computer science

Writing Stuff Provides the Right Stuff for Student to Discover, Learn

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If you’ve ever believed that you’re just not good at science, math, English or whatever your least favorite subject might be, Senchen Subba ’25 and his Senior Integrated Project (SIP) might convince you otherwise. 

Subba, a business and computer science double major from Nepal, is the creator of The Senchy Review, a blog with a series of self-contained essays in global politics, psychology, technology and personal development. The essays allow him to analyze complex subjects through clear and engaging ideas, providing an approach that he says mirrors the exploratory nature of real-world learning. It also invites others to engage with his ideas. 

Subba calls it a kind of Bildungsroman experience, like where a literary character comes of age through formative years or an education.  

“I thought if I could combine my writing with building a website for my SIP, that would be very cool,” he said. “I feel it’s the best way for me to encapsulate my experience in college. If I took a history class, for example, it would be difficult for me to write an entire SIP on what I learned. But I could have an entire SIP on different tidbits of topics and each topic could be self-contained.” 

Portrait of The Senchy Review blog author Senchen Subba writing
Senchen Subba ’25, a business and computer science double major from Nepal, is the creator of The Senchy Review, a blog that allows him to write a series of self-contained essays in global politics, psychology, technology and personal development.

The variety of the essays reflect Subba’s natural inclination to write, be curious and explore. While he appreciates everything he learns in a familiar subject like computer science, even that once was an experiment with something new. 

“When I came here, I wasn’t thinking about taking computer science,” Subba said. “I thought I would try one class and continue if I enjoyed it. But then I found out that computer science just makes sense. If you want to build a website, there are certain pieces of it that fit together like a recipe. I enjoy how logical it is. And if I make an app, I can publish it. If I make a website, I can share it.” 

Yet if you scan his list of essays, you will find titles that share ideas regarding the pleasures of trial and error, how to make reading a habit, the complexities of addiction, the ins and outs of corporate finance, strategies for weightlifting, finding satisfaction in life, and the essence of public speaking. 

“As a thinker, I’ve learned that I don’t know many of these concepts I write about as well as I thought,” Subba said. “Writing leaves no room for my confusion to hide. It has made me realize how much I appreciate clear, concise and engaging writing, and how challenging it is to accomplish. The ones that stand out to me right now are the writings regarding corporate finance and gym lifts—corporate finance because it was technical, fun and challenging to break down ideas down into fundamentals, and weightlifting because I’ve recently gotten into it more, so my writing has helped clarify my training philosophy.” 

If he finds the subject interesting, he will consider writing about it regardless of what it is. Such topics make it evident just how much Subba loves to write and the freedom of the liberal arts, making K a perfect fit for him.  

“If you want to be really good at just one topic, you can study just one subject,” Subba said. “But I think for myself, it’s helpful to have a wide breadth of knowledge. That doesn’t mean you can’t be really good at one thing. But I’ve noticed that the people who are really good at, let’s say, programming, they have other interests outside of that one field. I would say the liberal arts have helped me a lot. I’m sure it provides a lot of benefits to other people, too.” 

He even dabbles with a podcast through the opportunities he has at K. It shares interviews with K students, faculty and staff regarding their areas of expertise. His latest interview was with Wen Chao Chen Professor of East Asian Social Studies Dennis Frost. 

“I find that If I want to do something at K, the resources or the help I need to do it will come out if I just ask about it or talk to enough people,” he said. 

Subba said he has been visiting Kalamazoo since he was a child because his uncle, Mahendra Lawoti, is a political science professor at Western Michigan University. 

“I still remember coming here and driving around Kalamazoo with him,” Subba said. “He would point toward K’s campus and say, ‘There’s a really nice college over here, too.’ I forgot about that for three or four years until I was applying for colleges, and I got in at K.” 

Since then, he has had great experiences with friends and faculty, while staff assistance has come from places as far ranging as K Dining and the Center for International Programs, which provides support and programming for international students like him. In fact, he’s grateful for every friend and family member he’s had in his life. 

Come graduation in June, he hopes he can start building a career—and perhaps a business of his own—that helps people through an online platform like The Senchy Review. 

“I want my career to be built on the idea that a person can enjoy what they’re doing while also enriching people’s lives,” Subba said. “I feel there are certain businesses that do well financially but aren’t the most helpful. I’d rather think that if I give people enough good value, earnings will come automatically and be more of a metric of success.” 

Teamwork Measures the Benefit of a Forest Through the Trees

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Four students from two academic departments have combined forces this year to measure how Kalamazoo College’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum benefits the local fight against climate change.

Lucas Priemer ’25, a biology and Spanish double major from Berkley, Michigan, is working on a Senior Integrated Project (SIP) that measures the circumference of specific trees at the arboretum to estimate how much carbon they capture and how that compares with measurements taken in previous SIPs that have been repeated about every five years. 

Priemer also works at the arboretum and loves spending time there, making this project an ideal fit for him. 

“The best thing about the arboretum is that it’s an escape from just being here on campus,” Priemer said. “Some people get a little cooped up, especially in the winter here, so it’s nice to get outside. I think getting outside and exploring nature is one of the best things that we can do to alleviate stress, especially in a big academic environment.” 

