Category: Students

Kalamazoo College Spring Term 2016 Dean’s List

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Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Spring 2016 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for Dean’s List upon receipt of the final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts. Kudos to the entire group of more than 500 students, and good luck in Fall Term, 2016.

Spring 2016

A  B   C  D  E  F   G   H   I   J  K   L   M  N   O  P   Q  R   S   T   U   V  W   X   Y   Z

A

Nana-Yaw Aikins
Michelle Alba
Luis Alves-Diniz
Michael Anderson
Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Esprit Autenreith

B

Dalbyeol Bae
Julia Bartlett
Jade Beauregard
Grace Beck
Victoria Beehler
Andrea Beitel
Hayley Beltz
Katherine Bennett
Erin Bensinger
Hannah Berger
Madelyn Betts
Kevin Bhimani
Allison Bloomfield
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Kennedy Boulton
Zoe Bowman
Riley Boyd
Emily Boyle
Emerson Brown
Erin Brown
Maxine Brown
Sarena Brown
Molly Brueger
Thomas Bryant
Hayley Buckhout
Ian Bunker
Matthew Burczyk
Janice Burnett
Erin Butler
Thaddeus Buttrey
Shanice Buys

C

Alexander Cadigan
Robert Calco
Abigail Calef
Kathryn Callaghan
Mackenzie Callahan
Kalyn Campbell
Paloma Campillo
Angel Caranna
Olivia Cares
Raymond Carpenter
Lee Carter
Kebra Cassells
Coral Cervantes
Rachel Chang
Jasmine Charter-Harris
Haroon Chaudhry
Sirui Chen
Yu-Chyn Chiang
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Madeleine Chilcote
Emiline Chipman
Heeseong Cho
Elina Choi
Jennifer Cho
Jennifer Cho
Kanwal Chowdhury
Amelia Chronis
Isabelle Ciaramitaro
Joseph Cleary
Christopher Coburn
Kate Colebrook
Annaliese Collier
Cody Colvin
Quinton Colwell
Anthony Convertino
Hannah Cooperrider
Dejah Crystal

D

Susmitha Daggubati
Elan Dantus
Justin Danzy
Natalie Davenport
Corrin Davis
Robert Davis
Ximena Davis
Cecilia DeBoeck
Timothy DeCoursey
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Clare DeLong
David Demarest
Dana DeVito
Eric De Witt
Melany Diaz
Green Dickenson
Anthony Diep
Cecilia DiFranco
Margaret Doele
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Rachel Dranoff
Elizabeth Dulski
Thao Duong
Alivia DuQuet
John Dynes

E

Daniel Eberhart
Adam Edery
Emma Eisenbeis
Andres ElAmin-Martinez
Tiffany Ellis
Anna Emenheiser
Rachel Epstein
McKinzie Ervin
Michelle Escobar
Lucas Eshuis
Amanda Esler
Andriana Evangelista
Angelia Evangelista
Fiona Evans
Serita Evelyn
Kevin Ewing
Ihechiluru Ezuruonye

F

Rachel Fadler
Alex Fairhall
Brian Farrell
Andrew Feeley
Maria Feijoo
Mario Ferrini
Elizabeth Fiator
Marie Fiori
George Fishback
Emily Fletcher
Joshua Foley
Angela Fong
Delaney Fordell
Monet Foster
Steven Fotieo
Hannah Frame
Christopher Francis
Maria Franco
Rachel Frank
Jakob Frederick
Ian Freshwater
Maria Fujii
Lydia Fyie

G

Delfino Gaspar
Charlotte Gavin
Kathleen George
Sarah George
Carina Ghafari
Mousa Ghannam
Malak Ghazal
Sarah Glass
Samantha Gleason
Daniella Glymin
Abhay Goel
Shelby Golden
Emily Good
Adam Gothard
Emma Gougeon
Connor Grant
Madalyn Grau
Andre Grayson
Claire Greening
Jackson Greenstone
James Grenda
Jena Groshek
Alyse Guenther
Yicong Guo
Sapana Gupta
David Gurrola
Garrett Guthrie
Xueyun Gu

