alumni

Founders Day Marks K’s 187th Year, Honors Three Employees

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Kim Aldrich with four Alumni Engagement employees.
Kim Aldrich (middle) pictured with Alumni Engagement colleagues at Homecoming in 2018, was recognized Friday as the recipient of the Lux Esto Award of Excellence. The honor is awarded annually as Kalamazoo College marks Founders Day.

YouTube video: President Gonzalez surprises honorees with news of their awards

Kim Aldrich ’80, Kalamazoo College’s director of alumni engagement, is this year’s recipient of the Lux Esto Award of Excellence. The award, announced Friday to celebrate Founders Day marking the College’s 187th year, recognizes an employee who has served the institution for at least 26 years and has a record of stewardship and innovation.

The recipient—chosen by a committee with student, faculty and staff representatives—is an employee who exemplifies the spirit of Kalamazoo College through excellent leadership, selfless dedication and goodwill.

President Jorge G. Gonzalez credited Aldrich for her wide-reaching collaborations in the K community, her networking skills and being an embodiment of the guidelines for the award. He also noted that nominees said Aldrich “brings general brightness and passion to her work, both in her everyday interactions on campus as well as with our alumni and friends of the College.”

Founders Day Kenlana Ferguson
Counseling Center Director Kenlana Ferguson
Brittany Liu
Associate Professor of Psychology Brittany Liu

In accordance with Founders Day traditions, two other employees also received individual awards. Associate Professor of Psychology Brittany Liu was given the Outstanding Advisor Award, and Counseling Center Director Kenlana Ferguson was named the Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award honoree.

Gonzalez complimented Liu as an empathic listener who easily builds relationships with students while building on advisees’ successes and their opportunities for improvement.

He said Liu “takes time to learn of her advisees’ passions, interests and goals, and understands that those often evolve with the student throughout their time at K.”

In honoring Ferguson, Gonzalez recognized her work in first-year forums, the JED Set-to-Go program for students transitioning from high school to college, and the Steve Fund crisis text line that supports students of color.

“The confidential nature of her work allows some of her impact with individual students to fly under the radar,” Gonzalez said. “Even so, we have witnessed many occasions when first-year students turned the corner due to her involvement in their lives.”

Day of Gracious Giving Honors the Lasting Legacy of Mentorship

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Kalamazoo College alumni near and far will have an opportunity to honor their K mentors—and have their gifts matched dollar for dollar—on the Day of Gracious Giving.

Day of Gracious Giving Card Says Celebrate Your K Mentors
Kalamazoo College alumni near and far will have an opportunity to honor their K mentors and have their gifts matched dollar for dollar on the Day of Gracious Giving.

“We are encouraging all alumni to remember those who have played formative roles in their lives and consider making a gift in their honor,” said Laurel Palmer, director of the Kalamazoo College Fund. An anonymous group of donors will challenge more than 1,000 alumni, parents and friends to make a gift to K by offering a $230,000 matching pool.

“Alumni often tell us that the relationships they forged with faculty, coaches and other mentors are among the most cherished outcomes of their K experience,” said Palmer. “This is a great way for alumni to thank their mentors and foster the same opportunities for current and future students.”

As usual, the event will coincide with the Day of Gracious Living and the date will be a surprise. The announcement for #KGraciousGiving will be made via email and on the Kalamazoo College Facebook and Twitter pages.

In 2018, while students enjoyed a gracious class-free day, 1,013 alumni from the classes of 1947-2017 gave an astonishing $226,270. This year’s goal aims to surpass that record and raise $230,000 from 1,040 donors.

All contributions make it possible for Kalamazoo College to attract, retain and support talented students regardless of economic need. All donors—including alumni, parents and friends—can choose to support scholarships, faculty resources or the K experience. To explore the opportunities and make a gift, visit the Kalamazoo College Fund online.

Alumni to Return for Homecoming This Weekend

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When about 1,000 alumni return to Kalamazoo College this weekend for Homecoming, they will have a chance to root for an undefeated football team.

The Hornets are 6-0 for the first time since 1978. They will face Alma at 2 p.m. Saturday in a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association game at the Athletic Field Complex, 1600 W. Michigan Ave.

Two students with Buzz the Hornet at Homecoming 2017
About 1,000 alumni return to Kalamazoo College this weekend for Homecoming.

K’s volleyball team and men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams also have home competitions Saturday. The volleyball team faces Wheaton at 11 a.m. at Anderson Athletic Center. The swimming and diving squads face Saginaw Valley State at 2 p.m. at the natatorium.

