students

K-Plan Cultivation

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Kalamazoo College students may not be in class during the summer, but they are busy cultivating their K-Plans, across the country and around the world, in externships and internships supported by the Center for Career and Professional Development.

This summer 109 students are taking part in the CCPD’s summer career development programs. The Discovery Externship Program, in its 12th year, offers 46 first-year and sophomore students the opportunity to test the waters of a possible career by living and working with an alumni or parent professional for up to four weeks. Externs and hosts agree that the intensity of sharing both workday and “porchtime” experiences leads to rich relationships and deep discovery about the reality of the working world. This summer discovery externs can be found shadowing alumni in hospitals and health networks, a maritime museum, an organic food truck, dentistry and veterinary practices, financial and consulting firms, a school in India and a farm in Michigan.

To ensure the educational quality of their workplace experience, interns enrolled in the CCPD’s Field Experience Program agree with their supervisor on a learning contract outlining mutual goals and objectives for their summer together. They commit to regular structured reflection about their workplace experience, and they receive evaluation feedback at the conclusion of the internship. This summer, 63 interns are spending at least six weeks working with alumni professionals, Kalamazoo area non-profits, social justice organizations, and a wide range of independently-secured experiences across the country. Most Field Experience Program interns receive a stipend to help defray the costs of their unpaid experiences.

Externships and internships challenge students to apply theoretical learning to practical situations and to examine assumptions about work and careers. One current student mid-way through her internship described her summer work experience as “both gratifying and challenging.” She said, “In many ways this internship is not meeting my expectations and is showing me how off-base those expectations have been. These past three weeks have helped me rid myself of assumptions I held, and have given me new ways of thinking about how work at a non-profit can be done.”

The CCPD is already at work recruiting hosts and supervisors for summer 2014. Alumni and parents interested in offering a workplace experience to a student may contact career@kzoo.edu to request more information about becoming part of the Discovery Externship Program or the Field Experience Program.

A First-Class Large Class

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The Kalamazoo College class of 2017 is coming this fall and it is the most numerous class the College has ever seen: 463 strong! And no member of the class has changed his or her mind about coming so far—a phenomenon known as “summer melt,” which is usually in process by this time of the summer.

Most of the incoming class comes from Michigan, but 30 percent come from out of state. And 34 international students are heading here from around the world to study at K! The College’s international student body has been rising at a steady rate for several years.

And 2017 a first-class large class. More than 400 of its members volunteer for worthy causes. When they are not volunteering they are busy in sports, choir, band, and the National Honor Society, among other activities.

At least 150 of the incoming students played one or more sports; 129 were the captains of a sports team.

If you can’t move your feet, you can at least go with the beat—171 reported to be in band or choir.

And 190 are members of the National Honors Society. Not surprising given the class’ average GPA and ACT scores are 3.58 and 29, respectively.

Odds and Ends With a K Connection

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Matters of T-shirts, essays, and scholarships meant good news for three people who share a Kalamazoo College connection.

Kalamazoo College alumnus Chris Tower on the quad
Chris Tower ′85

Writer and college instructor Chris Tower ’85 shows off his Kalamazoo College pride on his T-Shirt blog, “I would not be the person I am today if I had not attended and ultimately graduated from Kalamazoo College.”

Congratulations to Tessa Moore ’15. Her essay, The Ezili, earned her the Voynovich Scholarship, which hasn’t been awarded since 2008.

Kalamazoo College alumna Mariah Hennen
Mariah Hennen ′15 at Harvest Fest, fall 2012.

Mariah Hennen ’15 was 35 out of more than 100 students nationwide to be awarded the Jo Anne J. Trow National Scholarship. Recipients must maintain a 3.5 GPA. Selections are based on academic records, applicants’ statements, and campus and community activities.

Good Chemistry

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Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott wearing goggles in a lab
Lori-Ann Williams, Geneci Marroquin and Josh Abbott in the lab.

It’s summertime at K; the weather is hot, and so is the chemistry on the second floor of the Dow Science Center. In the first of a series of articles, we focus on chemistry research underway on campus during summer 2013.

Three students are advancing ongoing research projects in the inorganic chemistry laboratory of Professor of Chemistry Tom Smith. Each project is focused on elements included in a group known as transitional metals. Josh Abbott ’13, Lori-Ann Williams ’14, and Geneci Marroquin ’14 apply various techniques to characterize reactions that occur in nature (as well as some chemistry that nature doesn’t do) involving the elements vanadium (Abbott), manganese (Williams), and cobalt and nickel (Marroquin).

