Convocation

Sister Pie Bakery Owner to Speak at Convocation

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Lisa Ludwinski ’06, owner of Detroit’s nationally recognized bakery, Sister Pie, will deliver the keynote at Kalamazoo College’s 2023 Convocation on September 7 at 3 p.m.

Ludwinski launched Sister Pie out of her parents’ Milford, Michigan, kitchen at Thanksgiving 2012. The business grew steadily, and in April 2015, Sister Pie opened its doors in a corner shop at Kercheval Avenue and Parker Street in the historic West Village neighborhood in Detroit. Known for its seasonally influenced sweet and savory pies as well as unique cookies, the shop has been featured in The Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit, Eater, Bloomberg News, The New York Times and Bon Appetit.

In 2015, Ludwinski, who earned a B.A. in theatre arts at Kalamazoo College, was named one of the best chefs in the United States in Eater’s national Young Guns contest. She has also been nominated several times for a James Beard Award and was a finalist in 2019.

The Sister Pie cookbook, published in 2018, was a 2019 Michigan Notable Award-winning book, finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals award, and named one of the best cookbooks of the year by the New York Times and Chicago Tribune.

Ludwinski was recognized among the 2019 Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 honorees, focused on those who target important Michigan issues such as technology, inclusivity and opportunity for all. In 2019, Sister Pie partnered with Alternatives for Girls, which serves homeless and high-risk girls and young women, both donating funds and holding baking workshops for program participants.

Ludwinski and her bakers experiment with nontraditional flavor combinations and seasonal options that promote Michigan’s varied agriculture. They consider themselves a triple bottom line business, focusing on employees, environment and the economy. The bakery also supports a Neighborhood Fund, which helps to subsidize neighborhood and senior discounts, as well as food donations for a community fridge and freezer for the West Village and Islandview neighborhoods—just one way Ludwinski and Sister Pie are helping make Detroit sweeter, one slice at a time.

Sister Pie Bakery Owner Lisa Ludwinski
Alumna Lisa Ludwinski ’06, the owner of Detroit’s Sister Pie bakery, will speak at 3 p.m. September 7 at Kalamazoo College’s Convocation.

Convocation marks the start of the academic year and formally welcomes first-year students to campus.  President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, Dean of Admission Suzanne Lepley and Dean of Students J. Malcolm Smith will also welcome attendees. Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 will provide an invocation. All students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend.

Convocation will be held in person on the College’s Quad and will be available to livestream.

Award-Winning Journalist Lila Lazarus to Speak at Convocation

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Convocation Speaker Lila Lazarus
Lila Lazarus ’84, an award-winning journalist,
producer and motivational speaker, will be the
keynote speaker for Convocation on September 8.

Watch replay of Convocation

Lila Lazarus ’84, an award-winning journalist, producer and motivational speaker, will be the keynote speaker for Kalamazoo College’s 2022 Convocation on September 8 at 3 p.m. on the Quad.

A broadcast journalist for over three decades, Lazarus has anchored the news in Michigan, Maryland and Massachusetts and covered stories around the world. She runs a production company, Lila Productions, and recently appeared in several Netflix series, including “Manhunt: Deadly Games” and “Mindhunter.” Her professional accomplishments include covering Nelson Mandela’s inauguration in South Africa and receiving multiple Emmy Awards, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Award and two Clarion Awards. She was a recipient of the 2014 Telly Award for Social Responsibility. Most recently, she was inducted into the Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for her contribution to Michigan media. 

Never afraid of a challenge, Lazarus swam the Straits of Mackinac to raise money and awareness for Mentor Michigan. Each fall, she climbs from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other and back again. For her athletic accomplishments, she was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and speaks across the country on the importance of adding courage and adventure to your life. An avid motorcyclist, she was named Michigan’s Ambassador of Motorcycle Safety. Extremely active in community and charitable organizations, Lazarus serves on multiple boards and is President of Kids Kicking Cancer.

Lazarus graduated from Kalamazoo College, University of Michigan, University of Massachusetts and the University of Bonn in Germany. She holds two master’s degrees in political science and journalism, and speaks five languages. The College looks forward to welcoming Lazarus back to her alma mater, where she double majored in political science and German.

Convocation marks the start to the 2022-23 academic year and formally welcomes first-year students to campus. President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, Dean of Admission Susanne Lepley and Dean of Students J. Malcolm Smith will also address attendees. Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 will provide an invocation. All students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend.

Former Afghanistan Communication Adviser to Speak at Convocation

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Former Afghanistan Communication Adviser Kim Osborne
Kim Osborne ’93 served as the chief communication
adviser at the end of Operation
Enduring Freedom.

A Kalamazoo College alumna, who served as the chief strategic communication adviser in Kabul, Afghanistan at the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, will deliver the keynote at K’s Convocation on Thursday, September 9.

