Vageesha Liyana-Gunawardana ’15 won the Special Prize in the annual Michigan Japanese Speech Contest, held at the Japanese Consulate in Detroit. Vageesha’s speech was titled “The Policeman I Met That Day Does Not Know My Name.” According to his Japanese language teacher, Assistant Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori, the speech is based on his study abroad experience in Tokyo, during which Vageesha was questioned by the police on thirteen different occasions. Inspired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester Pearson, Vageesha’s reflection upon these seemingly negative experiences reaffirmed the importance of meeting people and making an effort to understand each individual at deeper levels in order to work toward world peace. His talk, of course, was delivered in Japanese. Vageesha is a chemistry major at Kalamazoo College. He is a United World College alumnus (he attended high school at Pearson UWC in Victoria, British Columbia) and a Davis Scholar. At K he also works in the Center for International Programs.
Category: Students
Psych SIPs at MUPRC
Five senior psychology majors presented their Senior Individualized Projects at the 28th annual Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference [MUPRC] held on the campus of Albion College. Grace Barry presented the talk “The association of narrative structure and psychological well-being in emerging adulthood.” Elizabeth Hanley presented the talk “Reflexive attention to configural and local motion cues in a biological motion display.” Rachel LePage presented the poster “Variation in reward-sensitivity and negative affect in high-risk youth brain-reward function.” Perri Nicholson presented the talk “Saccharin consumption does not result in increased weight gain in rats.” Jessica Varana presented the talk “Moral decision making: Empathy as an indicator for utilitarian or deontological moral judgments.” The students were accompanied by Kalamazoo College psychology faculty members Brittany Liu and Robert Batsell.
SIPs Go Pro
Four senior anthropology and sociology majors presented their Senior Individualized research at the annual conference of the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) in Kansas City. Aaron Schoenfeldt, Mariah Hennen, Krystal Wilson, and Callie Daniels-Howell shared their work on sports and identity, re-conceptualizing study abroad, the culture of natural birth, and child hospice care and compassion, respectively. All four participated in regular paper and panel sessions along with sociology faculty, graduate students, and professionals from the Midwest and other parts of the country. “The conference was a very rewarding experience.” said Wilson. “I had the opportunity to present my work with individuals who were just as interested and dedicated in their sociological projects as I was. I also really enjoyed networking and connecting with graduate students discussing the various topics of our research and how we can take it to the public.”
Dean’s List for Winter Term 2015
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 Winter 2015 academic term. Kudos to the entire group of some 300 students, and good luck in Spring Term, 2015.
Winter 2015
| 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 | ||
AAyaka Abe B Sara Babcock CNicole Caddow DSusmitha Daggubati EDaniel Eberhart FRachel Fadler GBridget Gallagher |
HSimon Haile IPinar Inanli JJordan Jabara KKamalaldin Kamalaldin LAriah Lacey MSpencer MacDonald NVictoria Najacht OBryan Olert |
PNirmita Palakodaty QYilan Qiu RJustin Rabidoux SMinato Sakamoto TEmerson Talanda-Fisher UAmanda Ullrick VAsha Vadlamudi WRaoul Wadhwa XAnja Xheka YBrent Yelton ZJingcan Zhu |
Chemistry Explosion at Kalamazoo College
Some chemical reactions are simply impressive—the vibrant flash of light when magnesium is ignited or the blast and subsequent grains of salt that appear after mixing sodium metal and chlorine gas.
Equally impressive is the reaction to the chemistry major at Kalamazoo College in recent years.
Sixty-eight students—41 males and 27 females—declared chemistry as their major at Declaration of Major Day. The annual event, held the fifth week of winter quarter, requires sophomores to declare their majors, minors, and concentrations.
“Fifteen percent of the sophomore class [the class of 2017] chose chemistry,” says Laura Lowe Furge, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry and current chair of the department. “On a per capita basis, it probably makes K the largest chemistry program in the country.”
To accommodate the growth of chemistry majors, a new faculty member will join the department this fall, and additional classes and lab times have been added to the schedule, Furge explains.
“It’s a good problem for us to have,” she says.
Space, she admits, is an issue as labs and lecture halls in the 23-year-old Dow Science Center were built to house a much smaller student population. In 1998, for example, only six students at K graduated with a chemistry degree.
