civic engagement Archives - News and Events

National Honor Salutes K’s Voter Participation Efforts

Posted on November 20, 2024November 20, 2024

A nonpartisan and nonprofit initiative is saluting Kalamazoo College today as one of 471 U.S. institutions doing the most in higher education to increase student voter participation.

K is just one of two private institutions in Michigan being recognized as a 2024 ALL IN Most-Engaged Campus for College Student Voting, meaning that the College:

Reported its 2022 student voting data to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which is run through the Institute of Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University.
Shared that data with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an effort that strives to improve and increase democratic engagement activities on college campuses.
Developed and submitted to the ALL IN challenge a 2024 voter-engagement action plan.
Received support from the College’s president through ALL IN’s Higher Education President’s Commitment to Full Student Voter Participation.

K Votes volunteers drive voter participation by offering assistance at the Center for Civic Engagement — K Votes volunteers, including Oakley Gabriel ’21 (center), offered students rides to the polls on Election Day to drive campus voter participation.

K Votes—the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement’s (CCE) nonpartisan coalition to inform the College’s students, faculty and staff members about voting and civic engagement—is the primary driver of the institution’s efforts in increasing voter participation. K Votes representatives work in partnership with students to register new voters, mail absentee ballots, provide rides to the polls, and distribute candidate information with maps to local polling places.

CCE Program Associate Oakley Gabriel ’21 leads K Votes, along with students, faculty and staff.

“The relationships and momentum built among community organizations and our campus were critical to implementing our robust action plan as supported by a grant from Students Learn Students Vote Coalition,” Gabriel said. “We expanded voter registration initiatives, increased capacity for voter education and elections support, and made connections with hundreds of students. More than 200 K students are newly registered voters thanks to our K Votes Coalition. The Center for Civic Engagement took on a massive undertaking, and the campus and Kalamazoo communities showed up with us, and I’m very proud of what we achieved.”

Internship Prepares Young Entrepreneur for Specialist Role

Posted on November 18, 2024November 18, 2024

Kelvis Quaynor ’25 has long thought he would like to be an entrepreneur, and an internship with Startup Zoo helped prepare him to pursue his goals.

Quaynor completed a Community Building Internship (CBI) through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) during summer 2024, and Startup Zoo subsequently hired him as community engagement specialist for his last year at Kalamazoo College.

“Engaging in this work has given me a good idea of the things I will need to put in place to be a better entrepreneur, when that time does come,” Quaynor said. “That’s one way this internship has helped position me to accomplish my goals.”

Working at Startup Zoo, a hub for the Kalamazoo entrepreneurship community, has also helped Quaynor build his confidence, network and learn about the business world—applying and reinforcing lessons from the classroom.

“One takeaway is definitely the fact that people in the business world are more open than I thought,” Quaynor said. “A lot of opportunities are out there for you, and if you jump on it, you might be able to capitalize. Another thing is that I’m capable of occupying certain spaces, which is something I’ve struggled with. I think COVID played a role, a lot of things played a role, being Black probably played a role as well. I got to see that I’m capable of doing things and occupying spaces in certain places.”

Much of Quaynor’s internship work with Startup Zoo involved contacting and connecting with entrepreneurs, investors and other members of the business community. That was challenging and surprising to Quaynor.

Young entrepreneur Kelvis Quaynor — An internship with Startup Zoo helped entrepreneur Kelvis Quaynor ’25 secure a community engagement specialist role with the nonprofit.

“Reaching out to people I didn’t know was hard, because it’s one thing when you’re in front of someone and you can say, ‘I like your shirt’ or something, but when you’ve never met someone, it’s hard to establish a genuine connection,” Quaynor said. “It surprised me how open people in the venture community were, though. I was reaching out to executives, some of the biggest venture funds in the state, and they would accept a connection on LinkedIn, and sometimes they would even reach out to me if they were going to be in Kalamazoo and say they would love to connect and see how we can help each other. A lot of people in the venture and entrepreneurial support organization space are good people trying to help. I didn’t know how that existed in the business world.”

