In April, sophomore Adam Eisenstein joined Assistant Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori to present “Not Lost in Translation: Preserving Japanese Culture in Anime” at the inaugural Michigan Japanese Heritage and Culture Conference at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Adam developed his conference paper extending his analysis of English translations of Osaka dialect in Japanese anime/manga, “Azumanga Daioh.” His work originated in a K class titled “Japanese Language in Society.” Senior Kathleen Reno contributed to the presentation but was unable to attend the conference.
Category: Students
Strong K Presence at National Science Meeting
Six Kalamazoo College students joined two of their chemistry professors and mentors (Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge) at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology National Meeting in Boston, Mass. The students–Nicholas Sweda ’13, Mara Livezey ’13, Michael Hicks ’13, Josh Abbott ’13, Amanda Bolles ’14, and Erran Briggs ’14–presented results of their summer and academic year research experiences (Senior Individualized Projects in the cases of Nick and Josh). Nearly 300 posters from colleges across the country were part of the 17th Annual Undergraduate Student Research Poster Competition and Professional Development Workshop. Professor Furge was a judge in the competition.
The lab of Professor Paul Hollenberg at the University of Michigan was the site of Abbott’s SIP research on the role of CYP2B6 metabolism of the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide. The other five posters were based on research done at Kalamazoo College. Sweda presented ongoing studies from Professor Stevens-Truss’s lab on suramin selective inhibition of nitric oxide synthases. This work is the basis of a manuscript in preparation with Sweda and Alyssa McNamara ’11 as co-authors. Livezey, Hicks, Bolles, and Briggs each presented individual posters with results of three projects from Professor Furge’s lab on the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. The work presented by Bolles and Briggs is currently being prepared in a manuscript for publication with both students as co-authors along with Livezey. The posters presented by Hicks and Livezey are the basis of current NIH-funded studies in the Furge lab. In addition to the poster sessions, students attended talks, award lectures, and exhibits. Students also met with graduate school recruiters.
During the meeting, Professor Stevens-Truss directed her third annual teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the Boston area. The workshop attracted more than 70 teacher-participants from the Boston area, a record number for these ASBMB associated events. Professor Stevens-Truss’s efforts in structuring the workshops have provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers. Scientists from across the country helped make the workshop a meaningful experience for school teachers. It was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to Stevens-Truss. Next year’s meeting will be in San Diego, Calif., and K expects to be there.
Kalamazoo College Senior Faiza Fayyaz Is a YWCA Young Woman of Achievement
Kalamazoo College senior Faiza Fayyaz has received a 2013 YWCA Young Women of Achievement Award and will be honored at the 29th annual YWCA Women of Achievement Award Celebration, on Tuesday, May 21, 5:30 p.m. at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in Kalamazoo.
The YWCA Young Women of Achievement Awards are given to high school and college age women in the Kalamazoo community who have records of accomplishment in academic studies and extracurricular activities, have made significant contributions to their school and/or community, demonstrate leadership ability, and exemplify qualities of character and thought consistent with the mission and vision of the YWCA.
Faiza will soon earn her B.A. degree in biology with a minor in psychology and a concentration in health sciences. She has also been a biology research assistant at Western Michigan University. Outside the classroom, Faiza has been active in student organizations Active Minds (focusing on mental health issues among college students) and KDesi (working to preserve and promote South Asian cultures and religions on the K campus and in the surrounding community).
Through the College′s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service Learning, Faiza has also spent many hours engaged with students from the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA) Young Adult Program at West Campus school, She has also been engaged in civic activities at Borgess Hospital and in a local physical therapy clinic.
Earlier this month, the YWCA announced that Kalamazoo College trustee Ronda Stryker is its recipient of the Lifetime Woman of Achievement Award.
