Category: Institutional Announcements

Kalamazoo College Selects Mia Henry as Executive Director for Its Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership

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Kalamazoo College Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Executive Director Mia Henry
Mia Henry is the new executive director for Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

(KALAMAZOO, Mich.) July 14, 2014 – After a national search, Kalamazoo College has named Mia Henry as executive director of its Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. She will begin her duties in Kalamazoo on August 11.

Since 1998, Henry has worked as a nonprofit administrator, education program developer, public school and university instructor, and social justice leader at the local and national level.

She will join the Arcus Center—established by Kalamazoo College in 2009 with generous support from the Arcus Foundation—just as it plans to move into its much anticipated new building on the K campus, and just weeks before its With/Out Borders Conference, scheduled for Sept. 25-28.

Henry replaces Jaime Grant who announced her intention to leave the Center last year.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mia Henry to Kalamazoo College,” said K President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran. “She is a strategic, thoughtful leader with wide experience in social justice, education, and leadership development. She’s served as an executive, educator, entrepreneur, and supervisor. I’m convinced she will help us build on the multifaceted collaborative efforts that have helped shape K’s social justice leadership center into the first of its kind in higher education.”

“Mia will build upon the excellent work of ACSJL inaugural director Jaime Grant who led the Center for four years and helped launch the Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership, among many other stellar programs,” said Wilson-Oyelaran.

Henry said what excites her most about the prospect of leading the Center is that “I will have the chance to share my passion for social justice advocacy with K students, faculty, and staff, as well as with people in the Greater Kalamazoo community and across the country who are at the forefront of campaigns addressing today’s most pressing issues.

“Kalamazoo College’s commitment to connecting academia to the study and practice of social justice aligns with my own professional mission and personal values. I look forward to helping the Arcus Center continue to embrace practices that support collaboration, transparency, and bold programming.”

Her duties at K—in collaboration with Arcus Center Academic Director Lisa Brock—will include maintaining and augmenting the vision for the Center; developing programming and partnerships with local, national, and international organizations; raising the profile of the Center and the College nationally and internationally; and working with K faculty, staff, and students on innovative projects and practices in social justice leadership.

For the past four years, Henry has served on the national leadership team for Black Space, an initiative of Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs) that supports intergenerational groups of community leaders working for racial equity across the United States.

She currently serves on the boards of directors for the Community Justice for Youth Institute and the Worker’s Center for Racial Justice, both in Chicago, and has been a consultant with the Chicago History Museum, Chicago Public Schools, the University of Chicago Hospital, and the University of Chicago Oriental Institute.

She founded Reclaiming South Shore for All, a diverse grassroots group of residents committed to mobilizing Chicago’s South Shore community by institutionalizing systems that promote peace, youth leadership, and political accountability. She also owns and operates Freedom Lifted, a small business dedicated to providing civil rights tours for people of all ages.

From 2007 to 2012, Henry served as the founding director of the Chicago Freedom School, overseeing most aspects of the nonprofit school dedicated to developing students aged 14 to 21 to be leaders in their schools and communities and to training adults to support youth-led social change.

She previously served as associate director of Mikva Challenge, a Chicago-based nonprofit that engages high school students in the political process, working with more than 50 Chicago-area high schools to design and implement curricula for teaching “Action Civics” and addressing racial segregation.

Henry was a senior program consultant in youth development at the University of Chicago, a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she taught courses to students pursuing a master’s degree in youth development, and a program coordinator for City University of New York where she monitored college performance in the areas of enrollment and student achievement and developed centralized parent outreach initiates.

From 1998 to 2003, Henry was a social studies teacher and International Baccalaureate Middle-Years program coordinator at Roald Amundsen High School in Chicago.

An Alabama native, Henry earned a B.S. degree in sociology/criminal justice from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and a M.S. Ed. degree in secondary education from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

The mission of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership is to support the pursuit of human rights and social justice by developing emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice, creating a pivotal role for liberal arts education in engendering a more just world.

Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts and sciences college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.

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The Power of Philanthropy on Display, Anonymously

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Graduates throwing caps in the airOn April 1, 2009, Kalamazoo College’s then-vice president of advancement received a phone call. The caller identified himself as the representative of someone who wanted to make a $2 million anonymous donation to the College. The money would be coming in two cashier’s checks, each for $1 million.

One check was for scholarships for minority students and women. The other was an unrestricted gift that the College could use any way it saw fit.

It was April Fool’s Day, but it wasn’t a prank.

And K wasn’t the only school receiving phone calls and checks from the same source. Within weeks, 20 colleges and universities nationwide reported receiving checks totally some $100 million from seemingly the same anonymous donor with the same request to help minority students and women.