The project he’s working on is sometimes referred to at K as “the tree-hugger SIP” because students put their arms around trees and use a tape measure at a standard height to gather their data. Using that information in a standard formula allows students like Priemer to calculate a tree’s above-ground biomass. A carbon conversion factor, based on a tree’s species and wood density, then estimates the amount of carbon it stores—or sequesters—preventing the greenhouse gas from polluting the environment. 

Using a mapping app, Priemer locates the focal trees in each of the plots he’s analyzing. Within 20 meters, he measures all trees larger than 30 centimeters. Within 10 meters, he measures trees between 10 and 30 centimeters. Within 5 meters, he measures trees between 2.5 and 10 centimeters. 

“We haven’t made a ton of conclusions yet because we’re still working on the statistical analysis,” Priemer said. “But we’re hoping to find an increase in the carbon sequestration over the past years’ SIPs as the trees grow. I think the state of the arboretum is pretty good, so hopefully, we’ll see some good results.” 

Lucas Priemer poses among trees at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum
Lucas Priemer ’25 is working on a Senior Integrated Project that uses tree measurements at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum to help determine how much carbon trees there are sequestering in the local fight against climate change.

His efforts are receiving assistance from Juniper Pasternak ’27, Judah Karesh ’25 and Teddy Jacobson ’27, who were in the fall 2024 computing for the environment and social justice course led by Sandino Vargas Perez, an associate professor of computer science. The class studies concepts and techniques from computer science to address and understand problems in environmental science. It explores topics such as how computational intelligence is applied to environmental data; current solutions to create, collect, store, process, model and distribute data and information; and the environmental impacts of computers such as electronic waste. 

Together, the team of three completed their final project for the course by building a web-based app for their client, Biology Professor Binney Girdler, which helps Priemer record his data and analyze it, note tree varieties and health, and preserve the information for future biology students who repeat the SIP. 

“There were other choices for final projects, but this one seemed like we would be creating something that would be consistently used, something that would have long-term benefits, and help out the biology department,” Pasternak said. “We also knew we would indirectly help fight climate change by helping ecologists and biologists track what our trees are doing and learning more about carbon sequestration.” 

The project was especially challenging in the beginning, Jacobson said, considering that the team was starting from scratch. 

“You just have to start from nothing and go,” Jacobson said. “It all started with us designing the database. We used a whiteboard to plan the rough ideas of what we thought we would need. Then, through our conversations with Dr. Girdler, we figured out exactly what was required. From there, we set up an agile development system and our project management. We’d then meet up weekly as a group to discuss what we’ve done, where we need to continue and try our best.” 

The final product made the whole project worthwhile. Karesh felt communication was key to producing excellent work that they could confidently present to Girdler. 

“The three of us had worked together before, but honestly, I think we did a better job with this one because our communication was so good,” Karesh said. “A lot of the challenge was trying to keep the scope limited. I’m happy that we worked on something that’s actually being used, and it’s going to be around for a while.” 

Priemer said he’s grateful for the assistance from the computer science students and they will be thanked in his SIP, which will have strong benefits for fighting climate change on and off campus. 

“I want the arboretum to be protected and safe moving forward,” Priemer said. “There are green spaces around that aren’t exactly protected, so doing research like this provides evidence for why we should keep it and other green spaces in Kalamazoo.” 

Computer Science Team Impresses at Programming Contest

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Three Kalamazoo College computer science students traveled to Grand Valley State University last weekend to compete in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), the longest-running higher education programming competition in the world. 

More than 50,000 students from more than 100 countries competed in several regional competitions, solving a number of programming problems over the course of five hours. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork and innovation in building new software programs, and tests the students’ ability to work efficiently in challenging conditions. 

Chau Ta ’25, Benjamin Whitsett ’27 and Cole Koryto ’25 finished sixth out of 18 teams in the East Division’s Central North America Region, which included students from Ohio, Michigan, Eastern Ontario, Western Pennsylvania and Indiana. K’s representatives, in a team aptly named Bit by Bit, finished higher than five of eight teams from the University of Michigan and one of three teams from Michigan State University among others. Overall, Bit by Bit finished 48th out of 182 teams in the East Division. 

With school standings determined by the average scores of all their representing teams, K placed 12th in the East Division. That was good enough for second among five teams from Michigan and first among three teams from Great Lakes Colleges Association institutions. 

“I believe this is an outstanding achievement and something we can celebrate,” Dow Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sandino Vargas–Pérez said. “Our students are bright, dedicated and enthusiastic about learning. They enjoy these contests where they can express what they’ve learned here at the College. I asked them, ‘Team, what is your goal for the event?’ They responded, ‘We want to be above the 50th percentile and maybe beat one of the teams from Harvard.’ Not only were they in the top 20%, but they also defeated one of the four teams that Harvard sent and defeated the University of Michigan in average points. They were so delighted with their results.” 

Programming Competition 2
Chau Ta ’25, Cole Koryto ’25 and Benjamin Whitsett ’27 impressed Dow Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sandino Vargas–Pérez at the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) regional.
Programming Competition 1
Whitsett (from left), Ta and Koryto compete in the ICPC.