Kim Osborne ’93 will help welcome 394 first-year students to the campus as the College opens the 2021-22 academic year at 3 p.m. on the Quad. The annual event serves as the first of two bookends to the K experience with the other being Commencement. President Jorge G. Gonzalez and Provost Danette Ifert Johnson also will address attendees. Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00 will provide an invocation.

Osborne was the highest-ranking civilian communication adviser to the Afghan National Security Forces. She is a trusted adviser to U.S. and foreign governments, multinational corporations, international nongovernmental organizations, top-tier universities and large nonprofits. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Myanmar at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in 2018. In 2016, Osborne was an invited speaker at the NATO Strategic Communication Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia, where she addressed military and diplomatic leaders from NATO partner nations about how best practices from the commercial sector can be applied in military and diplomatic missions.

Osborne currently is a full professor and the director of the Center for Leadership Development at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California, the U.S. Defense Department’s premier school for culturally based foreign-language education. Elsewhere, she is on the faculty of the University of Georgia’s College of Education, where she teaches graduate-level courses in leadership and organizational development.

In further involvement, Osborne serves multiple professional and nonprofit organizations. She is a past board member to the National Association for Media Literacy Education, and serves as a founding strategic adviser to the Ethiopian Diaspora Fellowship. She also is a local board member and disaster services responder with the American Red Cross and has responded to several natural disasters including the recent California wildfires, Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.

All students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend Convocation.

Convocation 2020: Bronson Healthcare VP to Deliver Keynote

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Convocation 2020 Keynote Speaker Beth Washington
Kalamazoo College trustee Beth Washington, the vice president of community health, equity and inclusion at Bronson Healthcare, will be the keynote speaker at Convocation 2020 on Thursday, September 10.

Kalamazoo College will open the 2020-21 academic year at 2 p.m. Thursday, September 10. That’s when the College will welcome 393 first-year students to the K family through a virtual Convocation, formally launching their undergraduate years.

Convocation is the first of two bookends to the K experience with the other being Commencement. The event will feature addresses from President Jorge G. Gonzalez and Provost Danette Ifert Johnson, an invocation from Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ‘00 and a keynote speech from College Trustee Beth Washington ’94.

Washington, a Kalamazoo native, has been the vice president of community health, equity and inclusion for Bronson Healthcare since 2015. Before that she worked as an educator and as the director of Jeter’s Leaders, a high school leadership program sponsored by Derek Jeter’s Turn 2 Foundation.

In addition to being a K trustee, Washington’s community work extends to Kalamazoo Valley Community College, where she serves on the Career and Community Training Advisory Board. She is also involved with the Southwest Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Coalition and serves on the board of Cradle Kalamazoo, which aims to reduce infant death rates.

As a student at K, Washington earned a degree in human resources and relations, and a secondary teaching certificate in social studies and English, while representing the College on the women’s basketball and softball teams.

All students, faculty and staff are invited to view the Convocation ceremony. For more information and a video of the feed on the day of Convocation, visit kzoo.edu/convocation.

Convocation Launches New Academic Year

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UPDATE: A chance of rain is pushing Convocation indoors this afternoon, Sept. 6. Join us in the gymnasium at Anderson Athletics Center.

Kalamazoo College will begin the 2017-18 academic year at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, with its annual Convocation ceremony for new students.

Convocation International Flag Ceremony at Kalamazoo College
Symbolic of the sustained presence and significant impact of an international focus on campus, Kalamazoo College enacts an international flag ceremony at Convocation, honoring the flags of the countries from which students come.

K will welcome 455 first-year students including 13 transfer students and 21 visiting international students at Convocation. New students come from 28 states including California, Texas, Illinois and New York, and 13 countries including Vietnam, China, Jamaica and Greece. Students of color from the U.S. make up more than 35 percent of the incoming class. Twenty percent of the incoming class will be the first in their families to attend college.

President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Provost Michael McDonald, Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00, faculty, staff and student leaders will welcome new students and their families. Convocation will conclude with new students signing the Matriculation Book.

Erin Mazzoni ’07, the president of K’s Alumni Association Executive Board, will deliver the keynote address. At K, Mazzoni was an economics and business major with an environmental studies concentration. She played on the women’s tennis team and served as its captain. Her study abroad experience was at the London School of Economics.

Life after K has taken Mazzoni to London, New York and Washington, D.C., to pursue a career in finance. Through connections and friendships built with alumni while a student at K, Mazzoni joined the high-yield research group at Jefferies & Co. shortly after graduating. She next worked within the corporate finance team at Tory Burch, also supporting the Tory Burch Foundation, which promotes female entrepreneurship.

Mazzoni currently works at Under Armour in Baltimore, supporting the company’s product and merchandising teams. She also serves as a member of K’s Board of Trustees.