Kalamazoo College is receiving nearly $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice through a shared grant to proactively prevent domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus.
K is the only Michigan institution and one of just a few small private schools among 60 colleges and universities nationwide to receive part of the $18 million being distributed. K’s portion, totaling $298,698, will:
create a Campus Coordinated Community Response Team;
expand training for campus safety officers and Title IX investigators;
expand victim services;
hire a full-time project coordinator who will focus on culturally relevant prevention efforts;
further enhance the College’s focus on student safety; and
support a K partnership with the Kalamazoo YWCA and the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. The partnership will bring a victim advocate to campus for 20 hours a week and formalize response to incidents that involve students in the city.
“This grant is very competitive, so we’re excited to have this additional funding and support,” said Ellen Lassiter Collier, K’s Title IX coordinator and director of gender equity. She added documented endorsements of existing efforts from students, faculty and staff likely were determining factors for the Department of Justice in securing the shared grant.
“This kind of grant traditionally goes to public schools,” Lassiter Collier said. “That speaks to the work the College is already doing and the support we receive from across campus.”
K’s existing efforts include programs such as Green Dot, which offers bystander training that statistically reduces the likelihood of dating and domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. Green Dot at K is funded through the State of Michigan Campus Sexual Assault Grant Program, which gave the College about $18,600 in 2016 and $41,800 in 2017.
The Department of Justice grant, though, will enhance such efforts and others, including the creation of targeted online training programs for students, to ensure the programs and training materials are culturally competent considering K’s diversity, and relevant to its student experiences such as study abroad.
With study abroad, for example, “We want students to know that the College is still a source of support and potential investigation should something happen abroad,” Lassiter Collier said.
For more information on the grant from the Department of Justice, visit its website.
Kalamazoo College will begin the 2018-19 academic year at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, with Convocation 2018 for new students.
The ceremony will take place on the campus Quad and will be available through a live stream. There will be a reception after the ceremony behind Stetson Chapel. The ceremony’s rain site will be the Anderson Athletic Center.
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will be among the speakers Wednesday, Sept. 5, at Convocation 2018.
K will welcome 410 first-year students, including 22 degree-seeking international students, plus 16 transfer students and 20 visiting international students at Convocation 2018. New students will attend K from 24 states including Colorado, California, Texas and Maryland, and 13 countries including Spain, South Korea, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Students of color from the U.S. make up more than 32 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, Interim Provost Laura Furge, 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 2018 will conclude with new students signing the Matriculation Book.
Michael McFall ’93, the co-president and chief executive officer of BIGGBY Coffee, will deliver the keynote address. BIGGBY is a regional retail coffee franchise with more than 270 stores open or under contract across Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida, Texas and New Jersey, according to the company’s website.
McFall has a bachelor’s degree in economics, four athletic varsity letters in golf and the value derived from a study abroad experience in Sierra Leone to show for his years at K. Since then, he has pioneered BIGGBY’s successful independent-owner business model and he is developing some exciting lines of new business within the company.
McFall lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and three children. He visits K for events such as the College’s Career Summit, which offers students two days of networking with executives and venture capitalists in preparation for Life after K. Hear from McFall regarding the Career Summit beginning at 1:39 in the video below.
Move-in day is an exciting time at Kalamazoo College as first-year students arrive. Orientation-related events will continue throughout the week, but here’s what students and families can expect Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Student move-in day will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Report to Your Residence Hall
Student move-in day runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please note that morning is traditionally the busiest time for moving in, and families are encouraged to arrive throughout the day for an easier experience. Resident assistants and peer leaders will be available at check-in tables at each residence hall, where students may pick up their orientation packets. Residential Life staff also will be there to provide students with their K IDs and room keys.
Students and families who expect to arrive after 4 p.m. should contact Student Development at housing@kzoo.edu or 269-337-7210 as soon as possible.
Residential Life requires that health verification forms be complete before students check in. Students with incomplete health information will be directed to the Health Center at Hicks Student Center. Health Center staff will be available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Get Your Questions Answered
Student Development and Admission representatives will staff an information table from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hicks Student Center. Stop by for schedules, maps, directions and a list of local restaurants for those who choose to eat dinner off campus. K’s bookstore will be open during the same hours at Hicks, offering 20 percent off Kalamazoo College imprinted items.
Students who have questions about connecting to K’s wireless network can meet Information Services staff in the main lounges at Harmon, Hoben and Trowbridge halls.
Observe Athletics Practices, Games
Eight intercollegiate fall athletics teams including football, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s cross country will hold practices and competitions from 3 to 6 p.m.
