Category: Events

Career Summit Featured Speaker: David Rust

Posted on

Registration for Career Summit 2018 is now closed. Walk-ins will be accepted if space becomes available.

A distinguished group of alumni will join Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists for Career Summit 2018. The event is two days of practical preparation April 6 and 7 for Life after K. All students are welcome, regardless of their major, and are encouraged to attend. David Rust, a former director of operations strategy at Lyft, continues our series of features highlighting our speakers for the event. To learn more, visit our Career Summit 2018 news story.

David Rust

David Rust
David Rust launched Lyft’s first markets and helped write the playbook for its national expansion. He will be one of the featured speakers April 6 and 7 at Kalamazoo College’s Career Summit 2018.

Former Director of Operations Strategy, Lyft

David Rust is an experienced operator who has helped scale some of the fastest-growing marketplace businesses, including Lyft. David joined Lyft in February 2013 as the 25th employee and helped drive the company’s growth nationally to an $11 billion-plus valuation.

Early in his four-year tenure at the company, David launched Lyft’s first markets and helped write the playbook for national expansion. David then went on to launch Lyft’s internal strategy team and drove key initiatives including Lyft’s self-driving car pilots and partnership with General Motors.

Prior to Lyft, David led marketing and city expansion for one of the early pioneers in the car-sharing industry, Wheelz.

David graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and enjoys making time to invest in his side passions, whether they be playing salsa music or backpacking in the California outdoors.

David is scheduled to speak during the following sessions of Career Summit 2018:

  • Dinner and Opening Plenary, 6 p.m. April 6
  • Mentoring Matters: What You Gain from Trusted Advisers, 10 a.m. April 7
  • Social Entrepreneurship: Finding Solutions to Community Problems, 10:45 a.m. April 7
  • Crafting a Whole Life: How Work Fits with Family, Community, Self-Care and Fun, 11:30 a.m. April 7

Other Scheduled Speakers

Career Summit Featured Speaker: Carolyn DeWitt ’04

Posted on

Registration for Career Summit 2018 is now closed. Students who are interested in attending but have not registered are welcome to stop by the registration table in the Hicks Student Center atrium before the session they would like to attend. Walk-ins will be accepted as space permits, especially on Saturday. See the Career Summit schedule online by clicking on ‘Agenda.’

A distinguished group of alumni will join Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists for Career Summit 2018. The event is two days of practical preparation April 6 and 7 for Life after K. Carolyn DeWitt ’04, the president and executive director of Rock the Vote, is the third in a series of features that will highlight our speakers for the event. To learn more, visit our Career Summit 2018 news story.

Carolyn DeWitt ’04

President, Executive Director at Rock the Vote

Carolyn DeWitt
Carolyn DeWitt ’04, a passionate and lifelong champion of the democratic process in the U.S. and abroad, has a diverse background in government, politics, international development, education and in the financial sector.

A passionate and lifelong champion of the democratic process in the U.S. and abroad, Carolyn DeWitt ’04 has a diverse background in government, politics, international development, education and in the financial sector.

It was during her time in South Africa, meeting with parties critical to the collapse of the apartheid system and the subsequent building of a democratic state, that Carolyn witnessed the power of youth movements. Convinced of the absolute necessity of a health democracy for marginalized groups, she continued on to work in Kenya, participating on the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission during an election year. Carolyn also served as senior international advisor to a youth political movement and potential presidential candidate in Madagascar.

Back home in the U.S., on the national political stage, Carolyn coordinated satellite media booking operations at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, training teams of volunteers and staffs and coordinating surrogate media appearances alongside DNC and Obama for America staff. On the local government level, Carolyn has worked as chief of staff at the Office of Chicago Alderman Daniel Solis, and as deputy campaign manager and finance director for the 25th Ward Regular Democratic Organization.

Shortly after relocating to Washington, D.C., Carolyn took up the position of director of special projects for a thriving start-up that sought to leverage technology to provide clinical services to persons with special education and development needs in less-developed countries. She has also provided services for therapists working in DC public schools. For the 2014 election cycle, Carolyn served as chief of staff at Pivot, a political communications firm.

Carolyn studied international and African studies, political science, psychology and women’s studies and earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and international and area studies from Kalamazoo College. She sits on the board of Coworker.org.

Carolyn is scheduled to speak during the following sessions of Career Summit 2018:

  • Dinner and Opening Plenary, 6 p.m. April 6
  • Thriving as a Woman in the Workplace, 10 a.m. April 7
  • Social Entrepreneurship: Finding Solutions to Community Problems, 10:45 a.m. April 7
  • Crafting a Whole Life: How Work Fits with Family, Community, Self-Care and Fun, 11:30 a.m. April 7

Other Scheduled Speakers

Career Summit Featured Speaker: Bill Duane ’94

Posted on

Registration for Career Summit 2018 is now closed. Students who are interested in attending but have not registered are welcome to stop by the registration table in the Hicks Student Center atrium before the session they would like to attend. Walk-ins will be accepted as space permits, especially on Saturday. See the Career Summit schedule online by clicking on ‘Agenda.’

