awards

Exceptional Leaders Feted

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Senior Leadership Award winners 2016

Kalamazoo College honored 32 soon-to-graduate students with its prestigious Senior Leadership Recognition Award. During the course of the last four years these individuals have distinguished themselves as athletes, student workers, admission volunteers, resident assistants, civic engagement scholars, social justice advocates, teaching assistants, artists, writers, musicians, LandSea leaders, tutors, mentors, translators, lab assistants, officers and members of student organizations, departmental student advisors and research assistants. They have made Kalamazoo College a better place for all. They have, in the words of one nominator, “bridged worlds and forged connections” with their particular gifts and shared love of humankind. Pictured are (l-r): first row–Victoria Orsorio, Lizbeth Mendoza Pineda, Samantha Luna, Shannon Haupt, Yessica Hernandez, Elizabeth Fiator; second row–Honey Sumon (not an awardee herself, but a close friend and guest of one of the recipients), Susmitha Daggubati, Kelly Trehorne, Victoria Najacht; third row–Pornkamol Huang, Elizabeth Tyburski, Chloe Mpinga, Alexis Martin-Browne, Kelsey Adamski; fourth row–Immanuel Greene, Sarah Woods, Hadley Harrison; fifth row–Elizabeth Lenning, McKenna Bramble, Katherine Clark, Francisco Cabrera, Natalie Davenport; sixth row–Daria Lewis, Takumi Matsuzawa; back row–Nana-Yaw Aikins, Olivia Cares, Robert Hudson, and Justin Danzy. Not pictured are Michael Allen, Kevin Ewing, Mallika Mitra, and Lauren Seroka. (Photo by Tony Dugal)

Organic Gypsy Cooks Award-Winning Potato

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Organic Gypsy truck
Hornet volleyball alumna Bridgett Blough’s Tom Pesto Melt, with the Organic Gypsy truck in the background

Bees and their honey have nothing over this Hornet and her spud.

Bridgett Blough ’08 grew up in a farming community in rural Coloma Township in Michigan eating potatoes with most every meal. Good locally-grown food was a staple on her mama’s table.

On January 12, Blough took her love of potatoes to the Spud Nation Throwdown at the Potato Expo 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she won the prize for the best potato recipe by a food truck chef. Blough is the owner of The Organic Gypsy, a food truck and catering business in Kalamazoo and Portage. She also teaches yoga at K.

When Blough began her education at Kalamazoo College, she was drawn to a first-year seminar taught by Amelia Katanski, associate professor of English. The seminar was called “Commitments,” and it was there that she says she learned about the commitment farmers make to their land and to the people who eat their produce.

“That first-year seminar tied it all together for me,” Blough says.

In the Spud Nation Throwdown, Blough prepared her entry on stage with two other finalists—Heather Banter, chef at Circle City Spuds in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Daniel McCarthy, chef at Tato Heads in Columbus, Ohio. Each contestant prepared his or her most creative and flavorful potato recipe. For Blough, that was her Green Tahini Potato Soup. She used Southwest Michigan-grown organic potatoes, onions, and garlic.

“This is about our local food system and how people like me are working with farmers to create healthy food, improving the local economy with each meal and working toward eliminating food waste,” Blough says.

Blough first prepared her special soup recipe for members of her SOUPer Club last fall. The SOUPer Club is a CSA (community supported agriculture) offered through The Organic Gypsy to a membership that includes faculty and staff at Kalamazoo College. Members receive a quart of homemade organic soup each week for six weeks for $65.

“Princess, Prisoner, Queen” is Original Research by a Liberal Arts Agent

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Sara Stack on study abroad in Strasbourg, France
Sara Stack on study abroad in Strasbourg, France

This week Sara Stack ’15 will break from her study of insects (she is working on a master’s degree in entomology at Purdue University) to travel to San Francisco and present a classics paper at the 2016 annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). From insects to classics!? Therein hangs a liberal arts tale, vintage Kalamazoo College.

Stack’s paper–“Princess, Prisoner, Queen: Searching for Identity and Agency in the Life of Kleopatra Selene”–is one of only four undergraduate research projects selected for presentation at the AIA meeting.

