Mara Richman ’15 presents work on mental health and the drug court system.
Psychology major Mara Richman ’15 is second author on a paper selected for publication. The paper is titled “Neurocognitive Functioning in Patients with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Review,” and it will be featured in an upcoming issue in the Journal of the Academy of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry. Co-authors include Paul Moberg, Ph.D.; Chelsea Morse, M.S.; Vidyaluta Kamath, Ph.D.; Ruben Gur, Ph.D.; and Racquel Gur, M.D., Ph.D. Last fall Richman studied and worked under the research supervision of Moberg at the University Of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) Perelman School Of Medicine’s Schizophrenia Research Center.
Richman’s research has prompted her to become further involved in mental health and psychology research. This summer she is doing work at a summer research institute at the University of South Florida (Tampa). She was selected from a field of 200 people to attend the institute. Her research there (under the mentorship of Kathleen Moore, Ph.D., and Blake Barrett, M.S.P.H.) focuses on co-occurring mental health disorders in the drug court system. Titled “Findings from a drug court program of female offenders with co-occurring disorders,” her work has been presented twice this summer at conferences and will be revised for publication this fall.
Monica Cooper ′14says she is “really excited about pursuing a masters and/or Ph.D. after I graduate.”
Monica Cooper ′14 prepares a 96 well micro plate in Dr. Sarah Emery’s lab at the University of Louisville. Photo credit: Phung Nguyen.
A big reason for her enthusiasm is taking place right now–her summer internship working on the Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research experiment, or KBS LTER, part of Michigan State University’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, funded by the National Science Foundation.
The KBS is located in Hickory Corners, Mich., not far from Kalamazoo. Monica, a biology major who completed her K study abroad in Quito, Ecuador, is working with KBS LTER scientists at the University of Louisville in Kentucky where she studies “a pesky little protein,” goes “botanizing” in local parks, and explores the Red River Gorge.
“I hope to be a community level ecologist, and never really pictured myself in a lab, indoors, for a whole summer,” wrote Monica in a recent blog post about her summer internship. “Through this REU, I have learned an incredible amount about soil ecology, botany, and what research really is.”
“Monica wrote a terrific blog about her research experience,” wrote MSU Agriculture & Ecology Education & Outreach Specialist Julie Doll, Ph.D., in an email. “We are pleased to work with her and hope to work with other Kalamazoo College students in the future.”
During the second summer of research on her Senior Independent Project (SIP), chemistry major Virginia Greenberger (pictured at left) is spending more time in method development than data collection. Here’s the thing about that: “We’ve never done this work before,” says Greenberger. (The other member of “we” is her SIP supervisor, Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss; they are trying to develop a method to determine how certain protein pieces—called peptide sequences—kill bacteria.) That “never-having-done-this-work-before” means her SIP research is on the far edge of new discovery, which makes it very cool. But it can also be very frustrating—just one example: the peptide sequences are “sticky” and prone to clump, which makes methods to effectively study them more difficult to develop.
Some back story, which goes back further than last summer. About a decade and a half ago, Stevens-Truss noticed that bacteria she’d altered to produce a certain peptide were being killed by that peptide. Very interesting discovery, on hold for a dozen or so years. Then last summer Stevens-Truss and Greenberger began to study in earnest the protein components responsible for killing the bacteria. These peptide sequences are spiral in shape and carry a positive charge. Shape and charge are matters of chemistry and potential chemical alteration. Summer number one focused on which peptide sequences were the most effective killers of which kinds of bacteria–gram positive (Staph aureus, for example) and gram negative (E-coli, for example). The research team devised a method that uses light to determine the degree to which various peptide sequences inhibit various bacteria. Roughly speaking, “cloudy” or opaque solutions (that block light) mean the bacteria are not much affected by the peptide sequence, but a clear solution indicates significant antibacterial activity. The research could eventually prove very important. Ours is an age of antibiotic resistance. Certain bacteria cause serious infectious diseases, but their reproduction rate (combined with human misuse of antibiotics) selects for resistant strains.
Summer two’s work seeks to repeat (and confirm) the results of last summer and determine how the effective bacterial assassins do their work. How does one determine that? Greenberger is currently working on a method that infuses liposomes with dyes. Liposomes are bag-like structures whose membranes mimic the membranes of cells. A killing mechanism by which the spiral-shaped peptide sequences drill through bacterial cell membranes would be suggested if the liposome look-alikes suddenly release their dyes. That’s the method on which Greenberger was currently at work at the time of this interview. The working title of her SIP is “Studying Antibiotic Action of Peptide Sequences containing a Cationic Amphipathic Helix Structure.” But that could change, depending on that ever-changing ratio of “cool” to “frustrating.”
