Six Kalamazoo County high school students seeking to major in STEM-related fields have earned Heyl Scholarships to attend Kalamazoo College in the 2023-24 academic year.
The Heyl Scholarship Fund was established in 1971 through the will of Dr. Frederick Heyl and Mrs. Elsie Heyl. Frederick Heyl was the first chemist at The Upjohn Company, later becoming a vice president and the company’s first director of research. He also contributed to about 80 research papers and patents while teaching chemistry at K. He maintained a lifelong passion for science and education and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from K in 1937.
Since then, Heyl scholarships have enabled hundreds of high school graduates from Kalamazoo County to attend Kalamazoo College for STEM-focused majors or Western Michigan University for nursing, with renewable benefits for up to four years that cover tuition, fees, housing and a book allowance.
This year’s K recipients of the scholarships and their high schools are:
Abigail Eilertson, Gull Lake and the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center (KAMSC)
Pauline Hawkes, Kalamazoo Central
Jason Krawczyk, Portage Central and KAMSC
Ava Schwachter, Kalamazoo Central and KAMSC
Anthony Valade, Portage Northern and KAMSC
Benjamin Whitsett, Loy Norrix and KAMSC
Two other scholars, Kelcey Briggs and Riley Sackett, have graduated from Loy Norrix High School and will attend the Western Michigan University Bronson School of Nursing.
Riley Sackett (from left), Kelcey Briggs, Ava Schwachter, Jason Krawczyk, Pauline Hawkes, Abigail Eilertson, Benjamin Whitsett and Anthony Valade are this year’s Heyl Scholars. Schwachter, Krawczyk, Hawkes, Eilertson, Whitsett and Valade will attend Kalamazoo College. Sackett and Briggs will attend Western Michigan University’s Bronson School of Nursing.
Congratulations to the class of 2023! This year’s Commencement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Sunday, June 11, on the campus Quad. Here’s what you need to know about the weekend’s events surrounding Kalamazoo College Commencement and the ceremony itself.
Rehearsal
Seniors are required to attend Commencement rehearsal at 4 p.m. Thursday at Dalton Theatre. Faculty and staff will provide graduating seniors with pertinent information including what to do during an intricate line-up and processional. Students who need to be excused from rehearsal should contact the Office of Alumni Engagement in advance at alumni@kzoo.edu. There will be a senior picnic on the Stetson Chapel patio after the rehearsal.
Parking This Weekend
For your convenience, most of the faculty, staff and student parking lots will be open to everyone. Guests are also invited to use street parking on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods. See the parking information page for details related to street detours, graduate and accessible drop-off, campus parking lots, street parking, campus maps and more.
The class of 2023 will celebrate Commencement at 10 a.m. Sunday on the campus Quad.
Commencement Saturday
Receptions for individual departments help families meet professors and see individual projects from selected seniors. Consult the department schedules for information on the time and location for each event. The day’s remaining events—including the Senior Awards Program, the Senior Music Recital and the Baccalaureate—will take place at Stetson Chapel.
Seniors receiving awards will get an invitation from the Provost’s Office after finals to attend the Senior Awards Program, which begins at 2:30 p.m. Contact the Office of the Provost by email if you have questions about the event. The Senior Music Recital is a public concert at 4:30 p.m. featuring performances by graduating seniors who have been involved in music. All are welcome to attend. The Baccalaureate is a public non-religious service with student and faculty speakers and musical performances beginning at 8 p.m.
Livestreams for the Senior Awards Program, Senior Music Recital and Baccalaureate will be available for those unable to attend. An information desk will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the atrium at Hicks Student Center. The College’s bookstore will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Commencement Sunday
All seniors should meet at Dalton Theatre in their cap and gown no later than 9:30 a.m. Although Commencement will take place outside regardless of weather conditions, the ceremony could be delayed by up to three hours if there is heavy rain or severe weather. Communication about a delay would be sent through a K-Alert, social media and email no later than 8 a.m. Sunday. The ceremony is scheduled to last about two and a half hours.