The researchers are working to create small molecule models that are motivated by the chemical reactions that occur in nature and involve more complex substances such as enzymes. All three are performing the intricate chemical experiments required to make crystal samples of molecules that result from the aforementioned reactions—enough samples, and of sufficient quality, for the technique known as x-ray crystallography, which will render a three-dimensional portrait of the molecule.  (The notion of portraiture is particularly apt for the chemistry of transitional metals, known for their colors and alterations of color as a result of molecular changes.) The x-ray crystallography work will mean an August trip to Purdue University (the workplace of a long-time collaborator with Smith in these scientific projects) for Smith and the student researchers.

The work of Williams and Marroquin will form the basis of their respective Senior Individualized Projects. Williams’ work, says Smith, is more biologically oriented, and seeks to reconcile data on manganese compounds from Williams and the Smith lab with data published on manganese work from a laboratory in India. Marroquin’s is more “catalytically oriented, doing something nature doesn’t do,” she says. If Marroquin’s contribution to the ongoing project is successful, subsequent work may one day lead to more efficient energy generation. “We’re trying to save the world in this lab,” smiles Marroquin.

Abbott graduated in June but wanted to more research work in inorganic chemistry, the most liberal arts-ish of all chemistry disciplines. “It relates to all other branches of chemistry and science and is very useful for better understanding of peer-reviewed literature in biochemistry,” he said. His vanadium research originates from the way sea algae synthesize special organic molecules for self protection.

It’s been a good summer in Smith’s lab. All five of his researchers are “highly motivated and getting a lot done,” Smith said. (Leland O’Connor ’14 and Mojtaba Ahkavandafi ’15 were not in the lab the day we dropped in, and they are working on projects very different from those of the other students.)

Building Baldwin

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African-American writer James Baldwin
James Baldwin

When he was invited to Kalamazoo College′s campus in 1960, African-American writer James Baldwin knew he would be looking out at a mostly white audience. Kalamazoo College Professor of English Bruce Mills led a class this past year called “Building the Archive: Baldwin and His Legacy.” In the effort of rediscovering Baldwin’s visit to campus, the class studied and enhanced the K campus’ and Kalamazoo community’s archives and deepened students′ understanding of his writings.

In order to build an archive of Baldwin’s visit to K, Mill′s students interviewed people who were in Kalamazoo during the civil rights movements and alumni who were present for Baldwin’s speech. Interviews were made into a DVD/CD and hard copy transcriptions. A copy of each interview set was given to the Colleges archives and to the South West Michigan Black Heritage Society.

Many details from Baldwin’s visit have been lost or misplaced throughout the years, even the date that he actually came. College records show that he came in February of 1960. But one interviewee, a 1964 K graduate, said that couldn’t be correct. Also the front page of an Index student newspaper edition—dated November 16,1960—states “Novelist Baldwin Arrives on Campus For Week.” These are details that need to be further researched and rediscovered, said Mills.

Mills′s class read and discussed many books and essays by Baldwin, including the speech he gave at K, “In Search of a Majority.” Baldwin’s books, essays, and speeches are still relevant to K students, says Mills, because he discusses sexuality, religion, race, and living as a foreigner, topics still important to students.

“The challenge from Baldwin,” said Mills, “is to be who we say we are. The challenge is to listen. Keeping alive his legacy as a writer is the reason to archive. It is important to archive now, because our sources of information are slowly disappearing.”

Story by Mallory Zink ′15

Mud for Kids

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Suzanne Curtiss ′14 has been running things at International Child Care (ICC).

Literally, running.

Curtiss is the ICC student intern working out of the Christian health development organization’s headquarters in downtown Kalamazoo this summer. ICC is partnering with the Warrior Dash II mud run in Walker, Mich., near Grand Rapids on an event in September, and Curtiss has been charged with getting the word out. So she laced up her running shoes and has been running the streets of Kalamazoo to deliver news releases to Kalamazoo-area news media, running clubs, and anyone else who will listen.

She encourages everyone to join ICC′s Labou Pou Timoun (Creole for “Mud for Kids”) running event to help raise money for ICC’s childhood poverty and health initiative in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The mud run, held September 21, is a 3.1-mile obstacle course that includes man-made obstacles and “tons of mud,” she says.

Suzanne Curtiss
Susanne Curtiss ’14

Working with ICC on the mud run has been Curtiss′s first real public relations experience and the English major (with a business minor and concentration in media studies) loves it.

“The work that ICC does is really inspiring, and I feel very honored to be able to spend my summer working to promote the organization and its international projects and involvements” said Curtiss.

ICC operates in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti with a children′s hospital and another that serves tuberculosis patients. It’s working to change the conditions of poverty that impact health and well-being in those countries.

Curtiss′s classmate, Zoe Beaudry ’14, also has an internship with ICC and will head to Haiti in August Advertisement for Warrior Dash IIto work at ICC′s Grace Children’s Hospital on art projects with the patients. At the end of her six weeks there, she will compile the projects into a photo book for distribution in Haiti and back in Kalamazoo.