“We’ve had to make some allowances,” she says. “The hope is to eventually expand the building to provide additional lab space, classrooms, and faculty offices.”
While the number of recently declared majors is impressive, it is part of a growing trend. The class of 2016 includes 55 chemistry majors and this year’s senior class will graduate 30 students with degrees in chemistry.
According to Greg Slough, professor of chemistry, the faculty has worked to change the perception of difficulty associated with a chemistry major.
“We’re making chemistry doable for students,” Slough explains. “There is a real student focus among every faculty member. The students know that we’re here for them, we’re approachable, and we’re here to help when the work gets tough.”
Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Bartz adds that the department’s deep commitment to evidence-based education has helped it evolve.
“Every class changes, every single year,” Bartz explains. “We’re not teaching students the same thing, the same way, year after year.”
One of those students is Bryan Lara, a sophomore from California, who selected chemistry on Declaration of Major Day.
“Every chemistry professor knows my name,” Lara says. “I’m not just a number. There is a real sense of community among the faculty and students.”
He adds that extracurricular chemistry activities such as the Dow Open, a miniature golf event held inside the Dow Science Center, the October 23 Mole Day celebration, and the annual Dow-B-Q help keep students engaged and excited about the major.
And if recent years are any indication, this excitement won’t be waning anytime soon. (Text by Erin Dominianni ’95)
TEDx Comes to K
Good ideas will be spread across (and via) Kalamazoo College this spring when a descendant of the popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Talks series comes to campus as TEDxKalamazooCollege.
First-year student Tanush Jagdish, of Bangalore, India, is the main organizer of the inaugural event, to be held May 16, and thereafter (hopefully) to occur annually. Jagdish says he came up with the idea after being impressed with the cooperation and collaboration he saw between students and faculty at the College, in everything from research to planning campus events.
Concentrating on biology and chemistry, he is already working on high-level research in the lab of Dr. Michael Wollenberg, assistant professor of biology.
“Even as a first-year, I am already learning fantastic things,” Jagdish says. “I have been so impressed with the College. I figured, why not showcase K? Holding an event like this that is known worldwide will help to build the image of the school. A TED event is a great way to go about doing that.”
There are still some small details to be worked out, but the tentative theme for the talk is “Breaking Borders,” Jagdish says. The talk is to have nine speakers: two students, one alumnus, and six K faculty. Shannon Haupt ’16 will speak on “Fossil fuel divestment campaign as a model for a multi-issue, dynamic, and collective force for change.” The title of senior Tibin John’s talk is “Implications of computational simulation and dynamical systems theory for biomedical research.” Liberal arts polymath and ArtPrize finalist Ladislav Hanka ’75 is “can’t miss” with “Collaborating with bees to produce works of art that explore and reflect the sublime quality of nature.”
Faculty presenters include:
• Tim Kailing (Biology)—Biological Principles and philosophies of instruction and education
• Jeanne Hess (Physical Education)—Sportuality: the transcendental power of blending sport, spirit, and education
• Jan Tobochnik (Physics)—Using computational models to display and predict wealth distribution
• Carol Anderson (Religion)—Exploring the relationship between religion, gender, and sexuality
• Jim Langeland (Biology)—Constructing advanced modelling techniques for understanding aspects of genetics, including chromosomal recombination
• Bob Batsell (Psychology)—Application of learning theories in helping cancer patients undergo chemotherapy
Jagdish saw that the College encouraged the cross-pollination of ideas between diverse academic disciplines, and he wanted to highlight this unique take on learning, he says. At K, he says, ideas are allowed to swirl and be discussed openly.
“The talk will focus on breaking the boundaries between the liberal arts and sciences,” he says. Speakers will discuss the environment, sustainability, the liberal arts, and other topics.
TEDx was created in the spirit of the mission of the popular TED Talk series, which is to promulgate ideas worth spreading.” TEDx supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community. Those interested in hosting a TEDx event must wade through a rigorous application process and climb a mountain of application material.
Jagdish submitted the application in December, and heard back in January with the go-ahead. It’s very rare for an institution of higher education to receive permission from the organization to host an event, he says.
