Kalamazoo College is Michigan’s 2016 Engaged Campus of the Year! Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC) recently announced K’s selection for the honor by a team of national reviewers at MiCC’s Awards Gala, held at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Center in East Lansing.
K students, faculty, administrators and community partners represented the College at the 2016 Michigan Campus Compact awards ceremony in Lansing.
The Engaged Campus of the Year Award recognizes an institution of higher education for exemplary commitment to the education of students for civic and social responsibility; genuine and sustained investment in community relationships; and a commitment to service learning and civic engagement opportunities for students across all disciplines.
In particular, the award is a tribute to the work of the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. Through service-learning courses and student-led programs, the CCE has engaged more than 5,500 K students in long-term, reciprocal partnerships to foster academic learning, critical problem-solving, and a lifetime of civic engagement while strengthening the community. “The students have worked with thousands of community residents, some 50 different organizations, and in more than 30 different community-based courses,” says CCE director Alison Geist.
K senior Mallory McClure ’16 accepted the Innovations in Community Impact award for K’s Swim for Success program.
Kalamazoo College also earned an MiCC Innovations in Community Impact award for its program Swim for Success (SFS). The Innovations Award recognizes creative and measurably effective approaches to community problem solving. SFS is a swimming program for local children that takes place on K’s campus three evenings a week. It is a partnership between K and the City of Kalamazoo led by Civic Engagement ScholarsKevin Ewing and Mallory McClure. More than 20 K students are involved as tutors or swim coaches in the program. Kevin and Mallory are both members of the college swim team and are also coaches in the SFS program. K students also provide tutoring onsite one hour before swimming lessons begin.
In addition, Susmitha Daggubati ’16 received MiCC’s 2016 Commitment to Service Award for students. The Commitment to Service Award recognizes outstanding students for their commitment to service. Students are chosen specifically for either the breadth or depth of their community involvement or their service experience(s) and the demonstration of meaningful reflection of those experiences.
K senior Susmitha Daggubati ’16 received the MCC’s 2016 “Commitment to Service” award.
Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. The organization promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be engaged citizens.
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 2016 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 400 students, and good luck in Spring Term, 2016.
Kelsey Adamski
Michelle Alba
Allegra Allgeier
Luis Alves-Diniz
Suma Alzouhayli
Steven Andrews
Ryan Andrusz
William Angus
Elizabeth Arellano
Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Juan Avila
Alberto Ayala
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Dalbyeol Bae
Jennifer Bageris
Sonal Bahl
John Bailey
Katherine Ballew
Julia Bartlett
William Bartz
Jade Beauregard
Hayley Beltz
Katherine Bennett
Hannah Berger
Madelyn Betts
Kevin Bhimani
Sean Bogue
Serena Bonarski
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Kennedy Boulton
Jonathan Bowman
Riley Boyd
Emily Boyle
Erin Brown
Heather Brown
Molly Brueger
Thomas Bryant
Andrew Buchholtz
Hayley Buckhout
Matthew Burczyk
Janice Burnett
Mary Burnett
Erin Butler
Thaddeus Buttrey
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Francisco Cabrera
Alexander Cadigan
Robert Calco
Abigail Calef
Mackenzie Callahan
Kalyn Campbell
Dorothy Carpenter
Charles Carson
Katherine Cebelak
Rachel Chang
Ansh Chaudhary
Sirui Chen