K Welcomes New Faculty for 2024

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Kalamazoo College is pleased to welcome the following faculty members to campus this fall:

Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kelsey Aldrich

Aldrich arrives at K from Duquesne University, where she earned a Ph.D. and served as a graduate teaching assistant in biochemistry. Her educational background also includes a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with American Chemical Society (ACS) certification from Grove City College, where she was an undergraduate teaching assistant in organic, analytical and general chemistry.

Aldrich will teach a Shared Passages Seminar course this fall titled Cultured: The History and Science of Fermented Foods. In winter spring terms, she will teach classes in general chemistry and biochemistry. Her professional affiliations include membership in the ACS and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).

New Faculty Member Kelsey Aldrich
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kelsey Aldrich

Visiting Assistant Professor of English Erika Carbonara

Carbonara recently earned her Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University. She additionally holds a master’s degree from Oakland University and a bachelor’s degree with university honors from Wayne State.

She specializes in early modern literature with an emphasis on gender, sexuality, and kink studies. In her previous teaching positions, she has taught a wide range of courses from introductory composition to literature classes focused on Renaissance literature, children’s literature, and women’s literature. This term she will lead a course on social justice from a literary perspective with a focus on issues, events, movements and historical moments while emphasizing areas of power difference such as race and ethnicity, disabilities, class, gender and sexuality. 

New faculty member Erika Carbonara
Visiting Assistant Professor of English Erika Carbonara

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Rachel Chaiser

Chaiser’s educational background includes a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a bachelor’s degree with honors in mathematics from the University of Puget Sound.

In Boulder, she served as a part-time graduate instructor in linear algebra for non-math majors and calculus courses, a graduate teaching assistant in precalculus and an advanced undergraduate research mentor. At K this fall, she will teach calculus with lessons in algebra, precalculus and analytic geometry.

New faculty member Rachel Chaiser
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Rachel Chaiser

Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Sharon Colvin

Colvin has teaching experience with the University of Pittsburgh School of Education as an instructor, leading students with research methods and applied research; and the University of Maryland First-Year Innovation and Research Experience (FIRE) as an assistant clinical professor. Before getting her PhD., she was a youth services librarian for 10 years. At K, Colvin will teach educational psychology in fall, which applies the principles of psychology to the practice of teaching.

Colvin holds a Ph.D. in learning sciences and policy from the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, Health and Human Development; a master’s degree in library science from the Simmons University Graduate School of Library and Information Science; a master’s degree in mind, brain and education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education; and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wellesley College.

New faculty member Sharon Colvin
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Sharon Colvin

Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Caitlin Coplan

Coplan arrives at K from Northwestern University, where they recently earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. They also hold a bachelor’s degree with honors in physical and educational chemistry from the University of Utah.

Coplan has prior professional and teaching experience as an instructor as a part of the Arch program for incoming first-year students, and a teaching assistant for general chemistry and nanomaterials courses at Northwestern. They have also served as an interim undergraduate chemistry advisor, College of Science student ambassador, and teaching assistant in general chemistry at the University of Utah. At K, they will teach analytical chemistry this fall.

New faculty member Caitlin Coplan
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry Caitlin Coplan

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Mahar Fatima

For the past seven years, Fatima has served the University of Michigan, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a research laboratory specialist. Her research interests include studies of the sensory neural circuits under physiological or pathological conditions, the molecular mechanisms required to interpret sensory information, and how relations between neural and non-neuronal systems contribute to chronic pain, chronic itch, and pulmonary disorders. This fall, Fatima will teach neurobiology at K, addressing the structure and function of the nervous system with topics including the cell biology of neurons, electrophysiology, sensory and motor systems, brain development, and nervous system dysfunction.

Fatima earned a Ph.D. from the National Brain Research Centre in India along with master’s and bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and life sciences respectively from the University of Allahabad.

New faculty member Mahar Fatima
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Mahar Fatima

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Shelby King

King holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) along with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Texas State University, San Marcos.

Her teaching areas include the history of religion in America, religion and popular culture, religion and American politics, theories and methods in religion, and theories of genders and sexualities. Her professional memberships include the American Academy of Religion, and the UCSB Center for Cold War Studies and International History.

New faculty member Shelby King
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Shelby King

Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Cemile Kurkoglu

Kurkoglu comes to K from Denison University, where she had been a visiting assistant professor, teaching undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses since 2021. 

Kurkoglu holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington, where she served as an associate instructor for algebra, calculus and finite mathematics courses and she assisted for graduate mathematics courses. She also has a master’s degree from Bilkent University and a bachelor’s degree from Hacettepe University. Her graduate-level coursework included abstract and commutative algebra, number and representation theory, and ordinary and partial differential equations, real and complex analysis, and topology.

New faculty member Cemile Kurkoglu
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics Cemile Kurkoglu

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Josh Morris

Morris is arriving at K from Wayne State University, where he has been a visiting assistant professor at Grand Valley State University since 2021. Elsewhere, he has served St. Clair County Community College, the University of Toledo and Wayne State University as an adjunct faculty member; a graduate teaching assistant at Wayne State and Cal State University Pomona; and a lecturer for the Los Angeles Workers’ Center and the University of California, Irvine.

