students

Dean’s List Winter 2017

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Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the Winter 2017 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for Dean’s List upon receipt of the final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts. Kudos to the entire group of more than 300 students, and good luck in Spring Term, 2017.

Winter 2017

A  B   C  D  E  F   G   H   I   J  K   L   M  N   O  P   Q  R   S   T   U   V  W   X   Y   Z

A

Maddy Adams
Azra Ahmad
Isak Akervall
Michelle Alba
Allegra Allgeier
Cheyenne Allyn-White
Kristen Amyx-Sherer
Georgie Andrews
Steven Andrews
Hunter Angileri
Lucas Arbulu
Mary Beth Arendash
Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Juan Avila

B

Bailey Baas
Sonal Bahl
Martin Barrera Vicente
Ethan Beattie
Grace Beck
Ben Behrens
Dylan Beight
Will Bell
Kate Bennett
Erin Bensinger
Brigette Berke
Daniel Bidwell
Maribel Blas-Rangel
Kyra Blum
Vanessa Boddy
Serena Bonarski
Jake Bonifacio
Maddi Booth
Riley Boyd
Emily Boyle
Drew Bremer
Heather Brown
Molly Brueger
Joel Bryson
Andrew Buchholtz
Mary Burnett
Thaddeus Buttrey
Shanice Buys
Erin Byrd

C

Alex Cadigan
Abby Calef
Mackenzie Callahan
Madison Campbell
Micaela Campos
Kefu Cao
Angel Caranna
Shannon Carley
Justin Carlson
Owen Carroll
Rachel Carson
Marissa Cash
Kebra Cassells
James Castleberry
Sharmeen Chauhdry
Sherry Chen
Chido Chigwedere
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Maddie Chilcote
Liza Chinchilakashvili
Nutsa Chinchilakashvili
Emiline Chipman
Daniel Cho
Josh Cho
Samantha Choknumtumnukit
Iffat Chowdhury
Paige Chung
Yoensuk Chung
Jack Clark
Joe Cleary
Elizabeth Clevenger
Chris Coburn
Quin Colwell
Carmen Compton
Hannah Cooperrider
Valentina Cordero
Austin Cramer
Ethan Cuka

D

Addie Dancer
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Druanna Darling
Amelia Davis
Corrin Davis
Robert Davis
Ximena Davis
Sophia Davis-Rodak
Eric De Witt
Tim DeCoursey
Joshua DeGraff
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Green Dickenson
Anthony Diep
Dominic DiFranco
Alexis Diller
Tuan Do
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Nate Donovan
Libby Dulski
Alivia DuQuet
Kayla Dziadzio

E

Cameron Earls
Adam Edery
Tristyn Edsall
Emma Eisenbeis
Tiffany Ellis
Anna Emenheiser
Anais Emory
Melissa Erikson
McKinzie Ervin
Amanda Esler
Lia Evangelista
Ihechi Ezuruonye

F

Rachel Fadler
Alex Fairhall
Emily Finch
Anders Finholt
Matthew Flotemersch
Mone’t Foster
Jack Fowler
Christopher Francis
Rachel Frank
Ian Freshwater
Annah Freudenburg
Lydia Fyie

G

Felipe Gabela
Alicia Gaitan
Owen Galvin
Liam Gantrish
Amanda Gardner
Brett Garwood
Katie George
Sarah Gerendasy
Carina Ghafari
Camille Giacobone
Josh Gibson
Kelen Gill
Danielle Gin
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Nebiyat Girma
Samantha Gleason
Beau Godkin
Dominic Gonzalez
Marlon Gonzalez
Rj Goodloe
Monica Gorgas
Adam Gothard
Janelle Grant
Keenan Grant
Andre Grayson
Claire Greening
Gelinda Guo
Maya Gurfinkel
Gus Guthrie

H

Jessie Hansen
Martin Hansknecht
Maverick Hanson-Meier
Jacob Hardy
Eric Hart
Mara Hazen
Alyssa Heitkamp
Ashley Henne
Daniel Henry
Gabrielle Herin
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Addie Hilarides
Sophia Hill
Kento Hirakawa
Louis Hochster
Megan Hoinville
Aly Homminga
Taylor Horton
Daniel Horwitz
Annabelle Houghton
Yuxi Huang
Nicole Huff
Ayla Hull