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Belinda Chipayi
Heeseong Cho
Jennifer Cho
Youngjoon Cho
Kanwal Chowdhury
Joseph Cleary
Christopher Coburn
Annaliese Collier
Cody Colvin
Margot Couraud
Dejah Crystal
Brian Cunningham-Rhoads
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Sejal Dahiya
Connor Dalton
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Justin Danzy
Roger Darling
Natalie Davenport
Steven Davis
Kathryn Davis
Ximena Davis
Robert Davis
Kevin Davison
Sophia Davis-Rodak
Hadiya Deas-Richberg
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Clare DeLong
Samir Deshpande
Green Dickenson
Anthony Diep
Margaret Doele
Miranda Doepker
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez-Garcia
Amelia Donohoe
Rachel Dranoff
Kellie Dugan
Elizabeth Dulski
Thao Duong
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Adam Edery
Emma Eisenbeis
Rachel Ellis
Ian Engstrom
Melissa Erikson
McKinzie Ervin
Michelle Escobar
Lucas Eshuis
Amanda Esler
Andriana Evangelista
Angelia Evangelista
Fiona Evans
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Alex Fairhall
Jessie Fales
Michael Faust
Maria Feijoo
Leah Finelli
Marie Fiori
George Fishback
Natalie Fisher
Matthew Fitz
Emily Fletcher
Joshua Foley
Delaney Fordell
Hannah Frame
Christopher Francis
Rachel Frank
Ian Freshwater
Maria Fujii
Lydia Fyie
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Owen Galvin
Joana Garcia
Marlytt Garrido
Brett Garwood
Charlotte Gavin
Sarah George
Carina Ghafari
Camille Giacobone
Sarah Glass
Samantha Gleason
Abhay Goel
Gil Gonzalez
Emily Good
Monica Gorgas
Emma Gougeon
Konah Gourlay
Natalie Gratsch
Andre Grayson
Lydia Green
Claire Greening
Ellie Grossman
In Gu
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Kyle Hahn
Griffin Hamel
Maverick Hanson-Meier
Eric Hart
Kelly Haugland
Evan Hayden
Mara Hazen
Stephanie Heard
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Yessica Hernandez
Kyle Hernandez
Moises Hernandez
Mitchel Herr
Jamie Heywood
Sophie Higdon
Adelaide Hilarides
Megan Hoinville
Daniel Holtzman
Roger Hood
Meghan Horal
Logan Horejsi
Daniel Horwitz
Elise Houcek
Claire Howland
Pornkamol Huang
Robert Hudson
Patricia Hunter
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Sadie Jackson
Jaehoon Jang
Eric Janowiak
Dongkeun Jeon
Kourtney Johnson
Emily Johnston
Joseph Jolly
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Claire Kalina
Kamalaldin Kamalaldin
Sharat Kamath
Amira Kamoo
Elyse Kaplan
Spencer Kennedy
Christina Keramidas
Khin Oo Khin
Benjamin Kileen
Min Kim
YoungHoon Kim
Andrew Kim
David Kim
Dahwi Kim
Savannah Kinchen
William Kirchen
Sai Klein
Hannah Kline
Emily Kozal
Katherine Kreiss
Emma Kristal
Hannah Kruger
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Lauren Landman
Robyn Lane
Madeline Lauver
Phuong Le
Stefan Leclerc
Joo Lee
Madeline LeVasseur
Kelsi Levine
Yishi Li
Hyunyn Lim
Xiang Lin
Kate Liska
Sara Lonsberry
Brandon Lopez
Chenxi Lu
Nicholas Ludka
Riley Lundquist
Liam Lundy
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Alicia Madgwick
Megan Malish
Sarah Manski
Nicholas Marsh
Cydney Martell
Elizabeth Martin
Sophia Martin
William Marx
Madison McBarnes
Nicolas McCabe
Eliza McCall
Belinda McCauley
Mallory McClure
Alexander McDonell
Abigail McDonough
Miles McDowall
Ian McKnight
Molly Meddock
Jordan Meiller
Molly Merkel
Lucy Merrill
Franklin Meyer
Samuel Meyers
Joshua Miller
Zach Miller
Christopher Monsour
Jacob Mooradian
Madison Moote
Diana Morales-Perez
Aliera Morasch
Blanca Moreno
Chloe Mpinga
Emma Mullenax
Hannah Muscara
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Olivia Nalugya
Jacob Naranjo
Laetitia Ndiaye
Annie Nelson
Phuong Nguyen
Hung Nguyen
Naori Nishimura
Rosemarie Nocita
Skyler Norgaard
Mackenzie Norman
Brooke Nosanchuk
Andrew Novetsky
Fernando Nunez
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Emi Okamoto
Josiah Olah
Colleen Orwin
Alexandria Oswalt
Ty Owens
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Dylan Padget
Dana Page
