The summer before my junior year abroad, I applied for an externship in Maine with the Lancaster Baking Company. The business was formed by a K College alumna named Debra Marsteller, and she has continued the company with the help of her husband, son, and various externs from K. Every summer, Debra bakes a wide range of desserts and brings them to the local farmer’s market every week to sell. She makes scones, sticky buns, brookies (a cookie baked inside of a brownie—and yes, it’s as delicious as it sounds!), and lemon tea bread. She sells coffee at her stand as well.

As her extern, I learned a lot about both baking and running your own business. In order to be a vendor at the farmer’s market, she had to apply and have her kitchen inspected. Then she had to develop her recipes, manage ordering ingredients and keep supplies stocked, and keep track of finances. It’s a lot of work to have your own business, especially when you are doing the majority of the work yourself. Over the years, Debra has become skilled in managing all of the various aspects of her baking company, and it was a great experience to learn first-hand how all of that worked.

Every week, we would bake from Thursday to early Saturday morning. We would package all of the baked goods and transport them to the farmer’s market, which ran most of the day Saturday. I helped Debra sell the goods, keep supplies such as coffee cups stocked, and work the cash box. It was really fun to see the community come together and interact with the different vendors. Everyone had such a wide range of skills, from artisan breads and cheeses to hand-woven purses. This introduced me to another aspect of the business world as well—one that involves meeting new people, building a network of customers, and supporting other business owners.

It was such a positive experience to be able to stay with a K alumna and learn about their business. I was able to engage in one of my passions, baking, and to get to know a really kind and interesting person in the process. I was also introduced to the brookie, which remains one of my all-time my favorite desserts to this day.

Natalie Martell- K’16

       I grew up in a very rural part of Maine; I have known since High School that I wanted to both leave Maine for college, and that I wanted to go to a college where I would have the opportunity to go abroad. I also knew that I was very interested in studying Chinese! When I visited K College as an admitted-prospective student, I was both eager and nervous about staying overnight on a college campus, but then I met my host! I was worried the whole day before meeting my overnight host because the name on my sheet said “Tyler Armor.” I was slightly freaking out because I thought they had made a mistake and accidentally assigned me to stay overnight with a guy! But of course, when I met my smiling, friendly host, she was all too excited to meet me as well. 

        I could not have gotten more lucky with my host assignment. Tyler, at the time, was in the spring quarter of her sophomore year, a declared East Asian Studies major, and also a recently accepted participant of the Beijing study abroad program for the following year! She also liked K-pop, one of my favorite types of music. That night we hung out with her friends in their living learning house and talked about K, debated over our favorite bands, and also covered every aspect of the college’s China track. I left the next morning with a smile on my face and a newly posted status on Facebook: “I’m going to Kalamazoo.” 

       Sure enough, the following year I walked back onto campus as a first year student determined already to declare East Asian Studies and go to China my Junior year. Unfortunately though, Tyler was not on campus, like she had planned, she was in China for the entire year! So while she was gone I went about settling into campus, and I hosted my own prospective students. I also took as many Chinese-based classes as I could, including the 100-level Chinese classes, and the Chinese history classes here. Before I knew it, I was declaring my major early in the spring quarter of my freshman year, and I was on track to complete my major and go to China. 

       Then came Sophomore year. Tyler and I had messaged each other here and there throughout my first year on campus, and briefly over the summer while we both traveled around Korea, but we had not seen each other since my time as a prospective student. A week or so after being on campus I saw her across the street for the library and ran over and we had our dramatic reunion! We were so excited to see each other and we had a lot to talk about; I wanted to know all about China.  We bonded over K-pop again and went to see a concert in Chicago, we both participated in a dance in Asia-fest, and we are even registered for the same class next quarter! Last week I was accepted into the Beijing study abroad program for next year, and she is going to graduate. I could not have imagined, almost two years ago from now that I would be in the same place Tyler was when I visited as a prospective student. It’s crazy how things come together.​ 

I am one of the most indecisive people I have ever met. I often undergo an agonizing decision-making process when I’m simply choosing what kind of ice cream I want or what movie I want to watch. So when it came time to decide on which college I wanted to go to, I braced myself for months of struggle, driving myself crazy trying to figure out where I wanted to direct my future.

I didn’t make the process any easier for myself by applying to ten schools. I wasn’t accepted to all of them, of course, but I had a decent selection to choose from. I narrowed it down to three schools, all of which were small liberal arts schools very similar to K.