H

Kyle Hahn
Torey Halsey
Robert Hammond
Sara Hanna
Jessica Hansen
Hadley Harrison
Eric Hart
Sarah Hassle
Kelly Haugland
Shannon Haupt
Mara Hazen
Stephanie Heard
Frances Heldt
Ashley Henne
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Kyle Hernandez
Moises Hernandez
Lucia Herrera
Sophie Higdon
Adelaide Hilarides
Louis Hochster
Gabrielle Holme-Miller
Roger Hood
Shelby Hopper
Meghan Horal
Andrew Horton
Daniel Horwitz
Elise Houcek
Allia Howard
Pornkamol Huang
Audra Hudson
Robert Hudson
Nicole Huff
Briana Huisken
Julia Hulbert
Siwook Hwang

I

 

J

Jordan Jabara
Sadie Jackson
Jaehoon Jang
Eric Janowiak
Alejandro Jaramillo
Clare Jensen
Jon Jerow
YanYan Jiang
Katherine Johnson
Emily Johnston
Brittany Jones

K

Francis Kaguku
Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Emily Katz
Andrew Kaylor
Jessica Kehoe
Agnes Kemboi
Christina Keramidas
Kelsey Kerbawy
Anthony Ketner
Graham Key
Khin Oo Khin
Benjamin Kileen
Dahwi Kim
David Kim
Hannah Kim
Min Soo Kim
YoungHoon Kim
Savannah Kinchen
William Kirchen
Sai Klein
Hannah Kline
Benjamin Kochanowski
Julia Koreman
Bharath Kotha
Emily Kozal
Katherine Kreiss
Hannah Kruger
Marc Kuniansky

L

Kyle Lampar
Lauren Landman
Mackenzie Landman
Robyn Lane
Jeremy Lantis
Bryan Lara
Madeline Lauver
Andrew Laverenz
Stefan Leclerc
Annelise Lee
Joo Young Lee
Brett Lehman
Omar Leon
Phuong Le
Arianna Letherer
Sarah Levett
Emily Levy
Rachel Lifton
Hyunyn Lim
Jacob Lindquist
Xiang Lin
Kate Liska
Gordon Liu
Yishi Li
Giovanni LoGrasso
Molly Logsdon
Sara Lonsberry
Jordan Loredo
Chloe Love
Chenxi Lu
Nicholas Ludka
Samantha Luna
Liam Lundy

M

Andrea MacMichael
Madeleine MacWilliams
Alicia Madgwick
Sarah Manski
Kayla Marciniak
Guadalupe Marin
Nicholas Marsh
Cydney Martell
Natalie Martell
Alexis Martin-Browne
Elizabeth Martin
Kelsey Matthews
Rose Maylen
Karly McCall
Mallory McClure
Alexander McDonell
Abigail McDonough
Miles McDowall
Aaron McKay
Ivy McKee
Sara McKinney
Ian McKnight
Jordan Meiller
Molly Merkel
Lesley Merrill
Vanessa Merritt
Franklin Meyer
Samuel Meyers
Daniel Michelin
Chelsea Miller
Sangtawun Miller
Zach Miller
Jamie Misevich
Diana Morales-Perez
Zachary Morales
Aliera Morasch
Blanca Moreno
Aidan Morley
Cody Mosblech
Amanda Moss
Chloe Mpinga
Emma Mullenax
Stuart Murch
Justin Murshak
Hannah Muscara
Nkatha Mwenda

N

Victoria Najacht
Jacob Naranjo
Laetitia Ndiaye
Audrey Negro
Annie Nelson
Annie Nelson
Hung Nguyen
Nuong Nguyen
Phuong Nguyen
Mark Niehaus
Anne Nielsen
Naori Nishimura
Lionel Niyongabire
Nicholas Nizzardini
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Mackenzie Norman
Fernando Nunez

O

Kelly Ohlrich
Josiah Olah
Michael Oravetz
Eli Orenstein
Victoria Osorio
Connor Otto
Ty Owens

P

Dylan Padget
Dana Page
Nirmita Palakodaty
Anthony Palleschi
Kayla Park
Andrew Parsons
Khusbu Patel
Ryan Paul
Kaeli Peach
Darren Peel
Elizabeth Penix
Victoria Penman-Lomeli
Jessica Penny
Madison Perian
Kaitlyn Perkins
Lauren Perlaki
Emma Peters
Matthew Peters
Caroline Peterson
Katherine Pielemeier
Emily Pizza
Sarah Pobuda
Bradley Popiel
Maylis Pourtau
Emily Powers
Nicole Prentice
Erika Pueblo
Danielle Purkey

