The Senior Integrated Project (SIP) of Grace Hancock ’22 has encouraged Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas to extend Hancock’s inquiries overseas.
Salinas has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award, allowing him to go to his native Argentina this fall. There, he will study whether global warming could threaten fish with temperature-dependent sex-determination. In these species, cold waters tend to produce more females, and warm waters tend to produce more males.
Hancock, in Salinas’ fish ecology lab, studied temperature-dependent sex-determination in the Atlantic silverside, which are saltwater foragers that grow to be no longer than 6 inches in length. Salinas, in a similar way, will research Argentine fish such as pejerrey, which are freshwater residents.
“I’m excited to go and expand my professional network, and without Grace, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity,” Salinas said. “I was not really working on temperature sex determination until she wanted to.”
In addition to Hancock, Salinas credited K faculty members such as Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Enid Valle, Professor of Biology Ann Fraser, William Weber Chair of Social Science Amy Elman, Wen Chao Chen Professor of East Asian Social Sciences Dennis Frost, Margaret and Roger Scholten Associate Professor of Political Science John Dugas, and Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art Tom Rice for offering their application assistance and sharing their previous experiences in successfully seeking Fulbright honors.
“I’ll be interacting closely with Latinx biologists, and one of my hopes is to set up a network whereby scholars there who struggle with English can connect with classes here at K,” Salinas said. “My students would help with the scientific writing and offer advice to the biologists in a real-world way.”
The opportunity also is expected to begin a long-term collaboration with a faculty member at the Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomús, create a course on evolutionary ecology for that institution’s undergraduate and graduate students, and establish connections that would allow Argentine biologists to serve as potential research mentors for K students.
Salinas is one of about 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research or provide expertise abroad for the 2022-23 academic year through Fulbright. Those citizens are selected based on their academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and demonstrated leadership. The awards are funded through the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s international education-exchange program designed to build connections between U.S. citizens and people from other countries. The program is funded through an annual Congressional appropriation made to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also support the program, which operates in more than 160 countries.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals in a variety of backgrounds and fields opportunities to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute solutions to international problems.
Thousands of Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 61 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 89 who have received Pulitzer Prizes and 76 MacArthur Fellows. For more information about the Fulbright program, visit its website.
A Kalamazoo College faculty member and three of her students are among the people looking to help local houseless women and their young children achieve housing and health equity.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Mills is the grant writer for the Home Start Initiative, a local project that aims to help houseless women and their children.
Playgrown CEO Michelle Johnson
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Jennifer Mills—with visionary assistance from Playgrown CEO Michelle Johnson—is the grant writer for the Home Start Initiative, a Kalamazoo County-backed project that will build a development of 10 homes with a park, parking area, community courtyard and more near a former makeshift houseless encampment next to the Kalamazoo River at Ampersee Avenue.
The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners awarded the Home Start Initiative, a collaboration between Playgrown and the Institute of Public Scholarship, more than $318,000 in April for the sake of addressing a local shortage of affordable housing. Specifically, it will help people living at or below 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI) eventually achieve ownership of the homes in the project.
Mills, an expert in the social determinants of health, said the most exciting part of the project for her is that the initiative is partnering with Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine as well as the health department and Healthy Babies Healthy Starts in Kalamazoo County to ensure that women and their children will obtain at least five of those homes. Her students then will build a research agenda around the partnership and track health outcomes.
“We know in public health that a relationship exists between housing equity and health outcomes,” Mills said. “We’re trying to intervene early to give children some of the stability that can impact those social determinants of health. We’ll be working closely with the medical school and the public health department to identify all the measures we want to track.”
A groundbreaking is expected this fall. In the meantime, students such as Janet Fernandez ’25 and Natalie Pineda ’25 will interview the houseless community from the same area at Ampersee and Hotop avenues, where they conducted interviews in a previous first-year seminar.
Natalie Pineda ’25
The day they first showed up for those first-year seminar interviews, Fernandez and Pineda saw community members hurrying to pick up their belongings and worrying about where they could go next with the encampment being shut down.
“I think their stories are really important because they’re often just seen as being ‘the homeless,’” Pineda said. “If we’re acting as a community of Kalamazoo, and if we’re trying to provide better housing for people who live here, the most important place to start is with their stories and asking what their needs are because they’re the ones who are living that situation.”
