rounded education. As an entrepreneur, you need to fit into all kinds of different scenarios with different kinds of people. As you grow and build your company, you need to be comfortable with that and you need to be comfortable with change. That’s exactly what a liberal arts education provides. I look at some of the extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs that came out of my class and the years around me, and I think a lot of their success has to do with the structure and format of a liberal arts education.”
McFall’s business strategies have helped him and his co-founder, Robert Fish, build their franchise into the third-largest coffee franchise in the United States, according to Forbes, a fact that’s sure to resonate with students.
“I think it’s important for students to see the practical applications of their work and then learn from the experiences of alumni who are at different intervals removed from college,” McFall said. “Someone who graduated from K 30 years ago like me has a very different take than someone who graduated five years ago, but both takes are important. As alumni, that’s what we should be focused on in terms of our engagement with the student body. We should bring our perspectives and share the many different practical ways we use our education from K to move forward and build powerful lives.”
A Kalamazoo College Homecoming and Reunion Weekend tradition will offer a twist this year by presenting a posthumous honor during the Alumni Association Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Dalton Theatre.
K alumni and friends will recognize 1861 graduate Rufus Perry, who is believed to be the first Black person to attend the College, with the Distinguished Achievement Award, which celebrates graduates who have achieved distinction in their professional fields.
Perry settled in Chatham, Michigan, after escaping enslavement at the Overton plantation in Tennessee. In Chatham, he might have met Martin Delaney, the father of Black nationalism, who was planning to emigrate to Africa. Perry became interested in emigrating as well, motivated by a desire to establish competition against the American South in the cotton industry.
Perry enrolled at K in 1859 when the Reverend John Booth, intrigued by Perry’s Africa aspirations, sponsored his education. Soon after graduation, the African Civilization Society selected Perry to lead an expedition to Western Africa. As a member of the society, Perry had joined some of the most progressive members of the country’s Black elite.
Perry’s plans changed after the Emancipation Proclamation. The African Civilization Society began working with freed people in the South and appointed Perry superintendent of its freedmen’s school in Washington, D.C.
In the late 1860s, Perry moved to the Weeksville neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. As Judith Wellman writes in Brooklyn’s Promised Land, “national leaders such as Henry Highland Garnet, Rufus L. Perry, and Martin Delany consciously attempted to make Weeksville part of … the ‘golden age’ of black nationalism.”
Alumni and friends will recognize 1861 graduate Rufus Perry, who is believed to be the first Black person to attend K, with the Distinguished Achievement Award, which celebrates graduates who have achieved distinction in their fields.
Perry later served as corresponding secretary for the Consolidated American Baptist Missionary Convention (CABMC), a national Black Baptist organization. He was co-editor of two publications for CABMC, The American Baptist and The National Monitor. During those years, he argued with the white-run American Baptist Home Mission Society, bristling at the idea that Black people couldn’t serve within the Baptist power structure. Perry also served as pastor for several churches including the Messiah Baptist Church, which he founded in Weeksville in 1887.
Perry died in 1895 at the age of 61. The Brooklyn Eagle eulogized him as “one of the best-known colored clergymen in the country,” who “enjoyed a considerable reputation outside of Brooklyn. He was clear, concise and earnest in his speech, and wrote with ease and force.”
Perry’s nomination for the Distinguished Service Award developed during a discussion between Tom Ticknor ’67, Donna Odom ’67 and Anne Dueweke ’84. At the time, Dueweke was performing research for her 2022 book, Reckoning: Kalamazoo College Uncovers its Racial and Colonial Past, when Perry’s record came to their attention. Their recommendations to the Emeriti Club Leadership Council and the Alumni Association Engagement Board (AAEB) secured the honor for Perry through both alumni groups.
Perry’s great-great-grandson Freedom Williams will be on hand to accept the award on Perry’s behalf. Williams is the lead rapper for the popular group C+C Music Factory, which rose to fame in 1990 with their first album, Gonna Make You Sweat. He said the recognition for Perry is a prime honor for their family.
“I have worked very hard to keep the Rufus Perry legacy alive and at times not hard enough,” Williams said. “To say that this is a daunting task to build a legacy from scratch and carry the name of a loved one several generations past is beyond difficult. Thanks to his grand schemes and painstaking work of love, he provided me and us with enough thrust to move the ball forward rather easily. Ancestral veneration is an undertaking lost on a lot of my people, considering the bondage and tribulation prescribed upon them in the hopes that they would forget. Regardless of the hardships and erasing of lineage, I firmly believe in it and its benefits as I believe all lovers of history do whether they believe so or not. Although we prescribe to move into the future, it is the memories and relationships of the past that shape and mold us. I am eternally indebted to Kalamazoo College because you allow us one more point of light we can use as a guide to clear the path forward for the sake of all humanity and its endless possibilities in a time where good humans and their stories of triumph are so needed to help blight the chaos and hopelessness so prevalent in our world today.”
