Dennis J. Frost’s article, “Tokyo’s Other Games: The Origins and Impact of the 1964 Paralympics,” has been chosen the winner of the Routledge Prize for the best article published in the International Journal of the History of Sport in 2012. The article appeared in the March issue of the Journal that year.
K students will log more than 35,000 hours of civic engagement during the 2012-13 academic year.
Kalamazoo College has been named a Presidential Award Finalist in the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Honor Roll recognizes higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.
K is one of only 14 institutions (and the only one from Michigan) receiving the Presidential Award Finalist honor out of nearly 700 nationwide that were considered. K has been recognized every year since the Honor Roll was launched in 2006, and was also named a Finalist in 2011. Five institutions were named Presidential Awardees this year, the highest honor.
“Selection as a Presidential Award Finalist is recognition from the highest levels of the federal government of K’s commitment to service-learning and civic engagement on our campus and beyond,” said Alison Geist, director of the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute of Service-Learning.
“This honors the commitment of K students and our community partners not only in Kalamazoo and throughout Southwest Michigan, but internationally, as well.”
According to Geist, about 74 percent of Kalamazoo College students will participate in civic engagement activities during their four years at the College. During the 2012-13 academic year alone, K students will contribute more than 35,000 hours to this effort. K offers about 30 service-learning courses that include community-based civic engagement activities, and students lead programs that take place every week throughout the year.
In the Greater Kalamazoo community, students work through approximately 40 different community partners including Kalamazoo Public Schools, Fair Food Matters, Goodwill Industries, Kalamazoo County Center for Healthy Equity, and Ministry with Community.
K students advocate for improved food access and health, and work in community gardens, serve as math tutors to elementary school children, employ theatre as empowerment with juvenile home residents, develop environmental justice programming with migrant workers for whom English is a second language, and many other roles to promote social justice.
“Our goal is to help K students gain hands-on, real world experiences that build their critical thinking, problem problem-solving, and communications skills, while fostering an interest in civic engagement and strengthening our community,” said Geist.
More and more K students are carrying this civic engagement interest to other countries, she added. About 85 percent of K students study abroad, mostly during their junior year, at more than 40 program sites on six continents. Many students now complete an Intercultural Research Project in their host country that includes a civic engagement component. Recent examples include a student who worked as a physiotherapy assistant at an aged care facility in Australia, another who taught English to students at a school for children of migrant workers in China, one who taught songs in Spanish to first-graders at a rural Mexican school, and one who raised funds to distribute portable solar-powered lanterns to elderly Kenyan residents.
Geist also commended the growing number of international students at Kalamazoo College who participate in civic engagement activities in Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan.
The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees the President’s Honor Roll in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service. The entire 2013 Honor Roll list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu) does more in four years so that students can do more in a lifetime. K offers rigorous academic explorations in the liberal arts and the flexibility to shape non-classroom experiences (study abroad, civic engagement, career internships, social justice leadership, and professional networking) into a résumé that gives students a leg-up for graduate school and employment. The K experience develops the ability to think and solve problems, and we measure those outcomes to continually improve.
Leadership development is part of the mission of Kalamazoo College, and gains in leadership capability for every student is one of K’s goals. Each year the College recognizes extraordinary leadership–leaders’ leaders, so to speak–with the annual Senior Leadership Recognition Award.
The 30 seniors honored this year serve as student organization leaders, athletic team captains, student housing resident assistants, peer leaders, departmental student advisors, teaching assistants, literacy tutors, civic engagement scholars, career advisors in the Center for Career and Professional Development, and peer advisors for the Center for International Programs.
Their leadership has benefited fellow students and members of the Kalamazoo community, and their work has contributed to the achievements of organizations such as Helping Youth through Personal Empowerment, the First-Year Experience Program, Farms to K, Student Commission, the Chapel Program, Student Activities Committee, K-Crew, Community Advocates for Parents and Students, the Writing Center, Jewish Student Organization, LandSea, Black Student Organization, Frelon Dance Company, Gospel Choir, Kalamazoo Outing Club, OrangeZest, Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association, and Model United Nations, among others.
