alumni

Commute and Climate

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Midway through this summer, biology graduate Trace Redmond ’13 wanted to know how K faculty and staff got to and from work. He was being paid for his curiosity, all part of his work as the summer 2013 energy intern on behalf of the College’s sustainability efforts. His work included completion of a “greenhouse gas inventory,” just one small piece of the College’s Climate Action Plan, which K developed when it signed in June 2007 the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. The plan calls for regular progress reports by the College on its effort to reduce climate-affecting emissions to an eventual goal of carbon neutrality.

Redmond has been busy setting up data collection infrastructure that would allow the College to establish baselines and measure progress in areas like greenhouse gases, waste tracking, water use, and storm water management. It’s a complex array of information that needs to be tracked over time in order to guide the College to those efforts that will make the most difference in achieving cost-effective operations that also have no ill effect on the climate.

Redmond makes three classifications of emissions–direct, indirect, and upstream. “Direct” are emissions the College releases–for example, exhaust from fleet vehicles. “Indirect” emissions released by vendors to provide products we purchase–electricity, for example. “Upstream” refer to those emissions that are even a bit more indirect, including air travel for study abroad and faculty and staff commuting, the subject of Redmond’s summer survey.

Response rate was excellent–176 people, more than 50 percent of employees. He kept the survey simple to encourage participation and ensure consistent measurement of change in future years. The survey showed that 83 percent of faculty and staff drive to campus one or more days a week. Average commutes by car per week, and average commute distance were 4.4 commutes and 15.8 miles, respectively. From those figures Redmond calculated that faculty and staff drive almost 913,000 commuter miles per year, requiring nearly 38,000 gallons of gas and releasing 336 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Said Redmond, “To offset our commuting emissions from one year, 8,608 tree seedlings would need to grow for 10 years.”

Redmond’s tenure as energy intern ends this month. He career pursuits include consulting on greenhouse gas emissions or quality assurance work in the brewing industry.

Bike Pilgrimage Becomes Book Basis

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An illustration by Elayna Snyder
An illustration by Elayna Snyder ’09 from her upcoming book, Temple by Temple, which is based on her experience doing Japan’s 88 Temple Pilgrimage.

Elayna Snyder ’09 is gearing up to again bicycle an ancient pilgrimage route to 88 temples in Shikoku, Japan. The 900-mile route takes a circular path around Shikoku. Snyder is one-half of a writer-illustrator team that is working on Temple by Temple, an illustrated book about a girl’s journey to the temples with her cat.

Snyder does the art. Chelsea Reidy does the words. They both lived in Shikoku, Japan, for three years near the pilgrimage route where ohenro (pilgrims) are seen against the landscape of green mountains and blue seas. Before returning to the United States last November, Snyder and Reidy (along with Snyder’s sister, Alyse) completed the pilgrimage route on bicycles. The illustrations in the book are all based on photographs taken while they were traveling the 88 temple path.

Now they are planning to embark on the 88 temple journey a second time. Along with translating the book into Japanese, they will collect the materials needed to make 88 hand-bound copies of their book. Snyder is seeking to gain funds through Kickstarter, a web-based crowd-sourcing platform where creative entrepreneurs pitch their ideas.

The pilgrimage in Japan commemorates a Buddhist saint, Kobo Daishi. Many believe that his spirit still roams Shikoku, traveling with all pilgrims who do the journey. Although the route is Buddhist in nature, people of all faiths set off on the path for various reasons—to explore rural Japan, to pray for good fortune or for ill loved ones, and to seek adventure. Temple by Temple explores all the different aspects of the pilgrimage and pays homage to Daishi by including him in all the illustrations. He is hidden in the illustration above

K alumni (and one long ago faculty member) in the news

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Kalamazoo College alumnus Roy Yewah
Roy Yewah ’13

Roy Yewah ’13 is among 33 young adults who recently learned they were selected from 700 applicants to spend the next two years of their life living and working in Detroit. Roy is among the “Year Two” class of Challenge Detroit, an organization dedicated to recruiting young talent to the Motor City to work for businesses and nonprofits. Read about the program in this MLive report. And listen to Roy talk about his commitment to Detroit in a Challenge Detroit video clip. Leigh Ann Ulrey ’11 and Sam Brennan ’11 are part of “Year One” Challenge Detroit. Read about them in this January 2013 issue of BeLight. Which young K alumni will we read about from “Year Three” of Challenge Detroit?!

Kalamazoo College alumna Carolyn DeChants
Carolyn DeChants ’09

Carolyn DeChants ’09 is very busy in Philadelphia. Not only is she creating a digital archive for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at the University of Pennsylvania, she’s pursuing a master’s degree in social policy at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice. She hopes to have the online archive set up and in a sustainable form by August, when she will also finish her degree—and join the work world. Carolyn, who says she’s passionate about using research to help illuminate and ameliorate the experiences of any marginalized populations, is currently looking for a position conducting policy research or program evaluation in the Philadelphia area.

