Category: Students

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!”

Heyl Earns Goldwater

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Heyl Scholar Raoul WadhwaRaoul Wadhwa ’17 has won the very competitive and nationally prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. The Goldwater Scholarship Program was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering and to foster excellence in those fields.

Raoul will graduate in June 2017 with majors in chemistry and mathematics. At K he currently serves as the Civic Engagement Scholar for the Center for Civic Engagement’s Spanish Medical Interpreting group. He coordinates students from K to serve as medical translators for Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking staff, nurses, and doctors at a local medical clinic. “I first participated in this program as a first-year,” says Raoul, “and I enjoy working with a group of fellow students to improve the health of our community.” He has yet to decide where he will attend graduate school, but he has no uncertainty over his decision regarding his undergraduate education. “I am really glad that I was able to attend K,” says the Heyl scholar. “The relatively small community size fosters the building of close relationship with classmates and colleagues, and I value that about K.” According to Diane Kiino, the College’s director of health sciences and community and global health, K’s last Goldwater Scholar (Tibin John ’15) also was a Heyl Scholar.

STORIES Wins at North by Midwest

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EDITOR’S NOTE (May 24): “The Stories They Tell” won the Kalamazoo Film Society’s “Palm d’Mitten” Award for best local film. And the documentary won second place for best feature film at this weekend’s NxMW Film Festival in Kalamazoo! Pictured (below) at the award ceremony are (l-r): Zac Clark ’14 (Production Assistant), Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan (Co-Authorship Project Creator), Visiting Instructor of Art Danny Kim (Director), Matt Hamel (Photographer/Animator), Michelle Hamel (Videographer) and Dhera Strauss (Videographer). CONGRATULATIONS!

Film Creators of 'The Stories They Tell'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(April 26) “The Stories They Tell,” a documentary film by Visiting Instructor of Art Danny Kim is an official selection of the 2016 North by Midwest Film Festival and will be shown in the Wellspring Dance Theater at the Epic Center (359 S. Kalamazoo Mall) on May 21 at 3:30 p.m.  In this charming film, Kalamazoo College Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan partners every Kalamazoo College student in her “Developmental Psychology” class with a child at Woodward Elementary School to write children’s books together. The project’s concept has been expanded and continued through a partnership with the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. As the student (college and primary school) create these whimsical, amusing and surprising stories, the connections they make with each other have a lasting impact, not only in literacy and learning, but in understanding their pasts and futures.  The film also screened at the Lake Erie Arts and Film Festival in Sandusky, Ohio, the East Lansing Film Festival in Michigan, and Reading FilmFEST in Reading, Pennsylvania. The tickets for the showing at the Wellspring Dance Theater are FREE but registration is required.

Intercultural Conference and Hip Hop Collective

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Book club flyerKalamazoo College’s Intercultural Student Life group presents the “Intercultural Conference and Hip Hop Collective,” a two-day event on April 29 and 30 featuring guest speakers, the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, panels, discussions and a performance featuring five Hip Hop artists. The event’s venues include the Hicks Banquet Hall and Hicks Center.

Among the event’s goals are building relationships and learning about the intercultural ethos of K. “My student advisory board and I decided to focus our first event on Hip Hop because Hip Hop has a way to cross over cultural boundaries and speak to multiple groups,” said Natalia Carvalho-Pinto, director for intercultural student life.

The museum exhibit is open both days of the conference and is a powerful experience. “Khalid El-Hakim, the museum’s curator, travels with about 1,000 exhibit pieces,” says Carvalho-Pinto, “ranging from the slavery era through Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement up to Hip Hop and the modern era.” El-Hakim will deliver the keynote address Saturday, talking about the museum and the importance on continuity in social justice work.

The Conference also features Ernie Pannicioli, a photographer who has documented Hip Hop from its birth through modern days and photographed every celebrity in Hip Hop,” according to Carvalho-Pinto. She adds, “He published a book titled Who Shot Ya, and he speaks about ’the other side of Hip Hop,’ the movement building and struggles that few discuss.” Carvalho-Pinto also is excited about the presence of OLMECA at the conference. “He is a very unique artist,” she says, “and his keynote address will focus on his experiences in the Zapatista movement and Hip Hop in Latin America.”