Taking those stories and providing equity is an important part of sustaining the community, Fernandez said. Both Fernandez and Pineda are from communities, Chicago and Los Angeles respectively, where significant numbers of people are houseless. It’s nothing new to either of them. Yet the Home Start Initiative represents the first time Fernandez has seen a project of its kind.
“We have institutions and places in our cities where houseless people can go and sleep overnight,” she said. “But you’ll never see a program like the one we’re working on, where people get to live in a house and eventually own it. Trying to build that generational wealth is incredibly important.”
One of the first measures of success for the Home Start Initiative would be improved reading scores for the children involved over the next few years.
Skyler Rogers ’23
“Within the first few years of life, a lot of the social determinants of health begin to play a role in how a child’s brain develops and how different processes in the body take place,” said Skyler Rogers ’23, a third K student participating in the project.
“Having a stable, foundational childhood can change things drastically. It can impact a child’s cognitive abilities from a young age, and that’s where third-grade reading levels come into play. By the time a child reaches third grade, you can estimate their likelihood of graduating from high school and moving forward in life.”
As their work progresses, all of K’s representatives contributing to the Home Start Initiative are taking pride in their work. It’s a big investment that might not always represent what some in Kalamazoo believe is a top priority in addressing the issue of houselessness, but Mills and her students aren’t just assuming what the houseless community needs to provide a bare minimum of support. Instead, they’re talking to people to determine their exact needs.
“It feels amazing to see this,” Pineda said. “The amenities provide lifestyle help and can really ground a person to help them get back on their feet. Any other homeless shelter can provide you with a roof over your head for one night. But this project is helping people stay stable for a long period of time. It can help you get a job. If you have children, they provide daycare. All those aspects are important and add to these stories. It’s easy to think the homeless just need somewhere to sleep. But these are people, too, who will get a chance to start their lives again with this project.”
Kalamazoo College alumna and Professor Emerita Diane Seuss has received the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for “frank: sonnets.” Photo by Gabrielle Montesanti
Diane Seuss ’78 published her fifth collection of poetry, “frank: sonnets,” in 2021.
Kalamazoo College alumna, Professor Emerita and former writer-in-residence Diane Seuss ’78 is celebrating more recognition for her latest poetry collection, and this honor is the most prestigious yet.
Seuss was granted a 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry on Monday for frank: sonnets, a collection of poems that discuss topics including addiction, disease, poverty and death. The collection previously received the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the LA Times Book Prize for poetry.
The Pulitzer Prize committee described frank: sonnets as “a virtuosic collection that inventively expands the sonnet form to confront the messy contradictions of contemporary America, including the beauty and the difficulty of working-class life in the Rust Belt.”
“This is nothing that I would ever, ever, ever have expected of life,” Seuss said of the honor in an MLive interview. “It’s hard to feel these things beyond kind of shock and awe.”
In previous honors, Seuss received the John Updike Award in 2021 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The biennial award recognizes a mid-career writer who demonstrates consistent excellence. Seuss also joined a prestigious group of scholars and artists who have received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation as a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow. The fellowship helps honorees slate blocks of time during which they explore their creative freedom. The Foundation receives about 3,000 applications each year and awards about 175 fellowships.
Seuss retired from K in 2016, the year she was a Pulitzer finalist for Four-Legged Girl (Greywolf Press, 2015), a poetry collection the Pulitzer committee described as “a richly improvisational poetry collection that leads readers through a gallery of incisive and beguiling portraits and landscapes.” Her other collections include Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (Graywolf Press, 2018), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the LA Times Poetry Prize; Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010), which received the Juniper Prize; and It Blows You Hollow (New Issues Press, 1999).
“For me and others like me, people in the margins for whatever reason, such recognition is an encouragement,” Seuss said of her recent success in a Kalamazoo College news story last month. “It’s saying, your work has worth. It makes all the difference to be seen and heard and acknowledged.”
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez presented the Lux Esto Award of Excellence to Instrument Technician Tom Massura at the Founders Day celebration Friday at Stetson Chapel.
Tom Massura, an instrument technician in both the physics department and chemistry and biochemistry department at Kalamazoo College, is this year’s recipient of the Lux Esto Award of Excellence. The award, announced Friday to celebrate Founders Day, marking the College’s 189th year, recognizes an employee who has served the institution for at least 26 years and has a record of stewardship and innovation.