Selection was nation wide and very competitive,” said Senior Instructor in Classics Anne Haeckl. Stack wrote the paper for Professor Haeckl’s Junior Classics Seminar, which provided, said Stack, “an amazing opportunity to explore Selene’s life through the lens of intersectional feminism.”

Kleopatra Selene is one of history’s forgotten women, mentioned only marginally (if at all) in the history- and world-changing story of her famous parents, the Roman general Mark Antony and the last queen of Egypt, Kleopatra VII. Theirs was a story that crowded the stage of the entire Mediterranean world of their time, a story that has inspired countless historical and literary interpretations from Plutarch to Shakespeare to a recent bestseller biography by Stacy Schiff.

“I’ve always been very interested in history, particularly dynamic historical women,” said Stack, who majored in biology and religion.  “Kleopatra VII  has been a particular favorite of mine since childhood; my favorite book is a 1000-page novel called The Memoirs of Cleopatra. Because I’m so familiar with her mother, I’ve been aware of Selene for a long time, but I started to wonder about her as a historical figure in her own right.

“The most interesting part of my research was how strongly Selene’s political agenda and identity were influenced by the events of her childhood.”

After her parents’ defeat by Octavian (later the Roman emperor Augustus), Selene became Augustus’ prisoner and political pawn. He marched the 10-year-old girl in his Egyptian triumph through the streets of Rome as a symbol of her fallen dynasty and conquered nation. He gave her to his sister to raise and later arranged her marriage to Juba, king of Mauretania (today’s Algeria). “As the queen of Mauretania she very clearly identified herself as a Ptolemy (her mother’s royal house) and a Hellenized Egyptian queen,” said Stack. “She commissioned coins in her own right, not just in conjunction with her husband, and portrayed herself with the imagery and titles of her mother, Kleopatra VII. To me this indicates that she never forgot her heritage or her family, and used her power to maintain their legacy.”

Haeckl had equal praise for Stack’s research paper and for the liberal arts ethos from which it took wing. “At K we value the breadth and depth of academic course work and the Senior Individualized Project. It’s hard to find a more dynamic example of that than Sara, with her curiosity and hard work in biology, religion and classics.”

Stack’s biology SIP studied the effect of the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that kills ash trees, on the biodiversity of a family of beetles known as Carabidae. “I really enjoyed my SIP research, and it was ultimately what made me fall in love with entomology and got me into graduate school,” said Stack.

She obviously also enjoyed her classical research. “She unified and analyzed through a feminist lens the scattered corpus of ancient material culture and texts relating to Selene,” praised Haeckl, work that yielded a new and original understanding of Selene’s “increasingly empowered agency and self-identification as a North African queen.”

Haeckl also presented research at the AIA annual meeting. Her work posits a specific identity (the Emperor Caracella) of a painted limestone statuette depicting a falcon-headed human figure in the armor of a Roman imperator. Haeckl’s paper, “Caracalla as Birdman? Proposing an Imperial Identity for the British Museum’s ’Horus in Roman Military Costume,” explicates the iconography of the statue (Horus was the Egyptian falcon-god) in terms of both the public image Caracalla cultivated (as an ordinary Roman soldier and latter day Alexander the Great) and a specific visit Caracalla made to Alexandria in 215.

What is the Temple of Artemis?

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Alex Trebek and Theresa Tejada
Alex Trebek and Theresa Tejada

Theresa Tejada ’10 won the episode of the television show JEOPARDY! that aired on Tuesday, December 22. Her one-day winnings totaled $21,599. She defended her champion status, albeit unsuccessfully, the following day. Two episodes of Jeopardy seems a fitting tribute to a liberal arts education. On her championship day Theresa’s major in classics came in handy for the Final Jeopardy category: “The Ancient World.” The Final Jeopardy answer: “Dedicated to a female, it’s among the few of the seven ancient wonders whose ruins you can visit.” Theresa got the question: “What is the Temple of Artemis?” She even provided the location, Ephesus, the ancient Greek city that is today a part of Turkey. Perhaps Theresa’s study abroad in Athens came into play with that extra information. Theresa’s liberal arts breadth was on display and indispensable. In Double Jeopardy Theresa found the second Daily Double on the board in the category “Arts and Culture” under the $1,600 clue. At the time, she led the returning champion by $1,800. She bet $2,000 and won! The answer: “Because it has six units called iambs, the poetic line ’Thou art unseen but yet I hear thy shrill delight’ is in iambic this.” Theresa’s correct question: “What is hexameter?” Perhaps she had a literature class at K. Among other categories rewarding a liberal arts background on the day she won: Geographic Features, 8-Letter Words, Double Up On Your Countries, Oscar Nominations, and Christmas Songs and Singers.