Morris holds a Ph.D. from Wayne State, a master’s degree from CSU Pomona, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, all in history. His professional memberships include the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Historical Materialism Society for Critical Research in Marxism, the Labor and Working-Class Historical Association and the Historians of American Communism.

New faculty member Joshua Morris
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Joshua Morris

Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Koffi Nomedji

Nomedji holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University, a master’s degree in economics from Oklahoma State University, and bachelor’s degrees in sociology and economics from the University of Lomé, Togo, West Africa. At Duke, Nomedji taught courses in introductory cultural anthropology, the digital revolution, the anthropology of money, and development and Africa.

New faculty member Koffi Nomedji
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Koffi Nomedji

Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nick Polanco

While recently earning a Ph.D. in computer science at Michigan State University, Polanco conducted research in automotive cybersecurity specific to autonomous vehicles. He also was a teaching assistant in artificial intelligence, computer organization and architecture, software engineering, computer systems, discrete structures, mobile applications and development, and database systems.

At K, Polanco will teach courses in introductory computing and programming basics for JavaScript and web development this fall.

Nick Polanco
Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nick Polanco

Director of African Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dominique Somda

Somda has arrived at K from the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she was a research fellow. She also has past appointments as traveling faculty with the International Honors Program (IHP) at study abroad and world learning sites in the U.S., Spain, Jordan, India, Nepal, Senegal, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and Chile; as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Reed College and the Department of Anthropology and Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; as a visiting scholar in anthropology at the London School of Economics; as a postdoctoral fellow at the Université Paris Nanterre in France; and as a teaching and research fellow at the University of Paris Nanterre.

Somda has a Ph.D. and two master’s degrees in ethnology and comparative sociology from the University of Paris Nanterre, and a master’s and bachelor’s in philosophy from the University Clermont Auvergne.

Somda will lead a course this fall at K titled On Being Human in Africa. The course will examine the experiences of Africans through racialized and gendered existences, their affective relations, their ways of relating to and caring for each other and the land; and explore what it means to think and write about Africa with representations and discourses including fiction, academic writing and social media.

Dominique Somda
Director of African Studies and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dominique Somda

Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross

Stuligross was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Riverside prior to K. She holds Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Earlham College.

Stuligross studies the impacts of environmental stressors on native bee ecology and recently received a federal grant to study the effects of climate change on bees. She also has professional experience as a museum educator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, where she taught science outreach programs and developed hands-on climate change education lessons. At K this fall, she will teach Biology Explorations.

Clara Stuligross
Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross

Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang

Yang has a master’s degree in teaching Chinese to non-native speakers from the Beijing Language and Culture University, and a bachelor’s degree in teaching Chinese as a second language from Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China.

Yang previously has taught college-level courses in beginning, intermediate and advanced Chinese at K; basic and intermediate Chinese, and Chinese dance and culture at Western Michigan University; and integrated Chinese and Chinese listening and speaking courses at Beijing Language and Culture University. Yang’s courses this fall include beginning and intermediate Chinese.

Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang
Visiting Instructor of Chinese Ruyuan Yang

Recent Alumnus Receives Young Ringer Award

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A recent Kalamazoo College alumnus is among this year’s recipients of a national change-ringing award named after a longtime and beloved former K professor. 

The North American Guild of Change Ringers has presented Xavier Silva ’24 with the Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award. Since 2019, the honor has recognized guild members 22 years of age or younger who have rung at least one quarter peal in the past year. 

Silva, a math and computer science double major at K, has rung three quarter peals, the first in October 2023. A quarter peal contains a series of at least 1,250 permutations rung in rapid succession according to rules that ensure no permutations are repeated. A quarter peal takes about 45 minutes of concentration and cooperation among a band of ringers, creating beautiful sounds. 

Silva arrived at K as a Heyl scholar and quickly began change ringing for several public events. During his senior year, he was the K student contact for the community ringers at Stetson Chapel and coordinated the Kalamazoo College Ringers for weekly Community Reflections gatherings and the Day of Gracious Living. 

“Change ringing has given me a meaningful experience through the challenge of ringing itself and through the people I’ve met,” Silva said. “It has combined two things I’m passionate about, music and math, in a challenging yet incredibly fun way. There is also an incredible international community that has welcomed me with open arms through a shared love and experience. If I had never started bell ringing, I would have missed out on the community that has surrounded and supported me. It has been a pleasure to ring at K.”

Young Ringer Award recipient with two others
The North American Guild of Change Ringers has presented Xavier Silva ’24 (middle) with the Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award.

The ancient art of English change ringing involves a group ringing bells in structured, unique permutations in rapid succession. The practice requires training, concentration and teamwork and leads to great satisfaction and strong interpersonal bonds. 

In addition to teaching mathematics, Jeff Smith taught hundreds of students to ring changes and inspired the College to install change ringing bells at Stetson Chapel on campus. Smith died in April 2019 at the age of 88, but spent nearly 30 years of his career at K. A scholarship in his name now supports students in financial need. 