A distinguished group of alumni will join Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists for Career Summit 2018. The event is two days of practical preparation April 6 and 7 for Life after K. Bill Duane ’94 is the first in a series of features that will highlight our speakers for the event. To learn more, visit our Career Summit 2018 news story.

Bill Duane ’94

Retired Superintendent of Well-Being at Google

Bill Duane
At Google, Bill Duane and his team created worldwide programs to move the needle on well-being at the individual, team and organizational level.

Bill Duane works at the intersection of individual resilience and organizational effectiveness, particularly in innovative and/or chaotic environments. As an engineering executive for Google earlier in his career, Bill was responsible for worldwide production engineering for Gmail, G Suite and WebSearch Infrastructure, leading a team of 130 people across five countries.

Though an amazing, interesting and rewarding ride, it also contained more burnout than was OK, which sparked a curiosity about how burnout worked. As he investigated burnout, Bill discovered a deep interest in the biological, psychological and interpersonal mechanisms of happiness, effectiveness and well-being which led him to create the role of Google’s Superintendent of Well-Being. At Google, he and his team created worldwide programs to move the needle on well-being at the individual, team and organizational level, partnering with various teams in the Google ecosystem to make it part of the culture.

After 12 years at Google and 25 years in corporate environments, he is taking his expertise to a more diverse set of individuals and organizations. Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology from Kalamazoo College.

Bill is scheduled to speak in these Career Summit sessions:

  • Dinner and Opening Plenary, 6 p.m. April 6
  • Mentoring Matters: What You Gain from Trusted Advisers, 10 a.m. April 7
  • Tips for Bringing Your Identity to Work, 10:45 a.m. April 7
  • Serendipity: Making the Most of Unexpected Opportunities, 11:30 a.m. April 7.

Other Scheduled Speakers

Lecture to Explore Intersection of Math and Music

Posted on

For David Kung, the relationship between math and music goes far beyond alliteration.

Math and Music speaker David Kung
David Kung will deliver the annual Kitchen Lecture, sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Department of Mathematics, while exploring the interrelations between math and music.

The star of a series of popular video lectures explaining the applications of mathematics to the world around us, especially music, Kung will deliver the annual Kitchen Lecture, sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Department of Mathematics, at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Stetson Chapel.

A math professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, that state’s public liberal arts institution, he grew up studying violin while developing a passion for math. He says that at age 16, he had to decide which field to pursue professionally. Although he chose math, he never gave up music.

“While pursuing a doctorate in math, I always made sure to keep up my violin chops — or not let them fade too badly,” he says on his website about mixing math and music. “Now I get the privilege of traveling around the country giving talks and performances about the connections between these two beautiful subjects.”

He has authored a variety of articles on topics in harmonic analysis and mathematics education. His series of Great Courses lectures, “How Music and Mathematics Relate,” is a top math and science seller for the Teaching Company.

Performing and explaining, he discusses — for example — how the math that explains the movement of electrons also lets us understand why a particular string on the violin vibrates at a certain pitch, and why a clarinet’s tone is so much lower than that of a flute. He also explores how the brain recognizes harmonics and other musical patterns the same way it recognizes numerical patterns, and how errors in that pattern recognition lead to auditory illusions, tricking the brain into hearing something that isn’t there.

In addition, he uses abstract algebra to provide insight into the structures beneath the surface of Bach’s canons and fugues.

Kung holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a Ph.D., all in mathematics, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At St. Mary’s, he is a full professor and chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He also serves as director of the Mathematical Association of America’s Project NExT, a professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences.

The George Kitchen Memorial Lectureship was established at Kalamazoo College in 1999 to honor George Kitchen, a mathematician and teacher at Portage Northern High School in Portage, Michigan. Kitchen, who died in 2011, was married to Susan Kitchen ’60, who died in 2017.

The purpose of the lectures is to provide an opportunity for high school students and mathematics educators to hear mathematicians speak about their own or related work at a level intended for high school students.

Music Concerts Feature Jazz Band, College Singers

Posted on

Be sure to attend two music concerts this weekend that will feature Kalamazoo College student performers. Both concerts will be at Dalton Theater in the Light Fine Arts Building.

Jazz Winter Music Concerts from 2017
Be sure to attend two music concerts this weekend, featuring the Kalamazoo College Jazz Band and the College Singers.

From 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, enjoy Kalamazoo College’s Jazz Band. The group, directed by Thomas G. Evans, pulls together an eclectic collection of contemporary and classic jazz arrangements to provide the students participating and the audience members an electric experience.

From 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday, hear a variety of musical favorites from Broadway shows performed by the College Singers in their “Broadway Revue.” The group is a 24-voice choral ensemble that performed a sold-out show at K last fall. More recently, they performed a social justice-themed concert in Farmington Hills, Mich., and Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in February. The group is directed by Christopher J. Ludwa and features a mix of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices.

Read more at our website about the Kalamazoo College music ensembles and find music scholarships available to music majors and non-music majors alike.

K Plans Career Summit 2018 for April 6, 7

Posted on

About Career Summit 2018

A distinguished group of K alumni will join Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists for Kalamazoo College’s Career Summit 2018. The event is two days of practical preparation April 6 and 7 for Life after K. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend this special event.