Kamille LaRosa
Kamille LaRosa ’11 is among hundreds of K students who have benefited from an anonymous $2 million gift to the College in 2009.

Guessing the identity of the donor became a favorite pastime throughout higher education. Was it Oprah? No one knew. Or at least no one was talking.

One thing was clear, however: The power of individual philanthropy was on full public display.

After all, the bottom had just fallen out of the economy, families were reeling from job losses and home foreclosures, states across the country—including Michigan—were cutting financial aid to college students, and schools like K were being forced to take up the slack.

Five years later in spring of 2014, BBC Magazine reporter Taylor Kate Brown contacted the colleges and universities to ask three questions: How they had spent their anonymous gift? How had the gift made a difference to their institutions, their students, and the students’ families? And, had they ever identified the anonymous donor?

Read Brown’s account in “How US universities spent surprise anonymous millions.”

 

K Rated #6 in Per Capita Students Studying Abroad

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The U.S. News & World Report has rated Kalamazoo College #6 in the number of students (per capita) who study abroad as undergraduates. The publication’s “10 Institutions Where Most Students Study Outside the U.S.” placed K in the sixth position based on 81 percent of its 2012 graduating seniors having studied outside the United States during their undergraduate days at the College.

Kalamazoo College president visits two students on study abroad
Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran visited K students on study abroad in Thailand during Winter Quarter 2014.

“We are proud of our position in the field of international education,” said Associate Director of the Center for International Programs Margaret Wiedenhoeft.

“We think we have a culture of international education at K,” added Wiedenhoeft. “We want to make sure study abroad remains accessible to our students. Are our programs relevant? Are they accessible financially?”

For more than 50 years, K has been the gold standard of collegiate undergraduate study abroad programs, and it remains a signature element of the College’s vaunted K-Plan. During the recently completed 2013-14 academic year, K students studied abroad for three, six, nine months and longer at nearly 50 programs on six continents. K is also known as a destination for study abroad. Members of the Class of 2014 hailed from 25 countries outside the U.S.

Read more about study abroad at Kalamazoo College here.

Kalamazoo College to Become Promise Eligible

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Janice Brown of Kalamazoo Promise smiles at K President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran
Janice Brown (left), Kalamazoo Promise, and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Kalamazoo College

Beginning in the fall of 2015 Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) students may use the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship to attend Kalamazoo College as well as 14 other private colleges that are members of the Michigan Colleges Alliance (MCA). The news was announced on Tuesday at a press conference sponsored by the Kalamazoo Promise and the MCA.

The Promise was launched in 2005 and provides a four-year scholarship to KPS graduates who reside in the district and attend KPS through high school. The addition of the 15 MCA member institutions to the 43 Michigan public colleges and universities increases the number of Promise eligible schools to 58 throughout the state. In addition to K, MCA members include Adrian College, Albion College, Alma College, Andrews University, Aquinas College, Calvin College, Hillsdale College, University of Detroit Mercy, Hope College, Madonna University, Marygrove College, Olivet College, Siena Heights University, and Spring Arbor University.

For KPS students who enroll at MCA schools the tuition and fees will be fully and jointly funded by the Kalamazoo Promise and the MCA member institution. The Kalamazoo Promise will fund at the level of the undergraduate average tuition and fees for the College of Literature, Science and Arts at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). The MCA member institution will cover any difference between that amount and the amount of its yearly tuition and fees.

The William Randolph Hearst Undergraduate Research Fellowship at K

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Thanks to a generous gift from The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Kalamazoo College has established the William Randolph Hearst Undergraduate Research Fellowships. These competitive fellowships will provide support for summer research projects for K students majoring in the sciences or mathematics. The goal is to continue the College’s success in preparing individuals for graduate studies and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines.

Eight fellowships will be awarded each year for the next three years beginning this summer 2014. Each award will consist of a $3,000 stipend to defray travel and living expenses. Eligible disciplines include biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, and mathematics. Projects must be investigative and have the goal of generating primary research results. K first-year, sophomore, and junior students are eligible to apply.

Kalamazoo College Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences Jim Langeland ’86, Department of Biology, will serve as faculty coordinator for the program.

The Hearst Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation are national philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health, and social services. The Hearst Foundations identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive, and inspiring lives.