The recipient—chosen by a committee with student, faculty and staff representatives—is an employee who exemplifies the spirit of K through excellent leadership, selfless dedication and goodwill. Massura started at the College in 1987. Today, he maintains more than 50 machines used exclusively in the College’s Science Division while managing general science instrumentation and setting up physics labs.
Massura’s “kindness, patience, quick wit and positive attitude brighten the days of everyone he interacts with,” Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said in presenting the award. “Nominators noted how helpful, dedicated and easy to work with he is with a sense of humor that helps days move along even when they’re challenging. His considerable technical expertise has helped generations of science students.”
In accordance with Founders Day traditions, two other employees received individual awards. Assistant Professor of Music Chris Ludwa was given the Outstanding Advisor Award and Associate Professor of Chemistry Jennifer Furchak received the First-Year Advocate Award.
State Rep. Julie Rogers presents a certificate honoring the Center for Civic Engagement for its 20th anniversary.
Assistant Professor of Music Chris Ludwa was presented with the Outstanding Advisor Award at Founders Day on Friday.
Ludwa is the director of K’s College Singers, the Lux Esto Chamber Choir and the Kalamazoo Bach Festival. Before arriving at K, he served as the director of music at the Federated Church Cleveland, where he led four ensembles, presented an annual concert series and maintained a voice studio for exceptional singers enrolled in performing arts academies and high schools.
Student soloist Julia Ghazal ’22
Student soloist Sophia Merchant ’25
Certificate presented by State Rep. Julie Rogers to the Center for Civic Engagement.
Nominators for the award said Ludwa is always a thoughtful and kind source of advice and encouragement, and Gonzalez added Ludwa is being honored for his “caring commitment and dedication to the growth and well-being of our students.”
Furchak teaches courses in chemical composition and structure, analytical chemistry and instrumental analysis. Her research interests are in analytical separations and spectroscopy.
Furchak has, through her first-year seminar, “not only illustrated how scientific work needed to evolve into a more equitable and inclusive form, but how our own work will contribute to this institutional shift and real, tangible benefits,” Gonzalez said. “Her instruction illustrates the importance of being one’s authentic self while pursuing one’s aspirations, scientific or not.”
Student soloists Julia Ghazal and Sophia Merchant also performed and, in a special appearance, State Rep. Julie Rogers attended Founders Day to present an honorary certificate to the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement to recognize its 20th anniversary. The certificate was signed by all the state representatives and state senators from Kalamazoo County, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.
“In looking back over 20 years of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement’s history, it’s clear that the hard work of the faculty and students has impacted many,” the certificate says. “Through thoughtful and ethical engagement, students gain skills, knowledge and critical perspectives that prepare them for meaningful careers and a lifelong commitment to the public good.”
Annie Tyler ’22 (from left), Faith Flinkingshelt ’22, Lindsey Baker ’24, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo and Barney Walsh ’22 represented Kalamazoo College at the American Chemical Society (ACS) chemistry conference in San Diego. Jacob Callaghan ’22 attended virtually.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo traveled with several students to attend the American Chemical Society Conference in San Diego over spring break, where they presented posters of their research and connected with chemistry professionals in a distinct experience that built their confidence and their communication skills.
“I’m not sure they realized in advance how overwhelming the conference could be because it’s thousands of chemists, all in the same place,” Arias-Rotondo said. “They were nervous, but also excited when they were presenting. Just to see them in their element, no pun intended, is really cool because it’s a great opportunity and they seemed to enjoy it.”
Five chemistry students attended including four in person. Three of them told us about their research, their experiences and why attending the conference was so valuable. Barney Walsh ’22 also attended in person and Jacob Callaghan ’22 attended virtually.
Annie Tyler ’22
Annie Tyler, a Heyl scholar at K, introduced her work—performed in the lab of Associate Professor of Chemistry Dwight Williams—synthesizing molecular hybrids or, in simpler terms, combining two molecules into one that hopefully has antibacterial properties.
“I really enjoyed being able to meet other Black chemists,” Tyler said. “There is a nonprofit group named BlackInChem that organized a meet up one evening. I was able to meet so many people and make connections I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise. I received lots of tweaks and ideas for my experiments in the future. Going to a conference was meaningful as I got to immerse myself in the chemistry community and go to talks about topics I’m interested in. As I’m headed to graduate school in the fall, it felt like a nice introduction into what the world after undergraduate life has in store.”