For more information on the North American Guild of Change Ringers, visit its website. 

Five Faculty Earn Tenure

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Five Kalamazoo College faculty members from the Spanish, religion, mathematics, computer science and East Asian studies departments have been awarded tenure along with promotion to associate professor.

The tenure milestone recognizes excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to the College, and signifies its confidence in the contributions these faculty will make throughout their careers. The Board of Trustees-approved tenure recipients are:

Assistant Professor of Spanish Ivett Lopez Malagamba

López Malagamba currently serves as a co-chair in the Department of Spanish Language and Literatures. In her time at K, she has taught beginning through intermediate language courses, and advanced courses on Latin American literature and visual culture topics including indigeneity, contemporary women writers, fiction and documentary film, visual culture practices, and representations of nature. In fall 2019, she took 27 students to the Dominican Republic as part of K’s first faculty-lead experiential study abroad program.

Lopez Malagamba’s research centers on 20th– and 21st-century Latin American literature and visual culture. Her publications explore questions around exclusionary social and political practices and discourses in contexts of armed conflict, migration, and forced displacement. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Peninsular and Latin American literatures and Latin American Studies, and her Ph.D. in Hispanic language and literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. López Malagamba’s experience extends to the non-profit sector. Before earning her Ph.D., she worked with Latinx youth in Southern California facilitating educational programs to prepare them for college. López Malagamba sees her work at K as a continuation of her commitment to help youth access and successfully navigate higher education.     

Assistant Professor of Spanish Ivett Lopez Malagamba (middle) with Spanish 101 students.

Marlene Crandall Francis Assistant Professor of Religion Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada

Maldonado-Estrada serves as the editor of the journal Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, a co-chair of the men and masculinities unit at the American Academy of Religion, and an editorial board member of the journal American Religion.

At K, Maldonado-Estrada has taught courses on religion and masculinity, Catholics in the Americas, urban religion, and religions of Latin America. As an ethnographer, her research includes focuses on material culture, contemporary Catholicism, and gender and embodiment. In 2021, Maldonado-Estrada was among 24 scholars from around the world selected for the Sacred Writes public scholarship training cohort. She was also chosen as one of the Young Scholars in American Religion at IUPUI’s Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture.

Maldonado-Estrada is the author of Lifeblood of the Parish: Men and Catholic Devotion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an ethnography about masculinity and men’s devotional lives in a gentrified neighborhood in New York City. She also is working on projects about the technological and sensory history of prayer, and Latinx art and religion in New York City. She received a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Princeton University.

Tenure recipient Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada
Marlene Crandall Francis Assistant Professor of Religion Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Stephen Oloo

Oloo served K as a visiting assistant professor from 2015-2017 before earning his current position in which he teaches a variety of pure math classes such as Calculus I, II and III, Number Theory, Real Analysis and Abstract Algebra.

Beyond teaching he has served in various roles by directing the Math and Physics Center, being in charge of the George Kitchen Memorial Lecture, and running the math club MathletiKs.

Oloo’s Ph.D. work was in topology of algebraic varieties and geometric representation theory. He is currently applying his knowledge of geometry and representation theory in a collaboration with physics professor Dave Wilson in which they are studying how viruses change shapes as they undergo maturation. He holds mathematics degrees including a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Tenure recipient Stephen Oloo
Assistant Professor of Mathematics Stephen Oloo

Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sandino Vargas-Perez

Before arriving at K, Vargas-Perez worked as an adjunct instructor at Western Michigan University, where he earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic.

Vargas-Perez has taught courses at K in data structures, algorithms, parallel computing, computing for environmental science, object-oriented programming, and programming in Java and web development. His research interests include high-performance computing, parallel and distributed algorithms, computational genomics, and data structures and compression.

Tenure recipient Sandino Vargas-Perez
Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sandino Vargas-Perez

Chinese Endowed Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Leihua Weng

Weng has taught first-year Chinese, advanced Chinese, Women in China, 20th Century Urban China, and Chinese Films at K. She taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Pacific Lutheran University before joining the College.

Weng holds a bachelor’s degree from Zhejiang University, a master’s degree from Peking University and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. Her research interests have spanned the receptions of classical texts, modern and late imperial Chinese literature, and gender studies. She is currently engaged in research on late imperial Chinese literature and is working on a book about the reception of Plato in modern China.

Chinese Endowed Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Leihua Weng
Chinese Endowed Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Leihua Weng

K Announces Lucasse, Ambrose Recipients

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Kalamazoo College announced today that one faculty member and one staff member have earned two of the highest awards the College bestows on its employees. Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Computer Science Alyce Brady received the 2023–24 Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching, and Custodian Laura Weber was named the recipient of the W. Haydn Ambrose Prize for Extraordinary Service to Kalamazoo College.

Brady, a co-chair of the computer science department, has served K for nearly 30 years. She teaches a variety of courses from introductory classes to advanced classes on programming languages, data structure, dynamic Internet apps and software development in a global context. Her research interests have included the application of computer science to social justice while serving as the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Faculty Fellow from 2013–2015.

