alumni

Active Autumn in Career Education

Posted on
Bret Linvill, Jerry Mechtenberg-Berrigan and Amos
Bret Linvill ’15 (center) during his summer internship, flanked by alumni supervisor Jerry Mechtenberg-Berrigan ’97 (right) and Jerry’s son, Amos. Linvill’s was a Community Building Internship organized jointly with the College’s Center for Civic Engagement.

Autumn’s active in the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD). The Recruiting Expo and the Professional Development Institute are hard-to-miss fall events. And you often find CCPD staff speaking in upper-level classes and first-year seminars. Every day CCPD staff members help students with career counseling, with assessment tools, and with application materials. And fall’s the time CCPD reaches out to alumni and parents to invite their partnership in providing summer career development opportunities for students.

Alumni and parents, let us know if you will host a summer student, either through the Discovery Externship Program or as a K Intern in the Field Experience Program.

Externships: Short Homestay and Job Shadow

Past externship hosts, who have housed students and hosted them in their workplace for up to four weeks in the summer, become enthusiastic advocates for the program.

“John and Tyler were wonderful externs! Not only did we enjoy them tremendously, but we received such positive feedback from our colleagues who graciously spent time with them. The days were long and hectic, but our dinners were relaxed and full of conversations about their days, their impressions, the state of medicine, and more.” – Sherri Seifert ’83

“It is always great to connect with a current K student and to spend time sharing my home and work life. As I have become more professionalized in my career, I find I can more comfortably provide advice and insight into working in the arts.” – Bethany Whitehead ’98

“Discovery Externship is a special program that I highly endorse. I wish all college students could have such an experience. The students come well prepared and ready to try out new things. And we seem to benefit just as much as they do.” – Anne Dayanandan ’75

Other comments:

“I found it a lot of fun. I enjoyed showing our student what practicing medicine is like. It helped me reflect on what I was like at 19 trying to make similar career decisions.”

“Hosting a K student was a lovely experience. It was fun to get to share my experiences at and beyond K with her. When I was at K, wondering what I might do next, I had no idea what graduate school was all about. I enjoyed being able to offer a K student a glimpse of that next step and to provide some guidance about how to get there.”

“I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the extern about my own scattered career path. I reassure students that career paths do not need to be defined at graduation and do not need to be linear. I wish I had someone to talk to about such concerns when I was a student.”

“It’s great to see the level of intellectual curiosity that I remember as a hallmark of my time at K is still alive and well in the current student body. My extern made me feel as if the DNA of the college was still much the same–the students are there because they are truly engaged and committed to learning. That was nice to see.”

Internships: Summer Workplace Immersion

Externship host Bridget Blough with her two summer externs
Externship host Bridget Blough ’08 (right) shares a day at the beach with her two summer externs.

Alumni and parents who select and supervise student interns for at least six weeks through the Field Experience Program are similarly effusive. They cite many benefits of involvement, including:

– Engagement with talented, idealistic, dedicated students;

– Enhancement of the projects to which interns are assigned;

– The real and valuable work undertaken by the students;

– The learning that goes both ways;

– The opportunity to see future leaders learn and grow by doing.

The program’s structure–a sliding-scale stipend, a learning contract, regular contact with the CCPD through reflective assignments, final evaluations, and official transcript notation–ensures that learning goals and mutual expectations are established and met.

The CCPD is currently fielding inquiries and confirming participation for both extern and intern hosts for summer 2014. Alumni and parents may indicate their interest in either program online, and a CCPD staff member will respond by mid-November. As fall turns to winter, our students will head off for winter break, and the CCPD’s summer line-up will be complete.