Faith Flinkingshelt ’22
Faith Flinkingshelt’s research has focused on making molecules that could attach to transition metals that can capture light and transform it into chemical energy. In other words, her work—in Arias-Rotondo’s own lab at K—examined how light-capturing molecules could lower the costs of and increase the efficiency of solar panels.
“I asked to join Professor Arias-Rotondo’s lab after loving one of her inorganic chemistry classes in the winter of my junior year, and I started working in the lab in the spring,” Flinkingshelt said. “I enjoyed working with everyone in the lab, so I decided to continue my research over the summer and into my senior year. It’s been an amazing experience and introduction to research.”
Flinkingshelt admitted she was nervous, not only to present her research, but to travel to California. Yet she was happy to embrace the opportunity.
“I had many questions about attending a conference out of state, especially in a big city like San Diego,” she said. “Ultimately, I’m grateful I had financial support from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation so it didn’t cost me anything in terms of travel and hotel costs, which helped me feel more confident. The nice part about conferences is that everyone has a different background than you, so they bring different perspectives and can ask questions that will help guide you in the future. It introduced me to conferences in a low-stress way, especially since we are still in a pandemic. By experiencing this now, I was able to go to the conference with my friends and have a great support system behind me while I navigated networking and attended conference events.”
Lindsey Baker ’24
Lindsey Baker’s poster reflected her work in producing polyolefins, which are common polymers used in household items such as textile fibers, phones, computers, food packaging, car parts and toys.
“Our work may provide an avenue for a more diverse family of polymers with new or improved properties,” Baker said. “I worked this past summer in my hometown of Memphis under Dr. Brewster, a professor at the University of Memphis. I was also mentored by a second-year graduate student, Natalie Taylor. Dr. Brewster asked me to present at a conference, and provided a few good options, with ACS being among them. I was a bit intimidated by the idea of going to such a large meeting, but also was excited for the opportunity to explore the many different areas of chemistry that are represented at the conference.”
The conference gave Baker opportunities to explore presentations other than her own, opening her eyes to other subject matter within chemistry.
“This just made me appreciate, all over again, the diversity of pursuits within the chemistry field,” she said. “I have a list of things written down that I have curiosity about now, and I look forward to expanding that list as I keep seeing more.”
‘I felt very proud of them’
In the future, Arias-Rotondo hopes to encourage students to offer talks in addition to their posters, offering students even more professional challenges and opportunities. But for now, she’s happy to enjoy this experience.
“I don’t know if I would describe it as emotional, but it was significant for me because it was my first conference as a professor,” she said. “I organized a couple of symposia within the conference, but I didn’t present my own research, so I could step back and see how I helped the students get that far. I just felt very proud of them. More than anything it was the joy of seeing their science move forward and seeing them grow into awesome scientists.”
Professor of Biology Binney Girdler and Otto Kailing, an Oberlin College student from Kalamazoo, were among the volunteers who collected white clover for the Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE).
Read the Science cover story
Two Kalamazoo College biology faculty members, a K student and an Oberlin College student from Kalamazoo were among the volunteers who participated in a global research project that proves humans are affecting evolution through urbanization and climate change.
Professor of Biology Binney Girdler, Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas, Ben Rivera ’18 and Otto Kailing contributed to the Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE), published Thursday in the journal Science. The investigation shows that white clover plants found in Kalamazoo, for example, will have more in common with others in similar cities around the world than those in rural regions, even local ones. That’s evident because the study shows that clover in many cities produce less hydrogen cyanide as a defense mechanism against herbivores with herbivores being less abundant in cities. Other cities showed no gradient, perhaps because hydrogen cyanide increases clovers’ tolerance to water stress, signaling an environmental driver of evolution prompted by humans with increasing temperatures, additional pollutants and less water.
“We’ve known about these differences for at least a decade now, but it’s always been researched in small or very localized studies, comparing rural versus urban environments,” Salinas said. “The novelty of this work is that it’s being replicated across lots of cities and gradients, most with similar results.”
Professor of Biology Binney Girdler was among 287 scientists who collected data for the Global Urban Evolution Project.
White clover was chosen for GLUE’s research because it’s one of the few organisms present in almost every city. Girdler collected the clover locally along Westnedge Avenue near the Kalamazoo River to do her part alongside 286 other scientists in 26 countries who gathered more than 110,000 clover samples.