I

Bradley Iseri

J

Sadie Jackson
Aliyah Jamaluddin
Alejandro Jaramillo
Clare Jensen
Jon Jerow
Hanna Jeung
YanYan Jiang
Amanda Johnson
Paige Johnson
Emily Johnston
Brittany Jones

K

Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Sharat Kamath
Maria Katrantzi
Alex Kaufman
Greg Kearns
Johanna Keller
Christian Kelley
Christina Keramidas
Jasmine Khin
Dahwi Kim
David Kim
Eunji Kim
Gyeongho Kim
Min Soo Kim
Yejee Kim
Savannah Kinchen
Ian Kobernick
Joe Koh
Julia Koreman
Matthew Krinock
Lily Krone
John Kunec
Jennie Kwon

L

Megan Lacombe
Phuong Anh Lam
Bryan Lara
Zoe Larson
Madeline Lauver
Andrew Laverenz
Sebastian Lawler
Phuong Le
Stefan Leclerc
Sabrina Leddy
Alex Lee
Joo Lee
Kelsi Levine
Emily Levy
Rachel Lifton
Xiang Lin
Rosella LoChirco
Sara Lonsberry
Lee Lotus
Elise Lovaas
Abby Lu
Nick Ludka
Cam Lund
Liam Lundy

M

Sydney Madden
Sam Maddox
Jessica Magana
Madisyn Mahoney
Kayla Marciniak
Helena Marnauzs
Cydney Martell
Elizabeth Martin
Kathryn Martin
Sophia Martin
Sam Matthews
Kevin McCarty
Aaron McKay
Katherine McKibbon
Branden Metzler
John Meyer
Danny Michelin
Briann Millan
Chelsea Miller
Joshua Miller
Myranda Miller
Sangtawun Miller
Suzanne Miller
Zach Miller
Jamie Misevich
Michael Mitchell
Vane Monda
Jake Mooradian
Maddie Moote
Alejandra Morales
Zach Morales
Aidan Morley
Amanda Moss
Ryan Mulder
Emma Mullenax
Libby Munoz
Stuart Murch
Hannah Muscara

N

Zhi Nee Wee
Kyle Neuner
Ellen Neveux
Viet Nguyen
Skyler Nichols
Annie Nielsen
Nick Nizzardini
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Emily Norwood
Brooke Nosanchuk

O

Evan O’Donnell
Eli Orenstein
Colleen Orwin
Michael Orwin

P

Dylan Padget
Daniel Palmer
Karina Pantoja
Jimmy Paprocki
Alan Park
Christina Park
Kayla Park
Andrew Parsons
Cayla Patterson
Caleb Patton
Marlisa Pennington
Jessica Penny
Allie Periman
Sean Peterkin
Uyen Pham
Katherine Pielemeier
Tony Pisto
Maylis Pourtau
Nicole Prentice
Maren Prophit
Tulani Pryor
Danielle Purkey

Q

 

R

Erin Radermacher
Ari Raemont
Hannah Rainaldi
Yajaera Ramirez
Malavika Rao
Zack Ray
Tori Regan
Erin Reilly
Mili Renuart
James Reuter
Dulce Reyes Martinez
Megan Rigney
Tucker Rigney
Cecilia Ringo
Philip Ritchie
Ben Rivera
Scott Roberts
Becca Rogers
Justin Roop
Melanie Ross-Acuna
Jeremy Roth
Orly Rubinfeld
Elli Rubin-McGregor
Devin Rush
Tim Rutledge
Keigan Ryckman
Matthew Ryder

