Category: News Releases

News Releases

Alumni Return for Homecoming 2017

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As many as 1,000 alumni from around the nation and world will gather on the Kalamazoo College campus Friday-Sunday for K’s annual Homecoming.

Topping the list Friday night will be the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Inductions. And Hornet Pride will be on display at football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer games on Saturday, alumni volleyball, softball and baseball games on Friday and an alumni swim meet and 5k Run/Walk on Saturday.

Homecoming Welcomes Alumni Stetson Chapel
Kalamazoo College will conduct its annual Homecoming festivities Friday, Oct. 20-Sunday, Oct. 22.

Also among the Friday-Sunday events:

  • Reunions of the classes of 1967, 1972, 1977, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. There is also an informal gathering for the class of 2017.
  • Receptions and gatherings for groups including LandSea alumni, 1833 Society Young Alumni, Alumni of Color, the Emeriti Club, theatre arts alumni and athletics teams, plus a chance to socialize with faculty and staff in departmental receptions throughout the Weimer K. Hicks Student Center on Saturday morning.
  • Guided campus tours and opportunities to visit new facilities including the Fitness and Wellness Center, the Intercultural Center, the Hornet Golf Lab and revamped weight room at Anderson Athletic Center and the Batts Pavilion at the College’s Lilian Anderson Arboretum.
  • A student film festival, performances by Monkapult and Cirque du K.
  • A chance to sip hot chocolate and reminisce about campus experiences at Story Zoo around the Cavern Fire Circle next to Stetson Chapel.
  • Poetry readings honoring the late Conrad Hilberry, K’s former poet laureate.
  • Gatherings where alumni can offer advice and compare notes with current students.
  • Fun, games and treats with the Fresh Food Fairy.

You can still join the fun and renew connections with your classmates. Visit our homecoming website for a full schedule, details and registration information. And watch the College website, Facebook page and Twitter account (@kcollege) for photos and updates throughout the weekend.

 

Actresses Tomlin, Fonda Visit K, Raise Minimum-Wage Awareness

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Actresses Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda
Actresses Lily Tomlin (left) and Jane Fonda (middle) discuss an initiative to raise the minimum wage of Michigan residents with Saru Jayaraman at the Arcus Center for Social Justice.

Two legendary, award-winning actresses – Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin – visited Kalamazoo College and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) on Tuesday to heighten awareness about an initiative to raise the minimum wage of Michigan residents.

ROC United, a restaurant workers and workers’ rights group, brought Fonda and Tomlin to K for the issue-focused, non-partisan event. ROC United is a winner of the 2013 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership and partner with the ACSJL.

Fonda and Tomlin, stars of the Netflix comedy series “Grace and Frankie,” are participating in a series of ROC United fundraising and public-education events in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor this week. Fonda and Tomlin will speak out about the need for One Fair Wage in Michigan, and the importance of amplifying the voices and perspective of those who work in the restaurant industry.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York was initially founded in New York City by Fekkak Mamdouh and Saru Jayaraman after September 11, 2001, to support restaurant workers displaced as a result of the World Trade Center tragedy.

 

Learn the Ropes of Change Ringing at K

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Michiganders’ lone opportunity to participate in an international event and learn the ropes of change ringing will be at Kalamazoo College. K will welcome the public into Stetson Chapel to see a demonstration of English change ringing on tower and hand bells by members of the Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10.

Chapel Bell Change Ringing at Stetson Chapel
The Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers, seen here during President Jorge G. Gonzalez’s inauguration in November 2016, will demonstrate English change ringing on tower and hand bells on Sept. 10 at Stetson Chapel.

The event, coordinated with similar events at some of the 50 towers in the United States and Canada through the North American Guild of Change Ringers, will include an explanation of change ringing and the history of K’s chapel bells. Change ringing provides mild aerobic activity and intellectual challenges. After several weeks of lessons and commitment to regular practice, almost anyone can become a ringer. This open day will provide those interested an introduction to a hobby with endless fascination and continuing challenges. All ages are welcome; minors must be accompanied by an adult.