Quaynor was also analyzing what other entrepreneurial support organizations were doing, researching business funds, and helping plan for the Southwest Michigan Entrepreneur Summit in September. An economics major from Seattle, Washington, Quaynor appreciated learning more about the resources that exist for businesses in Kalamazoo. Early on, he learned a lot from Carl Brown, executive director of Startup Zoo. As the internship progressed, he grew more independent.

“It was hard in the beginning,” Quaynor said. “Carl would give me direction, but sometimes it would be things I had never done before. I hate to be a pest, so for me, if you told me what to do, it’s hard for me to then ask you how to do it. I feel like I should have the tools to be able to figure it out. He was super open, though, and every time I did have to ask, he was fine with that, and he would point me in the right direction.”

The CCE’s reflection dinners for K students working on CBIs helped Quaynor stay in touch with friends completing CBIs, make new friends and put into words what he was learning and experiencing at Startup Zoo. His reflections throughout the summer as well as his final project for the CCE prepared him for his Senior Integrated Project on the internship.

“This internship is definitely going to help inform my decision on what I want to do post-Kalamazoo, because I’m not sure what’s next,” Quaynor said. “I’m just trying to finish my senior year the best way I can, academically and socially and all the good things. Recently, actually, I was thinking about potentially going to graduate school, which is something I never thought I’d do. I feel like there’s still a lot to learn.”

Changing His Tune: Music Center Internship Prompts Career Shift

Posted on September 20, 2024October 2, 2024

Music has always been a part of life for Tyrus Parnell ’25, and his summer 2024 internship was no exception. Working for the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center in a Community Building Internship (CBI) through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) immersed Parnell in the field he loves and helped him prepare for life after college by redirecting his future path.

Growing up in a musical family, Parnell has sung for as long as he has talked and drummed since he was a toddler banging on his family’s pots and pans. In middle school band, he frustrated his parents by bringing home a new instrument every few weeks. “I just really like them all,” he said. By seventh grade, he was training his ear by teaching younger band students. In high school, he became an unofficial assistant to his choir teacher, helping run rehearsals.

“I’ve always been really integrated into the music aspect of my life, and teaching it came easily for me,” Parnell said. His plan coming to Kalamazoo College was to teach music of some sort at the high school or college level. His advisor, Chris Ludwa, suggested that a CBI with the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center would tie in perfectly with Parnell’s K-Plan and his quest to find his avenue within music.

The internship at Helen Fox offered Parnell the opportunity to both teach and work behind the scenes administratively. He was surprised to find that while he enjoyed the teaching, he truly thrived in the music center’s office.

“I really found a knack for administration and being in the weeds a little bit with trying to make sure that every kid that comes through any type of program is accounted for, they have what they need, and just doing the big reach to help as many as possible,” Parnell said. “I was helping with writing grants, planning schedules, learning the software that we use, and being an extra pair of eyes, extra pair of ears, helping to manage what we’re doing great, what wasn’t going so great.”

In the center’s summer program, Parnell taught piano to a class of students ranging in age from about 6 to 15.

“We did a little showcase at the end of it, which was really fun,” Parnell said. “As diverse in ages as my class was, they all had to start at the beginning. It was nice to see how at the end, they were helping one another, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and leaning on each other to learn the pieces.”

Parnell also taught drumming through the center’s summer camp. Working with another drum instructor, they planned a routine with choreography around a Motown theme. The camp also included a trip to Detroit and a visit from a former member of a Motown singing group, the Velvelettes.

“It was nice to have that moment where it felt like our community stretched and was really kind of just all over,” Parnell said.

Through the CBI, Parnell developed and practiced skills that will serve him well in any future endeavors, including flexibility and adaptability (the center’s shared space in the Douglass Community Center sometimes necessitates last-minute changes in plans) as well as patience and understanding with different family dynamics and life experiences. In addition, he learned about himself, his own strengths and challenges, his preferences and skills.