Enjoy Dinner
Families are welcome to have dinner between 5 and 7 p.m. on campus at Welles Dining Hall or venture off campus to local restaurants. New students may use their student ID, which also serves as a meal card, to access the dining hall. Families may pay $10.30 a person at the dining hall entrance.
Feel Welcome
President Jorge G. Gonzalez, Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, First-Year Class Dean Jennifer Einspahr, College Chaplain Liz Candido, peer leaders and the Office of Student Involvement will conduct the Hornet Student Welcome from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Anderson Athletic Center gym. Students should sit with their seminar groups. The event concludes with seminar groups connecting with their peer leaders.
Connect with Your Community
Meet Residential Life staff, your RAs and student peers at 8:15 p.m. Harmon Hall residents will meet at Dalton Theatre in the Light Fine Arts Building. Hoben Hall residents will meet in the Hoben lounge. Trowbridge Hall residents will meet at the Anderson Athletic Center gym. Learn about residence hall life while relaxing, enjoying snacks and getting to know neighbors.
Incoming students who participate in LandSea, Kalamazoo College’s outdoor orientation program, have opportunities to meet their peers, gain self-confidence, earn a partial physical education credit and develop classroom skills even before moving to campus. Two K administrators will attest to that after participating in and reaffirming the program’s success.
Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall and Associate Dean of Students Brian Dietz traveled to the 6-million-acre Adirondack State Park in New York State to observe and experience the outdoor orientation program called LandSea, ongoing through Monday, and meet many of the 66 students participating.
Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students Sarah Westfall and Associate Dean of Students Brian Dietz traveled to the 6-million-acre Adirondack State Park in New York State to observe and experience the outdoor orientation program, ongoing through Sept. 3, and meet many of the 66 students participating. The 18-day program is in its 44th year, and was among the first of its kind in the country.
The state park features the largest system of hiking trails in the country, along with 3,000 lakes and ponds, 1,200 miles of rivers, and the state’s highest mountains. K students are divided into six to nine patrols for the outdoor orientation program, with at least two trained leaders per patrol. After three days of training, they challenge themselves on the rivers, lakes, trails and peaks through one of two choose-your-own adventures, Expedition or Basecamp, both with a climb-and-rappel day, a service-and-reflection component and a day of rafting.
The Expedition adventure consists of backpacking and canoeing, and allows participants the choice of extending the distance of the backpacking or canoeing portion of the trip. The Basecamp adventure offers more of a group camping experience, with bunks in canvas tents at Massawepie Lake. The students build skills including canoeing, hiking and backpacking, with opportunities for day trips and expanded service projects.
Friendships that begin during LandSea often remain fundamental connections for a lifetime. Plus, participants of outdoor orientation trips such as LandSea are more likely to develop social connectedness, feelings of belonging, campus involvement and independence with increased retention rates and higher grade-point averages. To best understand these benefits, Westfall and Dietz said it was important to examine the program first hand.
“We’ve always thought LandSea was great, although we’re paid to worry,” Westfall said.
Westfall and Dietz, though, saw how Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner and Assistant Director Sara Stockwood had the students prepared for everything from necessities such as water sterilization, to common challenges such as hot days and cold nights, to possible emergencies such as lightning storms.
“Any student who comes to K should do this,” Westfall said. “Don’t let finances be a barrier because Outdoor Programs helps find gear for participants, and scholarships are available to help cover other program costs for students who demonstrate financial need. And don’t let a thought like ‘I don’t camp’ be a barrier. This program is for everyone. We hear from families who say their student is a different person after LandSea.”
The success of the program, Dietz said, is evaluated long-term based on whether the participating students stay at K and graduate, gain confidence, maintain their friendships as alumni, recognize their growth and learn about environmental responsibility. Here’s what some students have said:
“It is unforgettable, and when you climb a mountain, it teaches you that you can overcome any obstacle.”
“It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’ll carry it with me forever.”
“I had never been to LandSea,” Dietz said. “I was intrigued by the logistics with it being in a 6-million-acre park, but you never know what it’s like until you see it. All the work (Horner and Stockwood) do is amazing. It’s neat to see new students in that element.”
Mattie Del Toro ’20 is a student worker for Residential Life, which has updated its suggestions for students regarding what to bring to campus this fall.
When Mattie Del Toro ’20 reflects on choosing Kalamazoo College, she remembers an experience brought to her by the letter K.
As a high school senior, Del Toro attended a Colleges That Change Lives fair near her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a good friend had been looking into Knox College. Next to the Knox table, among the Ks and in alphabetical order, was Kalamazoo College.