Turns out Associate Professor of Classics Elizabeth Manwell managed to watch both shows. “Two really wonderful moments for me,” wrote Elizabeth. “Theresa won the game her first night on the show, in part by answering a final jeopardy question about the seven wonders of the ancient world—a topic she worked on for her Senior Individualized Project in the classics department. The other occurred the second night—-Theresa spoke of an influential Latin teacher, Steve Rosenquist, who taught her at Cranbrook, and who also taught for us for a couple of years. He died recently—-and hers was such a lovely tribute to him. She’s a super young woman!”

Dean’s List Fall Term 2015

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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 2015 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for Dean’s List upon receipt of the final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts.  Kudos to the entire group of nearly 350 students, and good luck in Winter Term, 2016.

Fall 2015

A  B   C  D  E  F   G   H   I   J  K   L   M  N   O  P   Q  R   S   T   U   V  W   X   Y   Z

A

Madison Adams
Tyler Allen
Allegra Allgeier
Steven Andrews
Lucas Arbulu
Elizabeth Arellano
Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach

B

Dalbyeol Bae
Zoe Barnes
William Bartz
Jade Beauregard
Grace Beck
Hayley Beltz
Christian Benedict
Katherine Bennett
Hannah Berger
Kevin Bhimani
Abhjeet Bhullar
Zoey Blake-Mark
Allison Bloomfield
Sean Bogue
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Riley Boyd
Chancellor Boyer
Emily Boyle
Allie Brodsky
Erin Brown
Sarena Brown
Molly Brueger
Thomas Bryant
Hayley Buckhout
Matthew Burczyk
Janice Burnett
Mary Burnett
Erin Butler

C

Alexander Cadigan
Mackenzie Callahan
Kalyn Campbell
Angel Caranna
Charles Carson
Lee Carter
Rachel Chang
Madeleine Chilcote
Emiline Chipman
Heeseong Cho
Qynce Chumley
Josefina Cibelli
Christopher Coburn
Kate Colebrook
MaryClare Colombo
Cody Colvin
Quinton Colwell
Dejah Crystal

D

Christina Dandar
Steven Davis
Sophia Davis-Rodak
Hadiya Deas-Richberg
Joanna Dell’Olio
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Lynette Desjarlais
Kaitey Dettmann
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Amelia Donohoe
Johanna Drentlaw

E

America Edwards
Meredith Edwards
Emma Eisenbeis
Tiffany Ellis
Anna Emenheiser
Rachel Epstein
Jonathon Ernest
McKinzie Ervin
Andriana Evangelista

F

Alex Fairhall
Jessie Fales
Mario Ferrini
Elizabeth Fiator
Stephanie Finnern
Emily Fletcher
Delaney Fordell
Monet Foster
Maria Franco
Rachel Frank
Ian Freshwater
Maria Fujii
Lydia Fyie

G

Owen Galvin
Brett Garwood
Charlotte Gavin
Sarah George
Joseph Giacalone
Camille Giacobone
Sarah Glass
Samantha Gleason
Beau Godkin
Abhay Goel
Emily Good
Monica Gorgas
Natalie Gratsch
Claire Greening
Jena Groshek
In Hye Gu
Caleb Gurd
David Gurrola

H

Emary Hall
Nora Harris
Hadley Harrison
Kelly Haugland
Mara Hazen
Kyle Hernandez
Natalie Hershenson
Samantha Hicks
Sophie Higdon
Adelaide Hilarides
Louis Hochster
Shelby Hopper
Meghan Horal
Andrew Horton
Taylor Horton
Daniel Horwitz
Elise Houcek
Claire Howland
Jason Hugan
Briana Huisken