Kalamazoo College Career Summit 2018
Kriti Singh ’17 attended Kalamazoo College’s Career Summit last year. “As a senior who will soon transition into the workplace, it was inspiring for me to hear that your career is a lot more than your first job,” she said about her experience at the event.

Through interactive break-out sessions, themed panel discussions and networking opportunities, students of all majors will gain priceless information about the global job market.

Led by Brad O’Neill ’93, creator of K to the Bay and the CEO and co-founder of Depot Global Inc., this exclusive opportunity to connect with industry leaders takes place at K so as many students as possible may participate.

Confirmed speakers for Career Summit 2018 include:

Armstrong Lecture to Focus on Religion, Racial Identity During Great Migration

Posted on

As African Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants poured into northern U.S. cities during the early 20th century, religious movements arose that offered them new identities as descendants of the Arab culture of North Africa, members of the “Lost Tribe” of Israel or simply humans free of racial labels.

Armstrong Lecture Speaker Judith Weisenfeld
Judith Weisenfeld, the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, will speak about her research as she delivers this year’s Kalamazoo College Armstrong Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

“While such groups frequently have been dismissed as cults and fringe elements, they gave people, then referred to as ‘negroes,’ a claim to something more exalted than a socioeconomic status tinged with the memory of slavery,” Judith Weisenfeld writes in “New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration.”

Weisenfeld, the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, will speak about her research as she delivers this year’s Kalamazoo College Armstrong Lecture at 7 p.m. Monday in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

Titled “Apostles of Race: Religion and Black Racial Identity in the Great Migration,” her talk will explore the intersection of religion and racial identity among the migrants from the South and immigrants from the Caribbean who encountered one another in cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit. She will focus in particular on the Moorish Science Temple, Father Divine’s Peace Mission movement, congregations of Ethiopian Jews and the Nation of Islam — all part of a quest among the urbanizing population for what Weisenfeld calls “new religious frameworks for understanding the black past and future.”

“New World A-Coming” was awarded the 2017 Albert J. Raboteau Book Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions. Weisenfeld also authored “Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949,”  “African-American Women and Christian Activism: New York’s Black YWCA, 1905–1945,” and “This Far by Faith: Readings in African-American Women’s Religious Biography.” She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and her master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton.

The Armstrong Lectures, hosted by the College’s Religion Department, are made possible by the Homer J. Armstrong Endowment in Religion, established in 1969 in honor of the Rev. Homer J. Armstrong, a longtime trustee of Kalamazoo College.

 

Academy Street Winds Concert Slated for Saturday

Posted on
Academy Street Winds rehearsal
Music Professor Thomas Evans leads the Academy Street Winds. Their winter-term concert is slated for this Saturday.

Music lovers will gather at 8 p.m. Saturday for an Academy Street Winds concert at Dalton Theater in the Light Fine Arts Building.

The Academy Street Winds, formerly known as the Kalamazoo College Symphonic Band, functions as a beloved creative outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion students. Community musicians joined the ensemble in winter 2016 to expand the group’s sound and capabilities.

The group, conducted by Music Professor Thomas Evans, performs one concert each term, playing exciting arrays of challenging band music. The band is a great favorite for its members and its audiences as the programs are coordinated around diverse themes, which allow for performances of much-loved pieces, both classic and new. The theme on Saturday will be “Landscape Escapes.” Admission is free.

For more information, contact Susan Lawrence in the Music Department at 269-337-7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu.

Senior Performance Series Starts Thursday

Posted on

Kalamazoo College students are continuing a tradition of directing and performing in their own theater productions through the Festival Playhouse’s Senior Performance Series. This year’s shows include:

Senior Performance Series
Senior Performance Series shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15-Saturday, Feb. 17, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18.

• “Too Close to the Tracks,” written and directed by Sam Meyers ’18;
• Selections from “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” by Jane Wagner, performed by Tricia LaCaze ’18; and
• “Mal Ojo,” written and directed by Johanna Keller Flores ’18.

The shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15-Saturday, Feb. 17, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, at the Nelda K. Balch Festival Playhouse’s Dungeon Theatre. General admission tickets are available online. They’re free for Kalamazoo College students and employees with a College ID and $5 for the general public.

For more information, visit reason.kzoo.edu/theatre/festival/.

Asia Fest Set for Saturday

Posted on

Kalamazoo College’s rich diversity will be on display Saturday, Feb. 10, as the Asian Pacific Islander Student Association and KDesi join forces to stage their award-winning annual Asia Fest.

Asia Fest
The Asian Pacific Islander Student Association and KDesi will team up Saturday to stage Asia Fest.

In an “Asia’s Got Talent” showcase at Dalton Theatre, students from the two groups will perform music and dances representing their cultures. Judges will choose the winning act. The students will also stage a fashion show.

Everyone is invited. Asia Fest director Li Li Huynh says doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show gets underway at 8 p.m. Food will be provided.

The two groups received the College’s 2016-2017 Black and Orange Leadership Award for Best Collaborative Initiative for last year’s show.