In change ringing, bells are rung one after another in continuously changing sequences determined by mathematical rules, producing a cascading sound rather than traditional tunes. K’s change-ringing bells are the only ones of their kind in Michigan.

The tower at Stetson Chapel was empty for its first half-century. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics T. Jefferson Smith first had the idea that it might house a set of change ringing bells after learning to ring at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. After a study to determine whether the tower could withstand eight swinging bells weighing several hundred pounds each, college trustee Maynard Conrad raised funds to buy and install the bells. In 1983, the College’s sesquicentennial, President David Breneman gave the project the final go-ahead. The bells were cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and installed June 2, 1984, at K.

Each bell bears the college motto – Lux Esto, meaning “Be Light” – and is inscribed with a Biblical quotation and the name of a person associated with the college during its first century. Many people have learned to ring at K including students, faculty, staff, alumni and area residents. Stetson Chapel has been the site of many change ringing firsts and records, including the longest continuous ringing, or peal, in North America.

For more information on the event, contact Margaret Miller at 269-365-2823 or kzooringers@yahoo.com.

 

Kalamazoo College Included in ‘Fiske Guide to Colleges’ for 2018

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The publisher Sourcebooks announced Tuesday that Kalamazoo College again is included in the annual “Fiske Guide to Colleges,” a useful resource for high school students and their families when they research prospective colleges.

Fiske Guide to Colleges logo
Kalamazoo College again will be one of more than 300 schools featured in the 2018 version in the “Fiske Guide to Colleges”

The 2018 publication, compiled by former New York Times Education Editor Edward B. Fiske, is a selective, subjective and systematic look at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and the UK.

The “Fiske Guide to Colleges” is available as a paperback book, as an iPad app on iTunes, and as a Web program on CollegeCountdown.com. The guide’s readers discover the personality of a college based on a broad range of subjects throughout the text including the student body, academics, social life, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food and extracurricular activities.

Kalamazoo College “aims to prepare students for real life by helping them synthesize the liberal arts education they receive on campus with their experiences abroad,” the publication says, adding that K students are passionate and determined to make a difference. The guide also discusses the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College’s four-part, integrated approach to an excellent education in the liberal arts and sciences. K-Plan tenets include:

  • rigorous academics. The flexibility and rigor of K’s curriculum provides students with a customized academic experience;
  • experiential education. Students connect classroom learning with real-world experience by completing career development internships or externships, participating in civic engagement and service-learning projects, and getting involved in social justice leadership work;
  • international and intercultural experience. Students choose from 42 study abroad programs in 24 countries across six continents; and
  • independent scholarship. As the culmination of their learning, students explore a subject of their choice, resulting in an in-depth, graduate-level research thesis, performance or creative work known as a Senior Individualized Project.

 

Mellon Foundation Grant Supports K Presidential Initiatives

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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Kalamazoo College a three-year, $100,000 grant to support presidential initiatives including its institutional strategic planning process.

Mellon Foundation Grant Supports K in Five
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Kalamazoo College a three-year, $100,000 grant to support presidential initiatives including the College’s strategic planning process.

Kalamazoo College, under President Jorge G. Gonzalez, has begun a strategic planning process that will address some of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing the institution. Referred to as K in Five, the process is coordinated by a planning committee appointed in March 2017. The committee includes faculty members, students, alumni, administrators and staff. The committee has begun gathering input through a number of on-campus forums as well as electronic surveys.

The committee, supported by The Clarion Group, will synthesize these results with an objective of producing a strategic plan to be vetted by a number of stakeholders before being offered to the College’s Board of Trustees for approval in March 2018.

Previous Mellon grants to Kalamazoo College have supported curricular initiatives such as the Shared Passages seminar program and the development of a critical ethnic studies major.

“The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is an invaluable strategic partner to liberal arts colleges such as K,” Gonzalez said. “Their support and guidance enables us to better engage across our institution in responding to issues including the macroeconomic forces impacting liberal arts colleges, fostering greater diversity and collaboration within our faculty ranks, and supporting effective teaching and scholarly communication.”

