Cheryl Johnson ’83, a Notable Women in Nonprofits honoree, is the Coalition on Temporary Shelter executive director and CEO.Jennifer Lepard ’86, a Notable Women in Nonprofits honoree, is the president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Greater Michigan Chapter.
Crain’s Detroit Business is honoring two Kalamazoo College alumnae in its 2018 list of 59 Notable Women in Nonprofits.
Johnson builds community partnerships to nurture the skills of those COTS serves and she advocates for social change. Lepard has led a staff of 60 people in six statewide offices since 2013, serving many of the 180,000 individuals in Michigan who live with Alzheimer’s disease. She also was responsible for leading the nonprofit’s merger with the national Alzheimer’s organization.
Johnson, Lepard and the 57 other women honored were nominated by their community and career peers for their work in building endowments, programming and relationships for the organizations they lead. Read more about the honorees in nonprofit organizations and other industries at the Crain’s Detroit Business website.
Kalamazoo College alumnus Peter Rothstein ’14 is celebrating his selection in the 2019 edition of 30 Under 30, Forbes’ annual list of 600 young visionaries from 20 industries.
Rothstein, originally from West Bloomfield, Michigan, is the director of operations for Brooklyn, New York-based Dona Chai. He and his sister, Amy, founded the company, crafting tea concentrates and sodas brewed with spices from around the world. Its products are available at independent coffee shops and Whole Foods stores, mostly on the East and West Coast.
Peter Rothstein ’14 and his sister, Amy, were included in the 2019 edition of 30 Under 30, Forbes’ annual list of 600 young visionaries from 20 industries. The pair founded the company Dona Chai.
Tea leaves couldn’t have predicted a coffee-shop-inspired success for Rothstein after he graduated from K with a business degree. Rothstein admitted he doesn’t care for coffee and the last time he had any was years ago.
“And that was when I tried a decaf cappuccino with sugar packets and more sugar packets,” he said. However, in 2014, “Amy was attending New York University when she noticed a trend toward better coffee. People wanted higher quality and better baked goods, but people were still using big brand names.”
Armed with ideas and some encouragement from their dad, who is a venture capitalist, the pair created Dona Chai. Today, the company’s masala chai and turmeric tea concentrates are mixed with milk and served hot. Its soda flavors include Juniper Lime Spice, Turmeric Honeybush and Pink Peppercorn.
“There was a lot of learning and trial and error for us at first,” Rothstein said. “It took about two years for us to realize we would be successful.”
At that point, Dona Chai products started getting sold at Whole Foods locations, and the company eclipsed $600,000 in revenue after developing trade-show popularity.
“Even then it still took a couple of months,” Rothstein said, adding that selling a new tea in a retail location requires customers to change something about their morning routine for the product to draw demand. “It took working with customers and baristas. But after that, we saw inventory turn rapidly, and we realized we would be successful.”
When Rothstein reflects on his success, he credits K, the liberal arts and the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College’s distinctive approach to the liberal arts and sciences, for teaching him to think differently and solve problems. Rothstein added a corporate finance course, led by Associate Professor of Economics and Business Tim Moffit ’80, was among his favorites at K.
Although he had first attended Johns Hopkins, Rothstein quickly learned he wanted a different experience, and meeting Kalamazoo College men’s tennis coach Mark Riley convinced him to switch schools.
Riley is “the type of guy who can put his arm around you and nurture you, or he can push you beyond what you think you can do,” said Rothstein, who competed in tennis and studied abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland, in his years at K. “Once I got to K I realized it had a lot of Mark Rileys. That included everyone from my professors to the general staff, to the trainers, to the Registrar’s Office and others. I can’t thank Kalamazoo College enough.”
Read more about Rothstein, his sister, Dona Chai and others honored in the 30 Under 30 Food and Drink category at Forbes’ website.
Students participate in Grateful for K Day by writing thank-you notes showing appreciation to Kalamazoo College donors.
Students, faculty, staff and alumni will celebrate a day honoring Kalamazoo College’s philanthropic donors from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Hicks Student Center.
Sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Fund, Grateful for K Day – conducted twice a year – calls on students to honor the importance of philanthropy in sustaining and enhancing Kalamazoo College by writing personalized notes to thank donors for their support. Donations help about 98 percent of K students receive scholarships or some other form of financial aid.
All students are welcome to participate. Coffee and cookies will be served.
An idea from the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees is ensuring that K’s students will continue to thrive in the K-Plan. The board has decided that three of its members, elected to three-year terms, will serve as recent-graduate trustees. The advantage is that trustees with better knowledge of how current students navigate their educations and experiences will help the board make more informed decisions in guiding the College.
Mark Ghafari ’14 serves as one of three recent-graduate trustees on the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees.
As the board convenes this month, the recent-graduate trustees are:
Mark Ghafari ’14, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch in Grand Rapids, Michigan;
Asia Liza Morales ’15, a strategic projects specialist at the Posse Foundation in New York City; and
Jerrod Howlett ’09, a manager of product solutions at Google in New York City.
Ghafari is beginning his first year on the board, Morales is in her second year and Howlett is in his third.
In his years as a student, Ghafari majored in economics, played men’s basketball, studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, with travels through Belgium and the Netherlands, and learned about internships while working in the Center for Career and Professional Development.
Asia Liza Morales ’15 serves as one of three recent-graduate trustees on the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees.
“It’s an unbelievable honor to provide the board with the perspective of a recent graduate,” Ghafari said. “I applaud the College for having this role, and it’s a great opportunity to advance the mission of the College. It’s an exciting time with President Gonzalez and a new strategic plan. It’s exciting to be able to help.”
The board is comprised of 33 trustees including Gonzalez. Its members reflect major sectors of society and represent nationwide locales as well as the Kalamazoo community and College alumni. All are tasked with serving current and future students by assuring K’s continued place among the top private liberal arts colleges in the country.
Morales says to those current and future students, “There are so many experiences to be had at K that don’t happen at other colleges. This place fosters an experience unlike any other. It can be anything and everything you want it to be. Once I got in the workplace, I knew how far ahead I was because of Kalamazoo College.”
Jerrod Howlett ’09 serves as one of three recent-graduate trustees on the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees.
Morales was a Posse scholar on campus, majored in biology, minored in anthropology and sociology, served as a president’s student ambassador, and spent a semester abroad in Cáceres, Spain.
Howlett as a student sought outside-the-classroom activities such as intercollegiate athletics including tennis; arts experiences such as Premium Orange, an a capella group; and a summer internship through Compuware, a software company. He also wanted the personal access to faculty that K provided.
“The relationships I built with my professors and the level of care they took to invest in me were the pinnacle experience of attending Kalamazoo College,” Howlett said. The faculty “always ensured they could take time out of their day so we could learn more. I know I could always go to them to ask questions.
“I have no idea if I’d be in the same place without K. I know it helped me get here.”
Other Homecoming events this Friday-Sunday include:
the Alumni Association Awards Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Join us in the Dalton Theatre at Light Fine Arts to honor the award recipients for 2018 including Distinguished Service Award winner Rick Gianino ’78, Distinguished Achievement Award winner Sandra Greene ’74, Weimer K. Hicks Award winner David Barclay, Young Alumni Award winner Eli Savit ’05, and the Athletic Hall of Fame Awards honorees. The athletic awards honorees include Kristyn Buhl-Lepisto ’04 (women’s golf); Meaghan Clark McGuire ’05 (women’s tennis), Eric Gerwin ’00 (football), Scott Whitbeck ’04 (men’s swimming and diving), and the 1955, 1980 and 1981 men’s tennis teams.
reunions of the classes of 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013.
receptions and gatherings for groups including the 1833 and Stetson societies, the Alumni of Color, the Emeriti Club, and alumni from specific academic departments.
guided campus tours of historical sites, the campus in general and the new hoop house.
performances by Monkapult, Cirque du K and theater seniors.
opportunities for alumni to tell their K stories in video through Story Zoo.
gatherings where alumni can offer advice and compare notes with current students.
Kalamazoo College tied for 11th in 2018 among small colleges and universities sending alumni to Teach for America, which recruits outstanding leaders to become lifelong advocates for educational equality in the U.S.