The George Acker Endowed Scholarship

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Teacher and coach George Acker
George Acker, teacher and coach

On the occasion of its annual Founders Day ceremony (celebrating 181 years of operation) Kalamazoo College announced the George Acker Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship will support juniors or seniors who best exemplify the qualities and character of Coach Acker, including an exceptional work ethic, leadership, a commitment to involvement in campus activities, and a high standard of integrity. Preference will be given to students who are (like Coach Acker was) the first in his family to attend college.

Acker served as a coach and professor at Kalamazoo College for 35 years (1958-93) and was inducted into the Kalamazoo College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. He coached men’s tennis teams to seven NCAA Division III championships while winning 35 consecutive MIAA championships. His tennis teams were 573-231 overall and an incredible 209-1 in conference play.

Acker was as true a “liberal arts coach” as they come. He served as head coach of the Hornet wrestling (1960-74) and cross-country (1985-88) teams. He also was line coach for the Hornet football team from 1959-69, helping guide Rolla Anderson’s squads to back-to-back MIAA championships in 1962 and 1963. He served as the College’s athletic trainer and director of the intramural sports program at different times during his career.

Most of all, he loved teaching. “Nothing has given me as much pleasure as teaching the students in my theory and activities classes,” said Acker in 1985, when he accepted the Florence J. Lucasse Award for Excellence in Teaching, the faculty’s highest honor. “Teaching and coaching are very similar, so that I feel that when I’m coaching a sport it is an extension of my teaching.” Many persons, including this author, knew “Coach” as “Teacher,” and as profoundly as the athletes he instructed, they, too, were touched by his compassion and his ability to bring out their best. Coach Acker died on July 20, 2011, of complications surrounding the stroke he suffered several days earlier.

The Right Place for the Liberal Arts

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A liberal arts education is an education for life–in all its various aspects. In fact, because life is so multifaceted, it’s hard to imagine an educational model more effective than the liberal arts. It’s this fact that makes various myths about a liberal arts education–such as the notion that it’s impractical–so pernicious. S. Georgia Nugent, senior fellow at the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and former president of Kenyon College, writes a column on the value of the liberal arts education. An autumn post of hers debunks many of the pernicious myths, including elitism, prohibitive expense, debt, impracticality, and weaker employment prospects. In a more recent post about college graduates in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), Nugent notes that America’s small, private, liberal arts colleges are more successful than large research universities graduating science majors and preparing students for doctorates in STEM fields. The results of a recent CIC report she cites suggests that liberal arts colleges provide more bang for the buck when it comes to producing STEM graduates. The Council of Independent Colleges represents more than 600 small private colleges around the country, including Kalamazoo College.

Kalamazoo College Joins “Generation Study Abroad” Initiative

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Generation Study Abroad students holding flagsKalamazoo College has joined more than 150 other U.S. colleges and universities in the Institute of International Education’s Generation Study Abroad initiative that aims to double the number of U.S. college students who study abroad by 2020. Generation Study Abroad reflects the U.S. Department of Education’s international strategy that aims to provide all U.S. students with a “world-class education” and seeks “global competencies for all students.”

In IIE’s latest Open Doors publication that documents both the outbound study abroad and the inbound international student activity for U.S. colleges and universities, Kalamazoo College was ranked 15th among baccalaureate institutions for its 2011-2012 outbound study abroad participation of 80.8 percent. Additionally, the number of international students coming to K now approaches ten percent.

In the current academic year, 2013-2014, Kalamazoo College students have studied or will study abroad on programs ranging from ten to 30 weeks. The College offers its students 44 study abroad programs in 28 countries on six continents, pre-approved for transfer of credit. Approximately 20 K students will also engage in international internships or research during summer 2014. Numerous students also take advantage of the College’s U.S.-based “study away” opportunities throughout the year.

Students participating in Kalamazoo College sponsored study abroad programs of 18-30 weeks duration, typically engage in a cultural project in addition to taking classes at the partner institution. These cultural projects allow K students to work alongside local people, use the local language, and achieve locally set goals. These cultural projects help students achieve the learning outcomes the College expects from a K study abroad experience. These outcomes include:

  1. understand, through study and experience, the cultures of several parts of the world
  2. be sensitive to and respectful of personal and cultural differences
  3. engage with global issues and cultural diversity
  4. be proficient in at least one second language and display cultural competence in a variety of contexts
  5. act effectively and responsibly as a citizen, both locally and globally, and thereby enhance intercultural understanding.

Kalamazoo College students have embarked on study abroad experiences since 1958, making the College a pioneer in sending students abroad for immersive cultural, language, and study experiences. More information about the study abroad program at K is available at the Center for International Programs website: www.kzoo.edu/cip.