Over the past decade, Brady has supervised 72 Senior Integrated Projects and is currently guiding five more. She is also credited with championing student reflection through growth journals, applying a flipped-classroom format that started even before the pandemic, and receiving previous recognition through the Outstanding First-Year Advocate award.

A ceremony to confer the Lucasse Fellowship traditionally occurs in the spring term, where the honored faculty member speaks regarding their work.

Nominators credited Weber, a 10-year staff member in Facilities Management, for volunteering at student events such as Monte Carlo and Cafsgiving. She also hosts international students and refers to her former visitors as her “children,” while former students refer to her as their “mum.” One nominator wrote, “Her love language is inclusion.” Another said, “she treats everyone like family.”

The Ambrose Prize is named after W. Haydn Ambrose, who served K for more than 20 years in a variety of roles, including assistant to the president for church relations, dean of admission and financial aid, and vice president for development. Ambrose was known for being thoughtful in the projects he addressed and treating people with respect. In addition to a financial award, Weber has earned a crystal award to commemorate the achievement and an invitation to sit on the Prize’s selection committee for two years.

Congratulations to both of the honorees.

Lucasse Award - Alyce Brady 1
Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Computer Science Alyce Brady was awarded the 2023–24 Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching.
Ambrose Prize Recipient Laura Weber
Laura Weber, a 10-year staff member in Facilities Management, received the Ambrose Prize, named after W. Haydn Ambrose.

Computer Science Internship Pairs Sports with Technology

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When Jordan Doyle ’26 thinks about what prompted her love for computer science, she remembers a turtle from her childhood. The half-shelled protagonist was the star of a block-coding application that challenged her and children like her to send it across a screen in a number of moves.

“I got into it when I was little because it felt like a puzzle to me,” Doyle said. “I loved puzzles and coding was just a puzzle to solve.”

Since, she has continued seeking puzzles through computer science. Doyle built her interest and knowledge in classes throughout high school, while specialties such as cybersecurity piqued her interest even more. And now, Doyle is anticipating that she will declare a computer science major in the upcoming academic year at Kalamazoo College, where she also plays women’s lacrosse and participates in the Computer Science Society and the Eco Club.

This summer, she is building more technology experience away from Kalamazoo while working alongside a network of cohorts and professionals, thanks to a Women in Sports Technology (WiST) fellowship.

WiST is a non-profit organization that seeks to drive transformative growth opportunities for women in fields ranging from athletics biotechnology to sports gambling. The organization chose 22 fellows this year from 21 schools across the country, such as Duke University, Stanford University and—with Doyle’s fellowship—Kalamazoo College.  All of them serve in internships of up to eight weeks with a sports technology enterprise or innovative startup while receiving a grant of up to $5,000, plus travel stipends, if necessary.

Computer science major Jordan Doyle wearing a women's lacrosse jersey
Jordan Doyle ’26, a midfielder on the Kalamazoo College women’s lacrosse team, is interning this summer with Sports-Reference.com through Women in Sports Technology.

As a rising sophomore, Doyle is interning remotely from her home in Troy, Michigan, on a software engineering team with Sports-Reference.com, a group of sites that provides statistics and sabermetrics to sports fans.

“They look to democratize data,” she said. “If you look on any of their websites, you’ll see tables full of data for football, soccer, baseball—it’s a bunch of reference sites that can help you find the stats from almost any game. I focus mostly on finding and resolving bugs on the website, as well as doing some testing work and adding a couple of features on my own.”

WiST places interns like Doyle in positions that touch on both technology and sports because women are drastically underrepresented in sports-related and STEM professions, and in STEM majors in higher education. Women comprise only 28% of the workforce in STEM-related careers and just 19% of computer and information science majors in higher education, according to the American Association for University Women. That makes Doyle’s experience with Sports-Reference.com even more valuable to her.

“It’s empowering to know that I’m getting opportunities to move forward in this career path,” Doyle said. “As women we are one of the underrepresented groups and I love having this opportunity to connect with other women who have similar interests so I can see their successes throughout their careers. I love the idea of having opportunities that create change in the world through technology.”

Her Future is so Bright, She Invented Shades

Jordan Doyle’s experience with technology and innovation doesn’t stop at computers.

Doyle was participating in a lacrosse match on a sunny fall day in seventh grade when she grew frustrated with EyeBlack, a substance that rolls on under an athlete’s eyes to reduce glare. The negative experience led her to research visors for her protective goggle, while only finding products for sports such as football and softball.

With necessity being the mother of invention, Doyle made her own visor, designing it with the plastic of a salad container and a clinging shade shield that is commonly put on cars. She worked more in high school innovation classes that helped her design it further, and a meeting with a patent attorney later yielded sketch drawings and a patent.

Since her high school graduation, she’s finalized her initial prototype for Sun Goggles, a project she continues pursuing. Hear more from Doyle in the video here.

Grant to Provide Students with Accessible Design Lessons

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Associate Professor of Computer Science Pam Cutter will introduce the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development to her Kalamazoo College courses thanks to the Teach Access Faculty Grants program.