“I remember thinking, ‘Is (Kalamazoo) the name of a city from a Dr. Seuss book? There’s no way that’s a real place,’ ” says Del Toro, a business and art history major and studio art minor. “I thought if anything it had to be a college named after someone rather than the name of a city.”
“I fell in love with the campus,” says Del Toro, who ended up enrolling at K. “I graduated with a high school class of 50, and when I saw how small and intimate the school is, I was sold. I received a great financial aid offer that made it about the same in terms of affordability as the University of New Mexico, and it was a chance to go across the country for the whole liberal arts experience.”
Del Toro is now a student worker for Residential Life, which has updated its suggestions regarding what to bring to campus for fall. Based on her experiences, as a first-year student living in Trowbridge Hall and as a resident assistant at Harmon Hall, here’s what Del Toro suggests.
Talk with Your Roommate About What to Bring to Campus
K students living on campus this fall should already have received their room assignment with their roommate’s name and kzoo.edu email address. Del Toro suggests contacting your roommate to arrange who will bring what, especially if at least one of you is coming from a considerable distance.
Mattie Del Toro ’20 advises that first-year students consider making their rooms as homey as possible in thinking about what to bring to campus. Items such as dry-erase boards can help students feel more at home.
Del Toro, for example, arrived in Kalamazoo for her first year by plane with her mom and then-boyfriend, now fiancé, bringing Del Toro’s belongings in a total of nine suitcases. Appliances, for example, weren’t an option for her.
“What you bring might depend on whether you’re from Michigan or someplace farther,” she said, adding that a roommate brought a microwave, curtains and mini-fridge, which she was happy to stock with food.
Shop for What You Can in Kalamazoo
Nine suitcases might not sound like much for transporting everything someone might need for an entire term. Del Toro, however, admits she packed too much and advises that less is more.
“When I left for fall, I packed stuff that I took home during winter break,” Del Toro said. Those items included several blankets and some heavy winter gear after she realized she only needed some long-sleeve shirts, jeans and jackets for the crisp weather that arrives late in the fall term.
When those items and other bulky items are necessary, shop for them in Kalamazoo or place online orders from your hometown and pick them up in Kalamazoo. Del Toro says to consider items such as mattress pads, shower caddies and “items that Mom would normally provide,” such as cleaning supplies and laundry detergent.
Preview Your Room Space
Residential Life doesn’t keep floor-plan measurements for specific rooms. Del Toro, however, advises that students look at pictures of residence hall rooms in K’s virtual tour to estimate their potential floor space. Those visuals should provide ideas as to where students can put items such as small cabinets and bins.
“You get a closet and drawers, but it’s beneficial to have bins and totes of your own as well,” Del Toro said. “I quickly realized I didn’t have the surface area I needed for certain items, and the virtual tour would’ve helped me plan better.”
Make Your Room Your Home
Del Toro says that on a residential campus such as K’s, it’s important that students make their residence hall room their home.
Items such as rugs, pictures of family and friends, twinkle lights suspended through adhesive hooks, and small pieces of furniture negotiated with roommates can ward off homesickness and make your room feel like an owned space.
“I didn’t want to get so comfortable in my space that I disrespected my roommate,” she said. “But any home goods can give you more than a brick wall, a desk and a bed,” allowing for greater comfort.
Kalamazoo College is included in the newly published 2019 edition of “The Best 384 Colleges,” the annual college guide of the Princeton Review.
Kalamazoo College is included in the newly published 2019 edition of “The Best 384 Colleges,” the annual college guide of the Princeton Review.
The guide says K “brings a personalized approach to education through a flexible, open curriculum featuring real-world experience, service learning, study abroad, and an independent senior year project.” Among praise from students quoted in the guide’s Kalamazoo College entry: K “allows students to really develop personal relationships with their peers and professors” and is “a campus run by and for the students.”
Students also tell the Princeton Review that K:
“Will try as hard as possible to get you to graduate in four years.”
Enables students, through its open curriculum, to “have more time to explore exactly what they want to learn, rather than being required to take classes in which they have no interest.”
Has “a huge culture” among alumni “of giving back to the school and being there for each other” and for current students.
Has professors who “view students as equals and peers, and are open to listening to everyone’s ideas in classes.”
Provides “good food and fun activities” for students and a wide array of clubs and athletics that are open to everyone.
Attracts students “who show creativity, ambition and motivation.” “You will never find any two students who are the same here,” one student says.