The 2013 Senior Leaders are (l-r): front row–Kathleen Barrett, Marjorie Toshach, Allison Liddane, Brittany King-Pleas, Eric Glanz, Darwin Rodriguez; second row–Monika Egerer, Charles Weber, Mary Goyings, Hannah Gray, Eeva Stout-Sharp, Bianca Rasho, Yongle Wang, Grace Kelley, Shoshana Schultz-Purves; third row–Michael Hicks, Caitlin McCarthy, Moriam Aigoro, Elizabeth Vincensi, Craig Isser, In Hae Sohn, Samantha Gross; back row–Melissa Sparow, Lauren Rosenthal, Bradley Merritt, Ian Flanagan, and Angiola Gabriel. Not pictured are Cierra Gillard, Mara Livezey, and Margaux Reckard.
2013 Winners of the Battle of the Chemistry Clubs are (l-r): Lydia Manager ’13, Mara Livezey ’13, Joe Widmer ’14, Amanda Bolles ’14, Josh Abbott ’13, and Tibin John ’15
Kalamazoo College’s American Chemical Society (ACS) student group brought home to the chemistry department the coveted ‘Silver Sep Funnel’ Trophy from Michigan State University this winter. The students pipette-ed, read spectra, analyzed, and even danced their way to victory, and as the safest team (“which is the most important part for us,” says Regina Stevens-Truss, who shares co-advising duties for the group with fellow chemistry professor Jeff Bartz). The K ACS student group participated last year for the first time and placed sixth. This year, they won the overall competition, brought home best “safety dance,” earned most artistic accolades for the “best scientific-themed hangman,” and were also the “safest working team” based on OSHA standards.
2013 was the sixth annual Battle of the Chemistry Clubs, an event that originally put into the pipette pit (so to speak) the University of Michigan-Flint against the University of Detroit Mercy. The field has since grown to 12 schools, with Kalamazoo College joining in 2012. Competition consists of several activities that test a team’s knowledge and skill as it pertains to different chemistry concepts. All activities are team based (each with 4 or more students) and are scored and ranked based on time or accuracy. Morning prelims are followed by the afternoon’s “playoffs mode,” with only one team taking home the hardware.
Josh Abbott was the only returning K “letter winner” from last year’s sixth-place team. He vowed then that K would be well represented this year and wrote immediately after this winter’s competition to Dr. Truss: “I would just like to let you know we brought some hardware back for Dow.” Sweet!
The first Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership will be awarded the weekend of May 10-11 on the Kalamazoo College campus. Entries for the prizes are due by March 8. Jurors include human rights activist Angela Davis and Cary Alan Johnson, former executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
Two prizes will be awarded–a $25,000 Global Prize (for which regional entrants are also eligible) and a $5,000 Regional Prize that will go to projects/applicants based in the following Michigan counties: Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Allegan, Barry, Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon.
From all entries 20 finalists will come to campus to share their work and application video with Kalamazoo College students and the local social justice learning community. “We envision the competition as a ‘social justice TED’ sort of format,” said Jaime Grant, executive director of Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. “Applicants upload an 8-10 minute video onto our application site and fill out the one-page form there. No grant application!”
The accessible format will help uncover original grassroots thinking and practice in social justice collaboration around the globe. “We’re encouraging people to put out their breakthrough thinking and aspirations even if they don’t have a fully formed project,”explained Grant. “This competition should unearth possibility and show us new ways forward. We are equally excited to see ‘veteran’ works that demonstrate unsung and breathtaking outcomes.’’
“Prize weekend” will be a great opportunity for social justice learners. Throughout that weekend applicants will present their work in person, and K students, faculty, staff, and community members will discuss ground-breaking work with finalists in small break-out sessions.
Winter term 2013 finds sophomore Kate Belew working as an intern at the Poet’s House in lower Manhattan. Another stop on the creative journey of this English major. As a first-year student Kate received the Nature in Words Fellowship at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute for Environmental Education (Hastings, Mich.).