A Hip Hop panel occurs Saturday afternoon with Miz Korona, Mu, Supa Emcee and Kenny Muhammed THE HUMAN ORCHESTRA. Five Hip Hop artists will perform Saturday night for the “Zoo After Dark” activity.

“Our speakers, panelists and performers are really great people,” says Carvalho-Pinto. I would love to see as many students, staff and faculty as possible attend some or all the conference. My hope is that the event opens more opportunities for dialogue and serves as a place of empowerment for our students of color on campus.”

K at EB

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Victoria Osorio '16 and Sarah Glass '17
Victoria Osorio ’16 and Sarah Glass ’17

Two Kalamazoo College chemistry majors, Victoria Osorio ’16 and Sarah Glass ’17, attended the annual Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego, Calif. Experimental Biology is a joint meeting of six different societies including the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) as well as societies for physiology, nutrition, pharmacology, pathology, and anatomy. “The meeting is a great opportunity for students to present their work and attend a variety of engaging scientific talks,” says Laura Furge, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry. “There were more than 15,000 scientists in attendance.”

Osorio and Glass presented results of their research as part of the Undergraduate Poster Competition and as part of the regular scientific session for ASBMB. Their presentations centered on recent work in the Furge lab with protein variants of an important human liver enzyme called CYP2D6. CYP2D6 helps the human body process drugs. The titles of the Osorio and Glass posters were, respectively, “Susceptibility of Four Human CYP2D6 Variants and One Active Site Mutant to Inhibition by the Mechanism-based Inactivator SCH 66712” and “Activity and Kinetic Characterization of Human CYP2D6 Polymorphisms with Bufuralol and Dextromethorphan.”

There were more than 225 undergraduate posters in the ASBMB competition from students across the country and from a variety of college and universities. One Grand Prize and four Honorable Mention awards were presented to students in each of the four research topic categories (proteins and enzymes / metabolism, bioenergetics, lipids and signal transduction / DNA, chromosomes, and gene regulation / cellular and developmental biology). Glass won an Honorable Mention for the “Proteins and Enzymes” category and was recognized the next day in front of an audience of hundreds of scientists, educators and students at the award lecture for outstanding contributions to education. Glass’s presentation was based on the culmination of nearly three years of research in the Furge lab; Glass will complete her SIP with Furge this summer and the lab hopes to publish the results later in 2016 along with co-author Osorio and other recent Furge lab research assistants.

After graduation, Osorio will enter the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program at Case Western Reserve University. Glass will complete her degree in Fall 2016 (two terms early), and she plans to start graduate school in biochemistry or pharmacology in 2017.

Travel to ASBMB for Osorio and Glass was supported by a grant to Furge from the National Institutes of Health. Glass also received an ASBMB Travel Award of $500.

Next year’s Experimental Biology meeting will be in nearby Chicago, Illinois, says Furge, “and we hope to take a large group of students from the Departments of Chemistry and Biology.”

In Honor of Division III Athletes

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Kalamazoo College Baseball JerseysNext week (April 4-10) is national Division III Week, an opportunity to celebrate the impact of athletics and of student athletes on campus and in the surrounding community.

K will mark the celebration with several special events. Monday, April 4, is Donut Day. Support your favorite team and wear Kalamazoo College athletics gear to the Hicks Center between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to receive a Sweetwater’s donut. Coaches will also be handing out athletics prizes for the first, 10th, 25th and 50th person to stop by the table.

On Local Restaurant Day (Wednesday, April 6) get special deals at the following local restaurants if you wear K athletic apparel. At Comensoli’s Italian Bistro (762 West Main Street) that apparel will allow you to deduct half the cost of appetizers from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. At Fazoli’s (4615 West Main Street) you can get a free entree with the purchase of another and two drinks. Roma’s (1401 South Drake Road) will give you free bread stick bites (until 7 p.m.) with the purchase of a large soda. Dine in and pick-up only; after all, they need to see that K athletic gear.

Friday is Faculty/Staff day, when former K athletes who are employees of the College will wear clothing that represents K and their sport. Hopefully we’ll see all of them at the “Why We Play” community reflection in Stetson Chapel at 11 a.m. (April 8), when K athletes and alumni talk about the impact of athletics on their lives.

Let’s go ’Zoo! If you don’t have K athletics apparel, borrow from a friend! We want to see as many people on campus in orange and black on Monday and Wednesday.