(Left to right) Regina Stevens-Truss, Lindsey Gaston, Sandrine Zilikana, Laura Lowe Furge, and Mara Livezey
Majors Sandrine Zilikana ’12 and Mara Livezey ’13 and biology major Lindsey Gaston ’12 joined chemistry department faculty members Regina Stevens-Truss and Laura Lowe Furge at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting in San Diego in late April. The students presented results of their summer research experiences (part of the Senior Individualized Projects for Sandrine and Lindsey) as part of both the Annual Undergraduate Poster Competition and the regular scientific sessions of the meeting.
More than 200 students from schools across the country were part of the undergraduate poster competition. Zilikana’s research measured differences in reducing the potential of cancer cell types to affect drug delivery. She conducted this scientific work at the University of Michigan with Professor Kyung-Dall Lee. Gaston’s showed that a specific hormone prevented nerve cell death after brain injury. Her research, conducted with Professor Vishal Bansal at the University of California-San Diego, will be included in a manuscript just accepted to the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. Livezey presented the results of a study she has worked on for the past two years in Furge’s lab modeling the interactions of inhibitors with human cytochrome P450 enzymes. That study was recently published in Drug Metabolism Letters. While in San Diego, Stevens-Truss directed a teaching workshop for middle school and high school science teachers in the San Diego area. Her innovation in development of the workshop has drawn increasing numbers of teachers to the workshop and provided a new platform for scientists to collaborate with and mentor the nation’s secondary school science teachers.
The workshop was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Next year’s meeting will be in Boston, and Stevens-Truss and Furge plan to attend with another group of students. Stevens-Truss will also lead another teaching workshop there.
In addition to Associate Professor of Chemistry Laura Furge, the senior and corresponding author, the manuscript has six student co-authors: Mara Livezey ’13, Leslie Nagy ’09, Laura Diffenderfer ’11,Evan Arthur ’09, David Hsi ’10, and Jeffery Holton ’13.
Their work described in this paper contributes to the understanding of how some drugs can halt the activity of an enzyme. In this case, the enzyme studied is one that is important for the body’s processing of about 20 percent of medicines, particularly treatments for arrhythmia and other heart diseases, depression, and other maladies. Such understanding is vital because many people’s health depends on daily regimens of multiple medicines. Sometimes one drug can interfere with the very enzymes responsible for the processing and clearance of other co-administered drugs. This and other unwanted side effects are the number one cause of hospitalization in America.
The paper’s contribution to the understanding of how certain classes of drugs cause this interference with key enzymes will hopefully lead to more effective prevention of the phenomenon in the future.
The K research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and by the Department of Chemistry Hutchcroft Fund. The latter was established by a gift from alumni Alan ’63 and Elaine (Goff) Hutchcroft ’63.
The final version of the study was presented at the San Diego meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
They are great teammates, adept at leading and following. They speak articulately and they listen justly. They are athletic captains, student organization officers and participants. They may see what others see but often dream what few others do. They are the kind of people who believe that a significant piece of what it means to be human is developing and using that part of our soul which exists in relationship to others. Kalamazoo College recognized 31 seniors with the 2012 Senior Leadership Recognition Award this month.
Pictured are (l-r): front row—Tanjanequa McMeans, Ellen Murphy, Caitlyn Van Gelderen, Rachel Cohan, Meredith Quinlan, Paula Silverman; second row—Melba Sales-Griffin, Katy Grue, LaShawn Etheridge, Sandrene Zilikana; third row—Ben Ensroth, Heather Russon, Molly Waytes, Jennifer McCutchen, Katy Sly, Joanne Heppert, Obineche Nnebedum; fourth row—Jacob Arnett, Dalton Simancek, William Schlaack, Hannah Reischl, Anna Miller; back row—Max Wedding, David Pimentel, Daniel Pohanka, Dion Bullock, Jacob Price, and Mark Denenfeld. Not pictured are Zena Blake-Mark, Leonidas Caldwell, and Kelsey Hassevoort.
Breanna Dailey ’12 is among 26 recipients of a Young Women of Achievement award from the Kalamazoo YWCA. The awards are given to high school and college-aged women in the greater Kalamazoo area who have achieved high academic success while staying involved in extracurricular activities and contributing to the community.