There are no tickets or rain tickets required for the ceremony, and there is no limit to the number of guests each senior can invite to campus. Chairs will be available to accommodate family and friends on the Quad on a first-come, first-served basis. Open seating will also be available on the grass of the Upper Quad, where guests can sit in lawn chairs and blankets to view the ceremony.
Guests with a mobility challenge can find answers to frequently asked questions on our accessibility information page. An information desk will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the atrium at Hicks Student Center. The College’s bookstore will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Commencement Speakers
Alumnus Larry J. Bell ’80, the founder of Bell’s Brewery, Inc., and author Jaroslav Kalfař will be the ceremony’s featured speakers.
Bell majored in political science at K before founding Bell’s Brewery Inc. in 1985. Kalfař’s debut novel, Spaceman of Bohemia, was the Summer Common Reading book for the incoming class of 2018, and Kalfař visited campus in September of that year to discuss his book as part of new student orientation. Per K tradition, he returns to address this same class of students at their commencement.
Bell and Kalfar both will receive honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees.
More Information
The Office of Alumni Engagement maintains a website that offers more details regarding Commencement including a list of frequently asked questions, dining and lodging information, and ceremony accommodations. For more information, visit the site at commencement.kzoo.edu.
Author Jaroslav Kalfař will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from K during Commencement on Sunday.
Larry Bell ’80, the founder of Bell’s Brewery, Inc., will address the class of 2023 at Commencement on Sunday.
Kalamazoo College is one of the nation’s best colleges for students seeking a great education with excellent career preparation at a relatively affordable price, according to the Princeton Review.
The education services company Tuesday named K as one of its Best Value Colleges for 2023 and ranked the College No. 16 among the Top 20 Private Colleges for Making an Impact. That ranking is up two spots from No. 18 last year.
“It’s not surprising that Kalamazoo College continues to receive these honors from the Princeton Review,” Dean of Admission Suzanne Lepley said. “The K-Plan—our unique approach to the liberal arts and sciences—provides a broad-based education, as well as the communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills students will need as professionals, continuing students and citizens. A K education empowers their outcomes as they help build a better world.”
The Princeton Review chose 209 schools for the 2023 list based on data from its surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges in 2022-23. Topics covered everything from academics, cost and financial aid to graduation rates and student debt. The company also factored in data from its surveys of students attending the schools as well as data from PayScale.com’s surveys of alumni about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction.
The Princeton Review has named Kalamazoo College one of its Best Value Colleges for 2023 and ranked K No. 16 among the Top 20 Private Colleges for Making an Impact.
In all, the Princeton Review crunched more than 40 data points to tally return-on-investment ratings of the colleges that were Best Value Colleges school selections.
While the Princeton Review does not rank the Best Value Colleges hierarchically from 1 to 209, Kalamazoo College is one of just four Michigan institutions, private or public, to be honored this year. It’s also the only private institution in the state recognized as a top place where students can make an impact.
“The schools we chose as our Best Value Colleges for 2023 are a select group: they comprise only about 8% of the nation’s four-year undergraduate institutions,” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of the Princeton Review. “We commend their administrators, faculties, staff and alumni for all they are doing to educate their students and guide them to success in their careers. These colleges are also exceptional for the generous amount of financial aid they award to students with need and/or for their comparatively low cost of attendance.”
The Princeton Review is also known for its other college rankings in dozens of categories, many of which are reported in its annual book, The Best 388 Colleges, published in August, which again included K in 2023.
Kalamazoo College and TowerPinkster—an architecture, engineering and interior design firm—are celebrating that their combined efforts have led to LEED certification status from the U.S. Green Building Council for the College’s natatorium.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the most widely used green-building rating system in the world. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement and leadership.
“The award of LEED certification punctuates the roll-out of the College’s updated Climate Action Plan, which leans heavily on energy reduction to meet its greenhouse-gas emission goals, as well as creating a healthier campus,” Kalamazoo College Associate Vice President of Facilities Management and Chief Sustainability Officer Susan Lindemann said. “This is a significant achievement toward that plan.”