“Our students in the Princeton Review say it in their own words: Kalamazoo College provides a distinctive liberal arts education that is among the best available anywhere,” said Eric Staab, Kalamazoo College dean of admission and financial aid. “It’s a real testament to the enduring value of the K-Plan and the K experience.”
The Princeton Review says the college rankings are based on surveys of 138,000 students at 384 top colleges that includes a wide representation by region, size, selectivity and character.
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students who received awards during the 2018 Senior Awards Ceremony on June 16 at Stetson Chapel. The awards include all academic divisions, prestigious scholarships and special non-departmental awards. Again, congratulations to all graduates and members of the class of 2018.
Senior Aunye Scott-Anderson is the recipient of the first Charles Lewis Williams Jr. Award, awarded for oratory excellence at the English SIP Symposium. Scott-Anderson was among the students honored Saturday, June 16, at the 2018 Senior Awards Ceremony.
George Acker Award, awarded annually to a male athlete who in his participation gave all, never quit, with good spirit supported others unselfishly, and whose example was inspirational.
Jonathan Nord
Alpha Lambda Delta Dr. Helen Clark Graduate Fellowship, given to the Alpha Lambda Delta member graduating with the highest GPA.
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
American Chemical Society Certified Degree in Chemistry
Maria Elva Fujii
Sarah Marie Harnish
Phuong Nguyet Ha Le
Omar León Ruiz
Madeleine Grace Roberts
Caleb Sherwood
Kathryn Doral Thamann
James Bird Balch Prize in American History, for showing academic excellence in American history.
Angel Caranna
Lillian Pringle Baldauf Prize in Music, awarded to an outstanding music student
Lauren Landman
Lewis Batts Prize, awarded to seniors who have done the most to support the activities of the Biology Department and to further the spirit of collegiality among students and faculty.
Manbir Singh
Erika Kelly Waalkes
Bruce Baxter Memorial Award, awarded to a senior showing outstanding development in the field of political science.
Anselm Scheck
Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award, awarded to students who display qualities of selflessness, humanitarian concern and willingness to help others as exemplified in the life of Gordon Beaumont.
Rumsha Sajid
Cindy Xiao
Beeler Senior Projects Abroad Fellows
Lotte Louise Dunnell
Oluchi Amarachi Ebere
Alicia Gaitan
Jasmine Khin
Connor Webb
Larry Bell Scholar
Lee Ray Carter
Biology in Liberal Arts Prize
Rosemarie Nocita
Kathleen Elizabeth Brannan Russell
Marshall Hallock Brenner Prize, awarded to an outstanding student for excellence in the field of psychology.
Justin Thad Roop
Henry and Inez Brown Award, awarded in recognition of outstanding participation in the College community.
Alexandrea Esther Ambs
Emily Good
David Vanderkloot
Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the Romans.
Clayton James Meldrum
Mary Long Burch Award, for a senior woman who has manifested interest in sports activities and excelled in scholarship.
Christina Dandar
Robert Bzdyl Prize in Marine Biology, awarded to one or more students with demonstrated interest and ability in marine biology or related fields.
Claire Eleanor Howland
Annual Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry, sponsored by the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry, to an undergraduate student planning on pursuing graduate studies in chemistry.
Clay Wilkey
Annual Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry, sponsored by the American Chemical Society Division of Inorganic Chemistry, to an undergraduate student planning on pursuing graduate studies in chemistry.
Madeleine Grace Roberts
Annual Undergraduate Award in Physical Chemistry, sponsored by the American Chemical Society and subcommittee for the Division of Physical Chemistry, to an undergraduate student who displays significant aptitude for a career in organic chemistry.
Joyce Nguyen
Outstanding Chemistry Student from Kalamazoo College, sponsored by the Kalamazoo Section of the American Chemical Society and is given to the graduating senior who has demonstrated leadership in the chemistry department and plans to pursue graduate studies in chemistry.
Madeleine Grace Roberts
Lilia Chen Award in Art, awarded to students in their junior or senior year who distinguish themselves through their work in ceramics, sculpture, or painting, and who exhibit strong progress in their understanding of art.
Carlos Enrique Arellano
Dorothy Carpenter
Alicia Gaitan
Kelly Marie Haugland
Julia Madeline Koreman
Erin Sidney Reilly
Amber Sims
Ruth Scott Chenery Award, given to graduating seniors who have excelled academically in theatre and who plan to continue the study of theatre arts following graduation.
Johanna Keller Flores
Samuel Meyers
Chinese Outstanding Achievement Award, which recognizes seniors who have excelled in the study of the Chinese language and China-related subjects on campus and abroad in China.