Those samples—after being frozen, ground up and analyzed through sample paper and reactive compounds—helped researchers sequence more than 2,500 clover genomes to reveal the genetic basis for their changes in urban areas. The massive dataset produced from the project will be analyzed for years to come, making Thursday’s publication just the beginning of GLUE’s research. With scientists knowing that humans drive evolution in cities across the planet, they can start developing strategies to better conserve rare species, allowing the species to better adapt to urban environments, while scientists also prevent unwanted pests and diseases from doing the same.
“I think the local interest is that this shows we’re not isolated,” Girdler said. “This shows that climate change is real and urbanization is real. This is a good study to show humans have had a huge impact, not just locally, but globally. There’s nothing unique about the Kalamazoo case. We only understand the impact of it when it’s embedded within this giant global study of 160 other cities.”
Marc Johnson and Rob Ness, both biology faculty members at the University of Toronto Mississauga, spearheaded the global project along with James Santangelo, a Ph.D. student. Salinas and Girdler both expressed admiration for that group for organizing the work and maintaining communication throughout the project.
“It’s fun to be a part of it,” Girdler said. “It represents what I think science has to give to the world. It’s connective and it helps us figure out what we should be doing through a global effort. It made me an optimist in the middle of the pandemic.”
“We did it because this was a cool idea and it was nice to be able to help,” Salinas said. “It made me feel like a citizen scientist who added to the body of science without having to worry about prestige.”
Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art Tom Rice is among 25 artists featured in “Points of Return,” an online exhibit dedicated to climate change.
An online art exhibit dedicated to pushing for action against climate change while there’s still hope for the planet features two artists with Kalamazoo College connections.
Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art Tom Rice and alumna Bethany Johnson ’07 were among the 25 international artists chosen from more than 300 entrants for “Points of Return.” The exhibit focuses on the harm humans have caused to the Earth, particularly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, while emphasizing there are still multiple paths and approaches that can be taken to restore an environmental balance.
“Points of Return” is presented by A La Luz, which translates from Spanish as “spotlight” or “to shed light on.” The group was founded in 2015 by environmental artists David Cass and Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero to be a wide-ranging platform for sustainable and environmentally focused creative work. The exhibit unfolds across six sections, defined as viewing rooms, that describe a movement that comes full circle through planetary ecosystems, art disciplines and mediums.
Bethany Johnson ’07, who is featured in “Points of Return,” uses materials such as chipboard, foam, hardboard, paper, plastic, plexiglass, particleboard, plywood and wood in “Safe Keeping,” which deals with material consumption and the resulting pollution, climate change and landfill waste.
“‘Points of Return’ represents artists from many different parts of the world, which is important because climate change is a global issue,” Rice said while calling his selection to the global exhibit an honor. “What we do locally or nationally impacts areas of the world that contribute much less to the climate crisis. The online format of the exhibition ensures that many more people will have the opportunity to spend time with the artwork than if it had been a physical exhibition. Accessibility to information is critical to changing people’s minds and behaviors related to climate-change issues.”
Rice used an Alberta-area oil refinery as the main visual resource for “Precarious Living.”
“I hope that my work will help people be self-reflective and ask questions about the climate crisis,” Rice said. “‘Precarious Living’ is a large-scale drawing installation that poses more questions than it answers. The subject matter is focused on an oil refinery made up of a mass of pipes, upgraders, holding tanks, chimineas and flares that amount to an absurd maze of fragile connections. What is really going on here? How can we comprehend the impact of an industry that is the very foundation of our economy, but threatens our very existence? The drawings have large sections of redacted information. For me, these redacted or negated elements represent both subterfuge by the fossil fuel industries, and our own self-imposed delusion that we can continue burning fossil fuels and that technology will save us. ‘Precarious Living’ is about being at the tipping point of global warming.”
Johnson’s artwork is represented by Moody Gallery in Houston, Texas, and she is an Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University. Her work in “Points of Return,” titled “Safe Keeping,” deals with material consumption and the resulting pollution, climate change and landfill waste. She feels those are important issues for artists to face given the work they pursue and how they pursue it.
“I think there can be an attitude in the art world that one’s conceptual ideas must be realized by any means possible; that essentially, the scale, media and production methods must inherently follow from the artist’s greater conceptual idea,” Johnson said. “This can lead to an incredible amount of material consumption, energy use, and the utilization of toxic, unsustainable materials within the art world. Under the current conditions of our climate crisis, I feel that the art world is in desperate need of material and energy ethics; that we think seriously about the impacts of our work on the environment, and strive toward artmaking practices that are renewable, environmentally sensitive and even climate positive in their impacts.”