Other Homecoming events this Friday-Sunday include:

  • the Alumni Association Awards Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Join us in the Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts to honor the award recipients for 2018 including Distinguished Service Award winner Rick Gianino ’78, Distinguished Achievement Award winner Sandra Greene ’74, Weimer K. Hicks Award winner David Barclay, Young Alumni Award winner Eli Savit ’05, and the Athletic Hall of Fame Awards honorees. The athletic awards honorees include Kristyn Buhl-Lepisto ’04 (women’s golf); Meaghan Clark McGuire ’05 (women’s tennis), Eric Gerwin ’00 (football), Scott Whitbeck ’04 (men’s swimming and diving), and the 1955, 1980 and 1981 men’s tennis teams.
  • reunions of the classes of 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013.
  • receptions and gatherings for groups including the 1833 and Stetson societies, the Alumni of Color, the Emeriti Club, and alumni from specific academic departments.
  • guided campus tours of historical sites, the campus in general and the new hoop house.
  • performances by Monkapult, Cirque du K and theater seniors.
  • opportunities for alumni to tell their K stories in video through Story Zoo.
  • gatherings where alumni can offer advice and compare notes with current students.
  • fun, games, photos and treats on the Quad.

You can still join the fun and renew connections with your classmates. Visit our homecoming website for a full schedule, details and registration information. Then, watch the College website, Facebook page, Twitter account (@kcollege) and Instagram account (@kalamazoocollege) for photos and updates throughout the weekend.

Distinguished Judge Testifies to Power of K-Plan

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Testifying to the enduring value of the K-Plan, renowned former U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen ’73 told Kalamazoo College students in a campus visit that “it made me who I am.”

Judge Gerald Rosen talks with students at Kalamazoo College
Students were invited to meet retired Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen ’73 on Monday, Feb. 19, and hear him talk about how his K experience helped him forge an exemplary career in public service and law. That career included engineering the “Grand Bargain,” which brought Detroit out of bankruptcy and paved the way for Motown’s rebirth.

“I’m a real product of the K-Plan,” said the recently retired judge, who presided over the Detroit-based U.S. Eastern District of Michigan and handled cases that included the city’s 2013 bankruptcy, the largest of its kind in U.S. history.

He came to the College to play tennis, he said, and had a vague idea about becoming a doctor. However, a familiar nemesis of many a would-be medical student — “two words,” Rosen said. “Organic chemistry” — dissuaded him from pursuing that field. He said his academic adviser pushed him toward political science, often a path to law school, and the K-Plan did the rest.

In a question-and-answer session with a student audience in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall, Rosen recalled as particularly influential a history course that introduced him to the “roller coaster” career of Winston Churchill, the late wartime British prime minister who remains one of his heroes. He also cited philosophy courses that taught him the finer points of reasoning and writing; the challenge of participating in experiential learning opportunities that included working in the office of then-Michigan Gov. William Milliken; and study abroad in Sweden.

“I spent as many (terms) off campus as I did on campus,” he said, adding that experiences such as being a student teacher in an inner-city Philadelphia school challenged him to develop his self-reliance and fostered in him a sense of independence.

“You become confident in your ability to reason through things on your own,” he said. “I think if I had gone to a school that had a traditional program and a cookie-cutter curriculum I probably would have come out of it a different person than I am today.”

During his day at K, Rosen also spoke to a philosophy of law class led by Max Cherem ’04, the Marlene Crandell Francis assistant professor of philosophy; met with faculty; visited with the men’s tennis team as he praised K’s program as fostering “true student athletes;” and dined with President Jorge G. Gonzalez and Suzie (Martin) Gonzalez ’83.

Now beginning a new career as a high-level mediator with Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Rosen served as a judge on the U.S. District Court in Detroit from 1990 to 2017 and was chief judge from 2009 to 2015. He long provided internships in his chambers to K students and graduates and received the Kalamazoo College Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 2014.

 

Inaugural K-Talk Shows Power of Alumni Ties

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[Hear more from Matt Thieleman in a TEDx Talk from Sept. 8, 2018.]

It’s an experience many Kalamazoo College alumni can relate to: spending four years working and learning with amazing and inspiring classmates, then going your separate ways, never to have the same sort of connection again.

Karman Kent and Matt Thieleman talk to the K community at the first K-Talk
Friday, Oct. 20, was the first event in a planned K-Talk series that Joan Hawxhurst, director of the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development, said will make it possible for alumni such as Karman Kent (left) and Matt Thieleman, both ’07, to share their ideas and experiences with the K community.