Harvey Dickson ’80 is a copy editor of The New York Times Magazine and an occasional contributor to “The 6th Floor” blog where the Magazine’s staff members share ideas, arguments, curiosities and links. Read Harvey’s July 18, 2013 post “Where Have You Gone, Willie Horton?” about the Detroit Tigers slugger and 1968 World Series hero who—still wearing his Tiger uniform after a game against the Yankees—went into the streets of Detroit to help quell some of the violence taking place there during the riots of summer 1967.

Kalamazoo College alumnus Gerald Rosen
Gerald Rosen ’73

Gerald Rosen ’73 is chief district judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Will he be appointed as the mediator to rule on disagreements between Detroit and its creditors during the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy case? U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes signaled in a court filing that he plans to do just that. Read about Jerry Rosen and his possible appointment in this recent Detroit Free Press article.

Edward Olney was Professor of Mathematics at Kalamazoo College for ten years beginning in 1853. He established the first mathematics curriculum at K and had a reputation for being a stern disciplinarian and a stickler for correct details. Despite his nickname “Old Toughy,” Olney was said to take great pains to see that the poorer students obtained help in making up their deficiencies. Read more about Olney in the July 24, 2013 entry of “On This Day in Math,” a popular blog about, well, math.

K-Plan Cultivation

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Kalamazoo College students may not be in class during the summer, but they are busy cultivating their K-Plans, across the country and around the world, in externships and internships supported by the Center for Career and Professional Development.

This summer 109 students are taking part in the CCPD’s summer career development programs. The Discovery Externship Program, in its 12th year, offers 46 first-year and sophomore students the opportunity to test the waters of a possible career by living and working with an alumni or parent professional for up to four weeks. Externs and hosts agree that the intensity of sharing both workday and “porchtime” experiences leads to rich relationships and deep discovery about the reality of the working world. This summer discovery externs can be found shadowing alumni in hospitals and health networks, a maritime museum, an organic food truck, dentistry and veterinary practices, financial and consulting firms, a school in India and a farm in Michigan.

To ensure the educational quality of their workplace experience, interns enrolled in the CCPD’s Field Experience Program agree with their supervisor on a learning contract outlining mutual goals and objectives for their summer together. They commit to regular structured reflection about their workplace experience, and they receive evaluation feedback at the conclusion of the internship. This summer, 63 interns are spending at least six weeks working with alumni professionals, Kalamazoo area non-profits, social justice organizations, and a wide range of independently-secured experiences across the country. Most Field Experience Program interns receive a stipend to help defray the costs of their unpaid experiences.

Externships and internships challenge students to apply theoretical learning to practical situations and to examine assumptions about work and careers. One current student mid-way through her internship described her summer work experience as “both gratifying and challenging.” She said, “In many ways this internship is not meeting my expectations and is showing me how off-base those expectations have been. These past three weeks have helped me rid myself of assumptions I held, and have given me new ways of thinking about how work at a non-profit can be done.”

The CCPD is already at work recruiting hosts and supervisors for summer 2014. Alumni and parents interested in offering a workplace experience to a student may contact career@kzoo.edu to request more information about becoming part of the Discovery Externship Program or the Field Experience Program.

Britta Seifert ′12 Reports from the Kyrgyz Republic

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Kalamazoo College alumna Britta Seifert with other health educators
Britta Seifert ’12, center, poses for a photo with health educators in a village outside of Toktogul in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Britta Seifert ′12 is about three months into a two-year Peace Corps commitment in the Kyrgyz Republic, a small mountainous country in the center of Asia. Her job is helping improve the health outcomes of residents around Toktogul, a town she says is “located about five hours by taxi and two mountain passes south of Bishkek,” the country′s capital city. Britta recently filed a report in the Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer addressing the challenges and opportunities she faces, especially regarding HIV education and prevention.

Odds and Ends With a K Connection

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Matters of T-shirts, essays, and scholarships meant good news for three people who share a Kalamazoo College connection.

Kalamazoo College alumnus Chris Tower on the quad
Chris Tower ′85

Writer and college instructor Chris Tower ’85 shows off his Kalamazoo College pride on his T-Shirt blog, “I would not be the person I am today if I had not attended and ultimately graduated from Kalamazoo College.”

Congratulations to Tessa Moore ’15. Her essay, The Ezili, earned her the Voynovich Scholarship, which hasn’t been awarded since 2008.

Kalamazoo College alumna Mariah Hennen
Mariah Hennen ′15 at Harvest Fest, fall 2012.

Mariah Hennen ’15 was 35 out of more than 100 students nationwide to be awarded the Jo Anne J. Trow National Scholarship. Recipients must maintain a 3.5 GPA. Selections are based on academic records, applicants’ statements, and campus and community activities.