“It’s been so much that I’ve taken away from the internship, and it’s given me a good look as to what nonprofit work entails,” Parnell said. “I really appreciated that.”

At K, Parnell has served in various roles in the music department and different ensembles, including as section leader for the College Singers and co-music director for the a capella group Premium Orange. He also serves as minister of music at his church, Sanctuary of Praise, and helps run a ministry-related podcast, Driven in Purpose. Parnell has been a President’s Student Ambassador since his second year at K. Heading into his senior year, the music and religion double major is exploring a new interest in digital music, writing an album, planning a live recording, and looking ahead to grad school and beyond.

Tyrus Parnell Plays Organ Music at Stetson Chapel — Tyrus Parnell ’25 interned at the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center in a Community Building Internship this summer through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.

Tyrus Parnell interned at the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center — Parnell has served in various roles in the music department and different ensembles at K, including as section leader for the College Singers and co-music director for the a capella group Premium Orange.

“Where I want to go for grad school is the biggest unanswered question, because I know the work I want to do,” Parnell said. “I really have found a love for nonprofit, so I would like to stay in that realm. I want to go to graduate school for public administration and learn how to best serve nonprofits or even start my own.

“I think that music will always be a part of my life. In some way, some of the work I do will probably heavily rely on music, but it’s really finding your voice with the music. I’ve always wanted music to be the thing that opens a conversation. For me, music has been a way to communicate what I couldn’t with words. It’s the emotion behind music. There’s this subliminal message happening that I’m just playing and dialing into. I remember my grandmother telling me, whenever you are going through a block or going through a hardship or whatever, you let it out through your music. Let that be your outlet. That’s the relationship I have with music.”

Nonprofit Lauds K’s Voter Engagement

Posted on August 9, 2024August 9, 2024

Kalamazoo College and the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) are receiving more honors from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for efforts that boost voter participation on campus.

K is one of 192 institutions from around the country receiving the Highly Established Action Plan Seal, which salutes campuses for developing a standout nonpartisan action plan for democratic engagement ahead of the 2024 election. The seal is based on a rubric that calculates points within categories such as civic engagement and learning, voter registration and education, and democratic engagement and participation.

K scored 33.7 points out of a possible 36 with K Votes—the CCE’s nonpartisan, student-led coalition that informs the College’s students, faculty and staff members about voting and civic engagement—being the primary driver of K’s efforts in powering voter participation. K Votes provides resources, reflection spaces and opportunities for civic participation while striving to help all students develop their individual politic, understand American political systems, and feel comfortable and confident exercising their political rights. It also helped fuel the College’s impressive voter turnout rate of 83.7% in 2020 during the last presidential election, a figure nearly 14% higher than the college campus national average, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) at the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University.

The ALL IN mission is to foster civic culture and institutionalize democratic engagement activities and programs at colleges and universities, making them a defining feature of campus life. For more information on ALL IN, visit its website at allinchallenge.org.

K Votes volunteer at a voter registration table on the Quad — Kalamazoo College and the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) have earned the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s Highly Established Action Plan Seal. The award recognizes the College’s efforts in developing a standout nonpartisan action plan for voter engagement ahead of the November election.

K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar Earns National Honor

Posted on April 24, 2024May 2, 2024

A Kalamazoo College student is being honored by a national nonprofit organization for his work as a K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar.

Nik Krupka ’24, a philosophy and political science double major, is one of 137 students from across the country to reach the Student Voting Honor Roll through the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an initiative of Civic Nation.

The challenge is celebrating advocates such as Krupka, who advance on-campus, nonpartisan efforts to achieve excellence in democratic engagement while improving civic learning and voter participation. Civic Nation works to build a more inclusive country by bringing together individuals, grassroots organizers, industry leaders and influencers to tackle social challenges.