AJ Convertino
Sharon Situ
Lia Williams
Provost Prize in Classics
Leah Elizabeth Finelli
Clayton James Meldrum
Provost Prize in Computer Science
Skyler Norgaard
Sivhaun Sera
H.P. and Genevieve Connable Scholarship
Hayley Beltz
C.W. “Opie” Davis Award, awarded to the outstanding senior male athlete
Ryan Orr
Diebold Scholar Award, given to one or more seniors in recognition of excellence in the oral or poster presentation of the SIP at the Diebold Symposium.
Megan Elisabeth Hoinville
Emma Kristal
Matera Stuart
Marion H. Dunsmore Memorial Prize in Religion, awarded to graduating seniors for excellence in the major.
Hannah Bernice Berger
Emily Good
David Vanderkloot
Provost Prize in Economics
Thao Duong
Maria Franco
Logan Nicole Smith
George Eaton Errington Prize, awarded to outstanding senior art majors.
Charlotte Mary Gavin
Tulani Pryor
Alliance Francaise Prize in French, awarded for excellence in French by advanced students.
Laetitia Marie Ndiaye
Anselm Scheck
French Government Teaching Assistantships
Molly Elise Merkel
Zoe Johannsen
Joe Fugate Senior German Award, awarded to a senior for excellence in German.
Xarifa Greenquist Memorial Psychology Department Award, given in recognition of distinctive service to students and faculty in psychology by a student assistant.
Ethel Mogilevsky
Lorenzo Redmond
Gabrielle Alexis Shimko
Fred and Sarah Greer Endowed Scholarship/Lorinda Kay Sanford Memorial
Darryl Keyshaun Lewis
Sep’Tisha Starnika Riley
Austin Vance
Kierra Verdun
Griffin Prize, awarded to the senior English major who, like Professor Gail Griffin, demonstrates an exceptional ability to bridge his or her analytical and creative work in the English department.
Rumsha Sajid
Charles C. Hall Scholarship
Maria Elva Fujii
Ham Civic Engagement Scholar
Sep’Tisha Starnika Riley
W. and Elsie L. Heyl Scholars
Brice Calco
Rachel Sujin Chang
Emily Catherine Fletcher
Abhay Goel
Jacob Naranjo
Alexandria Kathleen Oswalt
Peter Rossi
Amber Salome
Anna Michele Roodbergen
The Raymond L. Hightower Award, given to a graduating senior for excellence in and commitment to the disciplines of sociology and anthropology and leadership in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.
Monet Foster
Alejandro Antonio Jaramillo
Savannah Julia Kinchen
Kiavanne Abelardo Javier Williams
Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award, awarded to a deserving student who displays a deep concern for the well-being of children, as demonstrated through career goals in the field of child welfare.
Sarafina Jeanette Milianti
Sep’Tisha Starnika Riley
History Department Award, given for outstanding work in the major
Franklin Meyer
Hodge Prize in Philosophy, awarded to members of the graduating class who have the highest standing in the field.
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Jasmine Khin
Federico Spalletti
John Wesley Hornbeck Prize, awarded to seniors with the highest achievement for the year’s work in advanced physics toward a major.
Hayley Beltz
Megan Elisabeth Hoinville
Hornet Athletic Association Award, for a graduating senior who has most successfully combined high scholarship with athletic prowess.
David Vanderkloot
William G. Howard Memorial Prize, awarded to a senior for excellence in academic work in an economics or business major.
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
William G. Howard Memorial Prize in Political Science
Alex Sitner
Japanese National Honor Society, College Chapter, awarded in recognition of student achievement in their study of the Japanese language and their overall academic excellence.
Miles McDowall
Laetitia Marie Ndiaye
Yilan Qiu
Kurt Kaufman Fellows, given annually to seniors who receive Honors in the Senior Individualized Project (SIP) conducted with faculty in the Chemistry Department.
Maria Elva Fujii
Sarah Marie Harnish
Christina Keramidas
Madeleine Grace Roberts
Knoechel Family Award, awarded to a member of the swimming team in recognition of demonstrated excellence in both intercollegiate swimming and academic performance.
Alexandrea Esther Ambs
Irmgard Kowatzki Theatre Award, awarded to the senior who has excelled both in academic areas and in theatrical productions during the four years at the College.
Lauren Landman
LaPlante Civic Engagement Student Scholars, for outstanding dedication to civic engagement while designing and leading community programs that promote a more just, equitable and sustainable world.
Alexandrea Esther Ambs
Delaney Fordell
Sarafina Jeanette Milianti
Khusbu Patel
David Vanderkloot
Tish Loveless Award, given by the Department of Physical Education to the outstanding senior female athlete.