Q

Yilan Qiu
Zichen Qi

R

Sagar Rafai
Andrea Ramirez
Shivani Rana
Malavika Rao
Megan Riley
Skylar Rizzolo
Madeleine Roberts
William Roberts
Marion Robin
Annalise Robinson
Jakob Rodseth
Rebecca Rogers
Anna Roodbergen
Justin Roop
Peter Rossi
Stefanie Roudebush
Wendy Rubio
Brock Rucinski
Timothy Rutledge

S

Amber Salome
Tanush Samson
Christa Scheck
Katharine Scheck
Austen Scheer
Claire Schertzing
Maison Scheuer
Ashley Schiffer
Ashley Schmidt
Natalie Schmitt
Sarah Schmitt
Grady Schneider
Nicholas Schneider
Eleanor Schodowski
Cameron Schwartz
Jacob Scott
Rachel Selina
Sivhaun Sera
Lauren Seroka
Sharif Shaker
Yu Shang
Ke Sheng
Tianqi Shen
Kai Lin Shi
Geon-Ah Shin
Brandon Siedlaczek
Kaylah Simmons
Kriti Singh
Sharon Situ
Claire Slaughter
Griffin Smalley
Austin Smith
Bailey Smith
Benjamin Smith
Erin Smith
Grace Smith
Logan Smith
Margaret Smith
Sarah Smith
Meagan Soffin
Cassandra Solis
Mariam Souweidane
Federico Spalletti
Sophia Spencer
Austin Sroczynski
Honora Stagner
Vethania Stavropoulos
Collin Steen
Ellen Stormont
Marian Strauss
Matera Stuart
Caroline Sulich
Kyle Sunden
Mira Swearer
Collin Sweet
Maya Sykes

T

Kiyoto Tanemura
Hanna Teasley
Diana Temple
Kathryn Thamann
Derek Thomas
Natalie Thompson
Eric Thornburg
Charles Timmons
Mateo Tobar
Paige Tobin
Carolyn Topper
Zachary Tornow
Carmen Torrado-Gonzalez
Brooke Travis
Kelly Treharne
Dakota Trinka
Brittany Trombino
Sydney Troost
Minhkhang Truong
Elyse Tuennerman
Lydia Turke
Shelby Tuthill
Elizabeth Tyburski

U

Eva Ugelow

V

Asha Vadlamudi
David Vanderkloot
Erica Vanneste
Kaela Van Til
Natalie Vazquez
Julia Villarreal
Cory Vincent
John Vinson
Anh-Tu Vu

W

Erika Waalkes
Raoul Wadhwa
Evelyn Wagner
Brigid Walkowski
Emily Walsh
Sean Walsh
Mary Warner
Samantha Weaver
Connor Webb
Ailih Weeldreyer
John Wehr
Natalie Weingartz
Paris Weisman
Kenneth Weiss
Haley Wentz
Alex White
Zachary White
Joshua Whitney
Elijah Wickline
Hans Wieland
Jordan Wiley
Brooklyn Willett
Carolyn Williams
Kiavanne Williams
Rachel Williams
Abigail Wilson
Natalia Wohletz
Camille Wood
Lindsay Worthington
Katherine Wynne

X

Anja Xheka
Jie Xu
Mingyue Xu
Zeyu Xu

Y

Michael Yeomans
Esther Yi
Samantha Young
Adre Yusi
Zixiao Yu

Z

Rachel Zemmol
Dylan Zerki
Matthew Zhiss
Jingcan Zhu

More in a Summer: A “Quality” Internship at MDEQ

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Gabrielle Herin ’’18 in her K summer internship at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Gabrielle Herin ’18 in her K summer internship at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

[By McKenna Bramble ’16]

With a major in biology and a concentration in environmental studies, Kalamazoo College student Gabrielle Herin ’18 is interested in all of us – individuals and institutions alike – reducing our environmental impact. In order to learn more about the processes behind environmental laws and policies that can help with this, Gabrielle is completing an internship this summer with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).

Her summer internship was arranged through K’s Center for Career and Professional Development Internship Program.