“It is an extraordinarily competitive fellowship,” says Kate’s mentor and Kalamazoo College’s Writer-in-Residence Diane Seuss. “And Kate made the most of the opportunity with her project, ’Voicing the Natural.’” According to Kate, the project sought to speak through the plants and animals she encountered during summer at the institute. “I planned to create the project using persona poems, inspired by Conrad Hilberry’s collection of poems, The Fingernail of Luck,” says Kate. “As I wrote, the project shaped itself into sections, and finally into a collection of poems that I named But That Was In A Different Life.” The poems are threaded together by Wild Woman, a voice of nature within a female human. Explains Kate: “I walked the trails, read books of poems, took notes, worked with Di, and took the time to witness what was happening in the natural world.”
Kate has also published poems in national magazines: “Prairie” in Outrageous Fortune; “Spoon Out Indigo” in Cliterature (on online magazine founded and edited by K graduate Lynn Brewer ’05); and “Yarrow” in the print magazine Straylight.
Stephanie (Harker) Schau ’90 is the 2012 recipient of the John E. Oster Award, which recognizes teaching excellence in the Sturgis (Mich.) Public School system. Stephanie was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at K and was selected for the James Bird Balch Prize for Outstanding Senior Studying American History.
Andrew Koehler, associate professor of music at Kalamazoo College and music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia and the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, was recently honored at the 9th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors, one of the more prestigious international competitions for conductors of all nationalities born after 1976.
The competition, held in Katowice, Poland, every five years, took place in three stages during November 17 to November 23, 2012. A selection committee, consisting of eminent Polish and international conductors and musicians, chose 50 participants from an initial pool of approximately 180 applicants. These 50 were invited to the first round of competition, from that 12 semifinalists were chosen for a second round, and from that, 6 finalists.
“I was the only American in the final round,” said Koehler. “We were judged on technical skill, our interpretative decisions, and our ability to work with the orchestra. It was a great honor.”
Koehler was awarded First Distinction, or fourth place, in the competition, with a monetary award of 10,000 Euros. The Krzysztof Penderecki European Music Centre also invited Koehler to perform sometime in the second half of 2013.
Yet a third award came in the form of Karol Szymanowski State General School of Music of the 2nd Degree in Katowice – the “YOUNG BATON MASTER” award granted by a Young Jury jointly to Koehler and Russian semi-finalist Stanslav Kochanowskiy.
A documentary film by David France ’81 titled “How to Survive a Plague,” about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, is one of five in the category to be nominated for an Oscar Award. Oscar nomination is not the only recognition France has received for his film. The Gothic Independent Film Awards and the Boston Society of Film Critics voted it the best documentary film of 2012. And the Independent Spirit Awards, which occur the day before the Oscars, has nominated “How to Survive a Plague” for Best Documentary. France’s film chronicles the tireless efforts of activists in the 1980s and early 1990s bring attention to the disease and mount a response appropriate to it–in terms of research, social policies, and human dignity compassion. An article on France and the film appeared recently in the New York Times.
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Fall 2012 academic term.
Nicole Allman
Sophia Amodeo
Ayaka Abe
Keaton Adams
Michael Allen
Avery Allman
Michael Anderson
Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti
Giancarlo Anemone
Jasmine An
Adrianna Aviles
Sarah Allis
B
Madison Baxter
Kathryn Bergh
Kristen Bergh
Brita Bliss
Alice Bowe
Kelly Bresnahan
Anh Bui
Megan Burns
Philip Bystrom
Reid Blanchett
Allison Bloomfield
Nakeya Boyles
Calli Brannan
Stavros Bricolas
Amanda Bolles
Shelbi Bolter
Travis Bowers
Cameron Brutsche
Sarah Baehr
Ernest Barna III
Caroline Barnett
Grace Barry
Abraham Bayha
Kate Belew
Hilary Bick
Olivia Bouchard
Miss Grace Bowe
Caitlin Braun
Taylor Brown
Aaron Bunker
Laurel Burgam
Camille Burke
Travis Braun
C
Stefano Cagnato
Christopher Cain
Elaine Carlin
Cody Carr
Myungjin Cha
Kathryn Chamberlain
Cassandra Chorny
Kamille Cross
Nora Cullen
Francisco Cabrera
Willina Cain
Kathryn Callaghan
Olivia Cares
Isabelle Ciaramitaro
Josefina Cibelli
Annaliese Collier
Margot Couraud
Brian Cunningham-Rhoads
Xiaotang Cai Jr.