The 29,600-square-foot, two-story natatorium opened in 2021. During the natatorium’s design and construction, the collaborators considered materials, efficient design, and the overall health of the facility’s users in their sustainable practices. The features and elements that led to LEED certification status include:
A light-toned roof that helps prevent heat from being reflected into the atmosphere.
Efficient rainwater and stormwater management that ensures runoff from storms up to a 98th percentile event will be retained onsite.
Low-flow plumbing fixtures installed to reduce the water used in toilets, showers and sinks.
Native-plant landscaping that eliminates the need for irrigation.
Heat systems that recover energy for the pool air and water.
Dedicated outdoor air systems that provide fresh air and efficient heat for spectator areas and locker rooms.
A chloramine evacuator system that uses vents to reduce air contaminants where swimmers breathe while preventing a chloramine build up in the building.
Bicycle infrastructure with indoor and outdoor parking spaces.
Additional energy and water meters to monitor the use of resources.
Construction practices that allowed 52 percent of the construction waste to be diverted from landfills.
The natatorium features eight competition lanes, a separate diving area with 1-meter and 3-meter boards, on-deck seating for athletes, a dryland training room, an office suite for coaches and meet management, a high-quality timing system and large scoreboard, varsity team locker rooms for swimmers and divers and a display space of awards in the lobby.
“The new natatorium is truly one-of-a-kind. Its design emphasizes the idea that buildings, which traditionally have a very heavy energy use, can be designed efficiently while still prioritizing the needs and health of student athletes,” said Perry Hausman, manager of mechanical engineering at TowerPinkster. “We are especially proud of the design choices Kalamazoo College selected to promote healthy indoor air quality for a facility type that is so often associated with odors. Congratulations to Kalamazoo College for this incredible honor and for their commitment to sustainable building initiatives.”
Take a virtual tour of Kalamazoo College’s natatorium.K’s natatorium has earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.Kalamazoo College’s natatorium features eight competition lanes, a separate diving area with 1-meter and 3-meter boards, on-deck seating for athletes, a dryland training room, varsity team locker rooms for swimmers and divers, and more.
A storyteller and comedian with Broadway credits will be the featured presenter at Kalamazoo College’s Kafu Lecture on Thursday, April 20, in the Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts.
Katsura Sunshine is one of only a few living non-Japanese masters of rakugo, a 400-year-old tradition of comic-monologue storytelling in Japan. In the practice, a lone storyteller, dressed in a kimono, kneels on a cushion while using a fan and a hand towel as props.
To become a professional rakugoka, a storyteller must be apprenticed to a master, from whom the storyteller receives a stage name. Sunshine, originally from Canada, first was accepted as an apprentice to the rakugo storytelling master Katsura Bunshi VI in September 2008. He debuted professionally on April 26, 2009, in Singapore, and completed his three-year rakugo apprenticeship in November 2011.
Sunshine has performed in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Slovenia, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Gabon, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and Japan. Reviews of Sunshine’s critically-acclaimed performances, such as a 2019 review from the New York Times, say his tales and prologues are full of self-deprecating humor, placing him in scenarios where he commonly plays an outsider. Watch excerpts from his previous performances in English and Japanese at Sunshine’s YouTube channel.
The Kafu Lecture was established in 1982 by an anonymous donor in honor of Nagai Kafu, an acclaimed 20th century Japanese writer. Kafu studied at Kalamazoo College during the 1904-05 academic year. Admission to the event is free and open to the public. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with the show beginning at 7.
The event is cosponsored by K’s departments of Japanese, theatre and anthropology-sociology, and the Soga Japan Center at Western Michigan University. For more information, email K’s Department of Japanese at japanese@kzoo.edu.
Katsura Sunshine is a master of rakugo, a 400-year-old Japanese art of comedy and storytelling. He will perform in a free show at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 20, in Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts.
Sunshine’s YouTube channel features some of his English performances of rakugo.