Keep running, Suzanne and Zoe!

Story by Mallory Zink ′15.

Summer in the Zoo

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What do students do at Kalamazoo College during the summer? They are certainly here—some 200 or so. Students from around the world enjoy these hot months on campus. They work as interns, they continue work-study jobs, they spruce up the infrastructure with Facilities Management (FacMan) colleagues, they conduct research in the Dow science building, they dive into the early phases of the Senior Individualized Projects. For fun, they run around, go on adventures, eat great food, and hang out with friends. Here’s what a few students are up to this summer.

Jane Huffman sitting at a desk
Jane Huffman

Meet Jane Huffman ’15, administrative intern for the theatre arts department, splitting her time between Saugatuck (Mich., where she’s working on the plays Xanadu and Game Show) and the Kalamazoo College campus. She has been having some fun cooking home made meals with her housemates and going to see some shows at the local theatres. She will study this fall in Chicago and is sad to be missing the opening festivities of the 50thanniversary season of Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College.

Dorraine Duncan sitting at a desk
Dorraine Duncan

Dorraine Duncan ’14 is the student intern at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.  This summer she has been cooking up an international food storm. The best meal she has made was her own version of the Thai dish “Gra-Pow”. Her friend from Thailand gave her an eight out of 10! Dorraine will soon return to Kingston, Jamaica, for an environmental internship. It will be her first trip home in two years.

Utsav Adhikari driving a cart
Utsav Adhikari and “The Beast”.

Utsav Adhikari ’14 is in his third year on the FacMan recycling crew this summer. On that experience rests his claim to be the “wisest of the FacMan recycling crew.” This summer he went to Irish Fest, one of many summer festivals in downtown Kalamazoo, and had a splendid time. He plays a lot of soccer with neighborhood acquaintances on the Davis Street soccer fields, and chills with friends at the beach in St. Joseph, Mich. At the end of June, he left for an internship at Pinnacle Solutions, a business intelligence company based in Indianapolis, Ind.

Compost Intern Samantha Jolly
Compost Intern Samantha Jolly

Samantha Jolly ’15 holds two positions this summer. She is one of three interns for the Lillian Anderson Arboretum. And she’s the College’s sole summer compost intern. Whatever you might imagine about that second post, Samantha likes both her jobs—minimal supervision! She is her own boss! At three o’clock everyday she heads home to start cooking something delectable; her best meal so far has been her black bean burgers. Every weekend Samantha heads downtown for brunch at her favorite local restaurant, Main Street Café.

Tyler Nichols in the library
Tyler Nichols

Tyler Nichols ’15 has been a busy kid this summer. He works full time as a chef at Henderson Castle, (he prefers the dinner shift). He also has a research stipend from K for an interdisciplinary research project with a political science emphasis. In between work and research he often finds himself at Bell’s Brewing Company or at impromptu block parties in the Vine Street neighborhood.

RA Erika Robles with Sammy Li
RA Erika Robles with Sammy Li

Erika Robles ’14 hails from Costa Rica and just returned to K from study abroad in Japan. In addition to working for FacMan she also serves as Hoben Hall’s summer Resident Assistant. “It’s much more chill in the summer here, with fun small events like barbeques,” she said. She can’t believe how many times she and her friends have made the trek by bus to the movie theater this summer. She has also been enjoying the festivals in downtown Kalamazoo.

Brad Stech
Brad Stech

Brad Stech ’15 is a proud member of the custodial FacMan crew. He stayed over to earn some money before he heads out on his extended-term study abroad (nine months!) in Japan. He likes his job because of the funny and friendly people he gets to work with. In his free time he has been hanging out with friends, playing music, and enjoying sushi from downtown Kalamazoo.

Dakota Clement
Dakota Clement

Dakota Clement ’14 lives with his friends in the Vine Street neighborhood. He is working his third summer for the FacMan grounds crew, and he is also starting preliminary research for his Senior Individualized Project. He is writing a poetry SIP based on nine of his favorite movies from directors Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick. These films include Clock Work Orange and The Thin Red Line.

Hadley Harris
Hadley Harris

Hadley Harris ’16 lives only twenty minutes away from K but decided to stay on campus to continue her work-study job in media services. There are not too many media requests during the summer, so the crew has spent a lot of time cleaning the library’s DVD collection. When she can’t stand to be in the humid dorm rooms at night, she heads to the movies with her friends.

Sammy Li
Sammy Li

Sammy Li ’16, a native of China, stayed at K to work for FacMan’s renovation crew. She resides in the Vine Street neighborhood but often thinks about camping out in Hicks Center because of the summer heat! She has gone to the movies a lot, and not just because of the air conditioning. Her favorite films of the summer have been World War Z, The Lone Ranger, and Despicable Me 2.