Edward Carey
Ismael Carrasco III
Holly Cooperrider
Ellie Cannon
Haley Cartwright
Colin Cepuran
Natalie Coogan
Riley Cook
Leo Cox
Brock Crystal
Brandon Casto
Emily Ciesielski
Rebecca Cummins-Lanter
D
Hannah Daly
Peter Decker
Calee Dieleman
Gabriella Donofrio
Emily Drucker
Jeremiah Duncan
Susmitha Daggubati
Brian Dalluge
Joshua Daniel
Justin Danzy
Natalie Davenport
Kathryn Davis
Kevin Davison
Samir Deshpande
Melany Diaz
Rachel Dranoff
Johanna Drentlaw
Paula Dallacqua
Megan Davis
Francesca DeAnda
Trenton Dykstra
Rachel Dandar
Callie Daniels-Howell
Christopher Darnton
David DeSimone
Kelsey Donk
Ryan Davis
Abigail DeOchoa
Samuel Doyle
E
Monika Egerer
Maythita Eiampikul
Sophia Ernstrom
Fiona Evans
Kevin Ewing
Maya Edery
Kristen Ellefson
Andrew Ertle
Samuel Evans-Golden
Joyce Eckstrom
Elaine Ezekiel
Cierra Gillard
Madelyn Gillentine
Dulce Godines
Mary Goyings
Joseph Granzotto
Hannah Gray
Emily Guzman
Keith Garber
Joana Garcia
Evan Gorgas
Emma Gougeon
Madalyn Grau
Maria Luisa Garnica Marroquin
Mark Ghafari
David Graham
Bridget Gallagher
Grace Gilmore
Alexandra Gothard
Anna Gough
Kaitlyn Greiner
Alexandra Groffsky
Rudi Goddard
Emily Gray
Hanna Groniger
Jared Georgakopoulos
H
Dagan Hammar
Emilie Harris-Makinen
Sara Haverkamp
Kenneth Heidel
Michael Hicks
Jeffery Holton
Rachel Horness
Benjamin Hulbert
Kathryn Hunter
Chaz Hyatt
Robert Hammond
Nora Harris
Sarah Hassle
Shannon Haupt
Stephanie Heard
Michelle Hernandez
Kaitlyn Horton
Pornkamol Huang
Audra Hudson
Patricia Hunter
Daniel Herrick
Jonathan Husar
Allison Hammerly
Elizabeth Hanley
Andrew Haughey
Mariah Hennen
Jordan Henning
Emily Holloway
Jenna Holmes
Drew Hopper
Jane Huffman
Zari Haggenmiller
Nicole Higgins
Robert Hilliard
Jacob Holloway
Kyle Huismann
I
Sierra Imanse
J
Max Jensen
Evan Johnson
Katherine Johnston
Thomas Jackson
Morgan Jennings
Andrea Johnson
Tibin John
Samantha Jolly
K
Margaret Kane
Grace Kelley
Tristan Kiel
Daniel Kilburn
Chaise Kahlenbeck
Jessica Kehoe
Spencer Kennedy
Anthony Ketner
Siga Kisielius
Ruiqi Kou
Matthew Kuntzman
Mehmet Kologlu
Daniel Karn
Abigail Keizer
Jack Kemper
Faiz Khaja
Emily Kotz
McKenna Kring
Camden Krusec
Hannah Knoll
Catherine Kopecky
L
Bonnie Lathrop
Conrad Liu
Mara Livezey
Robyn Lane
Patrick Leaske
Bo Gyoung Lee
Elizabeth Lenning
Madeline LeVasseur
William Lewis
Jacob Lindquist
Yishi Li
Riley Lundquist
Colin Lauderdale
Rachael La Barbera
Tessa Lathrop
Jacob Lenning
Rebecca Lennington
Vageesha Liyana Gunawardana
Justin Leatherwood
Paul Lovaas
Colin Leffert
Christopher Lueck
M
Lydia Manger
Megan Martinez
Caitlin McCarthy
Alaina McConnell
Jessica McInchak
Megan McLeod
Ian Miller
Michael Minkus
Sashae Mitchell
Ellen Muniga
Lucy MacArthur Jr.