Kalamazoo College ranks 11th among small schools sending its alumni to Teach for America as seven from the class of 2018 joined the education organization’s corps.
Teach for America’s recruits work for at least two years in a low-income school district classroom, where they nurture students and build their own leadership skills. The experience helps recent graduates gain the context and clarity they need to move on to graduate school or continue developing educational equality in any sector. Recruits receive salaries and some receive student loan forgiveness.
The recruits, in 51 communities nationwide, will team up with more than 56,000 alumni leaders, who work as professional educators, policy makers, lawyers, business owners, nonprofit administrators, medical professionals and more, to expand children’s opportunities. Of the organization’s 3,600 recruits from more than 700 colleges and universities, seven recruits are 2018 K grads.
This year’s recruits are among Teach for America’s most diverse since its founding in 1990 with more than half the recruits identifying as people of color, about 45 percent coming from low-income backgrounds, and about a third being the first in their families to graduate from college.
Teach for America Recruitment Manager Jess Hernandez says K’s place in the rankings figures considering the sense the College’s students have for community engagement and the students’ highly respected educational achievements.
“We only accept about 14 percent of the recruits who apply, so Kalamazoo College should be proud it’s contributing such excellent numbers,” said Hernandez, who has worked with K students for about two years. “We’re looking for students who are leaders, and we’re looking for strong academics. Kalamazoo College students check off those boxes,” noting program and K alumni such as Michigan Rep. Darrin Camilleri.
“We see it in their civic engagement,” she added. “We see it in their orientation leaders. We know that (Teach for America) offers Kalamazoo College students an opportunity to continue their service work after college and that’s really attractive.”
Stryker’s contribution establishes a 10-year scholarship program at the College for talented students in need of financial support.
Kalamazoo College is proud to announce today the establishment of the Jon L. Stryker Future Leaders Scholarship Program. Through a generous $20 million contribution from Jon Stryker, the scholarship program has been created to assist students in need of financial support and to further Kalamazoo College’s commitment to diversity within its student body. The program, beginning in academic year 2018-2019, will provide $2 million in scholarships annually over the next 10 years.
Jon Stryker ’82 believes education for all people is a highly effective way to break the cycles of marginalization and inequality that continue to plague this country. His generous $20 million gift will provide scholarships to future leaders seeking a Kalamazoo College education.
The Jon L. Stryker Future Leaders scholarships will primarily support students of color, first generation college students and students from lower income families.
“We are incredibly grateful to Jon Stryker for this remarkable gift that opens the doors of our unique institution to students who otherwise would not have this opportunity. The future of our society depends on our ability to develop leaders from diverse backgrounds. It is an honor that Jon has placed this tremendous trust in his alma mater,” said Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez.
Stryker’s contribution supports and affirms the goals of the College’s new strategic plan, “Advancing Kalamazoo College: A Strategic Vision for 2023.”
Additionally, the gift is being made in anticipation of Kalamazoo College’s next fundraising campaign and is intended to encourage other alumni, families and friends of the College to contribute $20 million toward endowed scholarships.
“I am thrilled to be able to make this contribution to my alma mater with the goal of advancing diversity and inclusion in higher education,” Stryker said. “Supporting a pathway to higher education for all people is a highly effective way to break the cycles of marginalization and inequality that continue to plague this country. There is much more work to be done and my hope is to inspire more members of the Kalamazoo College community to make additional contributions to support diverse students at K.”
The scholarships made possible by Stryker’s contribution and others like it will have an immediate and long-term impact for current and future members of the College’s student body.
Jon Stryker, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich., is an architect and philanthropist. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Kalamazoo College in 1982 and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2000, he established the Arcus Foundation to support the advancement of LGBT civil rights globally and the conservation of the world’s great apes.
He has been an influential contributor to Kalamazoo College over the years. He serves on the College’s Board of Trustees, and has made more than $10 million in funding grants to support the College’s highly ranked study abroad program and enrollment diversity efforts. In 2008, he established a $5.6 million grant to fund the tuition and financial support of 50 Posse Scholars, a program of the Posse Foundation to pair high-performing public high school students from underrepresented groups in higher education with full, four-year academic scholarships.