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez was named today to serve on the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities. His term will start after the ACE annual meeting April 15 and run through September 2026.
ACE is a membership organization that mobilizes the higher education community toward shaping effective public policy and professional practice to benefit students, communities and the public good. More than 1,700 colleges and universities, related associations and other organizations in the U.S. and abroad make ACE the only major higher education association to represent two-year and four-year, public and private degree-granting institutions.
“I’m honored to be joining the ACE board as an institutional representative of the Council of Independent Colleges,” Gonzalez said. “I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues to support the work of ACE, an organization that advocates for educational innovation and champions equity and access to a high-quality education for all students.”
Gonzalez has served as K’s president since July 2016 and has been a fierce advocate of the liberal arts. He previously served Occidental College as its vice president for academic affairs and dean from 2010–2016. Before working at Occidental, Gonzalez was an economics faculty member at Trinity University for 21 years.
Gonzalez served as the president of the International Trade and Finance Association in 2014. He is the president of the Board of the F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl Science Scholarship Fund and serves on the boards of the Annapolis Group, Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities, Michigan Colleges Alliance, Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
“I deeply appreciate Jorge’s service to the ACE Board of Directors and dedication to helping ACE carry out our mission to mobilize American higher education for the good of our students and communities,” ACE President Ted Mitchell said.
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will serve on the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities.
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has named Kalamazoo College a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Students. This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
K has four representatives in the U.S. Student Program, leading to the honor for the fifth time in the past six years. K is the only college in Michigan to earn the top producer distinction in the bachelor’s institution category.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships to graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists so they may teach English, perform research or study abroad for one academic year.
Many candidates apply for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program as graduating seniors, though alumni may apply as well. Graduating seniors apply through their institution. Alumni can apply as scholars through their institution or as at-large candidates.
K’s student representatives in 2022-23 and their host countries are Rebecca Chan, Taiwan; Libby Burton and Kiernan Dean-Hall, Germany; and Julia Bienstock, Spain. Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas represents K as a Fulbright Scholar, and Matthew Flotemersch ’20 was accepted into Fulbright’s U.S. Teaching Assistant Program in Austria for 2022-23.
“This distinction reminds us of what intercultural experiences mean to our students and why Kalamazoo College is an exceptional model for learning on a global scale,” Center for International Programs Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft said. “We’re extremely proud of all of this year’s Fulbright representatives and our status as international immersion leaders.”
About the Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. It is also among the largest and most diverse exchange programs in the world.
Fulbright awards about 9,000 merit-based scholarships in the United States and more than 160 countries every year to accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds and fields. Fulbrighters study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to complex global challenges. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually.
Rebecca Chan ’22
Libby Burton ’22
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by an annual appropriation from Congress to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.
“On behalf of President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, congratulations to the colleges and universities recognized as 2022-2023 Fulbright Top Producing Institutions, and to all the applicants who were selected for the Fulbright Program this year,” said Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “Thanks to the visionary leadership of these institutions, administrators, and advisors, a new generation of Fulbrighters—changemakers, as I like to say—will catalyze lasting impact on their campus, in their communities and around the world.”
In 2022, national publications continued to recognize Kalamazoo College as an outstanding institution of higher education. That reputation was furthered through the achievements of faculty, staff and academic departments, and donors funding K’s strategic plan, Advancing Kalamazoo College: A Strategic Vision for 2023. Here are the institution’s top 10 stories this year as determined by your clicks. Find the top stories from our students, faculty and staff, and alumni.
K awarded one faculty member and one staff member with two of the highest awards it bestows on its employees with Professor of Psychology Bob Batsell earning the Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, and Student Health and Counseling Centers Office Coordinator Jen Combes granted the W. Haydn Ambrose Prize.
Professor of Psychology Bob Batsell
Student Health and Counseling Centers Office Coordinator Jen Combes receives the Ambrose Prize from Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez.
Thanks to a lead anonymous gift, and the philanthropy of other donors, a new endowed fund is supporting exemplary seniors and their Senior Integrated Projects in the Department of History while honoring two of the department’s emeriti professors, David Strauss and John Wickstrom.