In line with the overall exhibition, Johnson’s display embodies anxiety and hope along with grief and joy as she uses layered materials that are reminiscent of geological core samples, land formations and geological processes. Her materials include paper, plastic, foil food wrappers, aluminum and foam that bring new life to discarded waste.
“I hope to offer an opportunity for discussion and reflection on the issues of human consumption and material waste, while also generating works that are entrancing and poetic, independently from their environmental themes,” Johnson said. “In this way, my goal is for them to contain ‘layers’ of meaning, which hopefully allows them to reach a wide audience in different ways.”
Johnson said she doesn’t blame artists—or any individuals for that matter—for the climate emergency as the problems that contribute to it are systemic, and intrinsic to capitalism, energy systems and powerful corporations. However, individuals must grapple with the results of it.
“This is where I think we can all recapture some power from that system by mindfully adopting ethical, responsible and sustainable models of living and working,” she said. “It can be, at its best, a hopeful, even joyful, act of resistance and psychic repair.”
Johnson feels that individuals who stay politically active can have great power against climate change and environmental problems by acting locally when they act together.
“Much environmental policy and action happens at levels beyond the individual, so voting and getting involved with local and regional politics can be hugely impactful,” she said. “For example, I live in a neighborhood in Austin, Texas, that used to house several environmentally toxic commercial facilities where oil had been leaching into the ground for years. A small group of concerned neighbors spent many years advocating for the cleanup and environmental remediation of these sites, and were eventually successful. The fact that I can live here with a sense of safety for my own health is thanks to a dedicated group of people working on a specific, concrete goal. Both in terms of the actual environmental impact as well as the sense of personal agency that it can create, I think finding a specific, actionable and realistic goal on a local level can have a great impact.”
Rice agrees that the collective actions of individuals are likely to be beneficial.
“Timothy Morton asks in his book Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, ‘does my driving a Prius or recycling my plastic bottles really help,’” Rice said. “I think the answer is no, of course not, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to do those things. I think it was Elizabeth Kolbert in The Sixth Extinction who points out it will take mass social movements to create real change related to the climate crisis. Social change happens a person at a time. Individually, we can’t initiate real change, but we are part of a larger network. What we do individually matters.”
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo and Hannah Hong ’22 helped students, faculty and staff pursue random acts of kindness with a wall of warm-and-fuzzy messages to solve the winter blahs.
Some thoughtful planning from Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo provided the students, faculty and staff at Kalamazoo College’s Dow Science Center with methods for solving the winter blahs that just might inspire you today, on Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Let’s face it. Winter has been difficult for most people in higher education, especially in the Midwest.
“I personally don’t like February in Michigan,” said Arias-Rotondo, who is fondly known on campus as Dr. DAR. “You’re sick of the cold, you’re sick of the snow and the lack of sunlight is hitting you. With COVID added to that mix, it’s been rough.”
As a result, she wanted to do something nice in February to serve as a pick-me-up for as many of her colleagues and students as possible.
“I was trying to think about what the chemistry department does throughout the year,” she said. “We dress up for Halloween and we have some activities closer to the summer, but we usually don’t have anything planned for the winter.”
That’s when Arias-Rotondo remembered that Hannah Hong ’22, inspired by Hong’s participation in a PossePlus retreat, developed a wall for warm-and-fuzzy messages last summer at Dow, where the students, faculty and staff—relatively lonely with limited numbers of people on campus—could post appreciative cards and messages to their peers.
“I was trying to figure out how can we bring some joy to the month, and with Valentine’s Day, I thought about bringing back the Warm and Fuzzies for the whole department,” Arias-Rotondo said.
Hong was thrilled with the idea. She readily posted a “Warm and Fuzzies” banner complete with entertaining chemistry puns appropriate for the holiday such as “We share a strong bond” with a drawing of a bond between atoms and “You’re the brightest person I’ve ‘xenon’ this planet.”
When the project launched, some feared it wouldn’t have much participation, but it was a hit. Within days the glass window outside the red couch room on the chemistry department’s floor was covered with fan mail intended for students, faculty and staff. That fan mail was collected on Valentine’s Day and distributed to their intended recipients, spreading cheer.
“It was a very inexpensive thing to do,” Arias-Rotondo said. “The cards were about $7 and it’s even cheaper if you do it with Post-It Notes. You could see how excited everyone was about them. It would be so fun to make this a campus wide thing. Maybe we could spread it next year to the Hicks Student Center with a bunch of different banners and cards. I think the students would really buy into it.”