S

Shiva Sah
Rumsha Sajid
Tanush Samson
Danielle Sarafian
Anselm Scheck
Katharine Scheck
Austen Scheer
Ashley Schiffer
Ashley Schmidt
Natalie Schmitt
Sarah Schmitt
Jacob Scott
Jd Seablom
Eli Seitz
Yeji Seo
Jasmine Shaker
Sharif Shaker
Chase Shelbourne
Riley Shepherd
Jenna Sherman
Arun Shrestha
Kylah Simmons
Jacob Sines
Karishma Singh
Griffin Smalley
Austin Smith
Ben Smith
Erin Smith
Logan Smith
Maggie Smith
Adam Snider
Katie Sorensen
Shannon South
Mariam Souweidane
Sophie Spencer
Katie Spink
Sydney Spring
Maya Srkalovic
Austin Sroczynski
Nora Stagner
Gabriel Stanley
Evan Stark-Dykema
Grant Stille
Petra Stoppel
Andrea Strasser-Nicol
Michelle Sugimoto
Sarah Sui
Caroline Sulich
Shelby Suseland
Garrett Swanson

T

William Tait
Aidan Tank
Emma Tardiff
Hanna Teasley
Nana Temple
Audrey Thomas
Louise Thomas
Natalie Thompson
Eric Thornburg
Charles Timmons
Paige Tobin
Ben Toledo
Alayna Tomlinson
Elizabeth Topper
Zachary Tornow
Brooke Travis
Dakota Trinka
Ronald Trosin
Myles Truss
Hassan Turk
Matt Turton
Shelby Tuthill

U

Lexi Ugelow

V

Mick Valatkas
Cynthia Valentin
Madison Vallan
Kaela Van Til
Adriana Vance
Austin Vance
Joshua Vance
David Vanderkloot
Zach VanFaussien
Erica Vanneste
Taylor VanWinkle
Greg Vasilion
Natalie Vazquez
Travis Veenhuis
Cory Vincent
Aiden Voss
Liam VosWilliams
Koji Vroom
Anh-Tu Vu

W

Raoul Wadhwa
Evie Wagner
Colin Waller
Hedy Wang
Madeline Ward
Jake Wasko
Ailih Weeldreyer
Jack Wehr
Cameron Werner
Sarah Whitfield
Annarosa Whitman
Nora Wichmann
Jessica Wile
Rachel Williams
Blake Willison
Meg Wilson
Raen Wolmark
Camille Wood
Julia Woods
Madeline Woods
Lindsay Worthington
Alexis Wright
Kate Wynne

X

Cindy Xiao
Terence Xu

Y

Samantha Young

Z

Julie Zabik
Matthew Zhiss
Amy Zhu
Ruijin Zhu
Ian Zigterman

K Students Excel in a Japanese Speech Contest

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K Students Study JapaneseThe heritages of sophomore YoungHoon (Richard) Kim and senior Jie Xu are rooted in Korea and China, respectively. Both students are also fluent in English. And both recently excelled in a competition featuring the language of fourth country–Japan. YoungHoon won the Consul General Special Prize in the annual Michigan Japanese Speech Contest, held at Wayne State University last week.  His speech was titled “I Don’t Like Him.”  In it, he expressed his ambivalent feelings about Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, considered by many a potential winner of a Nobel Prize for literature. YoungHoon’s extensive knowledge of modern Japanese literature impressed the audience. Jie was a finalist in the speech contest. In her talk, “Preserving Traditional Chinese Art,” she discussed how a pottery class she took at K in her first year provided her an opportunity to rediscover the pottery and the tea ceremony that are part of her Chinese heritage. That renewal, in turn, led her to expand her interest, geographically, to include the pottery and language of Japan.  Also of note, Jie passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) 2nd Level, a significant achievement for someone who has not participated in study abroad, according to assistant professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori. K’s success in the speech contest was surely a team effort. Said Professor Sugimori: “We are particularly grateful to our Japanese teaching assistants—Yoji Hayashibe, Kaoru Ishida, and Reika Murakami—for their insightful feedback on the early drafts of YoungHoon and Jie’s speeches.” At K YoungHoon is majoring in East Asian studies and in philosophy; Jie is majoring in art. Pictured after the contest are (l-r): Ms. Takako Shibata, Japan Society of Detroit Women’s Club; Jie and YoungHoon; the Honorable Mr. Mitsuhiro Wada, Consul General of Japan in Detroit; and Professor Sugimori.

An Opportunity to Express Gratitude

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Gratitude Grateful for K
Students take advantage of “Grateful for K Day” to share their gratitude in handwritten thank-you notes to K donors

Kalamazoo College invites students, faculty, staff, alumni and others to celebrate “Grateful for K Day” on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.

Sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Fund, and formerly called “Tuition Freedom Day,” the April 5 event educates students about the important role philanthropy plays in sustaining and enhancing Kalamazoo College and (hopefully) inspires them to express their gratitude for the alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends who generously support the College each year.

On Grateful for K Day students write hundreds of thank-you notes to express appreciation for the generosity shown through philanthropic support of Kalamazoo College. More than 98 percent of K students receive scholarships and/or some form of financial aid. This day acknowledges K donors and helps to educate students on the impact philanthropy has on their education and K experience.

What can you do on Wednesday to honor generosity and express gratitude? If you’re a student, please visit the Hicks Center from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to write a thank-you note or two to our donors. After you’ve written your notes, grab a cookie and hot chocolate!

If your a donor, please share your “Why I Give” and “Why I am Grateful” stories on our website or Facebook page, where you can also learn more about Grateful for K Day.

Thanks for helping to put the K in thanKs!

Greening Away Violence

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Green Dot-Trained Faculty and Staff at KThis spring Kalamazoo College is beginning to turn green from Green Dot, and that “greening” will create a campus where the likelihood of dating and domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault decreases significantly because everybody does their part.

Just last week some 29 K faculty, staff and administrators completed four days of Green Dot “College Curriculum” training.

Green Dot is a violence prevention program with origins in college and university settings. It is also being implemented across the entire U.S. Air Force, on installations across all other branches of the military, and in communities and organizations in all 50 states and internationally.

The program is designed to enlist entire communities in order to spread the work and the joy that comes with it. And it works! In a five-year longitudinal study, Green Dot was shown to reduce violence perpetration by up to 50 percent in Kentucky high schools. Other studies found a 17 percent reduction in colleges, and additional research is being funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the effect of Green Dot in communities and additional colleges.

The 29 trainers will contribute to the planning and implementation of bystander education sessions for students (the first is set for late April) and Green Dot overview sessions for faculty, staff, administrators and students. Bystanders are trained to safely use words and actions to address or prevent “red dots.” In the program’s iconography, a red dot is any person’s choice to harm another person with words or actions. In any environment, or map, enough red dots create a norm where violence is tolerated. Green dots are small actions to intervene when a red dot is occurring or to prevent the likelihood of red dots at all. Small as they may be, Green Dot words and actions draw their power from the large numbers of people who commit to speak or do them. Together, enough Green Dots can change “worlds,” small and large.

Small acts and everyone doing their part is the key to the program’s success. Last week’s faculty and staff training included an array of work lives and “spheres of influence” that nearly covers the campus map, so the Green Dot greening of K is off to a broad and excellent start.

Early participants and Green Dot educators included (l-r)–front row (seated): Ellen Lassiter Collier, Gender Equity; Liz Smith ’73, Library, Katie Miller, Athletics (Women’s Basketball); Leslie Burke, Library; Miasha Wilson, Business Office; Kenlana Ferguson, Counseling Center, Erika Driver, Counseling Center; Laura Livingstone-McNelis ’89, Theatre Arts; Brittany Liu, Psychology; back row (standing): Jessica Ward, Registrar’s Office, Morgan Mahdavi ’14, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership; Jeanne Hess, Physical Education (Volleyball); Josh Moon, Educational Technology; Narda McClendon, Center for International Programs; Andrew Grayson ’10, Admission; Elizabeth Manwell, Classics; Bryan Goyings ’04, Athletics (Women’s Soccer); Jax Gardner, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership; Heather Dannison, Counseling Center; Jason Lintjer, Athletics (Men’s and Women’s Swimming); Marcie Weathers, Facilities Management; Franki Hand, Media Services; Jay Daniels ’13, Athletics (Men’s and Women’s Swimming); Dan Kibby ’90, Computer Programming; Tim Young, Security, Karen Joshua Wathel, Student Development, Heather Garcia, Center for International Programs; Melissa Emmal, Green Dot, Washington, D.C.; Sirajah Raheem, Green Dot, Atlanta, Georgia. Not pictured are Stacy Nowicki, Library, and Jim VanSweden ’73, College Communication.