Emeriti History Professors John Wickstrom, David Barclay and David Strauss
K is gaining global repute among some of the top institutions in higher education with Money magazine ranking K 19th among the country’s liberal arts and sciences colleges and 50th in the Midwest regardless of public or private status.
K’s Department of German Studies was one of just three programs in the country this year honored by the American Association of Teachers of German with a German Center of Excellence award. The designation is presented to well-established and growing programs with demonstrated excellence in instruction, and strong support from administration, professional colleagues, alumni and students.
The faculty members in K’s German department include Co-Chair and Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German Kathryn Sederberg, Co-Chair and Professor of Classics Elizabeth Manwell, Instructor of German Stefania Malacrida and Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke.
Kathryn Sederberg is the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of German and co-chair of the Department of German Studies.
Students participating in faculty-advised research or creative projects now have access to dedicated funding thanks to a $250,000 gift from a couple who previously served as members of the K’s faculty and administration.
The Richard J. Cook and Teresa M. Lahti Endowment for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity was established to facilitate faculty-student collaborative work. The fund provides stipends, materials and essential project-related travel assistance to students engaged in such research or creative activity.
An independent study from the Princeton Review shows that K provides one of the most outstanding returns on investment in higher education. The education-services company profiles and recommends K in the 2022 edition of The Best Value Colleges, an annual guide to undergraduate schools, and again in The Best 388 Colleges.
The Princeton Review doesn’t rank the Best Value Colleges. However, K received a separate honor in The Best Value Colleges guide as the College was ranked No. 18 on a list of the Top 20 Private Colleges Where Students Are Making an Impact. This means K students said through surveys that their student-government opportunities, the College’s sustainability efforts and K’s on-campus student engagement are providing students with opportunities to make a difference in their community.
The Princeton Review examined more than 650 institutions for this year’s list.
K had six representatives from the class of 2021 in Fulbright’s U.S. Student Program, leading to the College receiving top producer status for the fourth time in five years.
K’s representatives in 2021-22 and their host countries were Helen Pelak ’21, Australia; Katherine Miller-Purrenhage ’21, Germany; Sophia Goebel ’21, Spain; Molly Roberts ’21, France; Margaret Totten ’21, Thailand; Nina Szalkiewicz ’21, Austria; and Evelyn Rosero ’13, South Korea.
If you’re a student who wants an excellent education at a great price, K will provide it, according to Forbes magazine. Forbes also says choosing K means you’ll follow in the footsteps of successful entrepreneurs and countless influential leaders in their fields.
The magazine chose K as the top private college in Michigan, ranking it third in the state overall and No. 183 in the country among its picks of the top 500 schools in the U.S.
A generous $1 million gift from Geoffrey N. Fieger and Kathleen J. Fieger will support current and future students by funding the Keenie and Julian Fieger Endowed Scholarship, named for Kathleen and the couple’s son Julian.
K received approval from the city’s commissioners in October to move forward with a master plan that focuses on enhancing and expanding the on-campus living experience while strengthening the connection between K’s campus and the surrounding community.
City commissioners have approved Kalamazoo College’s 2022 Campus Master Plan.
Richard J. Cook and Teresa M. Lahti have established an endowment for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity to facilitate faculty-student collaborative work.
Kalamazoo College students participating in faculty-advised research or creative projects now have access to dedicated funding thanks to a $250,000 gift from a couple who previously served as members of the College’s faculty and administration.
The Richard J. Cook and Teresa M. Lahti Endowment for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity was established to facilitate faculty-student collaborative work. The fund provides stipends, materials and essential project-related travel assistance to students engaged in such research or creative activity.
The fund began awarding grants in 2020, providing support to projects as varied as chemistry research related to solar energy production and efficiency, the study of the physical structure of viruses and a poetry collection exploring themes of identity.
