service-learning

Pro Voice: “You are not in her shoes.”

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Throughout Winter Quarter 2016, students in the Kalamazoo College “Feminist Psychology of Women” course have interviewed a range of individuals associated with Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan. “ProVoice: The Abortion Monologues — You Are Not in Her Shoes,” a presentation in Dewing 103, Thursday March 3 at 7:00 p.m., is the result.

Directed by Lindsay Worthington ’17, ProVoice features K students presenting monologues based on their interviews with Planned Parenthood patients, advocates, and health care professionals. A “talk back” panel discussion will follow the presentation and feature K students, plus representatives from K faculty and Planned Parenthood. A reception follows the panel discussion.

The event is held in partnership with the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement, Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan, and the Kalamazoo College departments of Psychology, English, and Women, Gender and Sexuality.

K-Plan and the Peace Corps

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William Schlaack and a fellow learner
William Schlaack ’12 and a fellow learner

Kalamazoo College ranks 14th among small colleges and universities nationwide in terms of the number of graduates who volunteer to serve in the Peace Corps. Since the agency was created in 1961, 288 K graduates have served overseas. Currently, nine K alumni are serving worldwide. One of them is William Schlaack ’12, who has served in Mongolia as an education volunteer since 2014 (see interview below). William majored in German and religion. He participated in the Farms 2K student organization, worked for K’s library and studied abroad in Erlangen, Germany.

Two other Michigan school received recognition on the large school list. University of Michigan ranked sixth (48 volunteers) and Michigan State University ranks 22nd (33 volunteers).

Kalamazoo College is no stranger to the Peace Corps. In 2006, it ranked as the eighth top volunteer-producing school among small universities and colleges. One of the most moving stories about the Peace Corps experience is shared by alumnus David Easterbrook ’69. You can hear him tell it (“When You See Rose Kennedy in the Market“) on Story Zoo.

What are your main volunteer projects and secondary projects?
(William Schlaack) I teach at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Darkhan aimag (province). Most of my time is spent co-teaching, lesson and curriculum building and leading extracurricular activities such as English club, teacher’s club and hiking club.

For secondary projects, I’ve been working with local non-governmental organizations and schools on regional Special Olympics competitions. So far two regions have held their first ever events. One other project I have been working on is life skills classes at the regional prison, so far I’ve been able to give workshops on anger and stress management that have been highly rewarding.

Outside of planned projects I think one of the best aspects of Peace Corps is the daily cultural exchange that takes place between volunteers and host country nationals. These interactions go beyond projects and really build great friendships and foster understanding between cultures.

How did your alma mater help prepare you for international service, or lead you to Peace Corps?
(WS) Kalamazoo provides wonderful study abroad and service learning opportunities that really help shape a global perspective that’s oriented toward service on a local and global scale.

What/who inspired me to serve in the Peace Corps?
(WS) I became inspired to serve in the Peace Corps as a result of volunteering with Books to Prisoners (a program that provides free books to Illinois inmates and also helps operate two jail libraries in the Urbana-Champaign area) and Project READ (an adult ESL program run out of Parkland Community College in Champaign, Illinois). I wanted to take some time off after earning my master’s degree to participate in some sort of national service that would combine international experience and allow me to leave a positive impact on a new community.

What are your career aspirations?
(WS) After Peace Corps I plan on working in a library, but also continuing my volunteer work in whatever local community I wind up in. Peace Corps has strengthened my project management skills and given me unique problem solving experiences that I hope to bring to my future workplace and community.

What’s been your favorite part of service?
My favorite part of service has been serving and growing in a community so rich with tradition and culture which has given me the opportunity to experience so many amazing encounters and find common interests and passions. Day-to-day life is often so surprising and hardly a day goes by that I don’t learn more about myself and my community.

NAACP Cites Work of College, President

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bridging Borders

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Young Adult Program participantsIf you are walking through the Hicks Center or across the Quad on a sunny weekday afternoon, you may run into senior Rosie Tobin with groups of campus visitors. These visitors are not prospective students, and Tobin is not a tour guide—she is an ambassador, building bridges between K and the larger community.