Funding for Kalamazoo College’s Green Dot efforts comes from the State of Michigan Campus Sexual Assault Grant Program.

Why Neibuhr? Why Now?

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Students Work with Former K Visiting Professor Jeremy SabellaSeveral students from Visiting Instructor of Art Danny Kim‘s videography classes had the opportunity to interview Jeremy Sabella, author of the companion book  of the new documentary, “An American Conscience: The Reinhold Niebuhr Story.”

The K students asked the questions and did all of the sound and camera work required for the interview. They focused on the reasons the filmmakers chose to tell Neibuhr’s story. Their interview will be featured on the film’s website in coming weeks. The documentary film is currently screening in select locations this spring and will air on PBS later this year. It features interviews with many internationally recognized historians and scholars, including former Kalamazoo College professor Gary Dorrien, the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University.

Neibuhr was one of America’s most prominent 20th-century theologians and political thinkers, noted for his unrelenting advocacy for justice and for the incisive clarity of his thinking and writing. Presidents from Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter have credited his impact on their thinking, as well as John McCain, countless historians, theologians, political thinkers, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who cited Niebuhr in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.

Niebuhr’s books, Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), The Nature and Destiny of Man (1941–43) and The Irony of American History (1952), continue to influence theological and political thinking. His insights into human nature and its relationship to political movements and social justice propelled him to speak openly, and often critically, to an America consumed by moral certainty. The documentary includes interviews with many prominent

The K “Sabella Interview” production crew included (l-r): Christine Cho, Kalkidan Amare, Mackenzie Landman, author Jeremy Sabella, Madeline Lauver, Ximena Davis and Blair Garner. Sabella is married to Sarah Koenig, visiting assistant professor in K’s religion department.

First-Year Student Wins Entrepreneurship Grant

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Kalamazoo College Student Mansi DahalMansi Dahal ’20 has a vision so impressive that the Michigan Colleges Alliance (MCA) has awarded her one of its Independent Innovators Network Scholarships. The scholarships recognize entrepreneurial concepts submitted by students from the 15 MCA schools. Mansi will receive a $5,000 scholarship in spring. The overall top entrepreneurial concept will be selected by MCA in the coming weeks.

Her goal after graduation in 2020 is to open a small clothing manufacturing business that employs women who have been physically, verbally and sexually abused. She envisions an operation–small at first–that incorporates design, production, marketing and advertising and sales. She plans to begin her business in Nepal, the home from which she matriculated to Kalamazoo College.

In addition to training and employment, her operation would provide housing and food for those employees who need it. The growth of her business will help ameliorate an important social issue. “Women who have undergone such trauma are often left jobless and without support,” wrote Mansi. With training, new skills and employment opportunities the women can regain power in their lives. Improvement in the lives of women has been a cause important to Mansi since her adolescence. At that time her first careers yearnings leaned toward medicine. And undergraduate study in the United States was not part of her plan. “Nothing happens according to my plans,” she says, “and I’ve been delighted by that.” When she first arrived at K, she was considering a major in economics. However, her first-year creative writing class has her thinking about a possible major in English.

She has a year before declaring a major (which happens in the sophomore winter term), plenty of time and opportunity to exercise her liberal arts spirit. Whatever her major ends up being, it will apply to the business idea she’s determined to bring to fruition–a business she hopes to expand to countries outside of Nepal. And the profits from that business Mansi plans to invest in its growth and to donate to organizations that promote sustainable hygiene and health for girls worldwide.

Wilderness Leaders

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Wilderness Leadership ConferenceTwenty-four K students attended the Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference recently, hosted by Central Michigan University and Mystic Lake YMCA Camp. Six K seniors presented four different workshops at the conference. Workshops and presenters included: Wilderness Solitude as a Rite of Passage for Emerging Adults (William Bartz, adapted from his Senior Individualized Project work), Meaningful Program Elements of Kalamazoo College’s LandSea Outdoor Orientation Program (Sharayu Salvi, adapted from Sharayu’s SIP work), Title IX and Outdoor Education (Emily Kowey and Danielle Gin, adapted from Emily’s SIP work), and Building Top Rope Climbing Anchors (Josh Cho and Siwook Hwang).

