College Celebrates Honors Day

Kalamazoo College Family Weekend served as the backdrop for the College’s annual Honors Day convocation. More than 250 students were recognized Friday, Oct. 27, for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Foreign Languages, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences and Physical Education. Recipients of prestigious scholarships were recognized, as were members of national honor societies and students who received special Kalamazoo College awards. Student athletes and teams who won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards also were honored. The students receiving Honors Day awards or recognition are listed below.

Honors Day
The Honors Day Convocation, conducted Oct. 27 at Stetson Chapel, celebrated the achievements of more than 250 Kalamazoo College students.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

The Brian Gougeon Prize in Art
Hannah Rainaldi

The Margaret Upton Prize in Music
Joshua Gibson
Jenna Sherman

Cooper Award
Kate Kreiss

Sherwood Prize
Cody Colvin

Theatre Arts First-Year Student Award
Sophia Hill
Alysia Homminga

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION

LeGrand Copley Prize in French
Valentina Cordero
Ravi Nair

Hardy Fuchs Award
Matthew Flotemersch

Margo Light Award
Annarosa Whitman

Romance Languages Department Prize in Spanish
Joshua Gibson
Kevin McCarty

Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin
Mara Hazen

Provost’s Prize in Classics
Clayton Meldrum

HUMANITIES DIVISION

O.M. Allen Prize in English
Paige Coffing

John B. Wickstrom Prize in History
Riya Bhuyan

Department of Philosophy Prize
Lee Carter
Emiline Chipman

L.J. and Eva (“Gibbie”) Hemmes Memorial Prize in Philosophy
Rosella LoChirco

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

Winifred Peake Jones Prize in Biology
Brigette Berke
Amelia Davis
Dominic Gonzalez

Department of Chemistry Prize
Kevin McCarty

First-Year Chemistry Award
Kristen Amyx-Sherer
Alyssa Heitkamp

Lemuel F. Smith Award
Maria Fujii

Computer Science Prize
Fabien Debies
Zoe Larson
Danielle Sarafian

First-Year Mathematics Award
Michael Orwin
William Tait

Thomas O. Walton Prize in Mathematics
Allegra Allgeier

Cooper Prize in Physics
Benjamin Behrens
Valentina Harding
Alexis Periman
Justin Seablom
Ethan Tucker

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Departmental Prize in Anthropology and Sociology
Paige Chung
Shadaijah Grandberry-Payton
Aliyah Jamaluddin
Elizabeth Munoz
Emiliana Renuart

C. Wallace Lawrence Prize in Economics
Andrew Parsons
Evelyn Wagner

C. Wallace Lawrence Prize in Business
Jessica Penny
Scott Roberts
Garrett Swanson

Irene and S. Kyle Morris Prize
Zachary Ray

William G. Howard Memorial Prize
Sarah Gerendasy

Department of Psychology First-Year Student Prize
Shannon Carley

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

Division of Physical Education Prize
Laura Hanselman
Daniel Henry

Maggie Wardle Prize
Elizabeth Munoz

COLLEGE AWARDS

Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award
Cydney Martell
Rumsha Sajid
Cindy Xiao

Henry and Inez Brown Prize
Alexandrea Ambs
Emily Good
David Vanderkloot

Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award
Sarafina Milianti
Sep’tisha Riley

Heyl Scholars – Class of 2020
Andrew Backer
Matthew Giguere
Josephine Hosner
Danielle Janowicz
Samuel Meyer
Hannah Pittman
Stephanie Rauhoff
Subi Thakali
Dustin Tibbetts

Posse Scholars – Class of 2020
Alejandro Aguirre
Alexandro Cruz
Kahira Embry
Moses Gonzalez
Denise Jackson
Trevor Loduem-Jackson
Daniel Mota-Villegas
Angela Pastor
Enrique Robles
Gabrielle Walton Schwartz

National Merit Scholar – Class of 2020
Ehren White

Voynovich Scholars
Elise Houcek
Susmitha Narisetty

Alpha Lambda Delta – Class of 2019
Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year.

Logan Beck
Benjamin Behrens
Brigette Berke
Riya Bhuyan
Shannon Carley
Iffat Chowdhury
Valentina Cordero
Austin Cramer
Adelaine Dancer
Matthew Flotemersch
Amanda Gardner
Joshua Gibson
Dominic Gonzalez
Martin Hansknecht
Sophia Hill
Kento Hirakawa
Alysia Homminga
Maria Katrantzi
Zoe Larson
Samuel Maddox
Kathryn Martin
Kevin McCarty
Tamara Morrison
Elizabeth Munoz
Cayla Patterson
Alexis Periman
Victorialyn Regan
Danna Robles-Garcia
Orly Rubinfeld
Danielle Sarafian
Jenna Sherman
Simran Singh
Grant Stille
Sarah Whitfield

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Performing Arts: Music
Madeleine Armstrong
Zachary Colburn
Adam Decker
Jennalise Ellis
Stanton Greenstone
Audrey Honig
Isabel McLaughlin
Katherine Miller-Purrenhage
Natalie Minzey
Julia Riddle
Margaret Roethler

MICHIGAN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (MIAA) AWARDS

The following Hornet teams earned the 2015-2016 MIAA Team GPA Award. Team members achieved a 3.3 or better grade point average for the entire academic year.