Tobin’s guests are students in the Young Adult Program (YAP), a service for people aged 18 to 26 on the autism spectrum coordinated through the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. Tobin helps facilitate conversation and social interaction between YAP students and with members of the K community.

“The focus is really on relationship building between students, because people who are on the autism spectrum have, generally, a hard time with social interaction, social cues, and communication,” said Tobin.

The YAP students take two hours out of their week to come to campus and make these connections. The rest of the week, they spend in a classroom setting learning life skills, such as cooking, riding the bus, and managing money, according to Tobin.

While the benefits of the YAP students’ time on K’s campus are immeasurable for them, Tobin also highlighted the educational benefits for those who are not on the autism spectrum, as well.

“I think mental health is somewhat of a taboo topic. I think people don’t really know how to talk about it,” she said. “People don’t really know the right language to use or don’t really know how to interact with people who are different than them—people who look the same as them, but act differently.”

Serving those who face hardships is a passion of Tobin’s, which she attributes in large part to Professor of English Bruce Mills’ first year seminar “Crossing Borders: Autism and Other Ways of Knowing,” which introduced her to the topic.

It was then that she made the connection with YAP and developed a commitment that would lead her to be the programs’ Civic Engagement Scholar this past academic year.

“Everything I’ve done has increased my drive to work with people who don’t always receive the resources they need,” said Tobin.

Text by Matt Munoz ’14; Photo courtesy of Rosie Tobin

A Stories Story

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Child's drawing for "Tacos for Dragons"“Tacos for Dragons” is just one of the many books featured in filmmaker Danny Kim’s new documentary “The Stories They Tell.”

The saga of the unlikely pairing of dragons and tacos is the labor of two seemingly unlikely co-authors, one a Kalamazoo College student and the other a third grader at Woodward Elementary in Kalamazoo.

And yet such collaborations are unlikely no more, thanks to the Co-authorship Project, the subject of Kim’s 80-minute film and the heart of Professor of Psychology Siu-Lan Tan’s developmental psychology class for the last 15 years. The Co-authorship Project gives K students the opportunity to create an original storybook with an elementary student in order to gain a deeper insight into child development. Tan’s developmental psychology class is one of many academic service-learning courses that are designed in collaboration with the College’s Center for Civic Engagement.

The documentary showcases the project from beginning to end, starting with the picking of partners and culminating in the various unique completed works. The film spans almost a decade and a half of story making, to which Kim had unique access. He and Tan are husband and wife.

Teacher working with a young studentTrue to its etymology, animation infuses both the class and the film. “The co-authorship project has made the developmental psychology class come to life,” said Tan,” awakening ideas with real world experience. The collaborations give my students something more than what they could get in books alone.” Likewise, it is truly Kim’s animation of the creativity in each story that makes this film leap to life.

“The documentary is really about relationships, learning, connecting, and imagination,” said Tan.

All of these qualities get at the heart of what the co-authorship project is for both the K students and the children.

“Imagination and creativity is a core part of the project,” said Tan. “One skill that children naturally possess is imagination and creativity.”

Kim added that the contact with college students could help to inspire elementary school aged partners to pursue higher education.

The film highlights how much each interaction with a child can help augment what a college student knows about child development and affect a life path.

The life’s work of at least two of Tan’s former students offers proof. After viewing a sneak preview of the film on campus in April, both women confirmed that the project directly influenced their decisions to pursue education as a career.

Rachelle (Tomac) Busman ’05 is a school psychologist in the Byron Center (Michigan) School District and Sally (Warner) Read ’08 is the Head of the Kazoo School, an independent school in Kalamazoo.

“I remember everything about the little girl I worked with,” said Busman.

Kim’s film captures the value (and magic) of the project for both K students and Woodward students, as well as the idea’s birth and maturation in his wife’s developmental psychology class. Kim said he hopes the documentary inspires similar projects elsewhere.

“It would be wonderful if somebody saw it and said maybe we could start something like this,” said Kim.

Although the film is not yet released to the public, Kim does plan to have a formal showing once final edits have been made.