Nirmita Palakodaty
Anthony Palleschi
James Paprocki
Jisung Park
Kayla Park
Arju Patel
Khusbu Patel
Elizabeth Penix
Marlisa Pennington
Jessica Penny
Madison Perian
Lauren Perlaki
Emma Peters
Miranda Petersen
Caroline Peterson
Julia Petroff
Katherine Pielemeier
Julia Plomer
Sarah Pobuda
Henry Pointon
Maren Prophit
Erika Pueblo
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Zichen Qi
Yuanyang Qu
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Arianna Raemont
Samantha Ramsay
Farzad Razi
Joshua Reuter
Sydney Riddick
Sep’tisha Riley
Megan Riley
Cecilia Ringo
Benjamin Rivera
Skylar Rizzolo
Sophie Roberts
William Roberts
Madeleine Roberts
Scott Roberts
Marion Robin
Lilia Robins
Jakob Rodseth
Anna Roodbergen
Justin Roop
Peter Rossi
Jeremy Roth
Stefanie Roudebush
Wendy Rubio
Timothy Rutledge
Keigan Ryckman
Matthew Ryder
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Rumsha Sajid
Amber Salome
Tanush Samson
Garrett Sander
Christa Scheck
Anselm Scheck
Katharine Scheck
Maison Scheuer
Ashley Schiffer
Ashley Schmidt
Cameron Schneberger
Grady Schneider
Eleanor Schodowski
Aaron Schwark
Jacob Scott
Aunye Scott-Anderson
Madalyn Seveska
Sharif Shaker
Yu Shang
Chase Shelbourne
Sonam Shrestha
Brandon Siedlaczek
Kaylah Simmons
Danielle Simon
Mantar Singh
Alexander Sitner
Claire Slaughter
Margaret Smith
Benjamin Smith
Grace Smith
Alexandra Smith
Bailey Smith
Octavia Smith
Austin Smith
Logan Smith
Erin Smith
Meagan Soffin
Cassandra Solis
Mariam Souweidane
Federico Spalletti
Sophia Spencer
Quintin Sproull
Evan Stark-Dykema
Alex Stosur-Bassett
Matera Stuart
Thomas Stuut
Michelle Sugimoto
Xin Sui
Kyle Sunden
Maya Sykes
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Lily Talmers
Kiyoto Tanemura
Abigail Taylor
Audrey Thomas
Derek Thomas
Natalie Thompson
Mateo Tobar
Jane Toll
Alayna Tomlinson
Carolyn Topper
Camila Trefftz
Kelly Treharne
Minhkhang Truong
Ngoc Truong
Lydia Turke
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Eva Ugelow
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Kaela Van Til
David Vanderkloot
Zachary VanFaussien
Elisia Venegas
Julia Villarreal
Connor Vogt
Anh-Tu Vu
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Raoul Wadhwa
Evelyn Wagner
Brigid Walkowski
Sarah Wallace
Maya Wanner
Mary Warner
William Warpinski
Jacob Wasko
Connor Webb
Ailih Weeldreyer
John Wehr
Cameron Werner
Caitlyn Whitcomb
Zachary White
Alex White
Joshua Whitney
Hans Wieland
Carolyn Williams
Natalia Wohletz
Sarah Woods
Madeline Woods
The Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) turns 15 this year, and its hard to imagine better origins. It began as a joint brainstorming effort between students, faculty and several community partners with the intent on redefining what a liberal arts education was all about. Students were not just de facto city residents while they studied at K; they were community assets as well. Annually, about 600 K students participate in service-learning in some way with the CCE.
From work on sustainability issues to girl’s and women’s empowerment to health and economic equality to food justice, CCE programming engages students in work that promotes social justice, further pushing the College’s mission to create lifelong learners.
“For some of our students, it’s the first time they’ve witnessed first-hand a variety of ‘isms,’” says Alison Geist, CCE’s director. “We put students on the front lines of many societal issues in a way that sitting in a lecture or classroom just can’t.”
Susmitha Daggubati ’16 mentors a second-grader at Woodward Elementary School in Kalamazoo’s Stuart Neighborhood, adjacent to K’s campus. Daggubati, a senior majoring in chemistry and earning a concentration in biochemistry and molecular biology, is in her second year at Woodward and serves as a Civic Engagement Scholar, a kind of on-site leader who mentors other K students working at sites across the community, scheduling their shifts and organizing meetings to brainstorm programming ideas.