I

 

J

Sadie Jackson
Dongkeun Jeon
YanYan Jiang
Katherine Johnson

K

Claire Kalina
Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Amira Kamoo
Kyle Kane
Elyse Kaplan
Gwendolen Keller
Samuel Kepes
Christina Keramidas
Benjamin Kileen
Sean Kill
Dahwi Kim
Min Soo Kim
Savannah Kinchen
Sai Klein
Hannah Kline
Julia Koreman
Katherine Kreiss
Julia Kresch

L

Lauren Landman
Mackenzie Landman
Gabriela Latta
Madeline Lauver
Zachary LeBlanc
Da Bin Lee
Omar Leon
Sarah Levett
Hyunyn Lim
Gordon Liu
Giovanni LoGrasso
Sara Lonsberry
Brandon Lopez
Francisco Lopez Jr.
Jordan Loredo
Nicholas Ludka
Cameron Lund
Liam Lundy

M

Andrea MacMichael
Alicia Madgwick
Eleftherios Manopoulos
Cydney Martell
Elizabeth Martin
Sophia Martin
Deziray Martinez
Takumi Matsuzawa
Kelsey Matthews
Madison McBarnes
Karly McCall
Belinda McCauley
Abigail McDonough
Ivy McKee
Daisy McLaughlin
Molly Meddock
Molly Merkel
Vanessa Merritt
Franklin Meyer
Hannah Meyers
Samuel Meyers
Shannon Milan
Taylor Miles
Sarafina Milianti
Myranda Miller
Sangtawun Miller
Suzanne Miller
Zach Miller
Jamie Misevich
Mallika Mitra
Ethel Mogilevsky
Jacob Mooradian
Alejandra Morales
Aidan Morley
Amanda Moss
Christopher Muir
Emma Mullenax
Justin Murshak
Nkatha Mwenda

N

Harsha Nand
Jacob Naranjo
Laetitia Ndiaye
Hung Nguyen
Phuong Nguyen
Viet Nguyen
Lionel Niyongabire
Rosemarie Nocita
Skyler Norgaard
Mackenzie Norman
Brooke Nosanchuk
Andrew Novetsky

O

Josiah Olah
Michael Oravetz
Eli Orenstein
Eli Orenstein
Colleen Orwin
Alexandria Oswalt
Ty Owens

P

Nirmita Palakodaty
Maxwell Palese
James Paprocki
Kayla Park
Andrew Parsons
Arju Patel
Khusbu Patel
Kaeli Peach
Elizabeth Penix
Marlisa Pennington
Jessica Penny
Lauren Perlaki
Emma Peters
Caroline Peterson
Bradley Popiel
Tulani Pryor

Q

Yilan Qiu

R

Arianna Raemont
Sydney Riddick
Cecilia Ringo
Skylar Rizzolo
Ramisa Rob
Scott Roberts
Lilia Robins
Megan Rochlitz
Katherine Rogers
Rebecca Rogers
Anna Roodbergen
Jeremy Roth
Timothy Rutledge
Keigan Ryckman

S

Rumsha Sajid
Amber Salome
William Sargent
Mason Sarosi
Anselm Scheck
Christa Scheck
Katharine Scheck
Austen Scheer
Maison Scheuer
Ashley Schmidt
Eleanor Schodowski
Aaron Schwark
Madalyn Seveska
Ruhma Shahid
Sharif Shaker
Chase Shelbourne
Tianqi Shen
Ke Sheng
Muneeb Siddiqui
Sharon Situ
Austin Smith
Bailey Smith
Benjamin Smith
Erin Smith
Grace Smith
Logan Smith
Margaret Smith
Kathleen Sorensen
Federico Spalletti
Maya Srkalovic
Petra Stoppel
Ellen Stormont
Thomas Stuut
Mengxi Sun

T

Lily Talmers
Abigail Taylor
Sophia Taylor-Havens
Ani Terterian
Audrey Thomas
Derek Thomas
Natalie Thompson
Noah Thornton
Carolyn Topper
Camila Trefftz
Kelly Treharne
Dakota Trinka
Sydney Troost
Lydia Turke
Elizabeth Tyburski