“It is an honor to be recognized among the other students from around the country for the work we have done here at K,” Krupka said. “I feel humbled to be among so many others since it shows the extent to which these projects are collaborative. Fostering an engaged community is a job much larger than a single person, and it was inspiring to see that, in fact, far more than just one person has taken up this task. I hope that K continues to see its students honored in similar ways as the years go on, and I know it will be so.”

Two students, including K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar Nik Krupka, on the upper quad at Kalamazoo College — Nik Krupka ’24 (left) is one of 137 students from across the country to reach the Student Voting Honor Roll through the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, thanks to his work as a K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar. He is pictured with Brynna Garden ’24.

Krupka helped his peers at K register to vote, learn about the issues at stake, and find information on critical ballot measures in local and state races in 2023 through K Votes, the non-partisan coalition that informs K students, faculty and staff members about voting and civic engagement through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE). He said he initially found out about K Votes through a friend he met in a Constitutional and Race Law class taught by Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry last year.

“Before then, I had never really engaged with the program,” Krupka said. “My friend was graduating at the time, and I was looking for a way to get out of my shell since I tend to keep to myself, so I was excited to meet the folks at the CCE when he connected us. Over that summer, I met with the CCE several times to talk more about my interests—particularly in the institutional dynamics of social change—and how they fit into the overarching vision for K Votes. I was over the moon when everyone at the CCE put their trust in me, especially inasmuch as this would be an amazing way to further develop those interests. That said, it was also a chance for me to expand my comfort zone and orient my efforts toward service more broadly. I’m proud to do work that I can stand behind that gets people critically thinking about their roles in this sometimes-confusing political system.”

The CCE aims to provide everyone—from first-time voters to those who have voted for years—information on the voting process, registration and knowledge regarding what their vote means. It has worked with dozens of faculty and staff for more than 15 years to support student-voter engagement. In recent years, CCE post-baccalaureate fellows and paid student Civic Engagement Scholars have built community connections and campus structures through K Votes. Those efforts have helped hundreds of students through quarterly voter education events, democratic advocacy and activism, and the countless individual efforts by students to get their votes cast.

“It’s important for every community to vote and make themselves heard,” Krupka said. “Kalamazoo College students, staff and faculty are no exception to that. What can be said about K in particular, is that its community takes to heart many of the things a liberal arts education seeks to imbue its students with. We gladly take up the research, critical thinking, teamwork and communication needed for productive political thought, and that should inspire us with the confidence to go out and push for the changes we want to see in the world. To this end, it is important to reject the notion that what we do here is of purely instrumental value. We don’t—or shouldn’t—come here just because it is a stepping stone to a job or graduate education later on. To really embrace the value of what we do here, K’s community needs to get involved, whether that means voting or something else. K Votes has shown me how small a part of our learning takes place in the classroom alone. The world is bigger than what is in our books.”

ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Executive Director Jennifer Domagal-Goldman said students have a powerful role to play in fostering active and engaged campuses and getting their peers to participate in democracy regardless of whether it’s a presidential election year or one with critical state and local races on the ballot.

“These honorees hosted candidate information sessions, created guides on polling location accessibility, registered their peers to vote and so much more,” she said. “We know these students will continue to make a difference in our democracy.”

For more information on the CCE, K Votes and Civic Engagement Scholars, visit the CCE website.

Visiting International Student Talks at Regional Education Conference

Posted on October 25, 2023September 17, 2024

Student holding the flag of Jordan in a display of many flags from around the world — Lina Alalami holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign languages with a minor in journalism from the University of Jordan.

Two students at a photo booth with one holding a BFFs sign — Alalami (left) and Kenia Coronel Gonzalez were two of the students representing K at the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MiTESOL) conference.

A visiting international student with experience teaching English to youths was among a Kalamazoo College contingent that recently returned from presenting at a statewide teaching conference.