Kalamazoo Senior Ashleigh Holden Earns a STAR
When K senior Ashleigh Holden isn′t studying chemistry or guiding prospective students around the campus for the K Admissions Office, she′s often at the Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center in Augusta, east of Kalamazoo. During the last year alone, Ashleigh has amassed more than 475 hours helping to deliver hippotherapy, a physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy that utilizes horses to provide aid to clients with a variety of special needs. For her efforts, Ashleigh has earned the 2013 College Volunteer STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award, a partnership between Volunteer Kalamazoo and MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette to honor outstanding volunteers in Southwest Michigan. Congrats, Ashleigh. You truly are one of K′s stars.
K Reflects on Boston Bombings
K students and staff members gathered in Stetson Chapel at noon Wednesday for prayers, silence, music, poetry, and shared thoughts in order to remember all those affected by Monday′s bombing in Boston.
Dean’s List Winter 2013
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 2013 academic term. …
Winter 2013
| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T V W Y Z | ||
| A Ayaka Abe Keaton Adams Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti Dana Allswede Rasseil Alzouhayli Brittany Amor Abby Anderson Katelyn Anderson Giancarlo Anemone Evan Angelos Esprit AutenreithB Gordon Backer Francisco Cabrera Susmitha Daggubati Erin Eagan Abram Farley Aileen Gallagher |
H Zari Haggenmiller Lynza Halberstadt Marie Hallinen Allison Hammerly Elizabeth Hanley Stephen Hanselman Nora Harris Emilie Harris-Makinen Hadley Harrison Shannon Haupt Sara Haverkamp Stephanie Heard Mariah Hennen Jordan Henning Michelle Hernandez Michael Hicks Robert Hilliard Frances Hoepfner Ashleigh Holden Jacob Holloway Jenna Holmes Jeffery Holton Daniel Holtzman Rachel Horness Pornkamol Huang Benjamin Hulbert Julia Hulbert Jenna Hunt Katherine Hunter Chaz HyattI Sierra Imanse Thomas Jackson Margaret Kane Rory Landis Lucy MacArthur Jr. Brendan Nagler Moses Odhiambo |
P Crestina Pacheco Jane Packer Fayang Pan Yunpeng Pang Jisung Park Emma Patrash Jamie Patton Michael Paule-Carres Bronte Payne Regina Pell Elizabeth Penix David Personke Laura Persons Adam Peters Alicia Pettys Thanh Thanh Phan Pavan Policherla Alejandra Portillo Taylor Beau Prey Jung Eun PyeonQ Jacob Ragen Kira Sandiford Tyler Tabenske Trevor Vader Chelsea Wallace Sina Yakhshi Tafti Jose Zacarias Jr. |
Home is where the art is
Senior Annie Belle’s art SIP can’t be displayed on a wall or a pedestal.
“Basically I’m knitting a house,” Belle said.
The house will be up through Friday, April 19 in the Light Fine Arts Building gallery space, with a reception on Thursday, April 18 from 4 to 5 p.m.
Belle, who learned to knit when she was 16 and was taught by her mother, designed all of the patterns for the cottage-style house and the knitted furniture that will go inside it.
“When you look at things, they all basically are geometric shapes, so I’m just knitting a bunch of rectangles or squares,” she said. “I’ve gone through multiple design ideas. I think I’ve unraveled everything that I’m working on at least once.”
Belle uses wool roving, a thick material that she described as somewhere between wool straight off a sheep’s back and finer spun yarn. It knits faster than thin yarn, she said.
Plastic piping gives structural support to furniture pieces.
Belle looked at floor plans for microhouses — very small and often portable homes — when creating her own designs.
“They’re kind of what I think of when I think of a house,” she said. “Nothing terribly sophisticated — someplace to sit, someplace to eat.”
Belle says she cannot remember how exactly she came up with the idea for the project. She reflected for a moment before saying that the concept of home has influenced her time at Kalamazoo College.
“Looking back, I feel I’ve been concerned with domestic spaces, gender roles, and private versus public sphere.” she said.