Gabrielle has spent her summer collaborating with more than 20 other college interns and their supervisor, MDEQ Environmental Education Coordinator Tom Occhipinti, on seven projects, four of which she heads as project manager.

One project is publishing the first edition of the Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) “Friends Newsletter.” Gabrielle says working on the newsletter has not only provided her the opportunity to research the goals and projects of the MDNR, but has also allowed her to develop some practical and organizational skills.

“My work on the newsletter has made me see how my writing abilities have improved since being at K,” she says. “Tom even complimented my writing in the newsletter. I feel a lot more confident that in the future, if I were to be asked to write something like this, I could definitely complete it.”

Gabrielle is a rising junior at K who plans to study abroad in France in spring 2017.

She’s also looking at life after K. Because of her K internship and the exposure she’s had to the work of the MDEQ’s Water Resources Division and Environmental Education Division, she said she is interested in exploring both as possible career options.

“Interning here is prepping me for what I would do in a potential career,” she says.

McKenna Bramble ’’16
McKenna Bramble ’16

 

McKenna Bramble ‘16 graduated from Kalamazoo College with a B.A. degree in psychology and currently works as the post-baccalaureate summer assistant in the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development. She enjoys writing and reading poetry, hanging out with friends and eating chocolate. In the fall she plans to apply to M.F.A. degree programs for poetry. This is one of a series of profiles she is writing about K students and their summer internships.

K Joins WMed to help local students dream big and enter pipeline to health science careers

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SC07417Kalamazoo College welcomes 24 local high school students to campus this week for Early Introductions to Health Careers Level II (EIH-II), a cooperative program between K and Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed).

The program intends to foster biomedical science and health career aspirations for underrepresented minorities and disadvantaged high school students, grades 10-12, in Kalamazoo County. Students will participate in interactive-presentations, hands-on lab experiments, note-booking, and be exposed to physicians, health professionals in allied health, and basic scientists.

The program is designed to improve students problem solving and critical thinking skills and “help them dream a little bigger and have fun,” said Dawn DeLuca, Healthcare Career Pathways Coordinator, Office of Health Equity and Community Affairs. According to DeLuca, EIH-II is part of Kalamazoo County’s first pipeline educational initiative for health professions. It also includes EHI Level I, a program for elementary school students, and Kalamazoo Education Enrichment Pre-Med Summer Program (KEEPS), a program for students in their first two years of college.

SC07430Two Kalamazoo College students are involved in KEEPS, which aims to add to the development of current undergraduate students who are science majors and interested in pursuing health professional careers through their participation as mentors and teaching assistants. The K students and high school students will also spend time with current WMed students, which include eight K alumni.

Laura Furge, Ph.D., associate provost and Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry at K is leading EIH-II students through numerous presentations and experiments in K’s Dow Science Center this week. Among students’ activities will be learning basic lab safety and practices, talking about sodas and calculating how much soda they drink, conducting extraction and HPLC experiments, learning about enzymes via “toothpickase” activity, looking at the structure of proteins through 3D printing, and hosting a notebook competition and poster tour in Dow.

SC07426“Pipeline, pre-professional and enrichment programs are an important strategy for addressing the educational achievement gaps and diversifying the health professions and shortage of underrepresented minorities in the health professions,” said DeLuca.

“We believe it may also contribute to reducing health disparities in students’ communities through their improved knowledge about health, social determinants of health, and active citizenship through service learning with community organizations.”

Leaders off to Leadership Conference

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Leaders off to Leadership ConferenceMalak Ghazal ’19 (left), Ian Freshwater ’19 and Jazzilyn Dubois ’17 are pictured on the plane en route to attend the annual Student Government Institute hosted by the National Association for Campus Activities.  This year’s conference will be held at the University of Oregon, and these three Hornets will join students from around the country to hone their leadership skills and learn strategies to effectively manage student government and represent student needs.  Ghazal, Freshwater, and Dubois all served on the Interim Body of Student Representatives during the 2015-16 academic year, and are involved in ongoing work to redefine student government at Kalamazoo College in an effort to best meet needs of the current student body.

