Kalamazoo College Community Impact Report
At Kalamazoo College, we’re deeply committed to preparing our students for impactful lives and careers, with support from a dedicated community of stakeholders who share our vision. This investment in a four-year journey of learning and growth creates lasting change, as graduates bring their knowledge, skills and values back to strengthen communities worldwide.
Our mission—to prepare our graduates to better understand, live successfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world—comes to life through the K-Plan. This personalized approach combines exceptional academics, experiential learning, global study and independent scholarship, equipping our students to be thoughtful, engaged citizens and conscientious neighbors.
Meet our Hornets
While our 1,278 Hornets hail from 33 states and 26 countries—and include 85 Promise Scholars—Kalamazoo becomes their home throughout their undergraduate journey. Here, they live, learn, work and invest in the local community. Many continue that investment after graduation, with more than 66 graduates of the Class of 2024 contributing to the region’s workforce and civic life through companies like Ascension, MRC and Stryker, and nonprofits such as the Kalamazoo Nature Center, Friendship Village and the City of Kalamazoo.
See Your Support in Action
Strengthening Kalamazoo’s Business Community
K business students, under the guidance of L. Lee Stryker Professor of Business Management Amy MacMillan, have partnered with Greenleaf Hospitality Group and other local businesses to develop marketing strategies, plan logistics and design a student job-shadowing program—directly contributing to Kalamazoo’s future economic growth.
Advancing Discovery Through Faculty Mentorship
Faculty like Dwight Williams, Kurt D. Kaufman Associate Professor of Chemistry, drive discovery and student success. His NIH-funded research explores molecules that protect brain cells from neurodegenerative diseases, while providing undergraduate research opportunities and mentorship to students in his lab.
Turning Hands-On Learning into a Career
Experiential learning experiences at K often lead to lasting impact—like Olivia DiGiulio ’25, who turned her summer internship with KYD Net into a full-time youth advocacy role at the Michigan Afterschool Partnership—proof that hands-on learning at K sparks meaningful change.
Investing in Our Community
Kalamazoo College’s Economic Impact
Kalamazoo College injects millions into the local economy each year. According to the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (2010–11), the College contributed $32 million annually—roughly $44.8 million in 2024 dollars—through payroll, student spending, visitor contributions and indirect expenditures.
More than an employer, Kalamazoo College also serves as a catalyst for tourism and economic vitality. For over 80 years, the College has invested significant time and resources to host the USTA Boys’ Nationals, drawing top junior players and thousands of spectators, boosting visitor spending and elevating Kalamazoo’s national profile.
Building and Sustaining Community
While on campus, our students actively integrate themselves into their new home. Facilitating community partnerships, several offices at the College connect students with local businesses, schools, governments, non-profits, artists and activists. These partnerships offer a symbiotic relationship in which our students and community partners get to work with and learn from one another.
Strengthening Kalamazoo through Civic Engagement
Most Kalamazoo College students engage with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) during their time at K, partnering with local schools and nonprofits through internships, student-led programs and community-based courses. In 2024–25 alone, students contributed thousands of hours to organizations across Kalamazoo, completing 15 paid community-building internships, leading 10 programs, and enrolling in more than 10 courses designed to deepen civic connections.
The Arts Bring Campus and Community Together
Music ensembles—from orchestral and choral traditions to jazz and global percussion—welcomed nearly 2,500 audience members to campus in 2024–25. Kalamazoo Choral Arts, based at K for more than 70 years, carried its tradition forward with a sold-out Holiday Concert in Stetson Chapel. Festival Playhouse brought powerful storytelling to the stage through mainstage productions and local theatre partnerships, while student artists connected K with downtown Kalamazoo during Art Hop.
Advancing Sustainability
Through the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center, students integrate sustainability into academics and community work. The Lillian Anderson Arboretum welcomed over 20,000 visitors in 2024-25, hosting workshops, trail activities and student-led conservation projects that benefit both campus and community.
Student-Athletes Compete, Achieve and Give Back
K student-athletes lead with excellence, maintaining a team GPA above 3.2 while volunteering with local organizations and mentoring youth through summer camps. Their impact extends beyond the field through Compete for a Cause, a student-led initiative that dedicates games to local nonprofits, raising both funds and awareness for community organizations across Kalamazoo.
Students Lead Social Justice Efforts
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership empowers students to plan, create and implement social justice initiatives on and off campus. In 20242–25 its podcast Beyond Voting won a Webby Award, the “internet’s highest honor,” recognizing its incisive conversations on civic engagement and social justice. The distinction highlights K students’ leadership and the Center’s role in fostering community dialogue and action on critical social issues.
Want to support our Hornets? Contact Maria Newhouse, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, at 269.337.7297 or at maria.newhouse@kzoo.edu.
Our Partners
At Kalamazoo College, we embrace our motto—More in Four. More in a Lifetime.—by offering students more opportunities to explore, more mentorship and support, and more preparation for meaningful careers that make a positive impact on the world.
Thank you to our partners who have generously made these opportunities and a K education possible for our students.
The Burdick-Thorne Foundation
The H.P. and Genevieve Connable Fund
Dorthy U. Dalton Foundation
The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation
Suzanne Upjohn DeLano Parish Foundation
The Thomas A. Todd Foundation
The W.S. and Lois VanDalson Foundation
Tyler-Little Family Foundation
Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation
The College acknowledges that it was built on the land of the Council of the Three Fires—the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi—and recognizes the enduring relationship that exists between the People of the Three Fires and this land.