Belle financed the yarn with funding from the K Art Department, but the project scale was large enough that the money did not cover the full cost of materials. She recently launched an online fundraising campaign that has raised more than $1,600.
“I don’t feel like I’ve really done that much with my art on campus, and if I’m going to go out, I want to go out big,” she said.
After displaying the piece in Kalamazoo, Belle plans to submit it to Art Prize, a large juried art competition in Grand Rapids, Mich. She said the project may ultimately end up as stuffing for a mattress after she dismantles it.
“There’s only so much room in the world for a knitted house,” she said. (Story and photo by Maggie Kane ’13)
K Team Presents at Food Justice Meeting
A Kalamazoo College (and Kalamazoo-area) food justice partnership coordinated by the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (formerly the Institute for Service-Learning) came together as a plenary session team and presented at Michigan State University’s First Annual Workshop on Food Justice & Peace. Team members included Alison Geist, director of the Center for Civic Engagement; Associate Professor of English Amelia Katanski; K students Shoshana Schultz ’13 and Charlotte Steele ’14; Ben Brown of the People’s Food Co-op; and Guillermo Martinez of the Van Buren Intermediate School District. Martinez also works with the College’s Hispanic Health and Disease class (Spanish 205). Steele is a former Civic Engagement Scholar of the organization Farms to K. Most of the MSU conference presenters discussed theoretical aspects of food justice and peace. The K team discussed how theory has translated into action in the Kalamazoo area. According to Schultz, the K team demonstrated the “ecology of food justice work in Kalamazoo,” how the parts work together in a manner that integrates theory and practice. Said Schultz: “People were blown away and very impressed by the collaboration that takes place in Kalamazoo.
Carpet Diem
David Landskroener ’14 is a self-described “movie junkie.” So when he won two coveted tickets to sit on bleachers alongside the famed red carpet at this year’s Oscar extravaganza in Los Angeles…well, it was a Hollywood ending.
“It was cool to see Anne Hathaway and George Clooney in person,” said David, a double major in Theatre Arts and English who also has a concentration in Media Studies where he’s learning about film.
Even cooler, he said, was when the interviewer in front of him pulled up K alumnus David France ’81 to talk about ‘How to Survive a Plague,’ his Oscar-nominated documentary.”
“He gave an insightful interview and seemed really at ease. It was so awesome to have that K connection on the red carpet, with me, a current student, only thirty feet away. K people are everywhere!”
David made the trip to LA from his home near Minneapolis where he’s been since returning from study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland. K friend Marianne Stine ’12 joined him in a long security check-in process and a seven-hour wait in the bleachers before the stars came out.
“Luckily we had food and drink provided the entire day, and we got to watch the actual awards ceremonies from the nearby El Capitan Theatre. We both held an actual Oscar, and are those things heavy!”
Prior to his view from the bleachers, David’s most meaningful glimpse into a possible future career came during summer 2012 when he served an externship through the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, a nonprofit institute that develops new plays and nurtures playwrights. He stayed with Bethany (Kestner) Whitehead ’98 who works at The Playwrights’ Center.
“It was a great opportunity for me to see that a career in that field is possible and how to work towards it. Staying with Bethany and learning about her career was just as rewarding and instructive as working at the Center itself.”
Although he looks forward to being back on campus this spring to continue his classroom and extracurricular studies, David said he also looks forward to returning to the Oscars one day, not for a seat in the bleachers, but for the full red carpet treatment.
“Studying English, theatre, and film myself, I dream of someday walking down that same carpet.”
K Students Participate in Japanese Speech Contest
The 18th Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest, sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit, was held at the Novi Civic Center this winter. Two Kalamazoo College students, senior Pavan Policherla and sophomore Vageesha Liyana-Gunawardana, presented their speeches. Policherla’s talk was based on his study abroad experience in China and explored a challenging and important issue of China-Japan relations. Liyana-Gunawardana’s speech was an eye-witness account of the large tsunami that struck Sri Lanka in 2004.