Kalamazoo College is a Goodwill Partner

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K student Andrew Parsons ’19 helps Goodwill student Estefani Rosales with her GED studies
K student Andrew Parsons ’19 helps Goodwill student Estefani Rosales with her GED studies. Photo by Tony Dugal

Kalamazoo College has received the Community Partner of the Year Award for 2016 from Goodwill Industries of Southwest Michigan.

In announcing the award, Goodwill officials noted that “Kalamazoo College has been an invaluable partner to Goodwill Industries of Southwest Michigan and its Adult Education programming for more than a decade.”

K students, working through the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement provide tutoring support in Goodwill classrooms for adults studying to pass a General Educational Development (GED) test, a credential that’s commonly considered equivalent to a high school diploma.

“K students also offer encouragement to our students and demonstrate that K cares about the well-being of the community at large,” said Scott Goodwin, coordinator of education services for Goodwill Industries of Southwest Michigan. “Over the years, the faces of the K students have changed, but the results remain constant. K students are committed to the students at Goodwill.”

According to Goodwin, one Goodwill student who recently passed her GED exam commented that the biggest reason she was successful was because of her K tutor’s commitment to help her and encouragement that she could finish.

“And she did,” Goodwin said.

“Kalamazoo College’s service-learning programming puts an emphasis on helping educational programming throughout Kalamazoo and the results have been wonderful. We are pleased to honor Kalamazoo College with our Community Partner of the Year Award.”

Company Co-Founders Award Achievement in Business Education at K

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Olivia Cares’16 and Christopher Monsour ’16 Photo by Anthony Dugal Photography
Olivia Cares ’16 and Christopher Monsour ’16
Photo by Anthony Dugal Photography

Congratulations to the inaugural winners of prizes awarded to two graduating Kalamazoo College seniors majoring in business based on achievement of select criteria established by the Rhoa family and administered by the faculty of K’s Department of Economics and Business.

The winner of The Robert and Karen Rhoa Prize in Business for 2016 is Olivia Cares ’16, a Dexter, Mich., native who majored in business and minored in French. Her Senior Individualized Project, or SIP, evaluated the contribution to the legal concept of crimes against humanity by the 1990s trials of René Bousquet, Paul Touvier and Maurice Papon, three French officials tried retroactively for their involvement with the Final Solution in Vichy France during World War II. Olivia will attend law school at the University of Michigan this fall.

The winner of The Robert and Karen Rhoa Prize for Outstanding Senior Individualized Project in Business for 2016 is Christopher Monsour ’16, a St. Clair Shores, Mich., native who majored in business at K. His SIP, titled “Measuring Value: Underwriting Distressed Real Estate,” is a direct reflection of his experience working at a real estate private equity firm during his junior year at K. His work there included an in-depth analysis of the traditional valuation theories and methodologies used in the real estate asset class that he then applied to the valuations of two differing properties located in Colorado and Michigan. Christopher has taken a job as an analyst for Bloomfield Capital, a real estate private equity firm located in Birmingham, Mich.

The Rhoa family are founders, owners and operators of Lake Michigan Mailers, Inc., a Kalamazoo-based company offering a complete menu of document creation, mail assembly, mail processing, presorting, data management, digital marketing, and distribution solutions to companies, schools, colleges and universities, health care providers, governmental entities and organizations throughout the world since 1977. David Rhoa ’90, president, is a K alumnus and a visiting instructor in K’s Department of Economics and Business.

Congrats, Olivia and Christopher! Thank you, Rhoa family!

Senior Presents SIP in Paris

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Justin Danzy Presents SIP in ParisJustin Danzy ’16 always believed in himself and his writing; he just wasn’t sure others would feel the same way. When he began to work on his Senior Individualized Project (SIP) at Kalamazoo College, he had one thing in mind: authenticity.

His senior project seeks to understand authenticity in various forms of expression, and he decided to focus on works by James Baldwin and Rapper J. Cole.

The music of the latter nudged him to incorporate Baldwin into the SIP, which he titled “On the Question of Authenticity: Rethinking Black Male Identity through James Baldwin and Contemporary Hip Hop.”

“It was striking to me listening to J. Cole’s ‘Forrest Hills’ album and how similar it was to Baldwin’s story ‘Sonny’s Blues,’” said Justin.  “Baldwin and Cole faced questions of their authenticity throughout their careers,” he added. “For Cole, being a rapper from the suburbs speaking on his struggles, and for Baldwin being an educated black author writing about race. Both men used speech to show how artists are more than their labels and both believed authenticity is not measured by those labels.”

