Alumna Prepared for Fulbright Teaching Assignment

Ellie Cannon
Ellie Cannon – Photo by Hein Htut Tin ’17

Next month it’s off to Spain for Ellie Cannon ’15, who feels thoroughly “K-Plan prepped.”

Ellie received an English Teaching Assistantship grant with the Fulbright Student Program. For nine months she will work at a school of commerce in Galicia, an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. She is excited, of course, and grateful, “Over the last five years I received invaluable academic and professional mentorship from college faculty, staff, and alumni,” she said. “Friends and classmates also educated and encouraged me.”

Galicia is one of Spain’s lesser known cultures. The population and local government are bilingual, operating in Spanish and the local language, Galego. Many Galicians identify with Celtic culture, which some attribute to pre-Roman era migration and to a more recent process of adopting Celtic-related tradition.

“I look forward to being a student and a teacher of culture,” said Ellie. “The K-Plan prepared me for both.”

She spent her early childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a neighborhood blended with immigrant, refugee and working class families. When she was in middle school her family moved to a small rural town on the west shore of Lake Michigan, where “I learned about rural and maritime cultures, began to study Spanish, and tutored the bilingual children of dairy and migrant farm workers.”

When it came time to pick a college, K seemed a great option to more deeply develop intercultural competence. “As a first year student and later as a Teaching Assistant, [Professor of English] Bruce Mills’ seminar on autism acquainted me with the idea of neurodiversity,” said Ellie. “The Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement facilitated additional service-learning in Kalamazoo, partnerships that included a poetry club at Kalamazoo Central High School, a bilingual nutrition club at El Sol Elementary, and research for the Kalamazoo County Sobriety Court.” Ellie majored in biology and psychology and earned a minor in Spanish. She shaped her academics–as well as an externship and her Senior Individualized Project–mindful of her burgeoning interest in medicine and public health. “I interned with Dr. Andrew Terranella ’99 at the bilingual Navajo Area Indian Health Service in Arizona,” she said. “My SIP reflected my interest in ecological health, and I collaborated with Dr. Paige Copenhaver-Parry on an investigation that eventually was published in the journal Oecologia (Copenhaver-Parry and Cannon, 2016).” Since graduation she has worked with immigrant families in the Kalamazoo Public Schools Bilingual Program under the direction of K alumnus Scott Hunsinger ’94.

“I look forward to continued intercultural exchange,” said Ellie. “It’s vital. I’ve come to understand that a healthy community is educated, equitable, and medically fit. And each of those components is inextricably linked to diversity and culture.”

The Gold of Sound

Lindsay Worthington ’17 took home the gold by winning the award for “Best Sound” in the category “Theatrical Design Excellence” at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival regional competition. She continued to Nationals and placed 3rd among the 9 sound designers selected from across the U.S.”

The theatre arts and music double major, (and Spanish minor) from Bethesda, Maryland, has been active in a plethora of theatrical productions on campus. She also sings in the a Capella group Premium Orange. Every winter she writes and directs Pro-Voice with Karyn Boatwright’s “Feminist Psychology” class. Pro-Voice is an oral telling of the experiences of individuals who have had abortions.

KCACTF is a national competition that involves about 20,000 students from 700 colleges and universities and (both graduate and undergraduate). A series of eight regional competitions determine the national participants. Each year Kalamazoo College sends its most talented students to the Region 3 event in Wisconsin.

At this year’s regional competition Worthington presented a visual aid, conducted an oral presentation of her work and held a Q&A before a panel of judges. She won the award for “Best Sound” sending her to the national festival and competition.

Lindsay Worthington ’’17 (left) wins gold.
Lindsay Worthington ’17 (left) wins gold.

“A struggle in my field is the difficulty to visually and verbally explain sound,” says, Worthington. “So this festival and competition have been a wonderful way to enhance my public speaking and my abilities to express my creative ideas as a sound designer.

“For the theatre department, each K student’s individual success represents a community effort and a great experience,” Worthington adds. Associated with the festival are a series of workshops in both technical and acting categories, that are open to anyone.

K’s theatre department has a strong record of success at KCACTF. Last year Grace Gilmore ’15 was a finalist in the acting category, and Jane Huffman ’15 won first place in Nationals for the “critics” category.

Amanda Johnson ’17 Earns Boren Scholarship to Study in China during 2015-16 Academic Year

Amanda Johnson
Amanda Johnson ’17 is among 171 undergrads nationwide to earn a Boren Scholarship. She will study the Chinese language in China during the 2015-16 academic year.

Kalamazoo College sophomore Amanda Johnson ’17 has received a David L. Boren Scholarship to study in China during the 2015-2016 academic year. The $20,000 award will allow her to study Chinese in Beijing and Harbin.

Boren Scholarships are funded by the National Security Education Program, a federal government program that focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to United States national security.

Amanda is one of only 171 undergraduate students (all U.S. passport holders) to receive the 2015-16 Boren award.

“Through the Boren Scholarship, I will focus on improving my Mandarin, immersing myself in Chinese culture, and taking part in both an internship and one-on-one study with a Chinese professor on a topic of my choosing,” said Amanda, a sophomore from Hudsonville, Mich.