Additionally, his Arcus Foundation awarded the College more than $25 million in grants to create and sustain The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. The center became fully operational on campus in academic year 2010-2011 and supports the College’s goal to develop emerging leaders and sustaining existing leaders in the field of human rights and social justice. Stryker also funded the award-winning building that houses the center. This building, designed by Studio Gang in Chicago, was dedicated in September 2014.
Through these and other donations, Stryker has given a total of $66 million to Kalamazoo College. For Stryker’s devotion to K, he was awarded the College’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010.
Kalamazoo College is a nationally recognized residential liberal arts college located in Kalamazoo, Mich. The creator of the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College provides an individualized education that integrates rigorous academics with life-changing experiential learning opportunities.
Though Kalamazoo College chemistry professor Tom Smith has had 40 years to devise just the right formula for ensuring the success of his students, they’ll tell you that he had it from the very start. Alumni — led by two who were part of the first class Smith taught in the 1978-79 school year, Chris Bodurow and Bob Weinstein, both ’79 — are in the midst of a fundraising effort that has endowed the Thomas J. Smith Student Research Fellowship in Chemistry. The fund honors the retiring Smith, the Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry, by supporting an initiative he chose, and which is close to his heart: independent summer research.
As Tom Smith, the Kalamazoo College Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry, retires after 40 years as a student favorite, some of his former students are honoring him by endowing an independent summer student research fellowship in his name.
With Min Soo Kim ’19 designated as the first recipient, the endowment drive is entering its second phase. Bodurow is personally pledging a match of up to $20,000 in contributions with the goal of expanding the number of students who receive the fellowship each summer, a priority for the College as its new strategic plan re-emphasizes the K-Plan tenets of experiential education and independent scholarship.
Testifying to the devotion Smith inspires: He has been designated an Alpha Lambda Delta National Honorary Society Favorite Teacher by first-year students 13 times since 2003. In addition, he has directed the Senior Individualized Projects of 70 students, was named a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Scholar and was awarded the Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Work and the Dr. Winthrop S. and Lois A. Hudson Award for Outstanding Contributions in Research at Kalamazoo College.
It doesn’t take a list of awards, however, to understand the influence Smith has had on students, and the profound sense of appreciation it has engendered in the more than a dozen alumni who have contributed some $130,000 for the endowment.
Bodurow and Weinstein were seniors when Smith arrived at the College, fresh from post-doctoral work at Caltech. They said Smith immediately took on a role that went far beyond just teaching chemistry.
“He really had a very strong propensity to encourage us in our studies and in our post-Kalamazoo College strategies in our lives. He quickly identified students he thought ought to pursue graduate degrees and encouraged us,” said Bodurow, who went on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and has had a distinguished career in drug research. Now retired from Eli Lilly and Company, where she was senior research director, external sourcing, for the Medicines Development Unit, she is a member of the board of the American Chemical Society and is president of PharmaDOQS, a consultancy.
“Tom was very deliberate about understanding our strengths and passions and directing us,” said Bodurow. “It was all because of his strong commitment to launching us, and he made sure we had a strong post-Kalamazoo plan. It was quite extraordinary. If you talk to anyone who has had Tom as a professor, they will tell you a similar story.”
Weinstein does.
“He helped us understand what it meant to go to grad school and how to get to grad school. He was telling us what it was like and challenging us with projects,” said Weinstein, who earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is president and CEO of Robertet USA, an arm of the French-owned maker of flavors, fragrances and natural raw materials. “It didn’t take Tom Smith very long to say, ‘This is what the College is about: I will prepare these students for graduate school or medical school and really dedicate myself to helping them.’ ”
Smith, he said, “was the engine behind me. To be able to contribute to his legacy at K is a privilege that I am proud to be able to do. I honestly believe that nothing I have accomplished would have been possible without Tom Smith and K.”
Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said few things are more meaningful to professors than to have former students credit them for their successes. To have them go a step further and fund an endowment in their name, he said, “is both an honor and an affirmation that you have achieved the goal motivating every educator, and that is to make a real difference in your students’ lives.”