Breanna is a double major in psychology and French who is also active in the Kalamazoo College band and serves on both the Senior Graduation and Student Activities committees. She is also active in AMIGOS, a bilingual mentoring program operated by the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service Learning that pairs K students with students at Kalamazoo Central High School.
(Left to right, top row) Candido ’00, Finan ’14, Stutz ’14, Wedding ’12 (bottom), Isser ’13, and Epperson ’13. Photo Credit: Elaine Ezekiel ’13
By Elaine Ezekiel ’13
“Reclaiming Crystal Ball: What Drag Means for Us” was the theme of the Week Eight (May 18) Community Reflection in Stetson Chapel. Sponsored by Kaleidoscope, members of the campus’ LGBT organization offered perspectives on drag and the annual Crystal Ball dance.
Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 recalled her experiences attending Crystal Ball as a student, when the event was much smaller and more private.
Elinor Epperson ’13 discussed her experience filming a documentary about Crystal Ball 2011 and the status quo of male attire: “Women have fought hard to earn the right to wear pants, but men wearing skirts is considered abhorrent.”
Caitlin Finan ’14 spoke about choosing her first Crystal Ball costume: a surprisingly comfortable men’s suit. Kaleidoscope co-president Max Wedding ’12 described reclaiming his feminine side through drag. Craig Isser ’13, dressed in rainbow suspenders and matching platform wedges, described his pre-Crystal Ball routine: “Drag shows us how much fun, how different, how okay life can be when we start to lose the limitation of gender.”
Kaleidoscope co-president Hailey Stutz ’14 spoke about her daily struggle with identity though clothing, not just preparing for Crystal Ball.
Finally, Candido offered the audience advice on how to react to the anti-gay protester on campus throughout the week. “The protester is here not to reason with you,” she said, “Don’t allow your anger or your emotions to amplify his voice.”
Following the reflection, attendees signed a poster with an inclusive religious message, which now hangs in Biggby’s coffee shop.
Community Reflection offers a unique forum for discussion, worship, performance, and community expression each Friday at 10:50 AM (refreshments at 10:30) in Stetson Chapel. The entire campus community and general public are invited. The Week 10 (May 25) and final Reflection of the 2011-12 academic year will be devoted to Student Commission Community Awards, in which the K Student Commission honors the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff. The new Stu-Com Executive Board will also take the oath of office.
A beefcake pose doesn’t always a great male model make. Sometimes it takes a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins. Two photos of Tanav Popli ’11 are featured on the video advertisement for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting (Tanav is pictured in slides 18 and 19, wearing a gray sweater with an argyle pattern).
The photos are from last year’s meeting in Washington, D.C., at which Tanav presented the results of his Senior Individualized Project work completed at University of California-San Francisco. His poster was titled: “Tmtc4 interacts with C3G, Wntless, and Zfhx4: a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins associated with development of the corpus callosum.”
“I think he has returned to that USCF lab as a technician while he applies to medical school,” says Laura Furge, associate professor of chemistry. “There are three students that have just this week submitted abstracts to attend the 2012 meeting in San Diego,” she added.
They are: Mara Livezey ’13, Sandrine Zilikana ’12, and Lindsey Gaston ’12. Travel for students to this meeting is provided by a grant to Kalamazoo College from the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation.
“K” students Will Guedes ’15, Tibin John ’15, Chris Clerville ’13, Jiakan Wang ’13, Lucas Kushner ’14, and Trung Hoang ’12.
Students from Kalamazoo College worked together to build their mental endurance and speed in anticipation of a big test held Oct. 21-22. No, not mid-terms—the 36th annual Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest sponsored by IBM. Regional competitions for the so-called “Battle of the Brains” attracted tens of thousands of students from schools in about 90 countries on six continents, all with the same dream to walk away with prizes, scholarships, job opportunities, and a coveted spot among the top 100 teams invited to the World Finals in Poland in May 2012.