“It usually takes long time to be granted a license to host a TEDx event. But I think they liked the idea of a small liberal arts college hosting a talk. It’s a very prestigious thing to be granted a license.”
Adding to Jagdish’s enthusiasm for the TEDx event is that the push to host it has been almost entirely student led. That autonomy, he says, highlights the faith and freedom College officials place in K students and is a testament to the culture of self-led learning that the College is so well-known for.
“It’s amazing, really,” he says. “I think it shows how the College is focused on building leadership skills in its students. I have already seen leadership develop among those students involved in organizing this event. Now, hopefully, the world can see what K is all about, too.” Text by Chris Killian
Aced it With ACEit!
Senior computer science major Jae Hyun Choe presented a poster at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Research Competition. The title of his presentation was “ACEit!–Android app to Assist Children in Learning to Read English.” The work was based on his Senior Individualized Project, which was supported by the Hough Foundation Natural Science and Mathematics SIP grant last summer, according to Associate Professor of Computer Science Pam Cutter, who served as Choe’s SIP supervisor. “Jae Hyun competed with 16 others,” said Cutter, “and although he didn’t make it to the next round of the competition, he said that making and presenting the poster as well as explaining what he did and getting ideas and feedback from others were very valuable experiences. The competition was held in Kansas City, Missouri, during the ACM’s Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education technical symposium. The College’s computer science department has been busy with meetings preparations. Six women computer science students plan to participate in the upcoming Michigan Celebration of Women in Computing, which will be held in Ann Arbor. One of the students will present her SIP work there.
K Seniors Win Davis Project for Peace Grant
Kalamazoo College seniors Jasmine An and Allison Kennedy will receive a $10,000 Davis Project for Peace grant to implement a five-week creative writing and leadership workshop for previously incarcerated individuals in Kalamazoo. Both women are fellows at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL). The workshop aims to reduce the stigma of incarceration and promote peace and stability in the community. The two also serve as Civic Engagement Scholars for the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE). In fact, it was a CCE creative writing partnership with the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative that formed the basis of the project that was awarded the Davis Project for Peace grant. (According to CCE Director Alison Geist, nearly every K recipient of a Davis Project for Peace grant has been a Civic Engagement Scholar, and all have been leaders in CCE programming).
An and Kennedy will partner with Michigan United, a local organization that addresses incarceration and re-entry challenges faced by individuals in Kalamazoo. The ACSJL will donate space and supplies. The work will culminate in an anthology of work that highlights how Kalamazoo is confronting incarceration. An article on the seniors’ workshops appeared in the February issue of BeLight.
Projects for Peace invites all undergraduates at the 91 American colleges and universities that are partners in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to compete for these grants. A total of 127 projects were awarded implementation in the summer of 2015.
K’s history with the program is a successful one. Kalamazoo College students have used these awards each of the past seven years to conduct projects in Thailand, Kenya, Pakistan, Jamaica, Haiti, and Kalamazoo. An’s and Kennedy’s project will be the second carried out in Kalamazoo.
In 2007, Projects for Peace was the vision of philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis on the occasion of her 100th birthday. Until her death at 106 in 2013, Mrs. Davis was intent on advancing the cause of peace and sought to motivate tomorrow’s promising leaders by challenging them to find ways to “prepare for peace”.
Campus-Wide Meeting Called
Shortly after midnight this morning (March 4) an entry of hate speech that included a threat for March 5 against faculty was anonymously placed in a Student Commission “Google Doc” document. Kalamazoo College sent the message below to all members of the K community and called for a 4 p.m. campus-wide meeting to discuss measures regarding safety and the campus environment. The meeting will occur in Stetson Chapel.
Standing for Our Values
Dear Members of the Kalamazoo College Community:
Just after midnight on Wednesday morning, March 4, Kalamazoo College officials were informed that a highly inflammatory entry had been placed in a Student Commission Google Doc, a document repository hosted on Google servers which allows for group editing and sharing online. The entry is racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic. It also contained a direct threat for March 5 aimed at “faculty at Kalamazoo U, that will teach them the value of campus carry.”