Daggubati moved with her family to the Kalamazoo area from their native India ten years ago. Still very much tied to her Indian roots, her time in service-learning has also given her a greater understanding of the complex social issues at play in American society “In many classes, we learn the theories about the roots of so many social problems,” she says. “But I am able to make those connections to the real world when I’m involved. It keeps me rooted in the realities of the world, and it has given me a greater understanding of American culture.”
Tom Thornburg is the managing attorney at Farmworker Legal Services, a non-profit agency based in Bangor, Mich., a small community about 25 miles west of Kalamazoo, in an agricultural area where hundreds of migrant workers flock each year to work in fields and orchards. His agency assists these workers – overwhelmingly Hispanic – with everything from language services to information on their legal rights to informing them of resources available to them. He’s been working with the CCE for almost a decade, and the K students who’ve come through his doors have become an invaluable resource.
“The students from K are some of the brightest, best-equipped and most professional volunteers we get,” Thornburg says. “They come here with a sense of enthusiasm to help, a sense of what to do, an autonomy. They’re excellent, right up there in many ways with the law students we have working here.”
Over the years, hundreds of the nearly 2,000 students Associate Professor of Psychology Karyn Boatwright has taught have participated in service-learning programs, in a diverse group of local agencies, from the Kalamazoo Public Schools to Planned Parenthood to Goodwill Industries.
Through more than 30 different courses at the College designed with community partners, faculty at K have engaged thousands of students, community residents and leaders to create opportunities for experiential learning and impact derived organically and intentionally from service-learning work.
Says Boatwright, “The CCE and their students consistently impress upon us the need for reflection to ensure that we are not only connecting the proverbial dots, but understanding the political and social connections between success and social factors. Civic engagement experiences improve the quality of learning for our students and strengthen our community.”
The College’s solid commitment to developing the next generation of leaders who are observant, lifelong learners intent on crafting solutions to problems plaguing a suffering world is stronger now than ever. Concludes Geist: “The founders of K were always interested in social justice, and our programming is a manifestation of that. It’s the idea that we should be creating a fellowship of learning, not just working in ivory towers tucked away from society.”
Kalamazoo College students dominated the 2016 Japanese Language Speech Contest held at the Novi (Mich.) Civic Center in late February. Christa Scheck ’17 won third prize for her speech, “Translating Japanese Into English: the Problems of Literal Translation.” Senior Jamie Heywood took home the Consulate General Prize for her presentation, “Experiences of a Homosexual.” And junior Ke Sheng was cited with an honorable mention for his speech, “Japanese Cellphones.” K’s participation this year was marked by two firsts: the first time in K’s history a student placed in the top three; the first time K students won multiple prizes in the same year, taking three of the total of five! Pictured are (l-r): front row–Yilang Qiu ’18, Jie Xu ’17, and visiting international student Naori Nishimura; back row–Assistant Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori, Ke Sheng, Crista Scheck, Jamie Heywood and Consul General Mitsuhiro Wada. This contest is organized by the Japanese Consulate General of Japan in Detroit and is sponsored by, among others, Delta Air Lines, the Japan Business Society of Detroit and the Japan Foundation.
Kalamazoo College will present the Physics of Blackness Colloquium on March 31 and April 1. March 31 features a lecture (7 p.m. in Dalton Theatre) by Michelle M. Wright, Professor of African American Studies and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University, and author of The Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology. Wright’s lecture is titled “Blackness by Other Names: Beyond Linear Histories.” On the next day (April 1, 5 p.m. in the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership) will follow an interactive event developed by the Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers. That group includes Justin Berry, assistant professor of political science; Nakeya Boyles ’16; Quincy Crosby ’17; Reid Gómez, the Mellon visiting assistant professor of ethnic studies; Allia Howard ’17; Bruce Mills, professor of English; and Shanna Salinas, assistant professor of English. “Wright looks at the argument of race, particularly Blackness, and the ways that argument plays out in economic, political and physically embodied ways,” says Gómez. “Her work will help us look at differences within difference and move beyond thinking in categories.”