Two Kalamazoo teams competed against the smartest collegiate IT talent from 122 colleges and universities in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, including teams from MSU, UM, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. Each three-student team applied its programming skills to solve complex real world problems under a grueling five-hour deadline huddled around a single computer.
“The two ‘K’ teams did great,” said Pam Cutter, associate professor of computer science. “We had seniors through freshmen participating.”
The “Black Hornets” finished tied for 48th, and the “Orange Hornets” finishing 53rd.
“We’re proud of their effort and for standing up to the ‘big schools.’ It was time well spent and a great learning experience for all.”
Ten Kalamazoo College students who are creating their own theater production this spring with guidance from a guest director from Varanasi, India, will take the show to Varanasi this summer and get a chance to see a country whose culture they have been exploring in class and on stage.
The “Kahani” project — which came about through a unique collaboration of the College’s Theatre Arts Department, Center for International Programs, and Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership—combines many of the key elements of a K education: rigorous scholarship, critical thinking, international engagement, interdisciplinary exploration, social-justice discussions…and don’t leave out creativity and performance opportunities.
Students are spending just seven weeks devising the scenes for “Kahani” (which means “Story” in Hindi) before they present it May 10-13 at the College’s Nelda Balch Playhouse. And they are required to attend both rehearsals and a class taught by guest director Irfana Majumdar, a visiting fellow of the Arcus Center. In the photo at left, Jane Huffman ’15 (standing), Joe Westerfield ’15 (seated), and Sam Bertken ’12 rehearse for the play. Majumdar assigned readings of a novel and short stories by Indian women writers as jumping-off points for script creation, and many of those pieces explore gender and power dynamics within close relationships.
“Instead of using big issues like communalism, which are also very important in the world, I decided to stay inside smaller, closer human relationships, like within a family,” Majumdar said, “I think it’s very important for men and women to explore these issues of gender together.”
Much of the theater work Majumdar does is “devised work,” meaning it does not begin with a set script. “What is interesting about the project we’re doing, and exciting,” she said, “is…that it’s really a lot about the actors. And since they’re students and they’re just learning to act and beginning their journey of theater, it’s a way to really explore more of themselves and bring that into a project.”
The chance to create a theater piece with fellow students has been exhilarating for senior theater major Sam Bertken, a 22-year-old from northern California.
Samantha Jolly ’15 (left) and McKenna Kring ’15 rehearse for Kahani at Kalamazoo College, a play that will be performed by Kalamazoo College students in the Nelda Balch Playhouse on the K campus May 10-13, and in Varanasi, India, in July.
“I love the possibility for something completely new to be created,” said Bertken when the group was about three weeks into the project. He said the students started off doing exercises to “create a physical vocabulary” and build trust and then focused on their compositional skills. To create potential scenes for the final production, they split into small groups and began voicing their ideas, one right after another.
The process has not been without its challenges, though. “It’s tough,” Bertken said. “Every time you come in you have to be really open to possibilities. The biggest problem is time. There’s this balance of ‘Are we including everybody’s ideas?’ and then ‘Are we being efficient with our time?’”
But they have had a great teacher in Majumdar, he said. “She’s been able to make those of us who’ve never done a devised theater piece feel very confident about our ability to accomplish this project, which is something to be said.”
Back in Varanasi, Majumdar leads a theater studio that’s part of a nongovernmental organization called Nirman, which offers arts-based education for primary and secondary students and study-abroad opportunities for college students. It became one of K’s 43 study-abroad sites in 2010, according to CIP Associate Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft.
The “Kahani” project got started after K religion professor Carol Anderson met Majumdar during a sojourn in India. Majumdar and her mother, Nita, who also helps run the Nirman organization, then visited K about two years ago, and Anderson introduced Professor of Theatre Arts Ed Menta to the women.
“I found out Irfana has a great theater background, and she’s also a filmmaker,” said Menta. “And I thought, ‘Wow, we gotta do something. The stars are lining up right to sort of have a convergence of theater, social justice, and interculturalism. What could be better? It’s like many of the programs and aspirations of the College coming together in one project.’”
Jaime Grant, executive director of the Arcus Center, sees Majumdar as “a perfect visiting fellow” whose work can broaden “theater people’s visions of what theater is for” and “social justice people’s ideas of what’s in their toolbox to create change.”
