Girl Scout Cadette Troop 80683 led by Troop Leader Dawne Beougher, administrative assistant to the vice president of Advancement at Kalamazoo College collected more than 2,000 books for “Literacy Night” at Maple Street Magnet School in Kalamazoo.
Two new reports recently released by the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) document an increase in student and alumni use of CCPD programs and chart the first post-graduate destinations of the Kalamazoo College class of 2012. The 2012 CCPD Annual Report is the unit’s first. CCPD has conducted “Life After K” surveys since 2009. Highlights of the two reports include the following findings.
Of the reporting 2012 graduates seeking employment, 80 percent had secured it by the end of the calendar year.
Of the reporting 2012 graduates seeking graduate education, 95 percent had secured it by year end.
The CCPD supported 98 students’ career development opportunities in summer 2011, including 30 externships and 68 internships.
Alumni engagement in CCPD programs and services rose by 40 percent in 2011-12.
Membership in the Guilds of Kalamazoo College, as measured by new additions to the group on LinkedIn, grew by 554 individuals, or 42 percent, in 2011-12.
The work of biology professor James Langeland, as part of a large international consortium, was published in the journal Nature Genetics, one of the top 10 science journals worldwide.
Langeland has been part of the consortium working on sequencing and elucidating the genome of the sea lamprey (the simplest of living vertebrates and a species on which Langeland has worked for 16 years).
The title of the article is “Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provides insights into vertebrate evolution.” The paper is the first presentation of lamprey whole-genome sequence and assembly. Lampreys represent an ancient vertebrate lineage that diverged from our own some 500 millions year ago. Scientists have studied the sea lamprey genome to gain insights into the ancestry of vertebrate genomes, the underlying principles of vertebrate biology, and evolutionary events that have shaped the genomes of existing organisms.
Langeland is the Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences at Kalamazoo College.
Dennis J. Frost’s article, “Tokyo’s Other Games: The Origins and Impact of the 1964 Paralympics,” has been chosen the winner of the Routledge Prize for the best article published in the International Journal of the History of Sport in 2012. The article appeared in the March issue of the Journal that year.
Frost is the Wen Chao Chen Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at Kalamazoo College and the author of the book, Seeing Stars: Sports Celebrity, Identity, and Body Culture in Modern Japan.
Recycling an old tradition, Kalamazoo College is off to a good start in Recyclemania 2013, the friendly annual competition and benchmarking tool that allows college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.
“We still maintain our dynasty and I am happy with it!” said longtime K Recycling Coordinator Rob Townsend. “I have a great crew of students who lead the campus recycling effort throughout the year. And they always step up their game during Recyclemania.”
According Rob, results after two weeks of competition show K is at or near the top of several categories, including “Bottles and Cans” (#1), Corrugated Cardboard” (#3), and “Per Capita Classic” (#2) in which schools try to collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard, and bottles and cans on a per person basis.
More than 600 colleges representing 49 states, four Canadian provinces, and 7.5 million students now participate in the eight-week competition.
And remember to reduce, reuse, and recycle!
Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Ph.D., has been named chair of the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) for 2013-14. NAICU represents more than 1,000 member colleges, associations, and other institutions nationwide, including Kalamazoo College.
As chair, Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran will lead the NAICU board in setting the association’s agenda on federal higher education policy, actively encourage support of NAICU priorities and initiatives, and oversee the association’s financial administration.
“NAICU is an effective and respected participant in the political process, representing member institutions such as K on policy issues with the federal government, including issues affecting student aid, taxation, government regulation, and the assault on the liberal arts,” she said.
“As NAICU chair, I will be in a position to advocate for these and other issues that are vital to helping institutions such as Kalamazoo College thrive in a competitive marketplace, an uncertain economy, and a divisive political climate.”
Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran has been a signatory to two open letters to President Obama and Congressional Leaders in recent days. One addresses gun control, the other addresses the possible elimination of the federal tax deduction for charitable giving.
On December 19, President Wilson-Oyelaran joined more than 160 college presidents who signed an open letter urging lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws. The letter states that the signatories do not oppose gun ownership outright and acknowledges that gun-safety laws alone will not prevent all acts of violence involving guns. The group of signatories, calling itself College Presidents for Gun Safety, state that they oppose laws making gun possession legal on college campuses and support elimination of the so-called “gun-show loophole,” which makes buying firearms easier. They also call for reinstating the ban on military-style assault weapons that expired in 2004 and addressing mental-health issues that underlie many mass shootings.
