On Wednesday, April 10, more than 200 signs will dot Kalamazoo College’s pathways as part of the second annual Tuition Freedom Day.
Tuition Freedom Day marks the point in the school year when tuition stops paying for the cost of a K education and support from donors takes over. Students are encouraged to visit the Hicks Student Center between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to sign thank-you cards.
Tuition Freedom Day is about showing appreciation for the alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends who make a K education possible. Generous gifts through the Kalamazoo College Fund support scholarships, faculty excellence, and K’s greatest needs.
Alumni and others can also take part in Tuition Freedom Day. Let everyone know why you support K by donating your Facebook status on Wednesday, April 10. You can also make the Tuition Freedom Day Hornet (above) your profile picture for the day.
Charlotte Hall ′66 will take the gavel at the June 2013 meeting of the K board of trustees from current Board Chair Don Parfet. Hall becomes the College′s first female board chair in its 180-year history.
Charlotte Hall ′66 is slated to become the first woman to lead the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees in the 180-year history of the College.
A K trustee since 1999, Hall will take over from current Board Chair Don Parfet, at the June board meeting. Parfet has been chair since 1999 and will remain on the board. He served a prior term as chair between 1988 and 1993.
Hall is a retired journalist who spent 40 years at newspapers in New Jersey, Boston, and Washington before landing at the award-winning Newsday in New York, where she served for 22 years. In 2004, she moved to the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, from which she retired in 2010 as editor and senior vice president.
Thank you, Don. Congrats, Charlotte.
Read more in the Spring 2013 issue of LuxEsto, the K magazine.
K Professors Margo Bosker Light (German), Gail Griffin (English), and Mark Thompson (Religion) rehearse a scene from the Little Shop Around the Corner for a Festival Playhouse “Readers Theatre” production in Spring 1985.
Kalamazoo College lifts the curtain early for the 50th anniversary season of its celebrated Festival Playhouse theatre arts program. Although the anniversary takes place during the 2013-14 academic year, the celebration begins May 16-19 with the staging of Into the Woods, the groundbreaking musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, produced in collaboration with the K Department of Music.
“Our history is so rich and our celebration events so numerous, we had to start this spring in order to do it justice,” said longtime Professor of Theatre Arts and Festival Playhouse Director Ed Menta, who will stage the show. “And we are thrilled to start the celebration with Sondheim’s masterpiece.” Into the Woods will be performed in the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse on Thursday May 16 at 7:30 p.m., Friday May 17 and Saturday May 18 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday May 19 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15/Adults, $10/seniors and $5/students.
Professors of Music Tom Evans and James Turner will serve as musical and vocal directors, respectively.
This Tony, Drama Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Award winning show “helped change the ‘American Musical,’” Evans said. “Sondheim shows are special. They combine in the most masterful way, music, lyrics, and plot. Perhaps what I like most about his work is his ability to create multilevel meanings simultaneously.” Into the Woods features memorable songs such as “Giants in the Sky,” “Agony,” and “Children Will Listen” sung by iconic characters such as Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.
“And it puts a contemporary twist on the timeworn fairy tale ending,” Menta said, “What happens the day after they all lived happily ever after?”
Kalamazoo College Professor of Theatre Arts Nelda K. Balch established the first season of Festival Playhouse—with generous support from the Dorothy U. Dalton Foundation—in 1963-64, with a schedule of groundbreaking modern dramas such as Max Frisch’s The Firebugs, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and a revival of Balch’s own 1958 production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (the first time a college in the United States had produced this landmark Absurdist play).
Beginning this spring and running through the 2013-14 season, the College will celebrate and renew the original goals and spirit of Festival Playhouse with events that include: the grand re-opening of the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse; the return of internationally known performance artist and K alumna Holly Hughes ’77; “An Evening of Kalamazoo College Theatre Alumni Scenes;” a season of three classics of Modern Drama, including Strindberg, Ibsen, and a restaging of a rarely produced early Absurdist comedy from the original Festival Playhouse season staged by professional director and K alumna Nora Hauk ’04; a special “Talkback” series led by K theatre alumni; and much more.
“From the beginning, Festival Playhouse sought to produce provocative and thoughtful theatre by combining the talents of K students, members of the greater Kalamazoo community, and professional artists,” said Ed Menta.
“The 50th anniversary season will live up to that standard.”
Dates, locations, and more details about the 50th anniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College can be found by visiting www.kzoo.edu/theatre.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu), founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1833, is a nationally recognized liberal arts college and the creator of the K-Plan that emphasizes rigorous scholarship, experiential learning, leadership development, and international and intercultural engagement. Kalamazoo College does more in four years so students can do more in a lifetime.
David Landskroener ’14, Marianne Stine ’12, and Oscar ’13 getting the red carpet treatment.
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.”
The Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) invited Hema Shroff Patel ’86 to speak at a college fair in Mumbai, India. The Indian students attending the fair were potentially interested in attending colleges in the GLCA, including Kalamazoo College. Patel spoke to them about her liberal arts education experience and how it led her to a life in Mumbai as a businesswoman. She had special praise for Kalamazoo College.
Patel had planned on attending the University of Michigan to earn a degree in economics, but she began her freshman year after the semester’s start at U of M. Her solution was to begin her studies at K, with its later start date due to the quarter system, and then transfer. Patel hadn’t counted on falling in love with K.