Megan Malish
Sarah Manski
Belinda McCauley
Mallory McClure
Ivy McKee
Molly Meddock
Jordan Meiller
Mallika Mitra
Aliera Morasch
Laura Moreno
Chloe Mpinga
Quinn McCormick
Jordan Meeth
Tendai Mudyiwa
Corinne MacInnes
Lucy Mailing
Grace Manger
Grace Mathieu
Adam McDowell
Aaron McGuire
Salome Mgaloblishvili
Gabrielle Montesanti
Alexandra Morris
Philip Mulder
Shane MacDonald
David Menoian
Brandon Merritt
Matthew Mills
Alexander Minch
Matthew Morrison
N
Alexandra Norman
Nicholas Nutile
Alissa Neff
Hang Nguyen
Hoang Nguyen
Maureen Newman
Taylor Netherton
O
Franco Ojimba
Hannah Olsen
P
Dana Page
Yunpeng Pang
Alicia Pettys
Alexandra Prepsky
Elizabeth Penix
Jung Eun Pyeon
Jane Packer
Fayang Pan
Thanh Thanh Phan
Laura Persons
Q
R
Bianca Rasho
Trace Redmond
Darwin Rodriguez
Rebecca Rogstad
Brian Raetz
Rachel Rezko
Sophie Roberts
William Roberts
Braeden Rodriguez
Christopher Ralstrom
William Reichle
Anna Rayas
Lindsey Reppuhn
Maria Rich
Katherine Ring
Sophia Ritsema
Werner Roennecke II
Ryan Rohatynski
Samuel Rood
Alexander Rigney
Megan Rosenberg
S
Emily Salswedel
Andrew Schelberg-Miller
Brooke Selik
Jennifer Servis
Samantha Simmons
Imani Sims
Jyotika Singh
Alex Smith
Julia Smucker
Melissa Sparow
Jensen Sprowl
Nikki Stern
Shelby Stuart
Nicholas Sweda
Grady Schneider
Lauren Seroka
Nicholas Shabino
Brandon Siedlaczek
Alexsandra Siems
Alexandra Smith
Jordan Smith
Kyle Sunden
Mengxi Sun
Muyang Sun
Mira Swearer
Rami Sherman
Sajan Silwal
Wyatt Smith
Alexandra Stephens
Andrea Satchwell
Cameron Schneberger
Kaitlyn Schneider
Aaron Schoenfeldt
Colleen Schuldeis
Robert Schultz
Hannah Shaughnessy-Mogill
Dylan Shearer
Hayley Smith
Ernest Stech
Emily Stillman
Adrian Shier
Jacqueline Short
Audrey Slough
Renjie Song
Eeva Stout-Sharp
Keeney Swearer
Shelley Stevens
T
Amy Tam
Kinza Tareen
Yvonne Thoits
Jonathan Tavasti
Abigail Taylor
Nadia Torres
Minhkhang Truong
Elizabeth Tyburski
Thomas Tabor
Brett Thomas
Tyler Tabenske
Emerson Talanda-Fisher
Lauren Tartalone
Lilian Taylor
U
Elizabeth Uribe
V
Lydia Vadopalas
Kiran Vangipuram
Alexandra VanHeest
Daisy Villa
Elizabeth Vincensi
Zachary Voigt
Samantha Voss
Amritha Venkataraman
Rachael Vettese
Austin Voydanoff
W
Sarah Wallace
Emily Walsh
Weiwei Wang
Jiakan Wang
Charles Weber
Loren Weber
Yuanyuan Wen
Lauren Wierenga
Bradford Woelke
Abby Wood
Emily Wright
Natalie Weingartz
Sarah Werner
Connor Wheaton
Kieran Williams
Jenna Wood
Sarah Woods
Joseph Widmer
Jessica Wiese
Joseph Wyzgoski
Alyssa Walker
Jeffery Washington Jr.
Cameron Wasko
Alexander Werder
Joseph Westerfield
Scott Wharam
Courtney Wise
Richard Woods
Erika Worley
Riley Wetzel