But for Karman Kent and Matt Thieleman, both ’07, a convergence of opportunity and expertise launched a post-college professional collaboration aimed at bringing the beneficial effects of mindfulness to stressed-out college students – an experience the two spoke about before an audience of students and fellow alumni in Dewing Hall on Homecoming Friday.

It was the first in a planned K-Talk series that Joan Hawxhurst, director of the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development, said will make it possible for alumni to share their ideas and experiences with the K community.

The project that renewed the ties between the two former classmates began after Kent joined Morehead-Cain, a foundation that provides full-ride merit scholarships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Now the foundation’s director of scholar selection, Kent found a community of high-achieving students, not unlike those at K, who were often severely stressed by the difficulties of meeting their own high expectations and those of others.

Thieleman, meanwhile, had launched a career in social media marketing, then discovered a passion for developing future leaders through training in mindfulness, the practice of focusing one’s attention on what is happening in the current moment. He launched a Nashville-based consultancy that, as he puts it, helps people recognize that actually “being present” in a situation is key to developing the ability to see the way forward in an increasingly noisy world.

Kent – seeking a way to get students to open up about their troubles – reached out to Thieleman, who brought his expertise to UNC for a seminar. He and Kent said they saw a surprising and “profound” transformation in the Morehead-Cain students who participated, with 95 percent recommending the program to others.

Thieleman continues to counsel students. And Kent said the foundation was so impressed with the results that it has hired a full-time adviser to coach its scholarship recipients in mindfulness techniques.

Hawxhurst said Kent and Thieleman’s experience points out the potential power of the K experience during and after college. Kent concurred.

“At Morehead-Cain … the alumni network is one of the biggest benefits to being in the program,” she said. “We have so many amazing alumni here at K. If we can have that kind of openness to working together, it can be transformative.”

Alumni Return for Homecoming 2017

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As many as 1,000 alumni from around the nation and world will gather on the Kalamazoo College campus Friday-Sunday for K’s annual Homecoming.

Topping the list Friday night will be the annual Distinguished Alumni Awards and Athletic Hall of Fame Inductions. And Hornet Pride will be on display at football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer games on Saturday, alumni volleyball, softball and baseball games on Friday and an alumni swim meet and 5k Run/Walk on Saturday.

Homecoming Welcomes Alumni Stetson Chapel
Kalamazoo College will conduct its annual Homecoming festivities Friday, Oct. 20-Sunday, Oct. 22.

Also among the Friday-Sunday events:

  • Reunions of the classes of 1967, 1972, 1977, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. There is also an informal gathering for the class of 2017.
  • Receptions and gatherings for groups including LandSea alumni, 1833 Society Young Alumni, Alumni of Color, the Emeriti Club, theatre arts alumni and athletics teams, plus a chance to socialize with faculty and staff in departmental receptions throughout the Weimer K. Hicks Student Center on Saturday morning.
  • Guided campus tours and opportunities to visit new facilities including the Fitness and Wellness Center, the Intercultural Center, the Hornet Golf Lab and revamped weight room at Anderson Athletic Center and the Batts Pavilion at the College’s Lilian Anderson Arboretum.
  • A student film festival, performances by Monkapult and Cirque du K.
  • A chance to sip hot chocolate and reminisce about campus experiences at Story Zoo around the Cavern Fire Circle next to Stetson Chapel.
  • Poetry readings honoring the late Conrad Hilberry, K’s former poet laureate.
  • Gatherings where alumni can offer advice and compare notes with current students.
  • Fun, games and treats with the Fresh Food Fairy.

You can still join the fun and renew connections with your classmates. Visit our homecoming website for a full schedule, details and registration information. And watch the College website, Facebook page and Twitter account (@kcollege) for photos and updates throughout the weekend.

 

New York Times, Architectural Digest Feature Alumna Julie Mehretu

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Artist Julie Mehretu
Artist and Kalamazoo College alumna Julie Mehretu is featured in the New York Times and Architectural Digest for her latest project.

A Kalamazoo College alumna is receiving attention from publications including Architectural Digest and the New York Times for her latest artwork, a commission for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Artist Julie Mehretu ’92, of New York City, has worked for the past 14 months at a deconsecrated Harlem church on two towering paintings measuring 27 feet by 32 feet that required a scissor lift to develop.