On October 14, Lina Alalami—from Aman, Jordan—was joined by Learning Support Specialist and ESL Coordinator Candance B. Combs, and students Paola Guzman Jimenez and Kenia Coronel Gonzalez at the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MiTESOL) conference. Together, they spoke on “Engaging College Students as Teachers’ Assistants in Kalamazoo Public Schools.”

Alalami holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in foreign languages (German, Italian and English literature) with a minor in journalism from the University of Jordan. Influenced by diverse communities in Aman, Alalami developed an eagerness to learn new foreign languages and gain insights regarding different cultures. In addition, she wants to pursue a career where she can work to bring understanding between cultural groups around the world, especially in the Middle East.

One of the reasons why she decided to join K as a visiting international student is its great reputation with the K-Plan on an international level. She said K has a unique academic environment that cares about on- and off-campus communities.

At K, Alalami works closely with Combs in the academic course LANG295: One in a Billion, a class where K students each week visit newcomer classrooms in some of the Kalamazoo Public Schools to provide academic support to children and teens from Afghanistan, Rwanda, Syria and Central America. Through a collaboration with the Kalamazoo Teaching Volunteers, a Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement student-led program, Alalami also works as an assistant tutor at Maple Street Middle School, where she teaches Arabic to non-Arabic students. Additionally, she teaches English to ESL students and refugees as an assistant tutor at Millwood Middle School.

At the MiTESOL conference, Alalami discussed the Kalamazoo Teaching Volunteers, her student engagement and the Newcomers Newsletter produced by students in Combs’ classes.

“I always tend to be proactive and I want to give back to the community,” Alalami said. “I have been volunteering since the age of 13. My sense of altruism is something that drives my enthusiasm and commitment to support the newcomers.”In her on-campus involvement, she is part of the Arabic Student Union and actively contributes by supporting the events that help students learn more about Arabic culture. As an international student from a different cultural background, she feels a responsibility to step out of her comfort zone and counter stereotypes that students may have heard in the broader world. Similarly, she enjoys connecting with and learning from others.

“Being active on campus gives me an opportunity to meet and connect with a lot of K students,” Alalami said. “I have the chance to meet people with a wide range of different interests and passions. It makes me happy to learn something new every day about our college and student activism. I also saw at K-Fest that we have a diverse set of student organizations that contribute to our campus community. Kalamazoo College is a student-centric college that makes every student a proactive citizen.”

Editor’s note: This story was written by Blagoja Naskovski ’24. He serves as a social media ambassador for the College Marketing and Communications team.

Visiting international student on a brick walkway in front of an ornate building — Through a collaboration with the Kalamazoo Teaching Volunteers, Alalami works as an assistant tutor at Maple Street Middle School, where she teaches Arabic to non-Arabic students.

Civic Engagement Scholar Empowers Educational Growth of ESL Students

Posted on September 26, 2023October 11, 2023

Kalamazoo College students are not only known for their high academic accomplishments, but also their pro-active engagement in the local communities outside campus. One of those students is Rojina Timsina ’24, who has been civically engaged in her local communities since high school. Rojina’s earliest civic engagement experience included volunteering with the Refugee Educational Center in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Once she arrived in Kalamazoo, her sophomore year of college, she was drawn to the work that the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) did in the Kalamazoo community. Through the CCE, she worked as a classroom aide at El Sol Elementary School, where she assisted the teacher in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. Additionally, she worked as a monitor and tutor with the Homework Champions Tutoring program (HCT). Students who work with HTC join a partnership through the CCE that includes Kalamazoo Public Schools, the Refugee Outreach Collective and Western Michigan University to provide educational, emotional and holistic support to recently settled refugee students and their families in the Kalamazoo area.

