Student Development Staff

"The adjustment from high school and home to college and campus life can be the hardest  one you ever have to make.  The First-Year Experience program is intended to help our  entering students make this adjustment more gracefully.  Beginning with orientation , we encourage our students to take an active role in their education; to learn about  the College and its traditions; to set priorities; to balance a rigorous academic life with  social, cultural and athletic activities; and to make their "K" education what they want  it to be. At "K" students can explore many experiences and thus discover and develop  talents they didn’t know they had. I value the diverse interests and gifts that "K" students bring to our  community."

Zaide Pixley has an MA from City University of New York Hunter College and a PhD from the University of Michigan.  She has been teaching in the Music Department since 1984 and in 1996 assumed the leadership of our new program for first-year students.  In this role, she plans and oversees orientation, Summer Common Reading, the First-Year Seminar Program, First-Year Forums, Academic Advising, and the Portfolio, and works closely with Peer Leaders. Dr. Pixley teaches a First-Year Seminar in the fall quarter and plans Family Weekend each fall. In 1999 Kalamazoo's First-Year Experience Program was recognized by the Templeton Foundation as an exemplary national model.

Congratulations to Dr. Pixley!
Winner of the National Resource Center
2006 Outstanding First-Year Student Advocates

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Office of Student Development at Kalamazoo College
Hicks Center, 1200 Academy Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 49006-3295
(269) 337-7210