2017 Commencement Scheduled for Sunday

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Kalamazoo College’s 2017 Commencement will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 11, on the campus Quad. A total of 418 members of the class of 2017 will receive Bachelor of Arts degrees. A livestream will be available.

Kalamazoo College 2017 Commencement Speaker Kevin Lobo - Stryker Chairman and CEO
Stryker Corporation Chairman and CEO Kevin Lobo will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and serve as the 2017 Commencement keynote speaker.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will welcome graduates – along with about 2,500 family members and friends, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and community members – in what will be his first commencement as president. This year’s class includes:

  • 263 Michiganders;
  • students from 33 states and 14 countries; and
  • 116 double majors and three triple majors.

The College departments graduating the most students are biology, business, chemistry and psychology.

Stryker Corporation Chairman and CEO Kevin Lobo, the 2017 Commencement keynote speaker, will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Lobo joined Stryker in April 2011 and was named its chief executive officer Oct. 1, 2012. He was appointed chairman of the board July 22, 2014, and serves on the Board of Directors for Parker Hannifin Corp., a global leader in motion and control technologies.  He is also a board member of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the Business Leaders for Michigan and United Way for Kalamazoo/Battle Creek regions, and is a member of the Business Roundtable.

Lobo has a broad business career that includes executive positions in general management and finance with organizations such as KPMG, Unilever and Kraft Canada. He spent eight years with Rhone-Poulenc, with roles based in Europe as worldwide corporate controller of the chemical spin-out Rhodia and general manager of Specialty Phosphates EMEA.  He then spent eight years at Johnson & Johnson, where he was the chief financial officer of McNeil Consumer Healthcare and Ortho Women’s Health & Urology, the president of J&J Medical Products Canada and president of Ethicon Endo Surgery.

Kalamazoo College 2017 Commencement Student Speaker
Kalamazoo College 2017 Student Commencement speaker Mireya Guzmán-Ortíz.

Graduating senior Mireya Guzmán-Ortíz, of Salem, Ore., will receive a B.A. degree in critical ethnic studies and serve as the student speaker. While at Kalamazoo College, Guzmán-Ortíz served as an Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership student fellow and served other students in the College’s Writing Center.

Graduating seniors Melissa Erikson, Alyse Guenther and Chido Chigwedere will speak at Baccalaureate at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 10, at Stetson Chapel. The Baccalaureate is a nondenominational service with student and faculty speakers and musical performances.

 

K Receives $255,000 Grant From The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation

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Kalamazoo College students and researchers soon will have more effective opportunities for chemical analysis thanks to a $255,000 grant from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. The grant allows K to replace an aging nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, allowing students to analyze and identify chemical compounds and structures with state-of-the-art equipment.

Foundation president Macauley Whiting Jr. said of this charitable commitment, “The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation is deeply committed to science education as a means of vitalizing our entire region. Our history and our mission are linked to the type of innovative thinking that helps drive society forward. This grant invests in students who will lead scientific discovery in the years to come. These experiences will help prepare them for productive careers across a number of scientific fields. It would be our hope that they will choose to be part of Michigan’s future.”

NMR, like the more familiar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures used in medicine to diagnose injuries and diseases, applies a magnetic field and radio frequencies to a patient or a small chemical sample to give observable signals. These signals are like jigsaw pieces that assemble to provide a picture of what’s present. Kalamazoo College Chemistry Professor Greg Slough said nearly everything people eat, wear or consume at one point was studied with an NMR spectrometer, making the purchase central to teaching students how scientists analyze molecules. Such research helps K students gain valuable experience in their career paths and see how research applies to the real world.

“Pretty much every principle from quantum physics can now be applied in an NMR experiment and used to analyze structure,” Slough said. “When our current (spectrometer) was built around 1995, computer networking was just being implemented on a large scale. Twenty years later, scientists and students have come to demand more versatility.” With this new instrument, K students will study and collaborate with other students and research associates on campus and at their study abroad sites around the world.