This year, Rojina is one of the three Civic Engagement Scholars (CES) for the HCT program. As a CES, Rojina’s roles include recruiting K students for the program, facilitating orientations and reflection sessions, working toward expanding the program, and serving as a liaison between the K students and the community partners. “I was very drawn to the mission of HCT, and the group of very dedicated, aware and intentional people that were making this program happen,” Rojina said.

Rojina has also been involved in the public policy and non-profit sector during the past two summers. Through the CCE’s Community Building Internship program, she interned at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) (2022). As a public policy intern, she was working with coalitions around Michigan that were attempting to gain momentum on policies that would serve the communities they represented. Rojina’s favorite policy was the Drive Michigan Forward act that allowed Michigan residents to obtain a driver’s license regardless of their immigration status. Also through the CBI program, in 2023 Rojina interned at the Kalamazoo Youth Development Network, where she explored how the values of identity, belonging and agency are incorporated within the BIPOC youth programs. While studying abroad in Jordan, Rojina worked with a global organization called Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB). TBB connects refugees to international job opportunities, opening labor mobility as a complementary solution to traditional refugee resettlement. As an intern, she helped with the process of finding professional jobs overseas for refugees in Jordan and assisting them with the preparation process after they received the job.

Rojina is a senior working on her psychology major with an English minor. She enjoys the diversity of classes, viewpoints and ideas in both the psychology and English departments. “I have absolutely loved every class I have been in,” she said. “I have taken unique memories, knowledge, perspective, and ah-ha moments from every class. My First-Year Seminar, Culture of Slang, with Candace Combs challenged me to appreciate the uniqueness of my identity and find a community that I can fall back on to this day. One of my most beloved assignments has been a five-hour life history with a K student for my Narrative Analysis class with Dr. Gary Gregg. Some of my most significant memories this past year can be traced back to my beginning Arabic classes with Professor Anna Swank. The Arabic program at K really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone and paved a path for me to go abroad and live life in another language.”

Editor’s note: This story was written by Blagoja Naskovski, a senior at K, majoring economics with a minor in art history. Currently he serves as a social media ambassador for the College Marketing and Communications team.

Civic Engagement Scholar Rojina Tomsina in Jordan — Rojina Timsina ’24, seen here on study abroad in Jordan, is a Civic Engagement Scholar in the Homework Champions Tutoring program through the Center for Civic Engagement at Kalamazoo College.

Rojina Tomsina on campus — Rojina Timsina ’24 has been civically engaged in her local communities since high school.

Princeton Review Names K a Best Value College for 2023

Posted on April 26, 2023June 15, 2023

Kalamazoo College is one of the nation’s best colleges for students seeking a great education with excellent career preparation at a relatively affordable price, according to the Princeton Review.

The education services company Tuesday named K as one of its Best Value Colleges for 2023 and ranked the College No. 16 among the Top 20 Private Colleges for Making an Impact. That ranking is up two spots from No. 18 last year.

“It’s not surprising that Kalamazoo College continues to receive these honors from the Princeton Review,” Dean of Admission Suzanne Lepley said. “The K-Plan—our unique approach to the liberal arts and sciences—provides a broad-based education, as well as the communication, decision-making, and problem-solving skills students will need as professionals, continuing students and citizens. A K education empowers their outcomes as they help build a better world.”

The Princeton Review chose 209 schools for the 2023 list based on data from its surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges in 2022-23. Topics covered everything from academics, cost and financial aid to graduation rates and student debt. The company also factored in data from its surveys of students attending the schools as well as data from PayScale.com’s surveys of alumni about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction.

Best Value Colleges 2023 — The Princeton Review has named Kalamazoo College one of its Best Value Colleges for 2023 and ranked K No. 16 among the Top 20 Private Colleges for Making an Impact.

In all, the Princeton Review crunched more than 40 data points to tally return-on-investment ratings of the colleges that were Best Value Colleges school selections.

While the Princeton Review does not rank the Best Value Colleges hierarchically from 1 to 209, Kalamazoo College is one of just four Michigan institutions, private or public, to be honored this year. It’s also the only private institution in the state recognized as a top place where students can make an impact.