According to Gómez, the colloquium will stress three themes, all of which relate to one another: horizontal connections instead of vertical frameworks; the inability of temporally linear progress narratives (which often structure the notion of Blackness) alone to realize the broad and complicated truth and meaningfulness of Blackness; and a “See Me-Hear Me” approach during the colloquium that will ask participants to enter each others’ lives in meaningful ways. Wright’s book uses concepts from physics to expand thinking and discussion beyond linearity that makes “it difficult to understand or accept people, places, or event that do not easily fit inside a single narrative,” explains Gómez. Toward that end Gómez has helped facilitate “The Physics of Blackness at Kalamazoo College,” a blog in the form of a mosaic that makes approaching the subject of Blackness nonlinear and dynamic.
Nonlinearity is the true nature of the physical universe, wrote Gómez in a summary of Wright’s book. Such nonlinearity doesn’t preclude all cause and effect, but instead complicates it. Gómez writes that Wright “cautions against cause and effect laws that make history solely the consequence of oppression, where Blackness only appears in terms of resistance to, or the direct result of, that oppression.” The ability to think and discuss freed from such overly narrow restrictions allows us to “reimagine choice and agency in relationship to Blackness,” says Gómez, “the choice to ’notice and wonder’ at what is left out of linear progress narratives, and to conceive of self outside those terms.”
The Beyond the Middle Passage Organizers group invites colloquium participants to help one another prepare for the event by sharing talking points, images and points of entry into Wright’s theory via Instagram _bmp._ and Twitter @_bmpo_.
Kalamazoo College honored 32 soon-to-graduate students with its prestigious Senior Leadership Recognition Award. During the course of the last four years these individuals have distinguished themselves as athletes, student workers, admission volunteers, resident assistants, civic engagement scholars, social justice advocates, teaching assistants, artists, writers, musicians, LandSea leaders, tutors, mentors, translators, lab assistants, officers and members of student organizations, departmental student advisors and research assistants. They have made Kalamazoo College a better place for all. They have, in the words of one nominator, “bridged worlds and forged connections” with their particular gifts and shared love of humankind. Pictured are (l-r): first row–Victoria Orsorio, Lizbeth Mendoza Pineda, Samantha Luna, Shannon Haupt, Yessica Hernandez, Elizabeth Fiator; second row–Honey Sumon (not an awardee herself, but a close friend and guest of one of the recipients), Susmitha Daggubati, Kelly Trehorne, Victoria Najacht; third row–Pornkamol Huang, Elizabeth Tyburski, Chloe Mpinga, Alexis Martin-Browne, Kelsey Adamski; fourth row–Immanuel Greene, Sarah Woods, Hadley Harrison; fifth row–Elizabeth Lenning, McKenna Bramble, Katherine Clark, Francisco Cabrera, Natalie Davenport; sixth row–Daria Lewis, Takumi Matsuzawa; back row–Nana-Yaw Aikins, Olivia Cares, Robert Hudson, and Justin Danzy. Not pictured are Michael Allen, Kevin Ewing, Mallika Mitra, and Lauren Seroka. (Photo by Tony Dugal)
Rehearsal for the Festival Playhouse production of Bad Jews. (left to right) Aidan Johnson ’17, Kate Kreiss ’19, Lauren Landman ’18, Kyle Lampar ’17. (Photo by Emily Salswedel ’17)
Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College presents the contemporary comedy Bad Jews, a play that explores what it means to be Jewish in contemporary American society. Written by Joshua Harmon, the play will have four performances in the Dungeon Theatre (Light Fine Arts Building) on Thursday through Sunday (Feb. 25-28). It is part of Festival Playhouse’s 2015-16 season “Theatre and Belonging: Stories of Ethnicity and Racial Identity.”
Staged in the round, with production design by Lanny Potts (professor of theatre arts) and costumes by Elaine Kauffman, the story takes place in an apartment in New York City shortly after the death of the family patriarch, the grandfather of Liam, his younger brother Jonah, and their cousin, Daphna.