Others honored during the Alumni Association Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Ceremony will include Don Schneider ’63 with the Distinguished Service Award, praising voluntary or elected leadership positions for the Alumni Association or College; Melanie Williams with the Weimer K. Hicks Award, saluting a current or retired employee of the College who has provided long-term support to programs or activities beyond the call of duty or excellent service in their job; and Darrin Camilleri ’14 with the Young Alumni Award, given to graduates within 15 years of their graduation on the basis of outstanding achievement, personal growth in their career or outstanding professional, civic and cultural service in ways that positively reflect K. Athletic Hall of Fame Awards will also be granted to Kelsey Hassevoort ’12, women’s tennis; Branden Metzler ’17, men’s tennis; Ryan Orr ’18, baseball; Colleen Orwin ’17, women’s swimming and diving; and the 1994 men’s tennis team.
Although he doesn’t think of himself as a philanthropist, Erran Briggs ’14 embodies the 2023 theme of Black Philanthropy Month, Love in Action.
“I tell people all the time that love is a verb,” Briggs said. “If you love, it involves action. I don’t think you can have love without action, because they are one and the same and encompassing.”
Briggs lives his philanthropy by mentoring and advising people in whose shoes he has been: high school students from his hometown of Muskegon, Michigan, who are applying to college; K students, particularly those who are considering a path like his, taking advantage of military scholarships to get to medical school; and younger medical residents, especially Black male residents.
“Life is in part based on what you do, how you prepare for opportunities, but I think a big piece of it is, do you land in places where the people around you want to pour into you and help you grow?” Briggs said. “One of the things that I’ve tried to keep with me as I left K is, just like so many people helped me, I need to make sure that I’m doing something to help the people around me, particularly the people who look like me, because they’re facing the same sort of roadblocks. I know how powerful it can be to have somebody believe in you and push you and help you.”
Love in action drives Briggs’ dedication to mentoring.
“I am acutely aware that, particularly in medicine, there are not enough people that look like me,” Briggs said. “The studies suggest that when folks have doctors they can see themselves in, doctors that look like them, their health outcomes are better. We need to do what we can to improve the numbers. I love my people, I want to see other Black men get into the field, and with that love comes action, responsibility and a sense of duty.”
In addition to mentoring, Briggs has given his time by serving on the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees from 2020-2023. That experience provided him with a reason to visit campus and an opportunity to see current students, professors and building projects at the same time as it challenged him to reconsider what philanthropy can be.
“I still don’t really consider myself a philanthropist,” Briggs said. “I think the misconception—and perhaps I’m also a victim to this—is that to be a philanthropist, you have to give large amounts of money. I’ve found over the years that’s not true; you give what you can give, and over time, you’re able to give more as you get more. Being on the board and being a part of that group of people who are older and farther in their careers, that inspired me and pushed me to think about how important giving is and to prioritize it in my life.”
According to a report from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Black households give a larger portion of their wealth to charity than any other racial group, prioritizing giving despite the racial wealth gap—a statistic that evokes pride for Briggs.
Black Philanthropy Month
August is Black Philanthropy Month, which honors Black philanthropists all around the world and celebrates their gifts of time, talent and treasure to positively impact communities. Kalamazoo College would like to mark this month by recognizing one of our own donors and highlighting why they prioritize giving—both to K and beyond.
Although he doesn’t think of himself as a philanthropist, Erran Briggs ’14 embodies the 2023 theme of Black Philanthropy Month, Love in Action.
“From my perspective, when you’ve been the person on the receiving end of somebody’s generosity, and then you get something that you can give back, I think the sense of duty is a little bit stronger—at least that’s what I felt personally,” Briggs said. “I’ve been the person who needed those need-based scholarships. I needed those endowment funds that folks have started to help out people who look like me. I’m sensitive to that fact, and that’s been the biggest driver for me, that somebody helped me, so I should try to help when I can.”
Briggs and his wife, Nicole (Antoine) Briggs ’14, have three main organizations they target with their philanthropy: Doctors Without Borders, the Jarrad D. Blade Foundation Scholarship and Kalamazoo College. In addition, they have helped specific people in various ways, including paying for medical school applications and assisting with travel costs for interviews.
“I give to Doctors Without Borders every month,” Briggs said. “I think they are an important organization with a good mission.”
The Jarrad D. Blade Foundation Scholarship honors a man who was in a relationship with Briggs’ sister-in-law when the two of them were in a car that was hit by a drunk driver.
“He ended up passing away, and his family started an organization in his name,” Briggs said. “They raise money to help young Black kids go to college, and we contribute to them every year.”
Briggs chooses to give to K in gratitude for the experiences he received and a desire to help provide similar experiences for other students.
A chemistry major, Briggs played football all four years, played intramural basketball and participated in the Black Student Organization. Along with two friends, he started the Young Men of Color student organization to offer support, brotherhood and education.
He performed research at K and volunteered at local hospitals. For his Senior Integrated Project, he spent three months at University of Maryland, Baltimore County conducting HIV research.