Text by Matt Munoz ’14; photo by Danny Kim; art by Pennilane Mara

Commitment, Heart and Soul

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Four Michigan Campus Compact Award winners with Teresa Denton and Alison Geist
Several of the 2015 Michigan Campus Compact Award winners are flanked by their Center for Civic Engagement mentors and collaborators Teresa Denton (far left) and Alison Geist (far right). The students are (l-r) Jasmine An, Hannah Bogard, Mele Makalo, and Rose Tobin.

Eight Kalamazoo College seniors–each of them Civic Engagement Scholars in K’s Center for Civic Engagement–will receive Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC) Awards for their dedication to community service. Kacey Cook and Mele Makalo earned the MiCC Commitment to Service Award, recognizes up to two students per member campus in the state of Michigan for either the breadth or depth of their community involvement or service experiences. Only 31 students in the state will receive this award.

Jasmine An, Hannah Bogard, Alejandra Castillo, Katherine Rapin, Andrea Satchwell, and Rose Tobin will receive the Heart and Soul Award, “given to students to recognize their time, effort, and personal commitment to their communities through service. “We are thrilled that our remarkable students are receiving these awards,” said Alison Geist, director of the Center for Civic Engagement. “We are even more thrilled that we have had the honor to work closely with them.” The eight will be feted at an awards brunch in East Lansing on April 18. MiCC promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be civically engaged citizens, through creating and expanding academic, co-curricular and campus-wide opportunities for community service, service-learning and civic engagement.

Campus Symposium Will Focus on Ebola Epidemic

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Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia
Dawn exchange of information during the night-to-day shift change at an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia. Two K alumnus physicians work at this unit: Greg Raczniak ’96 and Andrew Terranella ’99.

As is often true with epidemics of highly lethal diseases, the response to the ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa reveals much about matters human and humane. These matters include fear and courage, stigmatization, power, poverty, inequity, cross cultural acumen, individual and collective responsibility, infrastructure, response time, the role of global citizens, and blindness (willful or otherwise) to the extent of human interdependence. Several such matters will be the subject of a symposium that will occur at Kalamazoo College on Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31. The symposium is titled “Ebola in Perspective: Our Roles as Global Citizens,” and all events are free and open to the public (RSVP to Jax Lee Gardner, 269.337.7053). The Friday night keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Alhaji Njai. It will occur at 7 p.m. in the Mandelle Hall Olmsted Room. Njai is a research scientist with the Global Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs division of Proctor and Gamble, inc., and a research fellow in pathological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He broadcasts a weekly radio program to his native Sierra Leone that discusses issues around public health, science, and development.

Topics of the Saturday symposium (which will occur in the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.) will be, among others, the history of the Ebola virus, public health systems and policy implications, the biology of the virus, prediction and control models of the outbreak, and our role as global citizens. Presenters include epidemiologists, public health experts, and disease spread pattern analysts. This group includes Dr. Rachel Snow, associate professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan; Dr. Peter Orris, professor and associate director of the Great Lakes Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health, University of Illinois School of Public Health; Dr. Adam Hume, postdoctoral fellow, Boston University School of Medicine; Dr. Marisa Eisenberg, assistant professor, department of epidemiology, University of Michigan; and Amel Omari ’09, a pre-doctoral candidate at University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

Omari joins other Kalamazoo College-affiliated experts who will participate in the symposium, including Dr. Péter Èrdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies; Dr. Adriana Garriga-López, the Arcus Social Justice Leadership Assistant Professor of Sociology; Kathleen West ’77, co-director of Public Health Institute’s Leadership for Women’s Health program, and Kamal Kamalaldin ’17, a sophomore at K considering majors in chemistry, biology, and computer science.

Attendance is free. For further information and to RSVP please contact Jax Lee Gardner (269.337.7053.) The event is sponsored by Kalamazoo College’s African studies program, provost office, community and global health concentration, and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College.

Kalamazoo College grad Raven Fisher hopes to change children’s futures, one math problem at a time

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Kalamazoo College graduate Raven Fisher at Dewing Hall
Raven Fisher ’14

Raven Fisher ’14 has now begun her studies at Western Michigan University as a prestigious W.K. Kellogg Foundation Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellow. The Detroit native and University Liggett High School graduate was a math major at K. Her goal is to teach middle school math. Raven excelled in many areas at K both in and out of the classroom. She was very active in the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement. In both her sophomore and senior years, Raven, and her classmate Roxann Lawrence ’14 served as Civic Engagement Scholars who co-led the Community Advocates for Parents and Students at Interfaith Homes, a tutoring program that hopes to ensure that all students, no matter their economic circumstances, can take advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise, which offers free college tuition to any Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate.