“If you look at social justice movements throughout the world, theater is often part and parcel of that work,” Grant said. And because the “Kahani” project is a collaborative one in which everyone has a voice, “the process itself speaks to social justice,” Grant added.
The project has been a perfect fit for “Kahani” stage manager Kathleen “Kat” Barrett, a junior majoring both in Theater Arts and in Human Development and Social Relations, a course of study that combines anthropology, sociology and psychology. She said she wanted a college experience that would boost her critical-thinking skills and challenge her thinking about the world. She also likes to keep really busy.
“I’m in various rehearsals from six to midnight most nights,” Barrett said, “but I love what I’m doing. And this production is such an amazing project that the faculty has put together for us.”
“Kahani” will take the stage at Nirman in July as the students travel to India for about 10 days, accompanied by Majumdar, Grant, Menta, and Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts. For Barrett, the journey will be a return trip. She spent July through December studying at Nirman and then a few more weeks traveling through India.
“I’m really excited to go back,” said the 21-year-old, who grew up in the small northern Michigan town of Shelby. “I loved India. I loved the city (of Varanasi). It’s not Delhi. It’s not modernized in a lot of ways. But it has so much character. It’s one of the most religious locations in India because it’s right on the holy Ganges River. It has so many stories and so many people and so much culture.”
Barrett, like so many others at Kalamazoo College, is also thrilled about this opportunity for her fellow students. “I’m so excited that they put in so much work, so much critical energy and then they get to go to India and not only perform it but see the world they’ve been thinking about so much.”
“Sight and Voice Revealed: Unveiling the Cauldron,”was the theme of the Week 6 (May 4) Community Reflection in Stetson Chapel. With support from the Student Activities Fee, each member of the audience received a free copy of the 32nd edition of the literary magazine, which features art, photography, and writing created by K students.
Editors Cam Stewart ’12 and Rebecca Staudenmaier ’12 discussed the Cauldron’s ability to unite students across interests and talents:
“We are the community bound at the book’s spine,” said Staudenmaier.
Writer-in-Residence Diane “Di” Seuss presented the Stephanie Vibbert Award to Erin Donevan ’12. This accolade memorializes the English/psychology double-major from Class of 2003 who died during her senior year at K. The award honors a current student whose writing exemplifies the intersection between creative writing and community engagement. Seuss said that Vibbert would have endorsed Donevan’s work promoting creative writing in Botswana and Kalamazoo.
The College’s Writing Center Director Amy Newday announced the three winners of the Divine Crow Award, which is bestowed on writers of outstanding Cauldron entries. Newday said the winners “wove connections for me through time, space and experience.” They were Paul Lovaas ’13 (for his nonfiction short story “Darkrooms”), Fran Hoepfner ’13 (for her poem “to shatter when dropped”), and Kelly Bush ’12 (for her fantasy short story “Ariadne”). Each student read excerpts from their winning work.
Divine Crow Award runners-up were Umang Varma ’14, Carolyn Stordeur ’12 and Nicholas Canu ’12.
Community Reflection offers a unique forum for discussion, worship, performance, and community expression each Friday at 10:50 AM (refreshments at 10:30) in Stetson Chapel. The entire campus community and general public are invited. Week 7 (May 11) Reflection will be “Perspectives from a Global K,” in which members of the International Student Organization share their experiences and reflections about current global issues
Students stand with their cardboard recreation of Stetson Chapel
Stetson Chapel received another life recently when K students erected a new and recyclable cardboard version of the building on the Quad, breaking a collegiate environmental record along the way.
Sustainability intern Scott Beal ’12 asked EnvOrg (Environmental Organization) to help him break the world’s record for the largest cardboard castle. The group considered several ideas for using boxes bound for recycling and decided to build a cardboard version of Stetson Chapel.
Construction day was April 27. With the assistance of Recycling Coordinator Rob Townsend, students built the Chapel replica on the quad using 760 boxes, which eclipsed Brigham Young University’s then-record 734-box castle.
Harvard University set the original record with a 566-box structure on their campus.
By Elaine Ezekiel ’13