As Justin explored the work of the two artists and concentrated on the meaning of authenticity, he often found himself questioning how authentic would people perceive his work.  He wondered as well whether others had an interest into understanding authenticity and its nuances.

Turns out he needn’t have worried. His SIP supervisor, Associate Professor of English and Writer in Residence Diane Seuss encouraged him to enter his SIP into an open research paper contest.

And he won, which meant presenting his work during the three-day International James Baldwin Conference at the American University of Paris (France). He was the only undergraduate presenter. The trip to Paris was his first time out of the country.  Having the opportunity to attend the conference, he said, awakened a new confidence in himself and his scholarly work—the sense that his own ideas can be useful and significant.

“If I put in the time and effort and have a team to push me in the right direction, my ideas can add to the world,” said Justin.

Justin graduated in June and is spending two months in Uganda conducting research (the English major also earned a concentration in African studies).  “I know I am capable of bridging the gap between where I am and where I want to be,” he said. “That knowledge gives meaning to the hard work of the process.”

Story by Bianca Anderson

Soil and Light

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Rich Frishman designed this faceplate for his son, Gabe Frishman

Every graduating senior contains a multitude of stories. Commencement celebrates them. And Commencement day adds more. Like this one from proud father Rich Frishman (a Seattle-area based photographer), who cultivated a special gift for his son Gabe Frishman (class of 2016) and Gabe’s friends and academic advisor. The photo is the face plate of a card designed by Rich, and the story behind it we share below in Rich’s own words.

“From our first visit, when Gabe was selecting which college would best challenge him, we have been struck by the beauty of K’s compact quad, rolling idyllically down from Stetson, and all the energy it contained. As the heart of the campus, it seems to symbolize the nurturing environment of Kalamazoo College. The towering white oaks and lush grass transform a simple rectangle bounded by concrete and brick into a welcoming meeting place full of life. The trees became symbols, living embodiments of this special place and process; of growth and strength and transformation.

Watching my son Gabe and his friends joyfully embracing each other on the quad, then hurling themselves with complete abandon into the pillow-like piles of gathered autumn leaves, inspired this botanical experiment. Gabe, my wife Brenda and I began collecting acorns on the lower end of the quad (between Hoben, Hicks and Upton) on October 26, 2012, our inaugural Family Weekend. The acorns were most abundant that year. We eagerly gathered a couple dozen freshly fallen seeds, thinking that it would be sweet to have living tokens of Gabe’s new home at our old home. It was when planting them back on Whidbey Island that I thought they’d be a great gift to give to Gabe’s friends and classmates upon graduation. My sentimental notion was evolving.

Had I been successful that first year, I would have needed a moving truck to bring the seedlings back to Kalamazoo in 2016, but Mother Nature was wise. None of those acorns seemed to germinate. Perhaps they’d been eaten by our own squirrels, or the seeds suffocated in transit, or they needed a harder freeze to activate.

By the time of our second Family Weekend I had spent endless hours studying the horticultural requirements for successful white oak acorn germination. My hypothesis was that the weather in the Maritime Northwest was too temperate for seeds that thrived in Midwest winters. So I tried refrigerating our next harvest of Kzoo quad acorns, storing them just above freezing for two months, then planting them in the early spring.
Mother Nature got a good laugh out of that experiment. Out of another dozen acorns, none seemed to survive. Apparently that theory was not ready for publication.

With Gabe in Budapest for study abroad in 2014, we had no Kzoo acorns to plant.

Our final Family Weekend, around Halloween 2015, yielded a moderate number of healthy acorns, all gathered from the same eastern end of the quad. The squirrels seemed more corpulent and the available seed stock harder to find, but we all searched. When I got these back to Whidbey, I took a minimalist approach, planting each acorn in a one-gallon pot. Thinking perhaps my first year’s failure might have been attributable to predation, I built cages to keep them safe from squirrels, chipmunks, deer and rabbits.

Eureka! Despite our very mild winter, shoots began to break the soil in March. By the time we were finalizing our Kalamazoo Commencement plans, we had nearly a score of foot-tall white oak seedlings. I decided I would drive a dozen of them from Seattle to Kalamazoo so we could give them to Gabe’s friends as living tokens of their four years at K.