Kalamazoo College Guilds Reach 1,833rd Member

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At tonight’s Major League Baseball all-star game, players from the National and American Leagues will contend to make their team number 1. But it takes someone really special–like Gail Raiman–to be number 1,833. Today (July 16) Raiman became 1,833rd member of the global professional network known as the Guilds of Kalamazoo College. The special number corresponds to the year 1833, when Kalamazoo College was founded.

A graduate of the Class of 1973, Raiman majored in philosophy, studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and completed a career service internship for then house minority leader Gerald Ford. After graduation she worked in the Ford Administration and later held executive positions for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, and the national trade association Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. She serves on the College’s Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association Executive Board. And now she’s joined the Guilds LinkedIn group, becoming the 1833rd member of the extended K community to do so since the Guilds launched their LinkedIn network in June 2010.

Other new Guild members admitted along with Raiman this week include Jeff Outslay ’06, an MBA Associate at Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Georgia; Leslie Knox ’01, a case management professional at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York; Riley Lundquist ’16, a rising sophomore and summer engineering intern at Eaton Corporation outside Kalamazoo; and Elinor Epperson ’13, an aspiring video editor and public historian who just graduated in June.

The Guilds of Kalamazoo College launched in January 2008 as part of a strategic initiative to engage alumni professionals in current students’ career development. In January 2013, five Guilds became seven when the Arts & Media Guild and the Education Guild joined the Business Guild, the Health Guild, the Law Guild, the Nonprofit & Public Service Guild, and the Science & Technology Guild.

Reaching the 1833rd member mark is the result of sustained outreach and growth on the LinkedIn professional networking platform, according to Joan Hawxhurst, director of the Center for Career and Professional Development. Overall membership in the College’s Guilds is up 40 percent compared to last year. Guild members seek and offer mentorship, career advice, summer and entry-level positions, insight into industry trends, and networking opportunities.

Avon Helps K Promote Healthy Dating Relationships

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World map shows sites of schools and organizations that have received Green Dot training
Sites of schools and organizations that have received Green Dot training

The Avon Foundation for Women has awarded Kalamazoo College a $5,000 grant to promote healthy sexual relationships on campus.  The grant will allow K to begin training in the Green Dot Campaign.

The Green Dot Campaign is a new way to help prevent sexual assault. The program is designed to teach bystanders and peers how to help intervene in an unsafe situation.

Deb Rose, one of K’s counseling psychologists, applied for the grant last summer. She will be attending a training course  this summer, where she will learn how to use the Green Dot strategy and how to teach it to groups and student organizations on campus.

Dean Sarah Westfall said, “National data suggests that on college campuses sexual assault is widely under reported. I think it is true at K as well. No one wants that. The Green Dot Campaign looks at what tools are already available. It makes a lot of sense.”

Dean Westfall hopes to keep the campaign going year round with informative training sessions for everyone, not just student organizations. “The more people who know the program, the better for everyone,” said Westfall.

Last Look Back

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2013 Graduates on study abroad in Spain
2013 Graduates on study abroad in Spain.

Graduating seniors of the Class of 2013 completed an anonymous survey titled “First Destination.” As the name implies most of the questions look forward. But at least one looked back: “What was your most meaningful or transformative experience at K?”

The majority of the 2013 graduating students reported that study abroad was the most meaningful experience at K. One student responded, “My time abroad was transformative. It opened my eyes to the wider world around me and taught me that apart from our cultural differences, all people have the same general needs and wants. All people want to be respected, and all need health care, shelter, and food.”

That study aboard was valued so highly by seniors is no surprise. The College offers 41 programs in 21 countries on six continents, differing in length and academic emphasis. In the past four years K has had a student participation rate between 80 and 85. The Institute of International Education has ranked Kalamazoo College 10th among colleges and universities for study abroad participation.

Many students cited professors and classes as the most meaningful experience. Again, not surprising given that K has a 12-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio. In addition, academics is integrated with service-learning and social justice, and students mention the importance of both. One students response: “The personalized, experiential education I was able to pursue at K made my learning not some stilted academic experience, but rather four years of intense personal growth and developing relationships with others that helped me both better understand my future path and inspired me to continue on it.”

Students also lauded the importance of co-curricular activities, including sports teams and campus student organizations. K has more than 60 active student organizations that focus on various areas, such as culture, athletics, music, politics, publishing, and spirituality.

A few students said working on campus was meaningful to them. Their jobs here opened up new opportunities and allowed them to give back to the K community.

A small amount of students cited their Senior Individualized Project as the most transformative part of their time at K. “My SIP year gave me the tools and confidence that will carry on into my life after K,” said one student.