 

Hong Kong Professors Visit K for Civic Engagement

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A group of Lingnan University and Kalamazoo College representativesThough the two institutions are 8,000 miles apart, Hong Kong’s only liberal arts school, Lingnan University, might not be all that different from Kalamazoo College. President Leonard Cheng said Lingnan aims to create students who can tackle human issues from a global perspective and gain both a breadth and depth of vision.

On June 4, 17 Lingnan faculty members visited K to learn about liberal arts education in general, and civic engagement in particular. They spent a full day with small panels of K faculty and administrators, including Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement Director Alison Geist and Provost Mickey McDonald.

All sessions revolved around civic engagement, peer-to-peer mentorship, and finding research opportunities for students.

McDonald said Lingnan University “is looking to make civic engagement more ubiquitous.” While these professors visited various schools in the Great Lakes College Association during their 11 days in the United States, both Michigan State University and K hold a more prominent history in civic engagement.

Geist emphasized that K focuses on social justice leadership rather than volunteer service. “The focus is on social change, not charity,” Geist said, noting that the College’s philosophy rests on “students as colleagues” and giving students leadership positions to tackle complex tasks.

Despite the distance, the goals of both K and Lingnan are not so different after all. Lingnan’s motto is “Education for Service,” and President Cheng said “an education promotes a capacity to build a better world by engaging with society and those in need.” After visiting K, Lingnan aims to better connect experience with education and leadership with civics. Article by Colin Smith ’15

Outstanding Community Advocates

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Roxann Lawrence helps a student with schoolwork
Roxann Lawrence (right) and a CAPS student

Seniors Roxann Lawrence and Raven Fisher have integrated community service into their undergraduate academic learning in ways that are unmatched by most college students in the state of Michigan. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Roxann and Raven are co-recipients of the Outstanding Community Impact Award, given annually by the Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC). Only six such awards are given in the state (and some 600 students were nominated). In addition to honoring Roxann and Raven (both of whom will address the 18th Annual Outstanding Student Service Awards Celebration on April 12 in East Lansing, Michigan), MiCC will also bestow its Heart and Soul Award to 14 other Kalamazoo College students. They are Dana Allswede, Zoe Beaudry, Ebony Brown, Jordan Earnest, Amy Jimenez, Sherin John, Komal Khan, Colin Lauderdale, Katherine Mattison, Ayesha Popper, Chelsey Shannon, Eren Sipahi, Sarah Sullivan, and Madeline Vermeulen. The Heart and Soul Award recognizes students for their time, effort, and personal commitment to communities through service.

Roxann and Raven have been involved with Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), an advocacy and tutoring initiative founded in 2005 in response to the Kalamazoo Promise, which provides college tuition for Kalamazoo public schools graduates to any Michigan public university, college, or junior college. CAPS believes that all children, despite their economic circumstances, can learn and successfully take advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise College Scholarship Program. The program has made a difference for some 400 socioeconomically disadvantaged children.

Raven Fisher helps a student with schoolwork
Raven Fisher (left) and a CAPS student

Roxann and Raven were CAPS tutors during their first year at K. As sophomores they took a leadership role as Civic Engagement Scholars (CES) in the CAPS program. The CES program is part of the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. They are serving as co-directors of all K tutors in the program during their senior year. Both women are active in other campus organizations. Raven is president of K’s Black Student Organization; Roxann is president of the Caribbean Society. Roxann’s Senior Individualized Project focused on LGBT issues in her native Jamaica. Raven’s SIP involved working with Kalamazoo Public Schools on a program to introduce and measure the effect of a culturally relevant math curriculum for middle school students.

Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. MiCC promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be engaged citizens. Roxann and Raven were nominated for the Outstanding Community Impact Award by Teresa Denton, associate director of K’s Center for Civic Engagement.