Men plan and God laughs, they say. And men plant and chipmunks grin. Nature did get one more giggle before I reached Kalamazoo. When Brenda and I stopped in Chicago, I placed our dozen seedlings in a sunny spot protected from the deer that roamed the neighborhood. Some wily chipmunks smelled a feast and eviscerated half the crop from their pots, so we were left with just six to give as gifts. Gabe carefully distributed those few to his brilliant advisor, Professor John Dugas, and five other friends.

Our garden still has six authentic Kalamazoo Quad white oak seedlings, now in two-gallon pots, awaiting final placement. One I know will grow by our house, a reminder of a time and place we hold dear. One will follow Gabe wherever he lands, a symbol of where he was launched.

The choice of tree was completely dictated by heritage. If Kalamazoo’s quad was dotted with Mountain Ash, I would have planted whatever Mountain Ash seeds I could gather. The seeds had to come from the quad because they serve as a totem of the school and the educational quest. Acorns gathered elsewhere would not suffice.

The graduation card was a last-minute creative exercise. I wanted to offer a context and explanation for why Gabe’s gift was significant. I consider the Kalamazoo experience a gift that empowers its students to grow from humble soil into the light.

Gabe is passionate about learning. His hobbies have long been thinking, reading, and questioning…along with cycling, camping and rockhounding.

When it came to selecting a school, he sought a small liberal arts college where he would be challenged academically and supported emotionally, where he could build relationships with faculty and friends. His interests in international affairs, politics, philosophy and the environment were part of what lead him to select Kalamazoo College.

Gabe’s plans for his future are still evolving. He’s considering taking some time to work in his field of study, political science, possibly through a non-profit or NGO or outreach program like the Peace Corps. Gabe anticipates eventually returning to school to get a Ph.D. or J.D., but first he wants to better understand precisely where he wants to focus his energies.”

The inside of Rich’s graduation card reads: WE CELEBRATE YOUR GRADUATION FROM K, AND THE DEDICATION IT REPRESENTS. THIS WHITE OAK SEEDLING IS FROM AN ACORN FALLEN FROM ONE OF THE MANY BEAUTIFUL TREES THAT LINE KALAMAZOO’S QUAD. IT IS A SYMBOL OF A TIME AND A PLACE FOREVER DEAR TO OUR HEARTS. WE HOPE YOU WILL GROW LIKE THESE TREES, FULL OF STRENGTH AND POWER AND LIFE’S MAJESTY.

Heyls On Their Way to K (Mostly)

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2016 Heyl Scholars
2016 Heyl Scholars who will attend Kalamazoo College or WMU School of Nursing. Front row, from left: Shukrani Nsenga, Loy Norrix HS; Anna Roodbergen, Vicksburg HS; Brianna Harrison, Kalamazoo Central HS; and Hannah Laurin, Kalamazoo Central HS. Second row, from left: Taylor Ashby, Kalamazoo Central HS; Kento Hirakawa, Portage Central; and Kelsi Conroy, Kalamazoo Central HS. Back row, from left: Michael Orwin, Portage Northern HS; Matthew Krinock, Portage Northern HS; and Samuel Maddox, Gull Lake HS. NOTE: Two Heyl Scholars were not pictured.

At a dinner last evening Kalamazoo College feted the dozen 2016 Kalamazoo county high school graduates who earned Heyl Scholarships for Kalamazoo College (science and math) or Western Michigan University (nursing). The scholarship covers tuition, book costs and room charges. The winners are (l-r): front row — Shukrani Nsenga, Loy Norrix; Anna Roodbergen, Vicksburg; Brianna Harrison, Kalamazoo Central; Hannah Laurin, Kalamazoo Central; second row — Taylor Ashby, Kalamazoo Central; Kento Hirakawa, Portage Central; Kelsi Conroy, Kalamazoo Central; back row — Michael Orwin, Portage Northern; Matthew Krinock, Portage Northern; and Samuel Maddox, Gull Lake. Not pictured are Julie Zabik and Marjorie Wolfe, both from Loy Norrix. Harrison, Conroy and Laurin will attend WMU. Nsenga, Roodbergen, Ashby, Hirakawa, Orwin, Krinock, Maddox, Zabik and Wolfe are on their way to K! (Photo by Tony Dugal)

Study Abroad in Soccer

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Andrew Bremer at US Soccer Paralympic Training
Andrew Bremer at US Soccer Paralympic Training. Photo by Hana Asano.