Liam is Jewish in name only and chooses to pursue everything that has nothing to do with his heritage. Daphna intentionally embraces all things Jewish. Like Melody, Liam’s shiksa girlfriend, Jonah often seems caught in the middle between the extremes of his cousins. It is not until the end of the play we learn where he stands on the question, “How Jewish are you?” The New York Times praised the play as the best comedy of the season, characterized by ”delectably savage humor.” The subject matter and language are for mature audiences.
K’s production is a collaboration between director Ed Menta (the James A. B. Stone College Professor of Theatre Arts) and Jeffrey Haus (associate professor of history and religion and director of the College’s Jewish Studies Program). Menta and Haus invited Dr. Jonathan Freedman, Jewish studies scholar from the University of Michigan, to speak about the play and its themes on Wednesday, February 24, in the Olmsted Room at 7 p.m.. Freedman and Haus will also lead a talkback following the Thursday performance of the play.
The play opens Thursday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. Additional evening performances occur Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27, at 8 p.m., and a matinee concludes the run on Sunday, February 27, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for senior citizens, and $15 for other adults. For reservations call 269.337.7333. For more information, visit the Festival Playhouse website.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Justin Berry (and members of his “Voting, Campaigns and Elections” class) knew that the 2016 William Weber Lecture in Government and Society was too big an opportunity not to share widely. The late January event featured Martin Gilens, author and professor of politics at Princeton University, speaking on the subject “Economic Inequality and Political Power in America.” Dr. Berry reached out to the one high school student who attends his class and he, in turn, gathered many of his high school classmates to attend the lecture. After the event, he wrote to Dr. Berry: “I have to say, I really do appreciate your willingness to let a mob of high school kids participate in the event. We spent the next day in class having a heated discussion regarding the topics that were covered within Dr. Gilens’ speech. I believe that I speak for all that attended when I say that it was a very informative and memorable event. Our government teacher was disappointed that he couldn’t attend, but he had prior obligations. I do know that for next year he will try to bring back some of his students to have them sit in on the lecture, making it an annual event.” Well done, Dr. Berry! The photo shows Professor Gilens (third from right) with some of the high school attendees. The William Weber Lecture in Government and Society was founded by Bill Weber, a 1939 graduate of K, and it is administered by the Department of Political Science. Past lecturers have included David Broder, E.J. Dionne, Frances Fox Piven, Van Jones and Joan Mandelle, among others.
Senior tennis player Katie Clark ’16 would be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous or scared when she decided to jump ship from Fairfax, Va., after high school and attend Kalamazoo College.
But before she left, a close family friend gave her peace of mind and a thought that’s stuck with her to this day.
“This part of your life isn’t dying, your circle is just getting bigger,” the friend told her.
Clark’s circle has expanded exponentially since stepping on campus.
“Honestly, I didn’t know I was going to be happy here until I showed up the first day,” Clark said. “It was a little different that someone from the East Coast would go to this little funky school in Michigan called Kalamazoo. But I remember pulling up to campus and thinking ‘Oh, it’s actually so beautiful here and everyone seems really nice and maybe I’ll like it.’
“Turns out, I’ve always enjoyed it.”
Leading on and off the court
As an athlete, Clark’s circle grew quickly as she became immersed in the women’s tennis family, but she was also introduced to another area on campus because of her involvement with tennis.
“Two or three years ago my coach recognized that women’s tennis had never really played that significant of a role on the Athletic Leadership Council, so he recommended I start attending,” Clark said. “It was a really good fit because the goals and work that ALC does very much align with my personal reasons for wanting to be a student-athlete.”
Clark, ALC’s active secretary, said her time with ALC helped her establish her identity beyond “student” or “athlete.” The organization allows her to simply be a part of the Kalamazoo College community.
“ALC engages student athletes with community work such as working with Special Olympics, but it also creates and hosts events for the entire campus.”
As a senior member of ALC and the tennis team, Clark is excited to be able to help shape the culture of the campus and her team.
From the court to Congress
A history major and a political science minor, Clark secured an internship with Senior United States Senator Charles Schumer in the summer of 2014 on Capitol Hill.
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Katie Clark
When she arrived in Washington D.C. she learned her work would be primarily left up to her to figure out.