Slough said essentially all biology and chemistry majors will have opportunities to use this new spectrometer. “K, in particular, emphasizes hands-on experiential learning, and this instrument will greatly enhance this in the chemical sciences,” he said.

The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation was established for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes for the public benefaction of the inhabitants of the City of Midland and of the people of the State of Michigan. K’s Dow Science Center, completed in 1992, is named in recognition of a generous grant from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation.

 

Festival Playhouse to Present ‘In the Heights’

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The Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College will present “In the Heights,” its final production of the academic year, from May 11-14 at the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St., in Kalamazoo. The musical, written by “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, maintains the season’s theme, “Broadway Firsts: Stories of ‘Outsider’ Cultural Landmarks in American Theatre.”

In the Heights
The cast of “In The Heights” celebrates as they sing “Carnaval Del Barrio.”

The Broadway show premiered in 2008, exploring three days in the lives of several characters from the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. The score features hip-hop, Latin, salsa, merengue and soul music.

Bodega owner Usnavi is dating Vanessa, who works in a beauty salon. He dreams of opening a bar in his home country, the Dominican Republic. He soon realizes he sold a winning lottery ticket worth $96,000, prompting others in the neighborhood to discuss how Usnavi and Claudia, who raised Usnavi after the death of his parents, would spend the money.

Nina loves Benny, a shy, young African-American man who worked for Nina’s parents for years. Nina’s father opposes their relationship because he wants Nina to finish her education at Stanford University. She doesn’t want her father to bankrupt himself paying for her education, but her father is prepared to sell his car-service business for her sake.

The shows start at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11-Saturday, May 13, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 14. Kalamazoo College students, faculty and staff are admitted free with their school ID. The general public may purchase tickets online or call the Playhouse box office at 269-337-7333 for more information. Reservations are encouraged.

For more information, visit the Festival Playhouse website.

 

Video: Career Summit Brings Execs, Thought Leaders to K

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Twelve top executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders from high-tech, venture capitalism, and health care related fields came to Kalamazoo College on April 7 and 8 for the College’s inaugural Career Summit. They interacted with about 120 students, while challenging the students to find their calling.

The event included receptions, a dinner, breakout sessions and panel experiences. Some presenters were alumni and others were friends and business connections of alumni. They were:

  • Jeanne Blondia ’87: Vice president of finance and treasurer, Stryker Corp.;
  • Val Cole ’83: Retired senior executive, Apple Inc.; consultant and philanthropist;
  • Amy Courter ’83: National president, Women in Defense; chief operating officer, inerTRAIN;
  • Lindsey Haswell: Director of litigation, Uber Technologies;
  • Ed Hortelano ’83: Global vice president for research and development, Loparex;
  • Terri Kline ’80: President and chief executive officer, Health Alliance Plan of Michigan; executive vice president, Henry Ford Health System;
  • Om Malik: Partner, True Ventures; founder, Gigaom;
  • Michael McFall ’93: Co-president and chief executive officer, BIGGBY COFFEE;
  • Brad O’Neill ’93: Senior vice president of global sales and success, SurveyMonkey Inc.; creator, K to the Bay; serial entrepreneur and investor;
  • Hilmon Sorey: Co-founder and chief revenue officer, CareerSofia;
  • Elena Verna: Senior vice president of growth, SurveyMonkey Inc.; and
  • Jeff Wycoff: Co-founder and managing partner, Fort Point Capital Partners.

O’Neill was the visionary behind the two-day event. It served as yet another Kalamazoo College offering, building on an array of experiences targeting employment outcomes.

O’Neill also established K-Treks when, in 2014, he invited four students to San Francisco to learn first-hand about technology careers. Since then, K-Trek programs have grown and expanded to New York City and Chicago, providing students with hands-on, outside-the-classroom opportunities. As a result, the students learn to network and discover their prospective careers. The Career Summit was designed to provide similar experiences, except this time, the professionals came to the students.