Senior Leaders

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Senior Leadership Award, Class of 2017, Kalamazoo College.Thirty-five Kalamazoo College seniors (class of 2017) were honored with the institution’s prestigious Senior Leadership Award. These remarkable individuals include teaching assistants, peer instruction leaders, resident assistants, team captains, all-conference and academic all-American selections, Dean’s List honorees, student ambassadors for the president of Kalamazoo College, departmental student advisors, Center for Career and Professional Development career associates, and interfaith student leaders. One has even served as the mascot, Buzz the Hornet.

They lead or participate in groups that include, among others, Sisters in Science, Frelon Dance Troupe, College Singers, Young Men of Color, Black Student Organization, Coalition for Reproductive Justice, Hillel, Swim for Success, the Cauldron, Health Professions Society, and the Athletic Leadership Council. Some have distinguished themselves as Hornet athletes in golf, soccer, softball, baseball, tennis, basketball and swimming; as performers in theatre and music; and as persons committed to thinking, listening and acting in collaboration on behalf of civic engagement and social justice.

Above all, these 35 individuals are, as one nominator wrote, “exemplary human beings.” Congratulations, seniors. Pictured are (l-r): front row–Moises Hernandez (holding his son Gael), Emily Levy, Marlon Gonzalez, Lauren Perlaki, Elizabeth Clevenger, Jacob Scott, Dana DeVito, Colleen Orwin; second row–Thaddeus Buttrey, Grace Smith, Kathleen Sorensen, Allie Brodsky, Suma Alzouhayli; third row–Allia Howard, Sarah Bragg, Kayla Dziadzio, Suzanne Miller, Sabrina Dass, Gabrielle Holme-Miller, Emily Kowey; fourth row–Melissa Erikson, Anh-Tu Vu, Riley Boyd, Ellie Goldman, Erin DuRoss; back row–Nate Donovan, Eric DeWitt, Douglas Robinett, David Smith, and Sidney Wall. Not pictured are Sarah Glass, Chenxi Lu, Leland Merrill, Branden Metzler, and Lindsay Worthington.

Photo by Anthony Dugal

A Distinguished Dozen

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Kalamazoo College 2017 Class Agents
Class agents (and their majors) for the class of 2017 are (l-r) front row–Kamal Kamalaldin (computer science), Bianca Delgado (political science), Kriti Singh (economics), Emma Franzel (theatre arts), Brooke Travis (anthropology and sociology); middle row–Emerson Brown (economics), Emily Levy (anthropology and sociology), Emily Finch (English and history), Chris Francis (economics); back row–Alivia DuQuet (political science and women, gender and sexuality studies) and Eric DeWitt (economics). Not pictured is Amanda Johnson (economics).

The class of 2017 has its agents, a dozen as distinguished as they are diverse. Alivia DuQuet, Amanda Johnson, Bianca Delgado, Brooke Travis, Chris Francis, Emerson Brown, Emily Finch, Emily Levy, Emma Franzel, Eric DeWitt, Kamal Kamalaldin and Kriti Singh come from four states and three countries and represent eight different majors, five different study abroad programs on four continents, one study away program and a K-Trek (K to the Big Apple). Seven will enter the work force after graduation (several with jobs already lined up), two will go to graduate school, two will take a gap year then proceed with their graduate educations, and one will do Teach for America before beginning grad school. Senior Individualized Projects ranged widely, and topics included, among others, state sexual education policies, climate adaption strategies, cultural institutions in Palestine, corporate venture capital investments, the Dodd-Frank Act, parental attitudes regarding corporal punishment, feminism performance theory and the U.S. primary care industry.

All of the class agents were asked why they wanted to take on this lifetime role. Their answers, understandably, varied and yet shared some common themes: an appreciation of the K learning experience, a desire to remain connected to classmates and the College and to pay forward the benefits of a K education. “Throughout my time at K,” said Singh, “I have realized the importance of financial support and support from alumni. I would love to be actively involved because a lot of students (unknowingly) benefit from the support from the people who have been giving back.” Kamalaldin agrees: “I want to be able to improve Kalamazoo College and stay connected to its mission. I want to give back the tremendous support and educational opportunity that Kalamazoo College gave me.”

Photo courtesy of Tony Dugal