On Dec. 5, she joined members of the Association of Governing Boards in a letter expressing concerns about potential changes to the federal income tax deduction for charitable giving. Restrictions to the charitable deduction have been mentioned often as a target during the continuing negotiations on the federal budget and the so-called “fiscal cliff.” The AGB letters emphasize the value that charitable donations bring to colleges and universities, and urge the President and Congressional leaders to protect the tax deduction for charitable giving during the current negotiations. The AGB represents more than 100,000 volunteer governing board members of US colleges and universities and their affiliated support foundations.
Linked here is the AGB letter to Congressional leadership and letter to President Obama.
Cultivating Community is a first-year seminar taught by Associate Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92. It’s a service-learning course that combines academic inquiry with a project rooted in a local issue or organization.
This fall, Cultivating Community students broke into groups to interview and photograph people active in the area food community for the purpose of creating a 2013 calendar titled “A Year of Food in Kalamazoo.”
Subjects ranged from farmers and farm worker advocates, to organic food vendors such as Bridgett Blough ’08, who operates her own food truck business called The Organic Gypsy.
Teacher’s Assistant Shoshana Schultz ’13 worked as a go-between for the students, Katanski, and the People’s Food Co-Op, the class’s community partner.
“The seminar engages students in a critical examination of national food justice issues and introduces them to local food vendors who face these issues daily,” said Schultz. “The calendar is a meaningful and active way to address food justice and for others in the Kalamazoo community to be part of the discussion.
Now a senior, Schultz took Cultivating Community her first year at K. “My first year completely framed the way that I got to know the Kalamazoo community,” she said. “I’m proud of the work the students did this year.”
The calendars are on sale now at the People’s Food Co-Op in Kalamazoo for $15.
Andrew Koehler, associate professor of music at Kalamazoo College and music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia and the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, was recently honored at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors, one of the more prestigious international competitions for conductors of all nationalities born after 1976.
The competition, held in Katowice, Poland, every five years, took place in three stages during November 17 to November 23, 2012. A selection committee, consisting of eminent Polish and international conductors and musicians, chose 50 participants from an initial pool of approximately 180 applicants. These 50 were invited to the first round of competition, from that 12 semifinalists were chosen for a second round, and from that, 6 finalists.
“I was the only American in the final round,” said Koehler. “We were judged on technical skill, our interpretative decisions, and our ability to work with the orchestra. It was a great honor.”
Koehler was awarded First Distinction, or fourth place, in the competition, with a monetary award of 10,000 Euros. The Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Centre also invited Koehler to perform sometime in the second half of 2013.
Yet a third award came in the form of Karol Szymanowski State General School of Music of the 2nd Degree in Katowice – the “YOUNG BATON MASTER” award granted by a Young Jury jointly to Koehler and Russian semi-finalist Stanslav Kochanowskiy.
Writer In Residence Diane Seuss has been hard at work, and the result is a prolific fall and winter. Her poem “Either everything is sexual or nothing is, take this flock of poppies,” appears in the 2013 edition of the Pushcart Prize anthology, which is hot off the presses. And her poem “Oh four-legged girl, it’s either you or the ossuary” is in the fall/winter issue of Black Warrior Review. The poem won the Summer Literary Seminar’s Poetry Prize. “Hub,” a lyric essay, won Wag’s Revue’s winter contest (To access all of the essay’s pages, click on the arrow on the right margin). “I emptied my little wishing well of its emptiness” won Mid-American Review’s Fineline Competition and appears in its fall/winter issue. Two poems, “I’m moved by her, that big-nippled girl,” and “The ghosts down in North-of-the-South aren’t see-through” will appear in Ecotone’s “Abnormal” issue. The poem “Hindenburg” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Devil’s Lake. In other news, poet Adrian Blevins wrote a review of Di’s most recent collection of poems that appears in “On the Seawall: Ron Slate’s Website.” Just reading/hearing the titles of Di’s poems is a rewarding poetic experience!