New Arcus Center at Kalamazoo College Attracting Attention

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Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior sidingWood is used in one way or another on just about every home or building, from frame to trim, from siding to roof, and to finely crafted accents. But chances are you’ve never seen a building with log “bricks” laid with their circular ends showing, not stacked lengthwise, as you’d see on a typical log home.

That’s about to change.

Construction crews are busy at Kalamazoo College’s newest building, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, applying a one-of-a-kind cordwood masonry skin to this one-of-a-kind 10,000-square-foot building on the corner of Academy and Monroe streets designed by Chicago-based architectural firm Studio Gang Architects.

The wood is northern white cedar, and comes from a commercial forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, says Av Mulder, foreman for Burggrabe B and B Masonry out of Belding, Mich.

Mulder and his masons receive logs that have been cured and cut to size by the building’s construction management firm, Miller-Davis in Kalamazoo. They then form the logs in place with a special mortar that sets slowly to minimize shrinking and cracking.

Placing logs for Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership sidingThe end result is a seemingly random, yet intelligently designed, pattern that Mulder calls “a peak and valley effect.” The construction technique has been employed on barns and sheds in Northern Michigan and Canada for generations. But it’s believed to be the first time that a commercial building in the United States has been built with this type of facade.

Mulder stopped short of estimating how many individual “bricks” might be placed, but did say about 100 cords of wood would be used.

Masons attended a two-day workshop to learn how to apply the cordwood masonry. According to Mulder, a mason since 1971, neither he nor the other masons had ever worked with this technique before. He said his crew must always think about what size log to place next, in order to keep their placement fluid looking. Where the walls of the building bend and curve, masons have to customize the logs even further, making certain their angles correspond to the walls.

“This isn’t like laying a line down and building a wall,” Mulder says. “It’s kind of like working with fieldstone, but you can trim fieldstone. This is all eyeball, always thinking, especially around the windows. It’s like nothing I’ve ever worked on.”

Work has been hampered by the harsh winter the region has endured, but Mulder forecasts that the log-laying could be complete by April.

Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership exterior under construction“Cordwood masonry is an old construction technique that has been updated for a modern building,” says Paul Manstrom, Kalamazoo College associate vice president for Facilities Management. “The students, faculty, staff, and visitors who use the building will find that it’s both inspired by and suited to learning and social justice.”

According to Manstrom, the building is slated for a summertime completion and will be ready for classes in Sept. 2014. The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership will hold its With/Out Borders conference in the new structure in September.

The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership was created through an endowment from the Arcus Foundation. Construction of the Center’s new building is funded through a gift from Jon Stryker, K alumnus (Class of 1982), trustee, and Arcus Foundation founder.

Kalamazoo College President Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran Will Take a 10-Week Sabbatical in Winter 2014

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Kalamazoo College President Wilson-OyelaranKalamazoo College President Wilson-Oyelaran will take a sabbatical during the upcoming 2014 winter quarter from early January through late March.

It will be her first sabbatical since becoming president of the College in July 2005.

“I’m very grateful for the sabbatical opportunity granted me by the board of trustees,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “Typical of faculty and presidential sabbaticals, however, my time away will not all be time off. The sabbatical provides a much needed opportunity to catch up on reading and thinking. I am particularly interested in the impact that innovations in technology will have on teaching and learning and what that might mean for K.”

During the sabbatical Wilson-Oyelaran will travel to Thailand and Singapore. While in Singapore, she will visit with alumni and meet with prospective students at several international high schools. In Thailand, she will visit the Kalamazoo College study abroad program in Chang Mei where she will meet with program directors and K students to assess firsthand the facilities, program offerings, and student experiences. She will also accompany K students as they carry out their Integrative Cultural Projects, a key component of their study abroad experiences that might include a teaching assignment, internship, performance, civic engagement opportunity, or other immersive hands-on learning activity that reflects their academic, career, or extracurricular interests.

She will also deliver the 2014 Casanova Lecture at Claremont Graduate University School of Educational Studies in Claremont, California where she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

During the sabbatical, Wilson-Oyelaran will continue to focus on her duties as President of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), a year-long post she assumed in February 2013. NAICU represents more than 1,000 private nonprofit institutions of higher learning (including K) on policy issues with the federal and state governments, such as those affecting student aid, access, and government regulation.

President Wilson-Oyelaran will return to the K campus for the 2014 spring quarter that begins Monday March 31.

In her absence, Kalamazoo College Provost Michael “Mickey” McDonald will serve as acting president, and Dow Distinguished Professor in the Natural Sciences Jan Tobochnik will serve as acting provost, a role he filled for nearly a year before McDonald was hired in 2008.