Social Justice Networks in Action

Posted on

Alyssa Rickard ’12 works for the Africa Department of Freedom House, an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights. The organization’s Johannesburg (South Africa) office–and Rickard–are working on a project seeking people in southern Africa to serve as mentors to 20 Fellows of a Freedom House program called Empowerment of a New Generation of Leaders in Southern Africa (ENGLSA). The Fellows (and prospective mentees) are men and women between 25 and 45 years old from government, private sector and civil society organizations in Namibia and South Africa, all of whom are committed to ethical leadership and accountable governance. Prospective mentors will use one-on-one and group meetings as well as virtual interactions to mentor, drawing from their personal experiences and professional backgrounds to serve as trusted counselors, loyal advisors, sounding boards and coaches to mentees. Mentors will help the Fellows reflect on their developing competencies and enhance their leadership capacity. In her work, Rickard, who earned her B.A. as a political science major, is drawing on some of her own undergraduate mentors as resources, specifically the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership’s Lisa Brock and Prexy Nesbitt. Rickard took the College’s course on Nelson Mandela, co-taught by Brock and Nesbitt, and later joined one of Nesbitt’s trips to Africa. Both Brock and Nesbitt have extensive networks of social justice leaders in southern Africa that might help Rickard and Freedom House recruit the mentors for ENGLSA. The connection is one example of the worldwide impact of the ACSJL.

Campaign For Kalamazoo College Launches Public Phase

Posted on

Kalamazoo College officials today announced that they have raised more than $84 million in gifts and pledges in The Campaign for Kalamazoo College, a $125 million effort intended to help K “elevate excellence” and “expand its impact” on and off campus.

The College launched the campaign in March 2010. The anticipated end date is June 30, 2015. With today’s announcement, the College moves into a more public phase in which all alumni and other friends of the College will be asked to make a contribution to one of four campaign priorities: student opportunity and access, faculty excellence, K-Plan enrichment, and capital projects.

“The $84 million committed by donors thus far is an amazing statement about how much they value K and the exceptional education we offer students,” said K Board of Trustees Chair Charlotte Hall ’66. “This is a very exciting time at Kalamazoo College,” she added. “This campaign supports a strategic plan that builds on the College’s mission and its historic strengths. It will elevate excellence across campus–excellence among our faculty, excellence within the student body, and excellence across our campus facilities.”

According to Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, the impact of the campaign is already being felt. “More than $7.5 million in new student scholarships enables us to enroll highly talented students regardless of their economic backgrounds,” she said. “Six newly endowed faculty positions help assure that these students are educated by stellar teachers and scholars.

“We have begun to strengthen the experiential programs that power the K-Plan,” she added, “including international engagement, career internships, leadership development, and student research.

“Because of donor generosity, we have also invested in a number of building projects—-such as the Hicks Student Center, K athletics fields and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership—-that enrich the student experience and foster an even closer campus community.”

Nearly half of the estimated $20 million needed to replace the College’s aging natatorium and build a new fitness and wellness center has been pledged by donors.

“These and future gifts will have a profound impact on our students and ultimately the communities in which they will live and work,” said Wilson-Oyelaran. “This campaign will help K expand its impact on and off campus and help our students do more in four years so they can do more in a lifetime.”

Trustee Emeritus Phil Carra, Louise Fugate, Professor Emeritus of German Studies Joe Fugate and Chair of the Board of Trustees Charlotte Hall
Among the many who gathered for the public launch of the campaign for Kalamazoo College were (l-r): Trustee Emeritus Phil Carra ’69, Louise Fugate, Professor Emeritus of German Studies Joe Fugate, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Charlotte Hall ’66.

Shaping Space and Social Interaction

Posted on

Hannah Knoll's ArtPrize entryHannah Knoll ’13 is a recent Kalamazoo College graduate with a passion for design and an aspiration to be an architect. She majored in physics with minors in mathematics and studio art. “I am interested primarily in the relationship between community and the physical landscape, leading to my desired career in architecture or urban design, fields I began to explore through jobs, internships and my study abroad experience in Copenhagen, Denmark,” said Knoll. She is currently updating architectural drawings for K’s facilities management department and serving as the Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Art for the 2013-2014 academic year. Her busy schedule nevertheless left her time to enter ArtPrize. Her submission is called “Spaces Between.” The entry includes five bench-like objects that together outline a single rectangular form that relates to the room it is in.