Teach Access announced May 18 that Cutter will receive $2,500 to develop assignments, discussions, and activities that promote accessibility skills for students in her first-year seminar, Exploring Technology for Accessibility, while sharing her resources with other faculty members in K’s computer science program and submitting her materials to a curriculum repository.

The third Thursday of May, which was May 18 this year, annually serves as Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The day’s purpose is to promote the global awareness of digital access and inclusion for the 1 billion people worldwide who have disabilities or impairments.

In total, Teach Access is giving 19 college faculty members from around the country a combined $50,000 for their projects.

“Getting students to think about designing tools for accessibility early in their college careers would give them the opportunity to carry that knowledge into any discipline they choose,” Cutter said. “This might be computer science, where they can delve deeper into the technical aspects of designing more inclusive tools, such as websites and mobile applications, for accessibility, or it might be something like economics or political science, where they can be more informed advocates for helping their organization meet the demands of digital accessibility. Having an adult child with special needs, I’ve seen how the right tools, and digital tools designed with special needs in mind, can have an impact on the success of an individual. I’m excited to bring this topic to my classrooms and look forward to the contributions of my students.”

Pam Cutter will introduce the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development to her Kalamazoo College students
Associate Professor of Computer Science Pam Cutter will receive a $2,500 grant to develop assignments, discussions and activities that promote accessible design lessons for students in her first-year seminar, Exploring Technology for Accessibility, while sharing her resources with other faculty members in K’s computer science program.

Leaders from Yahoo and Facebook founded Teach Access in 2015 while attempting to narrow an accessibility technology skills gap in recent graduates. Other companies experiencing the same concerns quickly joined the initiative including Adobe, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Intuit, Walmart and Apple.

Bringing together industry, education and disability advocacy organizations, the mission of Teach Access is to address the digital accessibility skills gap by equipping learners to build toward an inclusive world. Through targeting education institutions to provide opportunities for learners to gain accessibility skills, more candidates considering careers in technology are doing so with knowledge and commitment to designing and developing accessible technology.

Speaking on behalf of Teach Access, Rochester Institute of Technology Associate Professor Elissa Weeden, a past faculty grant recipient, said the grants also allow faculty to buy various assistive technology devices such as switches, eye trackers, adaptive controllers and a Braille notetaker to use in courses.

“Before the grant, I was only able to talk and show videos about how these devices can be used,” she said. “Now, my students are able to explore and interact with the devices to experience how they can be used to provide access and interaction with digital content.”

While Cutter does not plan to use her grant to buy any equipment, she plans to take her seminar students to visit the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons Training Center and to meet with the Assistive Technology Team at Kalamazoo RESA to learn how technology is being used to assist members of our local community. She also plans to discuss the Americans with Disabilities Act and what it requires regarding digital accessibility.

K’s Banner Year Elates Faculty, NSF Fellows

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Kalamazoo College STEM-related academic departments are celebrating a banner year as the overall number of current students and alumni receiving National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowships reaches four, the most since 2016.

The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding students who pursue research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. A five-year fellowship covers three years of financial support, including an annual stipend and a cost-of-education allowance to attend an institution along with access to professional-development opportunities.

About 2,000 applicants are offered a fellowship per NSF competition in fields such as chemistry, biology, psychology, physics and math. This is the first year since 2013 that two current K students, Claire Kvande ’23 and Mallory Dolorfino ’23, have earned awards. Two alumni also have earned fellowships, Cavan Bonner ’21 and Angel Banuelos ’21.

“The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship is a highly competitive program that is only awarded to about 16% of the applicants, who represented more than 15,000 undergraduates and graduate students across all STEM fields,” Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Chemistry Blakely Tresca said. “Approximately 2,500 awards were offered this year across all STEM fields and the vast majority of them go to students at large research universities and Ivy League schools. It is rare to see more than one or two awards at an undergraduate-focused college, particularly at a small liberal arts school like K. It is exceptional for schools in the GLCA (Great Lakes Colleges Association) to have one award in a year, and four awards is a truly outstanding accomplishment for these students.”

Claire Kvande ’23

Kvande has been a double major in physics and chemistry with minors in math and French at K. She credits faculty members such as Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Science Jan Tobochnik and Associate Professor of Physics David Wilson, along with a wide range of courses, for preparing her to receive an NSF fellowship.

“I like the nitty gritty of sitting down and figuring out how to approach a problem within physics even though it’s often hard,” she said. “I really like work that is grounded in real-world problems and it’s part of why I’m interested in the subfield of condensed matter. There’s a lot that stands to be applied to technologies that I think could improve our world and help a lot of people.”

Kvande will attend the University of Washington this fall, where she plans to extend her Senior Integrated Project (SIP) work, which examined how charge-density waves relate to superconductivity within condensed matter.

“Superconductivity is a tantalizing physics concept,” she said. “If we could realize superconductivity at room temperature, it would allow us to do a lot with energy saving and revolutionize how we use electricity. There are schools of thought that say charge-density waves would be helpful in achieving that and others that say it would be hurtful. Since we really don’t know how superconductivity works, this is worth investigating so we can hopefully better understand this powerful phenomenon.”