“The schools we chose as our Best Value Colleges for 2023 are a select group: they comprise only about 8% of the nation’s four-year undergraduate institutions,” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of the Princeton Review. “We commend their administrators, faculties, staff and alumni for all they are doing to educate their students and guide them to success in their careers. These colleges are also exceptional for the generous amount of financial aid they award to students with need and/or for their comparatively low cost of attendance.”

The Princeton Review is also known for its other college rankings in dozens of categories, many of which are reported in its annual book, The Best 388 Colleges, published in August, which again included K in 2023.

K Receives Voter Friendly Campus Recognition

Posted on April 21, 2023April 21, 2023

After the 2020 federal election, Kalamazoo College earned platinum status in the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge with 83.7% of eligible students casting their ballots, nearly 20% higher than the national average. Now, thanks to the organizing efforts of the Center for Civic Engagement team (CCE), K Votes Civic Engagement Scholars and volunteers, and allied faculty, K also has been certified as a Voter Friendly Campus with the national Campus Vote Project for the first time. This places Kalamazoo College among 258 other campuses in 38 states. 

Campus Vote Project is a part of the Fair Elections Center, a national nonpartisan voting-rights and election-reform organization. Campus Vote Project works with universities, community colleges, faculty, students and election officials to reduce the barriers of student voting. It works across 41 states with more than 3.4 million students. The Voter Friendly Campus designation, a collaboration between Campus Vote Project and NASPA, was created “to help institutions develop democratic engagement action plans that coordinate administrators, faculty and student organizations in civic and electoral engagement.”  

To be designated a Voter Friendly Campus, the college must submit a plan outlining what actions they plan to take during the election cycle to increase voter engagement. They then submit a report after the election that assesses how successful they were in their efforts and how they can improve in the next election cycle. This report is reviewed and scored by members of Campus Vote Project to determine whether the efforts warrant the designation. 

“I see this as an important accomplishment,” Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg said. “For years, K has been building a coalition of staff, faculty and students to ensure that every eligible student has the resources and opportunity to vote. I am overjoyed by the results of our efforts, and this is a perfect opportunity for us to continue to grow and improve.”

Lichtenberg added that this is just one of the initiatives that K Votes has planned for spring term.

“It’s important to remember that there’s always an election happening somewhere,” he said. “Kalamazoo has a special election on May 2. It might seem minor compared to the flashier elections, but we want to remain consistently engaged and make sure that the other elections do not go ignored.”

This commitment to election engagement will be layered with several on-campus activities and events in which students can participate to see firsthand what it means to be politically active between elections. 

Over more than 15 years, dozens of faculty and staff have contributed volunteer time and resources to support student-voter engagement. In recent years, CCE post-baccalaureate fellows and paid student Civic Engagement Scholars have built community connections and campus structures to connect students to nonpartisan voter education and prepare them for lifelong civic engagement. These efforts have helped hundreds of students through quarterly voter education events, democratic advocacy and activism, and the countless individual efforts by students to get their votes cast. Congratulations, K voters! 

If you want to help with Get Out the Vote efforts on campus, please contact Thomas.Lichtenberg19@kzoo.edu or Riley.Gabriel@kzoo.edu. 

Graphic says "We are certified for empowering students to engage in democracy. Voter Friendly Campus 2023-2024 — Thanks to the organizing efforts of the Center for Civic Engagement team (CCE), K Votes Civic Engagement Scholars and volunteers, and allied faculty and staff, Kalamazoo College has been certified as a Voter Friendly Campus with the national Campus Vote Project.

K Votes Supports Student Voting with a Shuttle to the Polls — Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg ’23 and Eleanor Carr ’23 were two of the integral people working with K Votes to support student voting by organizing shuttles to the polls for the 2022 Midterm Election.