U

Eva Ugelow

V

Kaela Van Til
David Vanderkloot
Taylor VanWinkle
Travis Veenhuis
Elisia Venegas
Anh-Tu Vu

W

Raoul Wadhwa
Evelyn Wagner
Jacob Waier
Sidney Wall
Timothy Walsh
Jacob Wasko
Micheal Watson
Connor Webb
Ailih Weeldreyer
John Wehr
Cameron Werner
Caitlyn Whitcomb
Alex White
Zachary White
Joshua Whitney
Hans Wieland
Raphael Wieland
Jordan Wiley
Carolyn Williams
Kiavanne Williams
Natalia Wohletz
Madeline Woods

X

Mingyue Xu

Y

Kimberly Yang
Brent Yelton
Seo Ho Yi
Lily York
Adre Yusi

Z

NAACP Cites Work of College, President

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Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-OyelaranOn any given day you can find a Kalamazoo College student playing ping pong, shooting baskets or serving up a hot meal at the Douglass Community Association.

A center for social, recreational and community development activities in the city’s Northside neighborhood, the Douglass Community Association has served Kalamazoo residents for nearly 100 years.

“For decades, I’ve watched Kalamazoo College students come by the bus full to volunteer at the Douglass,” says Dr. Charles Warfield, president of the Metropolitan Kalamazoo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “As a more than 70-year resident of Kalamazoo, I have consistently seen Kalamazoo College support the efforts of the black community and be front runners in the area of social justice.”

Each week during the academic year, many of the more than 100 K students who work in the local community through service-learning courses or co-curricular programming coordinated by the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement head to Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood, home to many members of the city’s black community. K students work with teachers and elementary age students at Woodward School and with families who are part of Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), a grassroots organization that provides tutoring services to children residing in the Interfaith Neighborhood Housing community. Since its founding in 2001, K’s Center for Civic Engagement, through service-learning courses and student-led programs, has engaged more than 6,500 K students in long-term, reciprocal partnerships to foster academic learning, critical problem-solving, and a lifetime of civic engagement while strengthening the Kalamazoo community.

This long-standing community partnership, in addition to the work of Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, Warfield says, contributed to the recognition of both the College and its president with the Vanguard Award at the NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.

The Vanguard Award honors an organization or group of people whose forward thinking has significantly affected the lives of all people, and specifically people of color in Kalamazoo. Past recipients include the City of Kalamazoo, Sid Ellis and the Black Arts and Cultural Center, and the philanthropists of the Kalamazoo Promise.

“We have outstanding people in our midst who make it their business to make a difference in the lives of those in need,” Warfield says. “We need to honor organizations and people who invest so unselfishly in our community to make this a better place to live now and for the future.”

During President Wilson-Oyelaran’s 10 years at the College, she has worked tirelessly, Warfield asserts, in the name of social justice.

“Kalamazoo College has always been one of the bright lights of social justice,” he says. “Dr. Wilson-Oyelaran stepped in and didn’t miss a beat. I can’t think of anyone or anyplace more deserving of the Vanguard Award.”

During her tenure at the College, President Wilson-Oyelaran has helped the College make its campus and educational experience more diverse—increasing the number of first generation, low-income, international and domestic students of color who study here.

President Wilson-Oyelaran’s commitment to social justice and leadership development, however, may be most evident in the creation of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL), a formal program that integrates the academic experience with social justice activism geared toward helping students make communities and the world more equitable for all.

The ACSJL, opened in 2009, supports initiatives proposed by students, staff and faculty; provides forward-thinking programming; offers fellowships for emerging and veteran social justice leaders; and hosts annual signature events with global reach.

“I am incredibly humbled and honored to receive the Vanguard Award and accept it on behalf of Kalamazoo College,” says President Wilson-Oyelaran. “It is really gratifying to have the community recognize the many years of investment in the Kalamazoo community by our faculty, staff and students and to take note of the College’s efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive community.”

The NAACP’s 35th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet was held November 7, 2015 at Western Michigan University’s Bernhard Center.

