First-year students arriving to campus this fall are learning about front-line stories from the 2014 Flint water crisis by participating in Kalamazoo College’s Summer Reading Program.   

The group, along with some faculty and staff, is reading What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha. The book tells how the author—along with a team of researchers, parents and community leaders—discovered that the children of Flint were being exposed to lead in their tap water and campaigned to reveal that information to the world. 

Hanna-Attisha—a pediatrician, professor and public health advocate—is the associate dean for Public Health and C. S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, and the founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a partnership between MSU and Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, which seeks to mitigate the water crisis and serve as a national resource for best practices. She was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and one of USA Today’s Women of the Century for her role in uncovering the water crisis and leading recovery efforts. She also has testified before Congress and contributes to national media outlets.  

The Summer Common Reading program is a key component of K’s first-year experience efforts, which tie hands-on experiential learning, advising, first-year forums and seminars, and assistance from peer leaders and Residential Life to guide new students through their transition to college. 

Students receive a copy of the Summer Common Reading book in the mail and are asked to submit answers in response to prompts. The author of the chosen novel then commonly visits campus during orientation to participate in a community discussion and returns four years later for the class’ Commencement.  

For more on K’s first-year and Summer Reading programs, visit the first-year experience website.