In addition to pursuing majors in economics and political science and a minor in Chinese while at K, Amanda is secretary of finance for K’s Student Commission, a consultant for the student Writing Center, and a teaching assistant for the Economics Department. She also is active on campus with the movement for an intercultural center.

Upon receiving the Boren Scholarship, Amanda was enthusiastic about such a wonderful opportunity and the networks it would provide. She says it’s the result of “an amazing support system” that has helped her at K.

“By the time I submitted my final Boren application I had more than 18 rough drafts that had been edited by professors, staff members, and fellow students. This highlights what students at Kalamazoo College can do with a community that supports their endeavors.”

In exchange for funding, Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year following their formal education. Amanda says she may consider fulfilling her Boren Scholarship requirement with the Department of Homeland Security as an asylum officer, helping adjudicate asylum cases by using her Chinese (and Spanish) language skills. Ultimately, she hopes to pursue a career with the United States Department of State and she is excited about the opportunity the Boren Scholarship will give her to jumpstart her career.

During the winter break of her sophomore year, Amanda interned with the Human Rights Initiative of Northern Texas, a nonprofit organization that provides immigration services to individuals who have experienced human rights violations in their home country. This internship opportunity, funded by the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, allowed Amanda to work with asylum applicants and utilize her Spanish and Chinese language skills throughout the application process.

The Boren awards are named for former U.S. Senator David L. Boren, the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program. Boren Scholars (undergrads) and Fellows (graduate students) will live in 40 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. They will study 37 different languages that are considered critical to U.S. interests, including Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, and Wolof.

Current Kalamazoo College seniors Luke Winship (China/Mandarin) and Erin Eagan (Senegal/Wolof) are previous Boren Scholars.

 

Kalamazoo College alumna Elizabeth Garlow ′07 honored by Crain′s Detroit Business

Kalamazoo College alumna Elizabeth Garlow
Elizabeth Garlow ′07, award-winning Detroiter.

Elizabeth Garlow ′07 has received a shout-out by Crain′s Detroit Business as one of the newspaper′s annual ″Twenty in their 20s″ honorees that “honors success at a young age, from up-and-comer entrepreneurs to young professionals who make an impact in large organizations” in the Detroit area.

Elizabeth is executive director of Michigan Corps, a Detroit-based organization that launches and leads social change efforts aimed at bringing Michiganders together in imaginative ways.

Elizabeth,who attended Detroit Mercy High School and earned a B.A. in Spanish at K, launched Michigan Corps′ Pure Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, with funds from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., to fund the best social-minded business ideas. Congrats, Elizabeth!

K senior builds her future with help from K’s past

Eeva Stout-Sharp with a painting
Eeva Stout-Sharp

Eeva Stout-Sharp ’13 is reaching into Kalamazoo College’s past in order to forge her own future after K.

As part of her Senior Individualized Project (SIP) in Art History, the Petoskey, Mich. native has curated an exhibit of portraits from the College’s art collection that depicts K faculty and administrators from the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Ten photographs and oil paintings (plus an additional mystery piece) comprise an exhibit that includes images of James and Lucinda Stone who led the College from 1843-63, College benefactor Mary Mandelle whose oil portrait otherwise hangs in the Olmsted Room in Mandelle Hall, and past K presidents such as Herbert Lee Stetson and Allan Hoben.

“The show is [built] around the idea that at the turn of the 20th century, the American identity through portraiture takes a huge turn,” Sharp said. Portraits from the 19th century represented status and a stoic image of America, she explained. In the 20th century, cameras and other technology became more available, allowing middle class Americans access to portraiture.

As a result, said Sharp, the role of the portrait shifted. “There’s this desire to empathize with a person rather than see a symbol of power,” Sharp said.

Sharp said that putting the portraits on display in a new setting will allow viewers to see them as more than just wall decorations. She has painted the gallery walls red and installed ottomans and a Persian rug in the space, in order to “give people the sense of a turn-of-the-century study, which is where these works would have originally been displayed.”

Sharp hopes to work in the museum world after graduation. This project, along with helping to curate other students’ art projects on campus, has giving her a taste for that. “By teaching myself to curate,” Sharp said, “I’m hoping to build a toolkit of skills and experiences that I can contribute to an arts organization.”

The exhibit runs from Feb. 25 to March 8 in the Light Fine Arts Building gallery at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets. A catalog with supplemental information on the portraits will be available in April.

Story and photo by Maggie Kane ’13

Former “K” Director of Spanish Language and Culture Studies Passes Away

Carmen Pérez Romero
Carmen Pérez Romero

Carmen Pérez Romero died on May 17, 2012. She was English professor for the Colegio Universitario de Cáceres, which was the seed of today’s Universidad de Extremadura. Romero helped establish the university’s first international programs in the 1980s, which brought students from several different North American universities to the classrooms of the Universidad de Extremadura.

Kalamazoo College signed an agreement with the University in 1992, creating a program of Spanish language and culture studies that was directed by Romero until her retirement in 2002.  She devoted herself to books, articles and conferences on English literature, and North American literature, and she was a pioneer in the Spanish university system on comparative literature.

She was also a writer and translator. Her passion for poetry and her love for knowledge inspired many students. Her dedication to her students, her intellectual and personal honesty, and her integrity made her an exceptional human being. She will be greatly missed by the College and the many Kalamazoo students who studied in Cáceres.