Article by Erin (Miller) Dominianni ’95; photo by Keith Mumma

Alumnus to be Honored With Public Service Award

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Kalamazoo College Alumnus Gerald Rosen ’73The Honorable Gerald Rosen ’73, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan will receive the 11th Annual Dennis Archer Public Service Award on November 19. The Michigan Bar Association is honoring Rosen for his work mediating Detroit’s bankruptcy settlement, an effort that took months of difficult negotiation and resulted in a fund that shored up city pensions and protected artworks (from sale) at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit shed $7.3 billion of its $18 billion in debt, restructured $3.1 billion, reached five-year labor agreements with all its unions, and developed and implemented a multi-year $1.7 billion revitalization plan for city services and operations. A Detroit News article on Rosen (by David Shepardson) quoted Kevyn Orr. Detroit’s former emergency manager, who credited Rosen for the city’s quick exit from bankruptcy: “Judge Rosen’s steady leadership and practical judgment allowed the city and its creditors to achieve the impossible: they forged a consensual, comprehensive plan of adjustment in less than two years. [He created the deal that] streamlined key city operations, helped improve public safety, preserved the city’s world-class art museum in a perpetual public trust, and avoided drastic cuts to pension and related retiree benefits. It is no exaggeration to say that Judge Rosen was indispensable.” The award ceremony will take place at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rosen was on the campus of his alma mater this past February, when he delivered the 2015 William Weber Lecture in Social Science, which was titled “Detroit Bankruptcy: Lessons Learned.”

Honors Day 2015

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Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who received awards during the Honors Day Convocation, October 30, 2015, in Stetson Chapel. The awards include all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships, and special non-departmental awards. The Honors Day Convocation occurs annually, during the Friday community gathering of Family Weekend.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

THE BRIAN GOUGEON PRIZE IN ART, awarded to a sophomore student who, during his or her first year, exhibited outstanding achievement and potential in art.
Carlos Arellano

THE LILLIAN PRINGLE BALDAUF PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded to an outstanding music student.
Thaddeus Buttrey
Lauren Landman

THE FAN E. SHERWOOD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for outstanding progress and ability on the violin, viola, cello or bass.
Elina Choi

THE MARGARET UPTON PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded each year to a student designated by the Music Department Faculty as having made significant achievement in music.
Lindsay Worthingon

THE COOPER AWARD, for a junior or senior showing excellence in a piece of creative work in a theatre arts class: film, acting, design, stagecraft, puppetry, speech.
Cameron Schneberger

THE SHERWOOD PRIZE, given for the best oral presentation in a speech-oriented class.
Esprit Autenreith

THE THEATRE ARTS FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AWARD, given to a sophomore for outstanding departmental efforts during the first year.
Lauren Landman
Samuel Meyers
Stina Taylor

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION

THE LEGRAND COPLEY PRIZE IN FRENCH, awarded to the sophomore who, as a first-year student, demonstrated the greatest achievement in French.
Molly Merkel

THE HARDY FUCHS AWARD, given for excellence in first-year German.
Camila Trefftz

THE MARGO LIGHT AWARD, given for excellence in second-or third-year German.
Anne Nielsen

THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN SPANISH, awarded for excellence in the first year in Spanish.
Georgetta Booker
Emily Kozal

THE CLARA H. BUCKLEY PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN LATIN, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the ancient Romans.
Danielle Gin

THE CLASSICS DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN GREEK, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the ancient Romans.
Brittany Jones

THE PROVOST’S PRIZE IN CLASSICS, awarded to that student who writes the best essay on a classical subject.
Elisia Venegas

HUMANITIES DIVISION

THE O. M. ALLEN PRIZE IN ENGLISH, given for the best essay written by a member of the first-year class.
Elisse Houcek

THE JOHN B. WICKSTROM PRIZE IN HISTORY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in history.
Frank Meyer
Kierra Verdun

THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in philosophy.
Gabriel Klotz
Federico Spalletti

THE L.J. AND EVA (“GIBBIE”) HEMMES MEMORIAL PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY, awarded to that sophomore who, in the first year, showed the greatest promise for continuing studies in philosophy
Benjamin Baldwin
Guillermo Dominguez-Garcia
Ian Engstrom
Jasmine Khin Oo Khin