Smith called it “humbling.”
“You think you’re getting your job done and then you discover decades later that the impact has lasted,” said Smith, an aficionado of hiking and movies, who described the honor as a fitting capstone for his career.
“So often when I say goodbye to students, I tell them, ‘Go out and make the world a better place,’ ” he said. “It becomes a lifelong interaction. That’s why we do this.”
To contribute to the Thomas J. Smith Student Research Fellowship in Chemistry, or to discuss creating an endowment in the name of another favorite faculty or staff member, contact Kalamazoo College Vice President for Advancement Al J. DeSimone at 269.337.7292 or Al.DeSimone@kzoo.edu.
Imagine an opportunity to travel abroad, retrace your heritage, teach English in a foreign country, greet family you’ve never known and promote international understanding between cultures. Katie Johnson ’18 will have that opportunity through a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant that will take her to Lithuania this fall.
Katie Johnson ’18 developed a taste for international travel when she studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary. She liked the experience so much that she decided to apply for a Fulbright grant when she returned. That grant will take her this fall to Lithuania.
Johnson – a business major and psychology minor from Okemos, Michigan – has yet to receive the specific assignment that details her Fulbright destination city and school. She expects, however, to work in a rural village within about three hours of the capital, Vilnius.
Johnson will travel to Washington, D.C., for an orientation in July before heading to Lithuania in late August or September.
Kalamazoo College was identified as one of the top-producing Fulbright colleges and universities in the 2017-18 academic year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to research, study or teach English abroad for one academic year.
Such recognition is one of the highest honors the federal government gives with regard to scholarship and international exchange. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected as a result of their academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields, to promote international understanding.
“I feel very fortunate to have attended K,” said Johnson, who has also served on the Athletic Leadership Council, received internships and held an externship at Ryzome Investment Advisors during her college years. “I don’t think I would’ve had these opportunities at another school.”
Johnson chose Kalamazoo College because attending would allow her to play for the women’s lacrosse team while still getting to study abroad. That led her during her junior year to Budapest, Hungary, where the people she met and the independence she gained shaped her world view and sparked her desire to seek more adventures.
“I got back from study abroad and I decided to apply for a Fulbright because I wanted to study abroad again,” Johnson said, noting she soon began a year-long application process. “I thought the opportunity to teach English was interesting. Plus, my grandfather is from Lithuania, and my grandma and great-grandma were teachers. It seemed like a great fit.”
Since then, Johnson has begun learning Lithuanian through her grandfather.
“It’s a hard language to pick up because only about 8 million people in the world speak it,” Johnson said, although she is attending a church in Chicago where the sermons are in Lithuanian and talking with friends who have traveled to Lithuania. She also has a best friend from Estonia with whom she bonds over a similar culture and family background including grandparents who immigrated to the United States for the same reasons.
“I’m going to go and hope for the best because I want to understand more about the Lithuanian culture and how it has changed since my grandpa arrived after World War II,” Johnson said.
Among recent K representatives receiving Fulbright grants, Johnson joins:
Andrea Beitel ’17, who earned a research/study award and is in the United Kingdom.
Riley Cook ’15, who earned a research/study award to travel to Germany.
Dejah Crystal ’17, who earned an English teaching assistantship in Taiwan.
Sapana Gupta ’17, who earned an English teaching assistantship in Germany.
Students, faculty, staff and alumni will celebrate a day honoring Kalamazoo College’s philanthropic donors from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Hicks Student Center.
Students participate in Grateful for K Day by writing thank-you notes showing appreciation to Kalamazoo College donors.
Sponsored by the Kalamazoo College Fund, Grateful for K Day – conducted twice a year – calls on students to honor the importance of philanthropy in sustaining and enhancing Kalamazoo College by writing personalized notes to thank donors for their support. Donations help about 98 percent of K students receive scholarships or some other form of financial aid.
All students are welcome to participate. Coffee and cookies will be served.
If you’re a donor, please share your “Why I Give” stories on our website or Facebook page, where you can also learn more about Grateful for K Day.