Men’s Baseball
Men’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Men’s Soccer
Men’s Swim & Dive
Men’s Tennis
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Golf
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swim & Dive
Women’s Tennis
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

The MIAA each year honors students at member colleges who achieve distinction in the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winners in a varsity sport and maintain at minimum 3.5 grade point average for the entire school year.

Cheyenne Allyn-White
Alexandrea Ambs
Georgie Andrews
Ryan Andrusz
Hunter Angileri
Alberto Ayala
Sonal Bahl
Chase Baysdell
Matthew Benedettini
Jacob Bonifacio
Kennedy Boulton
Riley Boyd
Andrew Bremer
Allie Brodsky
Molly Brueger
Ian Bunker
Matthew Burczyk
Alexander Cadigan
Charles Carson
Madeleine Chilcote
Jack Clark
Elizabeth Clevenger
Anthony Convertino
Austin Cramer
Anna Dairaghi
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Roger Darling
Sabrina Dass
Steven Davis
Eric De Witt
Dana DeVito
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez-Garcia
Nathan Donovan
Erin DuRoss
Tristyn Edsall
Emma Eisenbeis
Michael Faust
Anders Finholt
John Fowler
Christopher Francis
Maria Franco
Brett Garwood
Cory Gensterblum
Joseph Giacalone
Jacob Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Beau Godkin
Emily Good
Monica Gorgas
Mya Gough
Andre Grayson
Garrett Guthrie
Alyssa Heitkamp
Daniel Henry
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Kyle Hernandez
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Allia Howard
Nicole Huff
Briana Huisken
Claire Jensen
Katherine Johnson
Marylou Johnson
Claire Kalina
Maria Katrantzi
Greg Kearns
Samuel Kepes
Benjamin Kileen
Dahwi Kim
William Kirchen
Ian Kobernick
Emily Kozal
Matthew Krinock
Stefan Leclerc
Rosella LoChirco
Nicholas Ludka
Cydney Martell
Eliza McCall
Katherine McKibbon
Branden Metzler
Joshua Miller
Suzanne Miller
Madison Moote
Zachary Morales
Elizabeth Munoz
Dylan Padget
James Paprocki
Cayla Patterson
John Patton
Bradley Popiel
Nicole Prentice
Zachary Prystash
Erin Radermacher
Zachary Ray
Phillip Ritchie
Scott Roberts
Justin Roop
Matthew Ryder
Paige Sambor
Aaron Schwark
Jacob Scott
Justin Seablom
Anorah Seita
Sharif Shaker
Chase Shelbourne
Alec Sherrill
Gabrielle Shimko
Grace Smith
Adam Snider
Kathleen Sorensen
Sydney Spring
Vethania Stavropoulos
Grant Stille
Shelby Suseland
Matthew Suter
Jacob Sypniewski
Jack Tagget
William Tait
Emma Tardiff
Benjamin Toledo
Alyana Tomlinson
Zachary Tornow
Matt Turton
Eva Ugelow
Madison Vallan
Kaela Van Til
Joshua Vance
David Vanderkloot
Zachary VanFaussien
Mitchell VanKoevering
Travis Veenhuis
John Vinson
Sidney Wall
Jacob Wasko
John Wehr
Alex White
Madeline Woods
Brent Yelton
Julie Zabik
Matthew Zhiss

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

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.

Liberal Arts and Christian faith prepare K student “to achieve things that will last.”

 

Marquise Griffin
Marquise Griffin ’15

President Barack Obama, members of Congress, other world leaders, and 80 college students from across the United States—including Kalamazoo College student Marquise Griffin ’15—attended the National Prayer Breakfast today (Feb. 7) in Washington, D.C.

“It was a complete surprise when I got the email saying I got selected,” Marquise said. He attended the National Student Leadership Forum Conference in Nov., a larger conference, also in D.C., from which National Prayer Breakfast attendees were chosen.

According to Marquise, the two events promote a leadership model that focuses on the role of love in leadership.

K Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 nominated Marquise for the fall Forum and is impressed that he was chosen for the interfaith Breakfast gathering.

“Marquise is just a great Christian leader on campus,” she said. “He’s growing in his leadership abilities. Being selected to attend the National Prayer Breakfast is an acknowledgment of that. It’s a really big deal.”

Marquise identifies as a nondenominational Christian. He says he grew up with the Bible as a guiding source for how to live his life and credits overcoming the hurdle of severe hearing loss for fueling his drive and unwillingness to accept human limitations.

“As a kid, I felt cursed. I felt like God had turned his back on me for that to happen,” he said. “Over time, I began to grow spiritually and realize my hearing loss was not a curse. It was actually a blessing.”

Currently an English major, Marquise has a notion to add theater and classics. He said having a degree in the liberal arts will provide him with a well-rounded base, which he intends to apply wherever God needs him.

“I try not to get too wrapped up in trying to plan out exactly what will happen,” he said. “What I really want to do…is to see how I can help better people.”

His faith, he added, assures him that he isn’t going through life randomly. “I have a purpose in life that I have to achieve things that will last long after I’m gone from this earth,” he said.

Story by Maggie Kane ’13.