“The fragmentation of this rectangle creates spaces between the individual pieces, spaces that can be experienced by the viewer as they sit and interact with the work. This is part of a series of projects exploring how physical elements and objects that shape space can influence social interactions.”

Healthy Body May Mean Healthy Bacteria

Posted on

Rob Dunn ’97 is extensively quoted (and his best-selling book cited, The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today) in an article by Nancy Churnin that appeared in the Dallas Morning News’ “Dallas News Life.” The article, “Be nice to your bacteria and they’ll be nice to you, doctors say,” notes a growing belief among experts that good health is strongly influenced by the ecology of the multitudes of bacteria that reside in our bodies and in our natural environment. It cites examples of probiotic treatment, or the introduction of bacteria as a therapeutic measure to restore the balance of bacterial populations in the body. It is a fascinating read, and Dunn is at his curious K best, equating excitement with the new found extent of all we don’t know. Dunn is a scientist and professor at North Carolina State.

The Art of a Scientist

Posted on

Kalamazoo College alumnus Dan Van HornWhen Dan Van Horn ’50 earned his degree in biology, focusing on ornithology, at Kalamazoo College, he came to science with an eye for art. A visit to the Indiana Dunes during his college years intrigued Van Horn, drawing his eye to plant life, but also to the resident birds. Alongside biology, Van Horn studied watercolor painting, but after graduating and going into military service, he switched from watercolor to photography.

Van Horn went on to graduate school to earn a master’s and then his doctoral degree in zoology at the University of Colorado. He was a professor of biology at several colleges and universities, later also a founding member of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs biology department shortly after the branch opened in 1966. Since retiring from teaching, he has immersed himself in art again, winning many awards. He is a signature member of four national watercolor societies, and in 2013, Van Horn was selected for the American Watercolor Society’s 146th Annual Exhibition. The show is traveling to many venues across the United States throughout 2013.

Van Horn lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, but because he grew up in Chicago, many of his watercolors feature that city.

Preparation for Turbulent Times

Posted on

Convocation crowd gathers at Stetson ChapelThe College’s Alumni Relations department invited (via an e-mail titled “Welcome to the Class of 2017”) the friends and alumni of the College to share in this year’s Summer Common Reading experience, part of the annual Orientation program. SCR 2013 featured a campus visit by author Vaddey Ratner, who spoke with faculty, staff, and the first-year class that had read her book, In the Shadow of the Banyan. The e-mail invited alumni to “join in on the reading as you think about a new chapter that begins in the lives of our new K students, and remember your first year experiences through this process.” The e-mail also included an old photo (at left) of the inside of Stetson Chapel, and to its call was received at least one response–from Moses Thompson ’70, from quite a distance. “I am in remote, actually very remote, Zambia,” he wrote. “Nevertheless I will find the book on line and join in. Just looking at that photo of the chapel,” he added, “reminded me of the last time I was there, in 1970, well after midnight one evening, sitting in the balcony preparing to graduate and leave the next day: somehow a very powerful place. And musing over the cornerstone: ’The end of learning is gracious living’, which we enjoyed transposing as ’the end of yearning is gracious loving’. Yet, that chapel had a powerful effect on me. It was at a time when the College was in a great transition of culture change, not smooth but turbulent change: for the students then it was a transition from in loco parentis, required chapel, and closed dorms, to personal responsibility, choice about chapel, and mixed dorms–a huge uproar this caused at the time. Trivial issues of change when compared to the enormous and sweeping transformations about to be unleashed around the globe; still, in a microcosm these small changes captured the energy and heart of new directions. It was not to be a simple coming of age for a generation of young people pushing the limits of their local environment. This would be a change in the way we understood personal responsibility, in and beyond our narrow community and interests.