As soon as we became aware of this matter, the associate dean of student development and other College administrators (including the president met with approximately 40 deeply concerned students. Over the course of more than three hours in the early morning we discussed safety measures for students directly involved (those whose contact information may have been identified by the person(s) responsible for the inflammatory entry) and students generally. We outlined measures for immediate implementation, and a campus-wide meeting later this afternoon will update concrete actions underway and to be done. An officer from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) met with several students as well.
The College and KDPS consider the inflammatory entry a hate crime, and KDPS is investigating it as such. Police investigators also have informed the FBI and enlisted the agency’s support in the matter. Information Services personnel are attempting to determine the identity of the source of the anonymous entry. Kalamazoo College and KDPS take all threats seriously. Our campus Security staff and the KDPS will be on heightened alert with more patrols through the campus until further notice.
The Student Commission created the Google Doc in order to share information with students in hopes of being more transparent. The document allowed anonymous editing, and this capability extended to persons not associated with K.
The inflammatory comments are antithetical to Kalamazoo College and to its Honor System, which calls us to “respect those with whom we may differ and to recognize the rights held by others.” We invite all of us to stand together to reject any action that dehumanizes members of our community.
We also urge all of us to take responsibility for the accuracy of what we choose to share on social media about these matters. Posting information that is not factual carries the potential to do harm. The College’s Honor System commits us to “honesty in speech and conduct.”
We believe that Kalamazoo College is a safe place for students, faculty, staff, and visitors, and we are committed to creating a learning environment of free inquiry that not only is safe but also feels safe for all.
We invite the campus community to convene this afternoon (March 4) at 4 p.m. in Stetson Chapel for an hour of reflection that also will include an update on measures regarding safety and the campus environment. A KDPS officer will attend the meeting.
The initial assessment of KDPS is that this incident is not a credible threat and that it is unlikely to be acted upon. Nevertheless, it is unnerving for many people, and we are taking precautions and measures to address the concerns of those who feel uneasy. Please be aware of your surroundings, and if you see anything you consider amiss please report it to the Security Department.
Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran
Mickey McDonald
Sarah Westfall
James Prince
Al DeSimone
Eric Staab
Greg Diment
Melanie Williams
Student-Led Forums Focus on Race and Ethnicity on K’s Campus
Kalamazoo College students host two forums this week focusing on race and ethnicity on the K campus.
“Konsciousness” (Wed. March 4, 7PM, Banquet Room, Hicks Student Center) is a structured discussion open to K students, faculty, and staff to hear what students talk about and experience on campus regarding race and ethnicity.
“Stories You’ve Never Heard Before” (Thu. March 5, 7:30PM, Connable Recital Hall, Light Fine Arts Building) is a “Think Tank” event also open to K students, faculty, and staff, that will allow young men of color on campus to tell their stories.
These two events are not open to the general public.
“Konsciousness” grew out of an independent study course that K seniors Asia Morales and Bronte Payne had with Assistant Professor of English Shanna Salinas, Ph.D. Asia and Bronte will facilitate Wednesday’s discussion.
“As students, we believe there has been a severe lack of physical space to have difficult conversations such as this one,” Asia and Bronte wrote in a Feb. 24, 2015 editorial in The Index, K’s student newspaper. “Our hope is that in providing this space, we as a community can take steps forward together on important issues which affect all of us.”
In their editorial, Asia and Bronte state that students will be at the center of the discussion, with faculty and staff forming a silent audience, with the opportunity to submit written questions to students.
“We have chosen this format because we feel strongly that this will serve as an opportunity for faculty and staff … to hear what students are talking about and what students are experiencing on this campus outside of the classroom and the office.”
“Stories You’ve Never Heard Before” is sponsored by the K student organization Young Men of Color. In an email invitation to the campus community, they stated that they invite students, faculty, and staff, to “Come hear the unique experiences we have gone through both in our communities and on K’s campus.
“We would like to share our perspectives and life experiences with the campus community to spark productive dialogues among our peers, administration, and faculty and staff, as well as help our campus community gain a better understanding of our identity as young men of color.”
Young Men of Color, according to their mission statement, “seek to provide the leadership that establishes a safe space of brotherhood, social support, and a common sense of fellowship on campus. Through these collaborative efforts we will unite the young men of color while encouraging internal accountability, eradicating negative stereotypes at large, and inducing academic excellence.”