The new Western Michigan University School of Medicine (WMed) has announced a “preferred” relationship with Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University (WMU), and WMU’s Lee Honors College. Prospective students from these institutions may apply to WMed through the American Medical College Application Service, a centralized application processing service available to applicants to first-year entering classes at participating U.S. medical schools. Students will be selected through the regular selection process and must meet all admission requirements. All things being equal, students from K, WMU, and Lee will receive preference in admission.
“We are excited about this relationship between K and Western Michigan University School of Medicine,” said Kalamazoo College Provost Mickey McDonald. “This acknowledges the strength of K’s Health Sciences Program and provides K graduates an opportunity to pursue a medical degree while remaining in southwest Michigan.”
Construction of the new medical school in downtown Kalamazoo is underway. Students in the first WMed class will begin their studies in August 2014.
Samantha Jolly ’15 is building a bike that will help save the world.
As you know, the Kalamazoo College campus is covered with gardens large and small. But did you know that the College produces some its very own compost to fertilize these gardens? It does. And it intends to produce even more this coming year with help from Jolly’s bike.
Compost Intern Sammy Jolly with the beginnings of the bike.
Jolly and other Student Compost Interns in the K Recycling Department collect food waste from the Living Learning Houses and elsewhere on campus each week and place it in compost bins located in The Grove behind DeWaters and Trowbridge Residence Halls. Last year’s pilot project turned about 3,000 pounds of food waste into composted soil that helps fertilize garden beds across campus.
Mother nature controls much of the composting process, but Jolly and her fellow interns speed that process by regularly turning compost in the bins with pitchforks and shovels. They also filter out the final product (dirt, essentially) from the active material by shaking it all through hand-held screens.
Here’s where the world-saving bike comes in. Working from her own design and with help from K Recycling Director Rob Townsend, Jolly is building a stationary bike to help separate the finely composted soil from larger chunks. Instead of a rear wheel, her bike features a cylinder made of chicken wire stretched around old bike wheel rims. A bike chain connects the cylinder, which straddles the legs of an old College bunk bed, to the bike gears.
Students shovel compost into the cylinder, jump on the bike seat, and pedal. The chain turns the cylinder, which churns the compost. A wheelbarrow strategically placed under the cylinder catches the fine freshly filtered fertilizer.
Thereby saving the world. Or at least one small corner of it in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
“It′s been really fun trying to find things to recycle and turn into this sifter. It′s like one giant recycling project. I have to build a machine out of recycled parts to help recycle our food waste!” said Jolly.
The Kalamazoo College class of 2017 is coming this fall and it is the most numerous class the College has ever seen: 463 strong! And no member of the class has changed his or her mind about coming so far—a phenomenon known as “summer melt,” which is usually in process by this time of the summer.
Most of the incoming class comes from Michigan, but 30 percent come from out of state. And 34 international students are heading here from around the world to study at K! The College’s international student body has been rising at a steady rate for several years.
And 2017 a first-class large class. More than 400 of its members volunteer for worthy causes. When they are not volunteering they are busy in sports, choir, band, and the National Honor Society, among other activities.
At least 150 of the incoming students played one or more sports; 129 were the captains of a sports team.
If you can’t move your feet, you can at least go with the beat—171 reported to be in band or choir.
And 190 are members of the National Honors Society. Not surprising given the class’ average GPA and ACT scores are 3.58 and 29, respectively.
Matters of T-shirts, essays, and scholarships meant good news for three people who share a Kalamazoo College connection.
Chris Tower ′85
Writer and college instructor Chris Tower ’85 shows off his Kalamazoo College pride on his T-Shirt blog, “I would not be the person I am today if I had not attended and ultimately graduated from Kalamazoo College.”
Congratulations to Tessa Moore ’15. Her essay, The Ezili, earned her the Voynovich Scholarship, which hasn’t been awarded since 2008.
Mariah Hennen ′15 at Harvest Fest, fall 2012.
Mariah Hennen ’15 was 35 out of more than 100 students nationwide to be awarded the Jo Anne J. Trow National Scholarship. Recipients must maintain a 3.5 GPA. Selections are based on academic records, applicants’ statements, and campus and community activities.
Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott in the lab.
It’s summertime at K; the weather is hot, and so is the chemistry on the second floor of the Dow Science Center. In the first of a series of articles, we focus on chemistry research underway on campus during summer 2013.
Three students are advancing ongoing research projects in the inorganic chemistry laboratory of Professor of Chemistry Tom Smith. Each project is focused on elements included in a group known as transitional metals. Josh Abbott ’13, Lori-Ann Williams ’14, and Geneci Marroquin ’14 apply various techniques to characterize reactions that occur in nature (as well as some chemistry that nature doesn’t do) involving the elements vanadium (Abbott), manganese (Williams), and cobalt and nickel (Marroquin).