“When I was going on my SIP, I didn’t have enough money to travel, and I was able to tap into this special fund with the help of President [Eileen] Wilson-Oyelaran to give me a stipend to travel,” Briggs said. “It’s not just the academic piece of affording tuition, room and board; it’s also when you can’t afford to take an unpaid internship because you need to make money, or you want to travel for research or for an externship, but you don’t have the funds to travel—things like that are an important piece of the K-Plan as well. Folks whose parents are financially able traditionally have more access to those extra things, and giving back, my hope is to try to even the playing field.”
The close relationships with faculty made K special for Briggs.
“I went to an inner-city high school that I don’t think prepared me well enough for college. When I got there, I was behind a lot of the other students, but I had professors who saw something in me. They voiced that to me, and they were encouraging. They pointed me in the direction where I could get help. They met with me frequently, made sure that I was doing okay and staying on track.”
Paul Sotherland, professor emeritus of biology; Regina Stevens-Truss, Dorothy Heyl Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry; Laura Furge, former chemistry professor; and Greg Slough, professor emeritus of chemistry were especially influential for Briggs.
“These people nurtured me and helped me to succeed at K,” Briggs said.
After graduating from K, Briggs joined the military and completed medical school at Indiana University in Indianapolis. He credits K with making that feel easy.
“I was used to studying to a level that I don’t think folks at other colleges, particularly the large public universities, are expected to do. I came in with that sort of mentality and that study habit, and I hit the ground running and I excelled.”
Briggs served a residency in internal medicine at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, and currently has one year left on a fellowship in pulmonary critical care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he continues to lean on his K experiences.
“I think at least half of medicine is people and relationships and knowing how to talk to people and how to explain things to people at a level that they can understand,” he said. “K prepared me well for that. The way K is set up allowed me to take a good number of classes outside of the chemistry department, and I tried to take classes in areas that would help make me a strong writer and communicator.”
With a daughter heading into high school and sons who are 2 and 4 years old, Briggs finds that being a husband, father and doctor fills most of his time. He also prioritizes involvement in professional societies related to medicine as well as exercising and staying active—and, of course, always mentoring and supporting those following in his footsteps, smoothing and lighting the way for them.
“K is a special place to me,” Briggs said. “It helped me to become the person that I am, and I don’t think my life would have unfolded the way it has if I didn’t go to K. It’s important to me as a gratitude piece to give back for what it has given me. I want to help make K possible for students like me because it really is a life-transforming experience. What inspires me to give back is what K gave me, wanting to see other students have access to that, and then having good examples. Those folks on the board who have become friends of mine, they lead by example, and I want to go down that pathway as well.”
Lisa Ludwinski ’06, owner of Detroit’s nationally recognized bakery, Sister Pie, will deliver the keynote at Kalamazoo College’s 2023 Convocation on September 7 at 3 p.m.
Ludwinski launched Sister Pie out of her parents’ Milford, Michigan, kitchen at Thanksgiving 2012. The business grew steadily, and in April 2015, Sister Pie opened its doors in a corner shop at Kercheval Avenue and Parker Street in the historic West Village neighborhood in Detroit. Known for its seasonally influenced sweet and savory pies as well as unique cookies, the shop has been featured in The Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit, Eater, Bloomberg News, The New York Times and Bon Appetit.
In 2015, Ludwinski, who earned a B.A. in theatre arts at Kalamazoo College, was named one of the best chefs in the United States in Eater’s national Young Guns contest. She has also been nominated several times for a James Beard Award and was a finalist in 2019.
The Sister Pie cookbook, published in 2018, was a 2019 Michigan Notable Award-winning book, finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals award, and named one of the best cookbooks of the year by the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
Ludwinski was recognized among the 2019 Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 honorees, focused on those who target important Michigan issues such as technology, inclusivity and opportunity for all. In 2019, Sister Pie partnered with Alternatives for Girls, which serves homeless and high-risk girls and young women, both donating funds and holding baking workshops for program participants.
Ludwinski and her bakers experiment with nontraditional flavor combinations and seasonal options that promote Michigan’s varied agriculture. They consider themselves a triple bottom line business, focusing on employees, environment and the economy. The bakery also supports a Neighborhood Fund, which helps to subsidize neighborhood and senior discounts, as well as food donations for a community fridge and freezer for the West Village and Islandview neighborhoods—just one way Ludwinski and Sister Pie are helping make Detroit sweeter, one slice at a time.
Alumna Lisa Ludwinski ’06, the owner of Detroit’s Sister Pie bakery, will speak at 3 p.m. September 7 at Kalamazoo College’s Convocation.
Convocation marks the start of the academic year and formally welcomes first-year students to campus. President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, Dean of Admission Suzanne Lepley and Dean of Students J. Malcolm Smith will also welcome attendees. Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 will provide an invocation. All students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend.
Convocation will be held in person on the College’s Quad and will be available to livestream.