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

THE WINIFRED PEAKE JONES PRIZE IN BIOLOGY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in biology.
Megan Hoinville
Gwendolen Keller
Connor Webb

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in chemistry.
Omar Leon

THE FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY AWARD, awarded to a sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated great achievement in chemistry.
Gwendolen Keller
Gabriel Rice

THE LEMUEL F. SMITH AWARD, given to a student majoring in chemistry pursuing the American Chemical Society approved curriculum and having at the end of the junior year the highest average standing in courses taken in chemistry, physics,and mathematics.
Marie Fiori

THE COMPUTER SCIENCE PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in computer science.
Elizabeth Fiatorz
Miles McDowall

THE FIRST-YEAR MATHEMATICS AWARD, given annually to the sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated the greatest achievement in mathematics.
Abhay Goel

THE THOMAS O. WALTON PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS, awarded to a member of the junior class for excellence in the work of the first two years in mathematics.
Yicong Guo
Raoul Wadhwa

THE COOPER PRIZE IN PHYSICS, given for excellence in the first year’s work in physics.
Zach Miller
Jeremy Roth
Keigan Ryckman

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

THE DEPARTMENTAL PRIZE IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY, awarded for excellence during the first and/or second year’s work.
Erin Butler
Alicia Gaitan
Carmen Nogueron
Madeline Woods

THE C. WALLACE LAWRENCE PRIZE IN ECONOMICS, awarded annually to a pre-business student who has done outstanding work in the Department of Economics and Business during the sophomore year.
Olivia Cares
Christopher Monsour

THE IRENE AND S. KYLE MORRIS PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s courses in the Department of Economics and Business.
Guillermo Dominguez-Garcia
Phuong Nguyen
Jacob Wasko

THE WILLIAM G. HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in political science.
Gabriel Klotz

THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY FIRST-YEAR STUDENT PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in psychology.
Ellie Grossman
Carolyn Williams

THE MARSHALL HALLOCK BRENNER PRIZE, given by family and friends in memory of Marshall Hallock Brenner (class of 1955), to be awarded to an outstanding junior for excellence in the study of psychology.
Molly Meddock

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

THE DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION PRIZE, awarded to those students who, as first-year students, best combined leadership and scholarship in promoting athletics, physical education, and recreation.
Charles Carson
Alexandria Oswalt

THE MAGGIE WARDLE PRIZE, awarded to that sophomore woman whose activities at the College reflect the values that Maggie Wardle demonstrated in her own life. The recipient will show a breadth of involvement in the College through her commitment to athletics and to the social sciences and/or community service.
Alexandrea Ambs

SPECIAL COLLEGE AWARDS

THE GORDON BEAUMONT MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to the deserving student who displays qualities of selflessness, humanitarian concern, and willingness to help others, as exemplified in the life of Gordon Beaumont.
Natalie Davenport
Audra Hudson

THE HENRY AND INEZ BROWN PRIZE, awarded in recognition of outstanding participation in the College community.
Olivia Cares
Kevin Ewing
Mallory McClure

THE VIRGINIA HINKELMAN MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to a deserving student who displays a deep concern for the well-being of children, as demonstrated through career goals in the field of child welfare.
Yessica Hernandez
Elizabeth Lenning

 

Our “Miller’s Tale”

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Book cover of "De Zwaan: The True Story of America’s Authentic Dutch Windmill"Move over, Chaucer! Kalamazoo College has its own “Miller’s Tale,” that of Alisa Crawford ’91, who recently won the state history award from the Historical Society of Michigan for her book “De Zwaan: The True Story of America’s Authentic Dutch Windmill.” Alisa is the resident miller at the De Zwaan windmill, which is located in Holland, Michigan. Achieving qualifications for that job was no “run of the mill” effort; nor was piecing together the origins and history of the mill she operates and loves. After many years learning to speak Dutch, study, apprenticeship, and testing, Alisa became a Dutch-certified miller. Then after more testing, she was admitted to an elite Dutch guild of professional grain millers. Through that process, she came to know a number of mill historians in The Netherlands. Together they dug through dusty archives in The Netherlands, interviewed people connected to the mill, and crawled through the windmill searching for archaeological clues.