Department of Philosophy Prize, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in philosophy.
Lee Ray Carter
Emiline Noel Chipman
Federico Spalletti
William E. Praeger Prize in Biology, established by the faculty in the Biology Department and awarded to the most outstanding senior majors in biology, based on academic achievement in the discipline.
Megan Elisabeth Hoinville
Khusbu Patel
Robert and Karen Rhoa Prize in Business
Thomas Bryant
Phuong Nguyen
Jake Wasko
Robert and Karen Rhoa Prize for Outstanding SIP
Tuan Do
Monica Gorgas
Katherine Elizabeth Johnson
Elwood H. and Elizabeth H. Schneider Prize in English, awarded for outstanding and creative work in English done by a student who is not an English major.
Rosemarie Nocita
Tulani Pryor
Senior Leadership Recognition Award, awarded to students who have provided key elements of leadership in their organizations, athletic teams, academic departments, employment, and the wider Kalamazoo community. Students were nominated by faculty and staff members in January. Seniors eligible for this award also had to meet a minimum cumulative Grade Point Average requirement and be in good academic and social standing at the College.
Alexandrea Esther Ambs
Hannah Bernice Berger
Mary Elizabeth Burnett
Erin Elizabeth Butler
Elan Dantus
Leah Elizabeth Finelli
Emily Good
Andre Grayson
Griffin D. Hamel
Emily Marlies Kozal
Laetitia Marie Ndiaye
Alexandria Kathleen Oswalt
Khusbu Patel
Sean Peterkin
Sep’Tisha Starnika Riley
Benjamin Rivera
Rumsha Sajid
Sivhaun Sera
Elyse Tuennerman
David Vanderkloot
Kiavanne Abelardo Javier Williams
Lia Williams
Cindy Xiao
Fan E. Sherwood Memorial Prize
Jacqueline Mills
Sherwood Prize in Fine Arts, awarded for outstanding progress and ability on the violin, viola, cello or bass.
Cody Colvin
Catherine A. Smith Prize in Human Rights, awarded to a senior who has been active on campus in promoting human rights, furthering progressive social and cultural change, and combating violence, repression and bigotry.
Emiline Noel Chipman
Catherine A. Smith Prize in Women’s Athletics, awarded to a woman athlete who in her participation gave all, never quit, with good spirit supported others unselfishly, and whose example was inspirational.
Danielle Louise Simon
Lemuel F. Smith Award, given to a student majoring in chemistry pursuing the American Chemical Society approved curriculum and having at the end of the junior year the highest average standing in courses taken in chemistry, physics and mathematics.
Maria Elva Fujii
Senior Spanish Award, given by the Department of Romance Languages for outstanding achievement in Spanish.
Emily Marlies Kozal
Claire Schertzing
Mary Clifford Stetson Prize, awarded for excellence in English essay writing by a senior.
David Vanderkloot
Dwight and Leola Stocker Prize, awarded for excellence in English writing, prose or poetry.
Margaret Doele
Elise Renée Houcek
Kate Liska
Ian Zigterman
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Prize in Women’s Studies
Angel Caranna
Stowe Scholarship
Clay Wilkey
David Strauss Prize in American Studies, awarded for the best paper written by a graduating senior in his or her junior or senior year in any field of American Studies.
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
TowerPinkster Sustainability Scholarship
Emiline Noel Chipman
Babette Trader Campus Citizenship and Leadership Award, awarded to members of the graduating class, who have most successfully combined campus citizenship and leadership with scholarship.
Emiline Noel Chipman
Maria Elva Fujii
Alexandria Kathleen Oswalt
Charles Tully Design Award, given annually to a senior who has achieved excellence in some aspect of theatre design.
Carlos Enrique Arellano
Stina Taylor
Donald W. VanLiere Prize Psychology in Coursework
Christina Dandar
Lia Williams
Cindy Xiao
Donald W. VanLiere Prize Psychology in Research
Christina Dandar
Ethel Mogilevsky
Gabrielle Alexis Shimko
Mariam Souweidane
Vibbert Civic Engagement Scholar, students who honor and exemplify the life and spirit of Stephanie Vibbert – scholar, activist, poet, feminist and artist – by leading programs that promote equity and justice through the arts and feminist organizing.
Rumsha Sajid
Voynovich Competitive Scholarship
Elise Renée Houcek
Michael Waskowsky Prize, awarded to outstanding junior or senior art majors.