“A gift such as this one improves equity for students with financial need who want to take advantage of these collaborative opportunities—particularly in the summer months, when students are also working and saving for the coming academic year,” Provost Danette Ifert Johnson said. “We are so grateful to Richard and Terry for supporting what is often a transformative experience for K students.”
After earning a bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University, Richard Cook joined the faculty at Kalamazoo College in 1973, eventually serving as chair of the division of natural sciences and mathematics. In 1987, he received one of Kalamazoo’s highest honors, the Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship. He was named provost of the College in 1989 and served for seven years in that role before being named president of Allegheny College in 1996. Cook left Allegheny in 2008 and joined Lahti Search Consultants. Today he is a higher education governance and leadership consultant with Cook Leadership Partnership.
Teresa Lahti was the dean of admission at K from 1991-1996, where she helped to lift K’s national profile on the admission stage. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Saint Benedict and completed graduate work at the University of Notre Dame. Lahti began her career at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University in Minnesota as an admissions counselor and later served as director of recruitment at the University of Miami in Florida and director of admissions at Agnes Scott College in Georgia before joining K. She founded Lahti Search Consultants in 1997, an executive search firm that specialized in placing enrollment leaders at more than 250 colleges and universities.
“We know from firsthand experience the life-changing difference scholarship support and dedicated mentors can make in a student’s trajectory,” Cook and Lahti said. “It is a true privilege to support K’s longstanding commitment to its nationally recognized student-faculty research program. We are confident that future students will benefit from the excitement of discovery through faculty-guided projects as previous generations of students have.”
Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg ’23 and Eleanor Carr ’23 were two of the integral people working with K Votes to support student voting by organizing shuttles to the polls for the 2022 Midterm Election.
A nonpartisan and nonprofit initiative is saluting Kalamazoo College today as one of 394 U.S. institutions doing the most in higher education to encourage student voting.
K is being recognized as a 2022 All-In Most-Engaged Campuses honoree, meaning that the College:
Reported its 2020 student voting data to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which is run through the Institute of Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University.
Shared that data with the All-In Campus Democracy Challenge, an effort that strives to improve and increase democratic-engagement activities on college campuses.
Developed and submitted to the All-In challenge a 2022 voter-engagement action plan.
Signed on to a national list of institutional presidents committing their colleges to efforts that increase student turnout at the polls.
K Votes, the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement’s (CCE) nonpartisan coalition to inform the College’s students, faculty and staff members about voting and civic engagement, is the primary driver of K’s efforts in increasing voter participation. In 2020, K eclipsed national averages for voter turnout as 83.7 percent of the student body cast ballots in the presidential election. That rate was the highest among all campuses in Michigan and put K in the top 4 percent of colleges and universities nationally that reported their data to the IDHE.
K Votes representatives work in partnership with their student peers, the local League of Women Voters and the national Rock the Vote organization—which is led by Executive Director Caroline DeWitt ’04, a K alumna—to register new voters, mail absentee ballots, provide rides to the polls, and distribute candidate information with maps to local polling places.
Those endeavors are the hallmarks of a robust get-out-the-vote effort, currently led by CCE Program Associate Riley Gabriel ’20 and K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg ’23, along with students, faculty, emeriti faculty and staff.
“In addition to CCE staff, we could not have done any of this without the rest of the K staff and faculty who were eager to help with driving, helping register voters, and just getting the word out,” Lichtenberg said. “We appreciated the contributions of students Eleanor Carr, Lyrica Gee and Abby Stump, who worked closely with the CCE’s Students for Reproductive Freedom, and we collaborated with the NAACP and League of Women Voters of the Kalamazoo Area, registering voters at the Women’s March and assisting with their candidate forums, led by the LWVKA’s MerriKay Oleen-Burkey and Denise Hartsough.”
“Young people are shaping our future in myriad ways, and their informed engagement in elections is vital,” CCE Director Alison Geist said. “The CCE is grateful to our student leaders and all of the people in our community, both on and off campus, who energetically encouraged and enabled students to vote, many for the first time. Voting isn’t a panacea for social change, but it helps.”