Deciding where I wanted to go to college turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. K stood out to me for many reasons: the study abroad program, the emphasis on social justice, the beautiful, tight-knit campus. Although I didn’t admit it right away, I knew I wanted to go to K as soon as I got my acceptance letter. The handwritten note at the bottom acknowledging my creativity made me feel like I would be valued at K. I believed I would be entering an environment in which I would feel challenged and also inspired by the unique community of students and faculty.

K was also the only college I applied to that acknowledged my music supplement. I had recorded a disc of four original songs and sent it in with my application—I believed it would make me stand out and demonstrate my creativity. When I learned that K was adding money to my scholarship for my music supplement, I knew that this was the kind of school I wanted to be a part of.

Having been at K for almost four years now, I can say that creativity of the students and faculty at K is as alive and powerful as I had hoped it would be. I am constantly amazed by my fellow students and the things that members of this college have accomplished. I feel lucky to be part of a community that values thoughtfulness and innovation so highly, and I am so thankful that I made the decision to come to K.

– Natalie Martell, K’16

    I want to talk about choosing classes at K. Throughout my entire high school career I was not the biggest fan of history. My high school had a very small number of history classes available and of the few required courses I took there, I was not impressed. Because of this predisposition I had about history as a subject I was very hesitant about taking history classes in college. All of the history classes I took were quite boring, so I was fairly pessimistic when I found that one of the few Chinese electives offered during the Fall quarter of my freshman year was a history class. I knew before coming into college that I wanted to be an East Asian Major and study Chinese, but I was not all that excited to start out my East Asian Studies career with a history class, given my dislike for the subject. None-the-less I decided to give it a shot. 

    Giving it a shot turned out to be a great idea. When I first arrived in the class, Modern China, I was quite intimidated by the syllabus. For the first twenty minutes of class I was dreading my decision while I read over the numerous amount of readings and essays that would be required of me. But then my professor began to lecture. I had never before been so interested by a lecture. On that first day I learned the difference between a high school class and a college class. While my high school history teacher spent more time talking about the history of football than the history of the US, given his second job as football coach, I was amazed to have a professor in college who was actually excited to teach us. He didn’t just lecture us from a book, but he actually knew the material and was able to answer any questions we threw at him. 

    ​That experience lead me to continue taking classes with that professor almost every quarter since. I have also taken him on as my academic advisor and I have been able to advance my East Asian Studies major almost towards completion. I am going to Beijing next year where I will hopefully take a Modern China class, and I can more than say I feel 100% ready to take on that challenge, as my classes here at K have fully prepared me. So, as a result, I would strongly recommend taking a class even if it looks intimidating. Sometimes, no matter how difficult the subject matter, a good teacher can make all the difference. 

– Dejah Crystal, K’18

1.  I’m a STUDENT athlete.

At Kalamazoo College, the most important thing in your life as an athlete is still your schoolwork. Every Coach encourages you to make sure that your academic priorities come before your athletic ones.  There have been a handful of times that I’ve needed to skip practice to finish an assignment or take an exam and Coach Kathy has always been extremely supportive.

2. The Coaching Staff.

As I said above, every Coach on campus is extremely supportive of your academic goals, but they don’t stop there. Each Coach is an expert in his/her sport and many of them are constantly making changes to their programs to make sure their training style is the best for their athletes.  During my four years as a swimmer here at K, Coach Kathy has not once structured a season exactly the same as the last.  She is constantly changing and adapted to current training trends and that’s what makes her so successful.

3. TRADITION.

Speaking of success, athletics at Kalamazoo College have a great tradition of winning. Our Men’s Tennis team holds the longest consecutive Conference Championship streak of any sport in any division.  Our Men’s Swim and Dive Team has 28 MIAA titles, more than the next two teams combined.  Beyond the winning and success however, each team here at K has a rich history and tradition behind it.  Team bonding activities that originated decades ago are still an important part of each team’s identity today.

4. FAMILY.

When you join a sport team at Kalamazoo you aren’t just joining a group of guys or gals (or guys and gals) that play that sport that you do.  You’re joining an entire network of athletes that share your same passion for academics and athletics.  Anytime I need help with something whether it’s academic, personal, or maybe I just need helping moving something heavy, I look to my teammates first.  But it’s not just the teammates that you share your four years with that are part of your family.  Athletes that graduated before you were even in diapers might know who you are and make sure that you wear the orange and black with pride.  And after you graduate, your family becomes your professional network, offering to help you pursue whatever career you choose and providing as many resources as they can.

Athletics at Kalamazoo College is more than just a rich history of success on the field, court, or in the pool. Each athlete that walks through our campus emerges a more wholesome human, ready to take on the world beyond the bubble.

Kevin Ewing, ’16 – Men’s Swimming and Diving