“In 1972 I became director of a predominantly black organization, hired by phone and assumed to be black because of my name, and spent a few years in the midst of the nation’s worst racial tension. I went on to 30 more years in international development assistance. And the decision, and to be sure the desire, to take on these challenges might have been formulated at K, perhaps that evening, in the dark of Stetson Chapel, seated in the back row of the balcony, feet up on the pew before me: chapel no longer required, now a choice. The locus of motivation had changed from the outside and others trying to coerce, to the inside with a personal desire to go out and create something of value.

“Kalamazoo is a wonderful college and a great place to prepare for turbulent times.”

Thompson would have enjoyed the ways in which, during the course of two days, the author, her novel, and its readers touched one another and learned from one another. Ratner posted her reflections of her experience at K. She wrote, “My journey there was as enriching, exciting, and full of life-affirming discoveries and learning as any fantastical adventure conjured up by the magic of imagination. Indeed, I felt I was walking into a sanctuary of learning, where the essence of youthful energy and curiosity is focused in a shared endeavor to know, to understand.”

Second Generation Peace Corps

Posted on

Anna Williams ’10 is a Peace Corps volunteer who began her two-year commitment this past June. Her title is Education Volunteer, and she will live and work in a community in the West African country of Togo to encourage critical thinking in the classroom, and integrate issues like health education and environmental awareness into English classes. Her story appears in an article (“Piece by Peace: The Peace Corps Volunteers of Tomorrow”), which credits her dream of serving in the Peace Corps in part to her K study abroad experience in Dakar, Senegal. The fact that she’s a second generation Peace Corps volunteer no doubt was an influence as well. She shares a Peace Corps experience with her father and her mother, who both served as volunteers in Tunisia. She shares a K experience with her father, Bill Williams, a member of the Kalamazoo College Class of 1971.

The In-Between Place

Posted on

The Louisiana Museum recently interviewed Kalamazoo College alumna and artist Julie Mehretu ’92. The interview is titled “The in-between place,” and in it Mehretu talks about some of her recent work and its various influences, including the architecture of Cairo, Egypt, and recent events surrounding the Arab spring and the revolution that is ongoing in Egypt. She talks about the influence of her own origins as a person who was born in Ethiopia and whose family migrated to the United States, and she shares insights into the layered textures of her work and the large scale of her paintings, which provides multiple perspectives and experiences as the viewer processes the painting in multiple parts as well as its wholeness. Mehretu is one of the most celebrated artists of our time whose work has appeared in galleries and museums throughout the world. She maintains studios in New York City and Berlin.

K Artists in ArtPrize 2013

Posted on

Vintage neon sign at Michigan theater
Russell Cooper’s photographic ArtPrize tour gives a view of vintage neon signs across Michigan.

Russell Cooper ’89, help desk administrator for Kalamazoo College Information Services, is a popular figure around the K campus for his ability to fix all things computerized. He is also known for his love of roller coasters and his skill with a camera, many of his photos appearing on the College website. And others made up his first and second entries to ArtPrize 2012 and ArtPrize 2013, respectively. His 2012 entry was a photographic representation of his two children; his current entry, Michiganeon, explores the world of neon signs.

ArtPrize is an international, open art competition based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with $560,000 awarded by public vote and juried awards, making it the world’s largest art prize. From September 18 to October 6, three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids will become an open-air art venue, with many businesses opening their doors to participate, giving their space over to become art galleries.

“I love the look of the vintage neon,” says Cooper. “I would see something cool one time, and drive by another time, and it would be gone (business closed, sign gone). I’ve seen other photographers shooting neon, but no one focusing on Michigan. I’ve been working on this collection for about three years, but only considered it for ArtPrize this year.”

Annie Belle with her ArtPrize entry
Annie Belle ’13 with her art entry, a knitted house called “Woolhouse”

Annie Belle ’13 (artist’s name for Joanna Eckrich) is exhibiting “Woolhouse” as her ArtPrize entry. Her entry was her Senior Individualized Project at Kalamazoo College, a house knitted out of wool, complete with furniture.