NSF fellow Claire Kvande presenting her SIP
Claire Kvande ’23 will attend graduate school at the University of Washington as a National Science Foundation fellow.

Mallory Dolorfino ’23

Dolorfino, a computer science and math double major, also will attend the University of Washington, where they will pursue a doctorate in math.

“I didn’t really like math until I came to K,” Dolorfino said. “I took calculus in high school and I was just not going to take any more in college until one of my senior friends told me when I was a first-year student to take linear algebra. I took that and Calculus 3 online during the first COVID term and I just kept doing math, so I switched my major. It’s not like other subjects because you can work for hours and not get anything done. That’s frustrating at times, but it’s fun to understand it enough to prove things logically.”

Dolorfino credits several faculty members for their growth and success at K, leading to their NSF opportunity. They include Tresca, who helped students keep track of their NSF application timelines and materials; Associate Professor of Mathematics Michele Intermont, who provided letters of recommendation and application assistance for research opportunities and graduate school; and Assistant Professor of Mathematics Stephen Oloo, who provided invaluable feedback regarding their research proposal and many conversations about math.

Dolorfino remains in contact with a professor they worked with in a math-focused study abroad program in Budapest. The two of them conducted a monthlong research project in algebraic number theory, which is a foundation in applications such as encryption and bar codes. Their NSF application proposes group theory work, which is what she based some research on last summer at Texas State University. They hope their NSF work will help them become a college professor one day. “There are a lot of math institutions on the West Coast and specifically in the Northwest, so I will have really good connections there,” said Dolorfino, who agreed the award is an honor. “I was grateful for the people at K who helped me apply.”

NSF fellow Mallory Dolorfino
Mallory Dolorfino ’23 will attend graduate school at the University of Washington as an NSF fellow.

Cavan Bonner ’21

Bonner has spent the past two years working as a research staff member in industrial and organizational psychology at Purdue University. His NSF fellowship will take him to another Big Ten school.

“My area of research involves personality development and how personality changes over the lifespan,” he said. “It’s a pretty small sub field and there are only a few doctoral programs where you can study the topic with an expert. The University of Illinois is one of them.”

Bonner further hopes the fellowship will propel his career toward a tenure-track job at a research university. He said K helped prepare him well for that trajectory through a broad range of subjects, not only in psychology, but in adjacent fields such as sociology and statistics. Bonner also credits his experience working as a research assistant for Ann V. and Donald R. Parfet Distinguished Professor of Psychology Gary Gregg, and Associate Professor of Psychology Brittany Liu for training him in skills that he frequently uses in his research work after graduation. 

“I was drawn to personality psychology because it provides an integrative framework to study many of the research questions I have about human development, aging and change over time,” Bonner said. “My SIP and research assistant experiences at K helped me realize that I could address these questions from a personality perspective, but my professors also exposed me to so many other fields and perspectives that inform my research. I primarily identify as a personality and developmental psychologist, but ultimately I hope that this fellowship helps me contribute to the broader science of aging and development.”

Portrait of Cavan Bonner
Cavan Bonner ’21 will attend the University of Illinois as an NSF fellow.

Angel Banuelos ’21

Banuelos, a biology major and anthropology/sociology minor at K, is in his second year at the University of Wisconsin, where he said he studies genetics—specifically the construction of the vertebrate brain and face—under an amazing mentor, Professor Yevgenya Grinblat.

“Live beings are built by cells that are informed by DNA,” Banuelos said. “At the beginning of embryonic development, the cells split into groups. One of those groups is called the neural crest cells. Those cells go on to contribute to a whole bunch of things such as pigment cells in the skin, and cartilage and bones in the face. My project is trying to understand how neural crest cells contribute to stabilizing the very first blood vessels of the developing eye.”

Ultimately, when his graduate work is finished, he would like to steer his career towards education.

NSF fellow Angel Banuelos in the lab
Angel Banuelos ’21, a newly-named NSF fellow, is in his second year of graduate school at the University of Wisconsin.

“I would like to bring research opportunities to people who don’t have higher education experience,” Banuelos said. “I would imagine starting with programs for middle schoolers, then high schoolers and adult learners. I want to be part of research addressing community problems and conducted by the people who live there.”

Banuelos credits inspiration for his career goals to the many mentors he had at K. Natalia Carvalho-Pinto, former director of the intercultural center, and Amy Newday, who provided guidance in food and farming justice, served as role models for applying theory to meet material needs.

“In my NSF application, I described meeting community needs as a central component of my scholarship,” he said. “Natalia and Amy are people who literally fed me while I was at K. They saw the student and the human. They handed me books, handed me plates, even welcomed my family. During a very difficult transition to grad school, they were there for me. When I’m a professor, I want to be like them. I’m grateful for the growth opportunities I had at K through the Intercultural Center and food and farming.”

‘It doesn’t happen every year’

Faculty members as a whole across STEM departments are taking great pride in these K representatives earning fellowships as it speaks to the quality of students at the College and their studies, especially as the number of recipients stands out.

“At K, it is exciting when even a single student wins a fellowship, and it certainly doesn’t happen every year,” Professor of Physics Tom Askew said. “It’s special to have four in one year.”