Like many Kalamazoo College student athletes over the years, junior Andrew Bremer will enjoy a spring term international experience. His travel will take him to Spain, the Netherlands and (possibly) to Brazil, not as a currently enrolled K student but instead as a member of the United States Paralympics soccer team.

“Before all this happened,” says Andrew, “I’d only been on a plane once, and never out of the country.”

“All this” started with a June 2015 invitation to attend training camp for the U.S. team. That first camp for Andrew (requiring his second plane trip) took place at the National Training Center for Soccer in Los Angeles last October. Andrew had to miss a week of fall term classes as well as two soccer matches (he plays defense for the Hornet team). The second training camp occurred in November (after Thanksgiving and therefore the end of fall term, “thankfully,” smiles Andrew) at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego.  For training camp number three Andrew flew to Florida in early January.

“Missing week one of winter term was tough,” says Andrew, who is as hard working and disciplined in his studies as he is on the pitch.  The economics and business major (and mathematics minor) enjoyed the full support of his K professors and soccer coach, as well as that of Associate Dean of Students Dana Jansma, who notified the College’s communication office about Andrew’s story and his plans for junior spring term.

He will take a leave of absence that term because he learned in late January that he is invited to join the U.S. Paralympics soccer team. The team will train for most of the month of April in Atlanta. At the end of that month the team will depart for Barcelona, Spain, for a pre-Paralympics tournament to include seven of the eight teams that will compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In addition to the U.S. squad, the eight teams include Russia, Ireland, Brazil, Ukraine, Argentina, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

“The pool play format guarantees us at least three games in Spain,” says Andrew. After the tournament the team will return to Atlanta in mid-May for more training. Then it’s off to a four-team June tournament in the Netherlands, organized by the International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football. After that tournament Andrew will wait to see if he’s made the roster for Paralympic Games in Rio.

He feels his chances are pretty good, and the prospect of playing there (September 7-18) he considers the most exciting aspect of his soccer study abroad adventure.

“The team will stay in the Olympic Village,” says Andrew, “and the atmosphere will be electric.” He says that the Paralympics soccer matches that followed the London Olympics drew crowds of some 13,000 spectators on average. And the stadium in Rio can hold 15,000 people.

His participation in the Paralympic Games will mean Andrew misses the first few days of fall term, but he’s proven he can handle that challenge. He plans to do preliminary research for his Senior Individualized Project while in Atlanta, where training occurs nearby the liberal arts school Oglethorpe University and its library. During previous trips to Los Angeles, San Diego and Bradenton (Fla.) Andrew grew accustomed to finding a quiet place between practices to knock off some study. And, as good fortune would have it, he completed most of his requirements for his major in his first two years at K. All that remains for economics and business will be the SIP and senior seminar.

True to his liberal arts nature, Andrew intends to snag that math minor as well. And speaking of liberal arts, it’s evident in his soccer too: though he plays defense for K, for Team U.S.A. he prowls the pitch as a forward. He’ll resume the former when he steps foot again on MacKenzie Field fall term. And academically, “I’ll complete all my degree requirements in time for June commencement.

A challenge? Yes. But in some ways enrolling at K at all may been his toughest initial test, what with the familial tug of Calvin College (both his parents are graduates, and the family lives about two blocks away from the campus) and Hope College (his older brother is a graduate and his younger sister a current student). How did Andrew navigate these cross currents?

“I love the Quad,” he says, “and K’s academic rigor. In fact, I love it here so much that it’s painful to take the leave from spring term.” Now that’s a student athlete! With quite a family sports pedigree. His older sister swam the Rice University (Houston, Texas) team. His older brother played hockey for the Flying Dutch, and his younger sister is a member of Hope’s soccer team.

Will they or his parents attend any of his matches overseas? “Probably not in Spain or the Netherlands,” says Andrew. “But if I’m on the roster for Rio, well, they’ve already inquired about plane tickets.”

Toward that end, K shouts out a huge “Good luck, Andrew!”