Since graduating from K with a degree in art and art history, Mehretu has become one of the leading contemporary artists in the United States. She has received international accolades for her work, with her honors including the American Art Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art and the prestigious MacArthur Fellow award.

Mehretu recently shared a testimonial of the liberal arts including her Kalamazoo College experience with the Council for Independent Colleges.

“The liberal arts experience gives you the opportunity to learn, to fail, to succeed, to really find out who you are,” she said. “When I reflect on how my artistic work has progressed, I think of those early years at Kalamazoo College. My artistic process takes both intense thought and impulse. Balancing this has taken time and evolved over the years. It happens in all kinds of different ways. I’m making all these decisions, determining one thing at a time, and not even so much determining as understanding. I think that’s what Kalamazoo College was for me: a place to begin to understand.”

The final products of her latest efforts will be on display at the San Francisco museum for more than three years beginning Sept. 2. Read more and take a sneak peek of the paintings at the New York Times and Architectural Digest websites. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art also has a news release at its website.

 

College’s CCPD Dinner Connects Students to Fortune 500 Company

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CCPD Dinner Connects Students to StrykerIn early May, 28 Kalamazoo College students had the opportunity to share a meal on campus with eight professionals who have at least two things in common—the K-Plan and careers at the Stryker Corporation, a Kalamazoo-based Fortune 500 medical technologies firm.

The alumni returned to campus at the invitation of the Center for Career and Professional Development to meet with students who could learn about career paths at Stryker and the relevance of the K-Plan to those paths. At least 15 current Stryker employees got their undergraduate degrees at K, and both institutions are interested in strengthening the talent pipeline between the two.

The event began with a welcome by S. Si Johnson ’78, the retired group president of Stryker MedSurg Group and a current member of the College’s board of trustees. Johnson shared the four core values of Stryker—integrity, accountability, people, and performance—and reflected on how the critical thinking and problem solving skills inherent in a K education are great preparation for a career at Stryker.

After students and alumni enjoyed informal networking conversations over dinner, James N. Heath ’78, the retired president of Stryker Instruments and a member of K’s board of trustees, moderated an alumni panel that included Randy Rzeznik ’08, director of customer excellence, Neuro, Spine, ENT and Navigation; Bryce Pearson ’15, finance representative; Kevin Packard ’05, clinical marketing manager, Neuro, Spine, ENT and Navigation; and Michael Weslosky ’02, staff scientist.

Panelists reflected on their trajectories from K to Stryker and talked about the qualities of the company they find most attractive. The panelists’ K majors were varied—chemistry, economics, biology, and business—and each panelist cited the value of the work ethic instilled by the K-Plan and the 10-week term. They also stressed the importance of persistence in the pursuit of employment. Pearson, for example, shared the effort and time that was required before he secured a position at Stryker.

Heath also invited one of the students in attendance, junior Alex White, to describe the extensive process he’d gone through to secure an internship with Stryker for the upcoming summer.

Other alumni attending the event included Legal Counsel Christopher DiVirgilio ’04 and Senior IS Business Analyst Russ Hankey ’96.

Students and alumni agreed that the evening was a success and excellent preparation for the next step in the K/Stryker relationship: a half-day immersion K-Trek for selected students to the company’s headquarters in the fall.

Text and photo by Joan Hawxhurst

K Author Chronicles Dangers of Never Being Out of Season

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Kalamazoo College alumnus Robb Dunn
Robb Dunn

Biology professor (North Carolina State University), scientist and science writer Rob Dunn ’97 has a new book out. Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future, was reviewed by Raj Patel in and article titled “Seeds of Destruction.” The review appears in the April 16, 2017, New York Times Book Review. Patel finds the book an engrossing review of human hubris relative to agricultural production. Medicine effectively treating high blood pressure may barely register in a patient’s consciousness. But he will know if it fails catastrophically, however brief that moment of recognition might be. Such unconscious dependence characterizes most of us relative to the people (and their efforts) who manage the diseases and pests that threaten modern agriculture and the world’s food supply. There have been catastrophic failures in the past, and Rob covers several, most notably, the 1845-49 Irish potato famine, a devastation (millions died) more artificial than natural, caused by failures both political and scientific. Among the latter, the fear of scientists to speak truth to power and a contempt for the botanical ingenuity of indigenous science. Concludes Patel: “There are biologists today who stare into the abyss of global crop failure, and stand ready to protest commercial and governmental venality. We can hope that Dunn’s book encourages them to be less humble toward the interests they serve, and offer more humility toward the knowledge of indigenous people, on whose shoulders they stand.”