“Instead of the internship being very structured, it really was what you made out of it,” she said. “That’s one of the more valuable things I took away from my experience.
“Throughout my education, ever since kindergarten, people just give you things to do all the time and that’s a very easy thing to get accustomed to. On the other hand, working to find work for myself was new to me.”
Her assigned tasks included fielding calls from constituents, answering questions about policy in a cordial manner, organizing the mail and also giving tours of the Capitol Building. Her most valuable experience came from the work she assigned herself.
“I would find senatorial briefings on my own and would go talk to the responsible staffer to ask if they wanted me to write a memo and do research on the subject.
“A lot of times the staffer wouldn’t actually need the memo, but the interaction was about establishing the connection and having them realize that you want to be there. When they actually did need help with something significant they knew that I was well versed in that subject.”
She enjoyed the experience, and the feeling was mutual–Clark returned to the same position the following summer.
Expanding globally
Katie Clark in Thailand
Thailand is a place many people never see in their lifetime, but Clark’s circle stretched across the globe when she decided to experience the country and culture during the fall and winter terms of her junior year.
Clark didn’t want to just be a student in an unfamiliar environment; she wanted to immerse herself within a community and learn from people with vastly different understandings of life.
“My program was predominantly experiential-based learning, so other than the first six weeks we were in the field the entire time,” she said. “We spent most of our time in host villages living and learning from different members of the community.”
The days’ events and tasks ranged from meeting with government officials and local business men and women, to helping families clean their roofs and taking children to school. The topics of discussion ranged from overfishing to gender and religion.
“I wanted to be enrolled in a study abroad program that would give me something I wouldn’t be able to get on my own,” Clark said. Turns out that “something” was a deep connection to “communities and very rural areas in the mountains in northern Thailand.”
Growing beyond graduation
Using the experiences she’s had and the connections she’s made during her three and half years at K, Clark hopes to continue lengthening the radius of her circle as she begins to prepare for life after Kalamazoo.
“I have so many different areas of support here at K. School is something that I really value and enjoy. For my professors to be able to push me to be the best student I can be is special.
“Instead of just telling me ‘good work’ sometimes my professors will tell me ‘you can do better than this.’”
With her senior tennis season surely at the front of her mind and set to get underway in less than a month, her goal after graduation is to join the Peace Corps.
It’s safe to say–and Clark has no doubt–that wherever her path leads her next, she’ll be well-prepared.
(Text and photos by Kurt Miller, assistant sports information director)
The cast of the Festival Playhouse production of FAMILY CRIMES (photo by Emily Salswedel ‘16)
Playwright and director Belinda McCauley ’16 presents her one-act play, Family Crimes, in the Dungeon Theatre on Thursday, February 11, through Sunday, February 14. The four performances are part of Kalamazoo College’s Senior Performance Series.
The play centers on a family of three generations of Latina women who have made enormous sacrifices in their pasts, resulting in long held secrets. “Each must decide what she values and what family means to her as these secrets are revealed to the audience and each other,” says McCauley.
Cast member Johanna Keller Flores ’18 (Marta) stresses the role of race in the story: “The play is a depiction of a family battling its demons like any other, but recognizes the damage racism, machismo and prejudice can inflict on relationships and actions.”
The result, according to actress Aliera Morasch ’16 (Estela), is a complex and deeply layered story. “I am honored to be part of a production that recognizes my body and my family’s story through developed, flawed, and multi-dimensional characters,” says Morasch. “Family Crimes challenges me to think about identity, family dynamics, and family histories in a new and complex way. Its blend of secrets, race, abandonment, love, sexuality and morality makes for dynamic storytelling that is simultaneously haunting and uplifting.”
Tickets are free for Kalamazoo College community members (students, faculty and staff) and five dollars for general admission. Thursday’s show begins at 7:30 p.m.; curtain rises at 8 p.m for Friday and Saturday’s performances and at 2 p.m. for Sunday’s concluding production. Call 269.337.7333 for reservations. Tickets also may be purchased at the door one hour before performance. The Dungeon Theatre is located in the Light Fine Arts Building on Kalamazoo College’s campus.