“I ended up spending the four best years of my life at K,” Patel told GLCA members and students. At K, she learned how to be flexible and adaptable, she said. Patel studied economics, political science, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. She learned how to view opportunities from many different perspectives, how to find innovative solutions, and how to work with people from varied cultural backgrounds.
Her skills and education came together into a textile and weaving business called Amba that Patel began in Mumbai in 1999. Born in the United States, she moved to India 22 years ago to join her family and establish her business of traditional forms of weaving, block printing, and eco-friendly natural dyeing. Amba is a social entrepreneurship that supports craft heritage in rural India.
“I marvel at how much I have used my liberal arts education in textile revival,” Patel said. “I use my communication skills with people of many different backgrounds. I interact with weavers who speak no English. I apply political science when I apply for grants, and economics and finance in running my business. A liberal arts education opens doors to the global village our world has become.”
Britta Seifert ’12 knows she can do this, because she already has.
Britta Seifert ’12 is headed to the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan for a 27-month assignment with the Peace Corps. She has no idea where she’ll be living or what she’ll be doing, but she couldn’t be happier.
“There’s something intriguing about going to a part of the world people here know absolutely nothing about,” she recently told a Battle Creek Enquirer reporter.
Britta, from Marshall, Michigan, said her best preparation for this trip was her Kalamazoo College study abroad experience in India.
“It will be a great help knowing that if I’m completely overwhelmed, I can push through to the point where I can enjoy it. I know I can do this.”
Read more about Britta and her next big adventure in this Battle Creek Enquirer article.
What would you do to remind yourself and others just how much you loved and appreciated your college experience—assuming you only have about $100 to spend?
You’ll have to go a ways to top Jillian McLaughlin ’10 who recently treated herself to a tattoo just below her left ribcage of “Lux Esto,” K’s Latin motto that means “Be Light.”
“In the past few years, I have really come to appreciate the unique undergraduate experience I had at K and the friendships forged,” said Jillian, a Grosse Pointe (Mich.) native now working for an anti-poverty think-tank in Boston.
“I suppose I could have bought a T-shirt or a mug but a tattoo of ‘Lux Esto’ seemed more epic. So that’s what I did.”
Jillian’s K experience was a full one. She ran on the Hornet cross country team, wrote for The Index student newspaper, worked as a student sustainability coordinator in the College’s Facilities Management Division, and conducted research into political ideology with K Professor of Psychology Gary Gregg. She also served as an intern in U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s office in Washington, D.C.
During her senior year, the political science major earned a departmental award to travel to Spain and conduct interviews on international human rights law for her Senior Individualized Project, or SIP.
“It sounds corny, but no matter where I am, I feel like I’m at home when I’m around other K grads,” Jillian said. “As I get ready to attend graduate school [in pursuit of an MBA on nonprofit management and impact investing], I wanted a reminder of that experience.”
She said the tattoo idea was the brainchild of her K classmate and friend Anne Renaud ’10.
“She joked about getting ‘Lux Esto’ tattoos before we graduated. It didn’t happen but the seeds of my decision were planted.”
Thanks for honoring your alma mater, Jillian. You’ll be glad to know that your tattoo complies with the College’s new branding guidelines for typefaces!
Eugene Bissell ’76 didn’t know much about propane when he started in the industry in the 1980s. And yet, the Kalamazoo College and Wharton School of Business graduate listened and learned along the way, ultimately becoming president and CEO of AmeriGas, the country’s largest propane retailer, and one of the industry’s most influential people. Read about Eugene’s long and winding road to the top of his profession (including a stint as a truck driver) while maintaining a commitment to elder care, community service, and to K.
Even though the Oscar-nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague” (by David France ’81) did not win the Oscar, it continues to garner a great deal of attention. ABC Studios has bought rights to France’s film with the idea of potentially making it into a dramatic miniseries.
France, who co-wrote and directed the documentary, would prepare the adaptation, which could go broader and deeper into the subject of his documentary, he said in an article in the Hollywood Reporter. France also was recently interviewed about his work on National Public Radio’s Here and Now. His film has been widely honored, receiving awards for the best documentary film of 2012 from the Gothic Independent Film Awards and the Boston Society of Film Critics.
The documentary frames the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and the efforts of activists to call attention to the disease and mobilize appropriate treatment and prevention responses by the government and health care establishment. These efforts were mounted in the face of withering and hostile anti-gay sentiment and general public indifference. France collected footage and documented stories of activists and veterans from the revolutionary era.
If you missed the film or the articles on France’s work, you’ll have a chance to see it and speak with him. France will visit K’s campus for a public screening and director talk-back on May 5. A 7pm screening in the College’s Dalton Theatre is free and open to the public.
Jaime Franks ′10 is featured in the Jan-Feb 2013 magazine of the National Association of Social Workers — Michigan Chapter. Jaime is pursuing an advanced degree in social work at Wayne State University. After graduation, she intends to help children and adolescents in a hospital setting.
While at Kalamazoo College, Jaime played on the women’s soccer team, and served as the Athletic Leadership Council’s treasurer. She majored in psychology and worked as a teaching assistant in the department. Her SIP was on body image and eating disorders.
On Wednesday, April 10, more than 200 signs will dot Kalamazoo College’s pathways as part of the second annual Tuition Freedom Day.