Random Acts of Kindness Day, which for some involves a week of activities, encourages participants to make the world a better place by sharing light to make kindness a part of our everyday lives. Perhaps others can draw their own inspiration, today or any day, from Arias-Rotondo and her students and colleagues.
“This felt to me like buying that perfect present for someone,” she said. “You’re so eager to see them open it. I’m happy that people thought it was a good idea and that students were writing all these different cards and getting excited about them.”
Study abroad and international student adviser Asia Bennett is an inaugural Gilman Scholarship ambassador, showing she can help Pell Grant-eligible students make study abroad more affordable.
As an inaugural Gilman ambassador over the next two years, study abroad and international student adviser Asia Bennett will inform and advise colleagues at U.S. colleges and universities about the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. In that role, awarded to her this month, Bennett will share her expertise and best practices across the country, while also continuing to guide students at K in the Gilman application process.
Since 2001, the Gilman scholarship has given more than 33,000 students with limited financial means up to $5,000 to study or intern abroad through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Those students include between three and five K students for each of the past eight years.
“I think serving as an ambassador can help me debunk the idea that studying abroad has to be expensive,” Bennett said. “This is part of what our office does. We can let students know about scholarship opportunities so study abroad can be more affordable.”
By awarding funds competitively to students with limited financial means, the Gilman program assures that students from traditionally underrepresented groups will participate in study abroad opportunities. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, undergraduate students in good standing at their institutions and federal Pell Grant recipients.
By going abroad, Gilman recipients develop skills critical to national security and economic prosperity.
“I think a lot of our students count themselves out,” Bennett said. “They see the Gilman Award is a big national scholarship. They might think it’s not for them because it’s too competitive. I can help students see that they too can apply. I hope to be that voice and that face of the Gilman here on campus so students are more eager to apply.”
Students interested in applying for the Gilman International Scholarship can contact Bennett for application coaching, essay tips and more information at Asia.Bennett@kzoo.edu.
The Center for Civic Engagement marked its 20th anniversary this fall with a party at Homecoming 2021. More than 150 alumni, students, faculty, staff and community partners reunited to share stories, photographs and their memories of accomplishments.
For 20 years, the Mary Jane Underwood Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) has prepared students to build a more just, equitable and sustainable world, starting here in Kalamazoo.
Civic engagement takes place in courses and research, through student-led programs, and during summer internships, all involving long-term community partnerships. Within these interconnected programs and partnerships, students work alongside local residents and organizations to address complex and interrelated issues in food justice, educational and health equity, neurodiversity, reproductive rights, youth development, girls’ leadership and immigrant rights. Through thoughtful and ethical engagement, students gain skills, knowledge and critical perspectives that prepare them well for meaningful careers and a lifelong commitment to the public good.
Works with faculty to develop and support more than 20 community-based courses, offering logistical support, small grants and faculty stipends, pedagogy workshops and community connections.
Trains, guides and supervises students who get hands-on experience as paid civic engagement scholars coordinating ongoing community partnerships. They lead their peers—more than 200 students in a typical term—who work in Kalamazoo organizations that promote literacy, youth development and college attainment; food security and sustainability; immigrant rights and the arts. Students work every week and can earn their federal work study or serve as volunteers with programs that include Kalamazoo Public Schools, Kalamazoo County ID and Juvenile Home, Goodwill Adult Literacy and other non-profits.
Administers the Summer Community Building Internships (CBIs) program that connects K students with at least 20 of the CCE’s local partners, from AACORN Farms to the YWCA of Kalamazoo. Interns, selected with assistance from K’s Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) and the Financial Aid Office, are on the job for 30 to 40 hours a week for six weeks while earning a stipend, meeting as a group with CCE staff for dinner and reflection once a week.
Center for Civic Engagement Executive Director Alison Geist greets alumni and guests at the CCE’s 20th anniversary party at Homecoming.
In the mid- to late 1990s, a national movement to connect communities and campuses inspired a small group of faculty, staff and community partners to do just that. Those who participated in these service-learning classes observed that they could be of reciprocal benefit to community residents, organizations, K students and the College itself. The College’s long commitment to experiential learning and the K-Plan made it receptive to these civic engagement initiatives, which are rooted in the liberal arts.