Zoe Johannsen
Miranda Petersen
Charles Lewis Williams Jr. Award, awarded for oratory at the English SIP Symposium
Aunye Scott-Anderson
Clarke Benedict Williams Prize, awarded to that member of the graduating class who has the best record in mathematics and the allied sciences.
Hayley Beltz
Abhay Goel
Jacob Naranjo
Skyler Norgaard
Maynard Owen Williams Memorial Award, for the best student entry in the form of an essay, poetry, paintings, sketches, photographs or films derived from study abroad.
Eight students from Kalamazoo County high schools and one Kalamazoo College first-year student will receive Heyl scholarships to attend Kalamazoo College in the 2018-19 school year, majoring in math or science.
The prestigious scholarships, available to accomplished Kalamazoo-area math and science students who meet certain requirements, cover tuition, rooming and book fees. The scholarships were established in 1971 through the will of F.W. and Elsie L. Heyl. F.W. Heyl was the first director of research at the Upjohn Co. and taught at Kalamazoo College.
Honored at a dinner at the College, the scholarship winners are (from left): Evelyn Bartley (Loy Norrix High), Eva DeYoung (Loy Norrix High), Sam Ratliff (Kalamazoo College), Madeline Guimond (Loy Norrix High), Molly Ratliff (Loy Norrix High and Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center), Alina Offerman (Loy Norrix High), Syeda Tooba (Parchment High and Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center), Tatianna Tyler (Kalamazoo Central High) and Thomas (Jake) Fales (Kalamazoo Central High).
Five other students received Heyl Scholarships to attend Western Michigan University’s Bronson School of Nursing.
Hoop house sounds like a nickname for a basketball arena.
In the field of agriculture, however, it’s a term for a kind of light yet sturdy, metal-framed greenhouse with a clear polyvinyl cover that can be erected anywhere it’s needed. A hoop house provides a year-round environment for growing vegetables, flowers and other cold-sensitive plants.
Kalamazoo College’s Just Food Collective collaborated on a proposal for a “hoop house” greenhouse that, with contributions from alumni and friends of the College, will greatly expand the year-round gardening space at the College. Gathering in the College greenhouse the group currently uses are some of the Just Food Collective members involved in the proposal (from left): Maya Gurfinkel ’20, Aiden Voss ’20, Natalie Thompson ’19, Elliott Boinais ’21 and Lee Carter ’18.
It will be several times the size of the College’s existing greenhouse behind Hoben Hall. And unlike that structure, where potted plants are grown on tables, the crops in the hoop house will be planted in ground-level boxes, making them easier to tend, sustain and harvest.
Ultimately, say student organizers such as Lee Carter ’18, a CCE Civic Engagement Scholar, the food produced in the hoop house could become part of the supply chain for the College’s Dining Services and perhaps for other food programs in the Kalamazoo community. It’s part of a wider goal of the Just Food Collective to increase the use of locally sourced food, easing nutritional inequities, bringing more transparency to the food supply system and reducing the College’s carbon footprint.
The idea has been around for over a decade. CCE Director Alison Geist says it got its start with a group called Farms to K, a program that grew from the service-learningfirst-year seminars Cultivating Community, first taught in 2008 by English professor Amelia Katanski ’92, and Roots in the Earth, led by College Writing Center Director Amy Newday, that focus on food justice and sustainable agriculture. Katanski and Newday serve as advisors to the group and Larry Bell ’80, founder of Bell’s Brewery, has provided support.
An artist’s depiction of the College’s new 1,800-square-foot hoop house, which will be erected in a corner of the intramurals field north of the Fitness and Wellness Center.
The CCE, students and faculty revived and expanded the mission of Farms to K in spring 2016 as the Just Food Collective, whose mission includes policy work on food insecurity. The students involved included Carter, who says he grew up in a “back to the land, homesteader” household in rural New Hampshire that always had a vegetable garden. With Newday, an owner of Shelbyville, Michigan’s, Harvest of Joy Farm, as mentor, they drew up a simple proposal for a hoop house, and Anika Sproull ’17, wrote a senior individualized project (SIP) advocating that K invest in sustainable agriculture.
Over the next two years, more than a dozen students devised a detailed, illustrated proposal and prepared a presentation that, Geist says, “just bowled over” President’s Staff. The proposal lays out the plan and explains how it would provide learning opportunities for existing classes and connect to campus programs such as a composting initiative. It also details the involvement of paid and volunteer student workers, tells how it would fulfill existing College policies concerning environmental justice and sustainability, looks at what other colleges and universities are doing and even includes the results of an informal survey demonstrating K student support for the idea.