K Students Help Woodward Elementary Children Study German

Posted on April 4, 2023April 4, 2023

When Kalamazoo College’s Department of German Studies was one of just three in the country to earn a German Center of Excellence award last year, the department’s community outreach was cited as one reason why.

Some of that community outreach was put into motion when Assistant Professor of German Petra Watzke secured a La Plante Grant in summer 2021 for K’s introductory German students to plan workshops for fourth graders in Ms. Snow’s class at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo. That fall and in fall 2022, in a partnership with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Community Engagement (CCE), K students collaborated to provide children with early lessons in the foreign language.

The outreach struck such a positive chord with parents, teachers, children and the K students, that the program expanded during the winter term to include Ms. Longhon’s kindergarten class at the school. In its most expansive effort to date, teaching assistants Alex Nam ’25 and Ben Flotemersch ’23 tested their new language skills by preparing lessons and materials for both grades, introducing lessons, and supporting students in the classroom.

“I went on one or two trips to Woodward in the fall, and then I was asked by Professor Watzke if I would want to help lead these trips as a TA,” Nam said. “I immediately said, ‘Oh, yes, I’d love to join in.’ Chances are not all of them will remember every word we teach them for the rest of their lives. We just want to instill within the kids an open-mindedness that leads to learning new languages. We want them to understand that different languages may sound a little weird and some may sound really similar to English. That sense of progress is something I’ve definitely seen with the kids through their willingness to step into the discomfort of learning a new language.”

In return, K representatives such as Flotemersch experienced a valuable way to make deeper connections within the community by visiting Woodward.

“I hadn’t really felt in touch with the Kalamazoo until now,” Flotemersch said. “My first year, we had 20 weeks on campus, and then COVID hit. Then, I was isolated sophomore year. This is just my fourth term on campus, and for the first time, I feel I’ve left campus and I’ve had a great time.”

Nam and Flotemersch both worked in close contact with Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Associate Professor of German Kathryn Sederberg and Watzke, who helped them build syllabuses and curriculums.

“It’s rewarding to go into the elementary schools and interact with these kids,” Nam said. “But on a deeper level, it allows me to contextualize how I learned German because I began these trips last year as a 101 student when I barely knew any German myself. To put myself in the role of a teacher instead of a student for a concept that’s still very fresh provides me with a much greater appreciation for German education, as well as the German language, because I’ve been able to see both perspectives of student and teacher.”

It was an experience that Flotemersch hopes will touch more K students while benefiting Woodward students in the future.

“I think we all had this experience, when we were kindergarteners or fourth graders, of an adult who showed up as a special guest,” Flotemersch said. “Those are highlights of our school experiences. When someone comes and they’re teaching you German, that’s amazing, and I think more people should volunteer in similar ways.”

Flotemersch and Nam gained experiences through volunteering at Woodward that might improve their chances of earning the Fulbright scholarships they seek. Through its U.S. Student Program, Fulbright helps graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to teach English, perform research or study abroad for one academic year.

Kalamazoo College introductory German students help children learn words and phrases in the language — Kalamazoo College introductory German students have been volunteering and planning workshops at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo since fall 2021.

Kalamazoo College students help children learn words and phrases in the language — Alex Nam ’25 (second from left) tested his German skills by preparing lessons and materials for kindergartners and fourth graders at Woodward Elementary School.

For Flotemersch, that would mean following in the footsteps of his brother, K alumnus Matthew Flotemersch ’20, who now serves Fulbright’s U.S. Teaching Assistant Program in Austria. The elder brother also previously earned a Fulbright through the U.S. Student Program to teach in Germany. But for now, the younger brother is relishing his opportunity to instill a love of foreign languages locally.

“We can’t expect every kid to be engaged all the time,” Flotemersch said. “One kid might be kind of sleepy one day, and the next week, they’re super engaged. We just keep using different teaching strategies, and hopefully, we reach as many kids as we can. Emotionally, reaching students makes the teaching really rewarding.”