The researchers are working to create small molecule models that are motivated by the chemical reactions that occur in nature and involve more complex substances such as enzymes. All three are performing the intricate chemical experiments required to make crystal samples of molecules that result from the aforementioned reactions—enough samples, and of sufficient quality, for the technique known as x-ray crystallography, which will render a three-dimensional portrait of the molecule. (The notion of portraiture is particularly apt for the chemistry of transitional metals, known for their colors and alterations of color as a result of molecular changes.) The x-ray crystallography work will mean an August trip to Purdue University (the workplace of a long-time collaborator with Smith in these scientific projects) for Smith and the student researchers.
The work of Williams and Marroquin will form the basis of their respective Senior Individualized Projects. Williams’ work, says Smith, is more biologically oriented, and seeks to reconcile data on manganese compounds from Williams and the Smith lab with data published on manganese work from a laboratory in India. Marroquin’s is more “catalytically oriented, doing something nature doesn’t do,” she says. If Marroquin’s contribution to the ongoing project is successful, subsequent work may one day lead to more efficient energy generation. “We’re trying to save the world in this lab,” smiles Marroquin.
Abbott graduated in June but wanted to more research work in inorganic chemistry, the most liberal arts-ish of all chemistry disciplines. “It relates to all other branches of chemistry and science and is very useful for better understanding of peer-reviewed literature in biochemistry,” he said. His vanadium research originates from the way sea algae synthesize special organic molecules for self protection.
It’s been a good summer in Smith’s lab. All five of his researchers are “highly motivated and getting a lot done,” Smith said. (Leland O’Connor ’14 and Mojtaba Ahkavandafi ’15 were not in the lab the day we dropped in, and they are working on projects very different from those of the other students.)
When he was invited to Kalamazoo College′s campus in 1960, African-American writer James Baldwin knew he would be looking out at a mostly white audience. Kalamazoo College Professor of English Bruce Mills led a class this past year called “Building the Archive: Baldwin and His Legacy.” In the effort of rediscovering Baldwin’s visit to campus, the class studied and enhanced the K campus’ and Kalamazoo community’s archives and deepened students′ understanding of his writings.
In order to build an archive of Baldwin’s visit to K, Mill′s students interviewed people who were in Kalamazoo during the civil rights movements and alumni who were present for Baldwin’s speech. Interviews were made into a DVD/CD and hard copy transcriptions. A copy of each interview set was given to the Colleges archives and to the South West Michigan Black Heritage Society.
Many details from Baldwin’s visit have been lost or misplaced throughout the years, even the date that he actually came. College records show that he came in February of 1960. But one interviewee, a 1964 K graduate, said that couldn’t be correct. Also the front page of an Index student newspaper edition—dated November 16,1960—states “Novelist Baldwin Arrives on Campus For Week.” These are details that need to be further researched and rediscovered, said Mills.
Mills′s class read and discussed many books and essays by Baldwin, including the speech he gave at K, “In Search of a Majority.” Baldwin’s books, essays, and speeches are still relevant to K students, says Mills, because he discusses sexuality, religion, race, and living as a foreigner, topics still important to students.
“The challenge from Baldwin,” said Mills, “is to be who we say we are. The challenge is to listen. Keeping alive his legacy as a writer is the reason to archive. It is important to archive now, because our sources of information are slowly disappearing.”
Suzanne Curtiss ′14 has been running things at International Child Care (ICC).
Literally, running.
Curtiss is the ICC student intern working out of the Christian health development organization’s headquarters in downtown Kalamazoo this summer. ICC is partnering with the Warrior Dash II mud run in Walker, Mich., near Grand Rapids on an event in September, and Curtiss has been charged with getting the word out. So she laced up her running shoes and has been running the streets of Kalamazoo to deliver news releases to Kalamazoo-area news media, running clubs, and anyone else who will listen.
She encourages everyone to join ICC′s Labou Pou Timoun (Creole for “Mud for Kids”) running event to help raise money for ICC’s childhood poverty and health initiative in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The mud run, held September 21, is a 3.1-mile obstacle course that includes man-made obstacles and “tons of mud,” she says.
Susanne Curtiss ’14
Working with ICC on the mud run has been Curtiss′s first real public relations experience and the English major (with a business minor and concentration in media studies) loves it.
“The work that ICC does is really inspiring, and I feel very honored to be able to spend my summer working to promote the organization and its international projects and involvements” said Curtiss.
ICC operates in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti with a children′s hospital and another that serves tuberculosis patients. It’s working to change the conditions of poverty that impact health and well-being in those countries.
Curtiss′s classmate, Zoe Beaudry ’14, also has an internship with ICC and will head to Haiti in August to work at ICC′s Grace Children’s Hospital on art projects with the patients. At the end of her six weeks there, she will compile the projects into a photo book for distribution in Haiti and back in Kalamazoo.