“At the time of its purchase,” notes Alisa, “authorities in The Netherlands thought it had been built in 1761 in the Zaan region in North Holland to make hemp rope, but then clues began trickling in that made that impossible.” Without giving away the end of the book, Alisa says of the mill that now stands on windmill Island in Holland: “De Zwaan began its career far from North Holland and does not have a ‘purebred pedigree’, as originally presumed.” She indicates that it was assembled from the parts of several mills much later than 1761. However, that lineage, she writes in the book, “is what makes De Zwaan unequivocally authentic. Windmills were and continue to be working machines. When they break, they are repaired. When they become outmoded, they are re-purposed. When the parts wear out, they are replaced.”

Alisa received the award at the State History conference held in Saginaw. In her acceptance speech she noted, “I like to say I’m a miller by trade, an historian by degree, and now an author by award, and I thank the Historical Society of Michigan for that honor.” Her book is available on Windmill Island in Holland, at local retailers and online at In-Depth Editions.

Finding Strengths

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Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Psychology Kyla Fletcher
Assistant Professor of Psychology Kyla Fletcher

Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Psychology Kyla Fletcher has been awarded a grant by the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (part of the NIH) to study African-American partner relationships and share “what goes right” in terms of daily HIV risk reduction behavior.

The three-year grant ($438,000, making it the largest single-investigator award ever received at Kalamazoo College) is titled “Substance Use and Partner Characteristics in Daily HIV Risk in African Americans.” Fletcher hopes to enroll 200 participants in the community-based study. Participants will complete daily surveys for a month (a study approach called “daily diary” that provides more reliable data than do retrospective approaches). Participants also will do confidential in-person interviews in the lab Fletcher has set up in Olds-Upton.

The study will empirically consider the role of partners, specifically relative to managing (one’s own and one’s partner’s) substance use and condom use, and negotiating the knowledge of a partner’s HIV status through testing–all behaviors that can be associated with HIV prevention.

“There are relationships where partners talk about these behaviors and negotiate them successfully,” says Fletcher. “The study will help us learn how they accomplish that, which may suggest strategies to encourage such engagement and behaviors more widely among intimate partnerships in specific populations.”

In addition to setting up the interview lab and a website for the study, Fletcher is working with her newly hired Research Associate (hailing from the greater Kalamazoo area) and her team of six Kalamazoo College students to begin the recruitment phase of the study. “I had an enthusiastic pool of K students,” smiles Fletcher. “There is great interest in human sexuality and the influences of community on relationships and the influence of partners in relationships.

“The K students, which include members of every class, bring a diverse set of experiences and new ideas to the study team,” adds Fletcher. In return, the students will learn how to think analytically and how to initiate (and collect and analyze data from) a ’daily diary’ research protocol, knowledge that would be relevant for graduate study or employment in the field of psychology, according to Fletcher.

She is particularly excited that the work will be community-based. “The grant allows us to build a cohort that is diverse in multiple ways and more reflective of the reality of the community,” she explains. “It also obligates us to disseminate the results back to the community and to seek their input on how to communicate those results most effectively.”

Fletcher has already enlisted community representatives as advisers. And, she notes, the community-based character of the research is an opportunity for the K students to get off campus and interact with people from whom they differ in a variety of ways and with whom they also share fundamental similarities. The discovery and exploration of distinctions and commonalities can be a valuable learning experience.

This academic year is Fletcher’s fourth at Kalamazoo College. She teaches courses in general psychology, adolescent development, research methods, the psychology of the African-American experience, and the psychology of sexuality.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Howard University (Washington, D.C.) and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. In grad school she focused on developmental psychology with an emphasis on sexual socialization, and she did post-doctoral work at U of M’s Substance Abuse Research Center.

“It’s in the nature of human relationship development that partners tend to meld into one another, adopt each other’s interests and give greater consideration of a partner’s desires,” says Fletcher. “How partners influence behaviors related to substance use, sexual risk and HIV prevention is a key question of this study. What strengths in relationships work toward healthy outcomes, and can these strengths be applied more widely?”

“It’s exciting work,” concludes Fletcher, “and could be part of a cultural shift—a needed shift, in my opinion—from a deficit-based view to a strength-based view of sexuality and health.”