“This work grew straight out of the College’s mission and history,” said Alison Geist, the director of the CCE and K’s Community and Global Health concentration. “It is a renewal and recommitment to K’s fellowship in learning, not just on campus but in Kalamazoo. For more than 50 years, K had been sending students across oceans to study. What about encouraging students to cross the street to learn from our own community? So K was ready to support the idea of students engaging locally through courses and then on an ongoing basis.”
Photos, awards and presentations were shared with alumni and guests at the Center for Civic Engagement’s 20th anniversary party.
Among their first course-based partnerships were two that remain vital today. Building Blocks, an organization supporting low- to medium-income neighborhood-association projects, was founded in 1995 through a sociology course at K offered by Professor Emeritus Kim Cummings. In addition, a partnership with Woodward Elementary, a Kalamazoo Public School two blocks from campus, was seeded when Kenneth Mulder ’92, who was teaching in K’s math department at the time, arranged for students in his calculus class to tutor there.
The success and the potential of these initiatives, for both K and its partners, inspired Ronda Stryker and Bill Johnston to endow the Center in 2001 with a $1.5 million gift that honors her grandmother, Mary Jane Underwood Stryker, a schoolteacher; and Stryker’s friend, Marilyn LaPlante, a former dean of students at K. This endowment and vote of confidence, along with grants from national and local organizations, enabled the CCE to expand its programming and gradually grow. With anonymous donations, endowments from alumni and space in Dewing Hall, the CCE took its place among the College’s Centers for Experiential Learning, and today works with about 45 community partners.
If the last 20 years is an indication, the CCE will keep changing and growing.
“Civic engagement is necessary for democracy to thrive, and like anything we study, it takes both theory and practice to learn,” Geist said. “Ideally, learning from communities should be woven throughout the curriculum and into the lives we lead after K. That’s why we’re developing new ways to intertwine and integrate community-based learning on and off campus across disciplines and boundaries and connect alumni and current students to inspire one another as they work on compelling contemporary issues.”
Alumni Praise Their Civic Engagement Experiences
Sashae Mitchell ’13, volunteered as a tutor for the Community Advocates for Parents and Students.
The CCE kicked off its platinum anniversary this fall with a party at Homecoming 2021. More than 150 alumni, students, faculty, staff and community partners reunited to share stories, photographs and the accomplishments of thousands of students and dozens of community partners who have collaboratively contributed to the city we call home.
The event was held in a tent next to the campus Hoop House, a CCE-led initiative imagined, built and maintained by students in the Just Food Collective, and their staff mentor, Amy Newday. At the event, the CCE presented video testimonies from K alumni who have participated in its programs over the past 20 years to mark its anniversary. Among those who credit the CCE with influencing their pathways and passions is J. Cooper Wilson ’11, a teacher in New York City Public Schools, who volunteered to tutor non-native English-speaking students in Kalamazoo schools during his time at K.
“When you become a Civic Engagement Scholar, you are the leader who runs your program,” Wilson said. “It’s a combination of student leadership and a comprehensive vision of social change that makes the CCE really special.”
Sashae Mitchell ’13 learned of the CCE during her first weeks on campus, shortly after arriving from her native Jamaica. She ended up participating in a couple of CCE programs, including Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS) as a tutor. The program, founded by Kalamazoo educators, offers enrichment programs for youth who live at Interfaith Homes Neighborhood Network Center, making it accessible for the youth and their families who live there.
“I fell in love with CAPS, I fell in love with the students, I fell in love with the people in charge of CAPS, and I felt like that was my thing,” Mitchell said. “It was my niche. Sometimes at K, I didn’t feel like I belonged or that it was my space. Interfaith Homes gave me that sense of belonging.” Mitchell, who also worked as a staff member in the CCE for a year after graduation, now runs her own math education business in Jamaica.
Arianna Schindle ’08 chose Columbia University in New York over K when she began her journey in higher education. At the time, she worked for a conflict-resolution group called Seeds of Peace. However, she desired more opportunities to pursue social justice within community engagement.
Schindle reapplied and transferred to K. Today, Schindle is the founder of the Rhiza Collective, a women-led group of cultural workers and facilitators using storytelling, healing, organizing and research to support social transformation and environmental justice.
“I think community engagement is something all colleges and universities should do,” Schindle said. “It’s taking learning and putting it into action. You transform the community with every lesson you learn. It’s seeing learning as something that lives outside our classrooms. It connects people in the community with some of the vital resources universities can offer, including students, energies, time and new learning.”