K Grad Successfully Petitions Case for Supreme Court Hearing

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Christian Grostic ’01 was counsel for petitioner in the Tennessee civil rights case Burnside v. Walters, No. 12-7892, which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear this past May. The Supreme Court’s decision to review the case spurred the lower court to overrule its 15-year-old precedent restricting equal access to the courts for indigent plaintiffs. Grostic works for the Cleveland (Ohio) law firm Kushner & Hamed.

Kalamazoo College Guilds Reach 1,833rd Member

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At tonight’s Major League Baseball all-star game, players from the National and American Leagues will contend to make their team number 1. But it takes someone really special–like Gail Raiman–to be number 1,833. Today (July 16) Raiman became 1,833rd member of the global professional network known as the Guilds of Kalamazoo College. The special number corresponds to the year 1833, when Kalamazoo College was founded.

A graduate of the Class of 1973, Raiman majored in philosophy, studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and completed a career service internship for then house minority leader Gerald Ford. After graduation she worked in the Ford Administration and later held executive positions for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, and the national trade association Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. She serves on the College’s Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association Executive Board. And now she’s joined the Guilds LinkedIn group, becoming the 1833rd member of the extended K community to do so since the Guilds launched their LinkedIn network in June 2010.

Other new Guild members admitted along with Raiman this week include Jeff Outslay ’06, an MBA Associate at Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia; Leslie Knox ’01, a case management professional at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York; Riley Lundquist ’16, a rising sophomore and summer engineering intern at Eaton Corporation outside Kalamazoo; and Elinor Epperson ’13, an aspiring video editor and public historian who just graduated in June.

The Guilds of Kalamazoo College launched in January 2008 as part of a strategic initiative to engage alumni professionals in current students’ career development. In January 2013, five Guilds became seven when the Arts & Media Guild and the Education Guild joined the Business Guild, the Health Guild, the Law Guild, the Nonprofit & Public Service Guild, and the Science & Technology Guild.

Reaching the 1833rd member mark is the result of sustained outreach and growth on the LinkedIn professional networking platform, according to Joan Hawxhurst, director of the Center for Career and Professional Development. Overall membership in the College’s Guilds is up 40 percent compared to last year. Guild members seek and offer mentorship, career advice, summer and entry-level positions, insight into industry trends, and networking opportunities.

Habitat Home Honors Alumnus’ Memory

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A new Habitat for Humanity home will be built in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the name of the late Andy Angelo ’78, editor of the Grand Rapids Press. Construction will begin in July and complete in November, requiring an estimated  45 volunteer days to make “The House That Andy Built”.

Roosevelt Park was an important neighborhood to Andy and his wife, Mary. The house is down the street from the Cooks Arts Center, to which Andy and Mary devoted their fundraising and administrative talents. They also worked on behalf of a bilingual lending library.

Many gifts have been received toward the $125,000 required to begin construction. More are needed.

Andy died in 2012 from a respiratory ailment. He spent 26 years in news positions, working for the Associated Press and newspapers throughout Michigan and Illinois. Andy served as a board member and president of Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities.

Habitat for Humanity of Kent County seeks to identify corporations, schools, or churches who would be willing to field a team of volunteers; find building and landscaping supplies; donate, prepare and deliver food to feed the volunteers; or host a fundraiser and donate the proceeds. If you would like to sign up for volunteer opportunities, contact Mary Angelo or Joni Jessup.

Finland-Bound Football Force Features K’s Okey

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Cover of 2012 Chicago Force calendarCall it “Study Abroad, The Sequel.” Liz Okey ’07 is returning to Europe, this time to Vantaa, Finland, as a member of “Team USA.” She won’t be playing volleyball, her sport of choice at K. Instead, she’ll be playing on Team USA’s offensive line in the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Women’s World Championship tournament. Okey plays on the offensive line for the Chicago Force, the Windy City’s women’s tackle football team. She and eight of her Force teammates were selected to play for Team USA, led by Force head coach John Konecki.

The first tournament for women’s American-style football was held in 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden. Team USA returned with first-place honors, a championship Okey and teammates seek to defend. The tournament is held every three years.

Okey graduated from Kalamazoo College with a degree in Human Development and Social Relations. She studied abroad in Germany and was captain of the Hornet volleyball team. Shortly after graduation she moved to Chicago and joined the Force. She was one of 45 women to make the cut for Team USA. Training camp takes place in Chicago from June 23 through June 27.

Six countries will be participating in the 2013 tournament: Canada, the United States, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Finland. The tournament takes place from June 28 through July 6. Team USA plays Sweden on June 30 and Germany on July 4. Gold and Bronze medal games are scheduled for July 6.

If you need to fire up for this tournament, give a listen to the official song of the 2013 Women′s World Championship:”Straight Up Crazy Amazon“. Written and produced by the Finnish band “Embassy of Silence,”  think of the song as a K “Rikkety-Rak” with a heavy shot of metal and rock.