Alumni and other supporters of the College, impressed by the plan, contributed the $26,200 needed to fund it.
“I was personally blown away by how quickly [the College] raised the money,” says Just Food Collective Civic Engagement Scholar Natalie Thompson ’19, who participated in the presentation.
Geist says she believes the donors were enthusiastic because they saw it as “a really K kind of thing,” where students used the freedom inherent in the K-Plan to take the lead and work outside of traditional structures. It’s the sort of student-led initiative, with one foot in the classroom and the other in contemporary social issues, that will spread throughout K’s curriculum under the new strategic plan. The plan calls for the College to “become the definitive leader in integrating academic rigor with life-changing experiential education in a values-driven community.”
“This is a really good example” of what the plan envisions, Geist says. “We’re not educating leaders of tomorrow, we’re educating leaders of today.”
As a 2018-19 Civic Engagement Scholar, Just Food Collective member Elliott Boinais ’21 will be in charge of the project, advised by Newday.
Geist cites it as a “fellowship in learning” — a principle that has illuminated the College’s approach to education for almost a century and which defines the CCE’s mission.
“It provides a prototype for what this kind of collaborative learning community can look like and achieve in the future,” she says.
“I hope it’s going to outlast our time here,” says Just Food Civic Engagement Scholar Aiden Voss ’20.
The graduating Carter regrets he won’t be around for the completion of the hoop house, which the philosophy major says he has dreamed about since he was a sophomore in a nearby Living-Learning Housing Unit, gazing at the intramural field as he drank his morning coffee while sitting on a sofa he dragged onto the porch.
Still, his K-Plan has revolved around food, with a SIP on food and philosophy and his experience helping lead a sustainable agriculture initiative. And his next step demonstrates the value of the education he received when, he says, he chose K over culinary school: This fall, he will begin work as a line chef at Canlis, the James Beard Award-winning restaurant widely acclaimed as Seattle’s finest.
Imagine an opportunity to travel abroad, retrace your heritage, teach English in a foreign country, greet family you’ve never known and promote international understanding between cultures. Katie Johnson ’18 will have that opportunity through a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant that will take her to Lithuania this fall.
Katie Johnson ’18 developed a taste for international travel when she studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary. She liked the experience so much that she decided to apply for a Fulbright grant when she returned. That grant will take her this fall to Lithuania.
Johnson – a business major and psychology minor from Okemos, Michigan – has yet to receive the specific assignment that details her Fulbright destination city and school. She expects, however, to work in a rural village within about three hours of the capital, Vilnius.
Johnson will travel to Washington, D.C., for an orientation in July before heading to Lithuania in late August or September.
Kalamazoo College was identified as one of the top-producing Fulbright colleges and universities in the 2017-18 academic year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to research, study or teach English abroad for one academic year.
Such recognition is one of the highest honors the federal government gives with regard to scholarship and international exchange. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected as a result of their academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, to promote international understanding.
“I feel very fortunate to have attended K,” said Johnson, who has also served on the Athletic Leadership Council, received internships and held an externship at Ryzome Investment Advisors during her college years. “I don’t think I would’ve had these opportunities at another school.”
Johnson chose Kalamazoo College because attending would allow her to play for the women’s lacrosse team while still getting to study abroad. That led her during her junior year to Budapest, Hungary, where the people she met and the independence she gained shaped her world view and sparked her desire to seek more adventures.
“I got back from study abroad and I decided to apply for a Fulbright because I wanted to study abroad again,” Johnson said, noting she soon began a year-long application process. “I thought the opportunity to teach English was interesting. Plus, my grandfather is from Lithuania, and my grandma and great-grandma were teachers. It seemed like a great fit.”
Since then, Johnson has begun learning Lithuanian through her grandfather.
“It’s a hard language to pick up because only about 8 million people in the world speak it,” Johnson said, although she is attending a church in Chicago where the sermons are in Lithuanian and talking with friends who have traveled to Lithuania. She also has a best friend from Estonia with whom she bonds over a similar culture and family background including grandparents who immigrated to the United States for the same reasons.
“I’m going to go and hope for the best because I want to understand more about the Lithuanian culture and how it has changed since my grandpa arrived after World War II,” Johnson said.
Among recent K representatives receiving Fulbright grants, Johnson joins:
Andrea Beitel ’17, who earned a research/study award and is in the United Kingdom.
Riley Cook ’15, who earned a research/study award to travel to Germany.
Dejah Crystal ’17, who earned an English teaching assistantship in Taiwan.
Sapana Gupta ’17, who earned an English teaching assistantship in Germany.
