Fulbright Enables Professor to Spend Year in Australia

Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92 has earned a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award that will send her to Australia during the 2023–24 academic year.

Katanski will be working with faculty at the University of Wollongong to develop curriculum that will better prepare K students for study abroad there. She previously undertook similar work after a visit to another K study abroad site—Curtin University, in Perth, Australia—and created a sophomore seminar titled World Indigenous Literatures to help students be more aware of Indigenous issues while on study abroad. This time the goal is to develop a curriculum in partnership with the host university and centered on land-based learning that addresses what international students need to know before going to Wollongong, with an emphasis on how K students impact Wollongong’s Indigenous faculty, staff and students.

“Like most universities in Australia, Wollongong has a lot of international students from all over the world, not just the U.S., which is very important to their functioning,” Katanski said. “The university is trying to be conscious about what it means for them to welcome these students onto Indigenous land through a program that teaches curriculum reconciliation, which looks at how to keep Indigenous issues at the forefront of all university operations. The international program would like to focus on their own curriculum reconciliation process, so I would be going through it with them or learning from their experiences, depending on timing.”

Fulbright recipient and Professor of English Amelia Katanski in her office with books in the background
Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92 has earned a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award that will send her to the University of Wollongong in Australia in the 2023–24 academic year.

Katanski will spend her fall term preparing for the Fulbright trip and working on another piece of a sabbatical project before heading to Australia in January. She is one of about 800 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research or provide expertise abroad through Fulbright. Those citizens are selected based on their academic and professional achievement, as well as their record of service and demonstrated leadership. The awards are funded through the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s international education-exchange program designed to build connections between U.S. citizens and people from other countries. The program is funded through an annual Congressional appropriation made to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also support the program, which operates in more than 160 countries.

“We don’t get a lot of opportunities to be somewhere long enough that we get to know the people and their land while developing relationships with them,” Katanski said. “I’m really grateful for the chance to be in a place that is far from home with a distinctive landscape, while being supported in my learning.”

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has given more than 390,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals in a variety of backgrounds and fields opportunities to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute solutions to international problems.

Thousands of Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 61 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 89 who have received Pulitzer Prizes and 76 MacArthur Fellows. For more information about the Fulbright program, visit its website.

“There’s so much for me to learn and I’m grateful for this opportunity because I can sit at my computer and do some research or read literary, cultural or historical texts, but the important piece for me is helping our students who are learning from and on Indigenous land right now,” Katanski said. “This is also an opportunity to work in partnership with and learn from the University of Wollongong, which has clearly articulated institutional goals about reconciliation, and how Indigenous people and issues are centered within its work.”

Late Professor’s Book Inspires Alum’s Tribeca Premiere

The 2023 Tribeca Film Festival will include some Kalamazoo College ties thanks to He Went That Way, a thriller co-produced by alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 and based off a chapter in a book by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry.

Hundreds of K alumni remember Hilberry for his literature and writing classes, especially his poetry courses, along with his 11 volumes of self-written poems. As a result, it might surprise some, as it did Broder, that Hilberry interviewed the imprisoned Kalamazoo-area serial killers Larry and Danny Ranes in 1976, influencing a 1987 book he wrote titled Luke Karamazov.

“Years after attending K, I was hanging out in a used bookstore and killing time when I went to a section called Michigan Authors,” Broder said. “I happened to notice the name Hilberry on the spine of a book. I knew there were Hillberrys he was related to in Detroit and some of them were writers. But I pulled the book off the shelf when I suddenly realized it was Conrad and it wasn’t poetry. It was his attempt to write about and understand these two brothers who were both serial murderers, but did not participate in each other’s crimes.”

In 1964, Larry Lee Ranes confessed to killing five men over a period of three months and was sentenced to prison for life. Eight years later, his older brother, Danny Ranes, in a separate case, was sentenced to prison for life for the murder of four young women. Hilberry changed the killers’ names to Ralph Searl (Larry) and Tommy Searl (Danny) in an agreement with the brothers and wrote Luke Karamazov. The events described in the book reflect real events, spotlighting the two killers, their friends, the woman who married both of them, and prison officials, while addressing the men’s lives, thoughts, reactions, brutal childhoods, and lives in prison more than their crimes.

Inspired by the storyline, Broder decided to pursue his bucket list dream of one day making an independent film. In 2005, he partnered with a friend who had just finished making his own indie film. Despite the book never being a bestseller, the two agreed they should try making a film around it and arranged to meet with Hilberry.

“At this point it had been about 25 years since I’d seen Conrad,” Broder said. “He drove us around Comstock and Kalamazoo, showing us where these guys had been born and where some of the things in the book took place. He was using their pseudonyms, but we knew who they were, thanks to the internet, and he gave us all of his research.”

After digitizing the interview tapes, Broder heard one of the brothers say, “You guys all ask me about the five guys I killed. Why don’t you want to hear about the one I didn’t kill?”—inspiring the story Broder decided to tell. He Went That Way reflects the real-life account of celebrity animal trainer Dave Pitts, the sole survivor of Larry’s killing spree. Jacob Elordi plays Bobby Falls, a character based on Larry. Zachary Quinto plays Jim Goodwin, a character based on Pitts. The two have a fateful 1964 meeting along Route 66 that pairs the 19-year-old serial killer with the celebrity trainer and his American TV darling, Spanky the chimpanzee, for three days on the road. The men and their personalities continually conflict as their shared journey becomes treacherous.

The film is premiering in the Spotlight Narrative category, which Tribeca Film Festival calls on its website, “a launching pad for the most buzzworthy of new films.” Tribeca is scheduled for June 7-18 in New York City. He Went That Way screenings include Friday, June 9; Saturday, June 10; and Thursday, June 15.

Broder isn’t sure what the future will hold for the film after Tribeca, but he thinks Hilberry would’ve been pleased with the final product.

“Oddly enough, Con was writing this book and interviewing these guys back when I was still at K, but I had no idea he was doing it,” Broder said. “I think about the fact that had I not gone to K, I might have made some other movie. I was so taken by this story and the way it was written, that I knew this was the one the minute I read the dust jacket notes.”

Hugh Broder with actors Zachary Quinto and Jacob Elordi await Tribeca Film Festival
Kalamazoo College alumnus Hugh Broder ’77 (middle) is the co-producer of “He Went That Way,” a film based on “Luke Karamazov,” a book by the late Professor Emeritus Conrad Hilberry. Zachary Quinto (left) stars as Jim Goodwin and Jacob Elordi (right) stars as Bobby Falls in the film, which was selected for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Luke Karamazov book cover
“Luke Karamazov” is available at the Kalamazoo College Bookstore.
Scene from Tribeca Film Festival Entrant He Went That Way
Quinto (left) and Elordi in a scene from “He Went That Way.”

Poetry Month, K Alumna Build Optimism, Faith in Virginia

A Kalamazoo College alumna has undertaken a position noteworthy of recognition in April, which serves as National Poetry Month.

National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. It has since become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets celebrating poetry. And now, Dani Badra ’08 is the poet laureate of Fairfax, Virginia, a role she relishes given that she provides her fellow Fairfax residents with a way to pursue optimism and faith in life through the written word.

“Poetry helps provide a deeper meaning to both difficult and beautiful and beautifully difficult things,” Badra said. With the difficulties, for example, “I think of the poem Amanda Gorman read at President Biden’s inaugural address that people across the nation remember. She was reading a poem days after the insurrection right where it happened. At that moment, her poem provided some meaning, some deeper thought that gave people hope, and helped us reinterpret where we are as a nation.”

Badra appreciates the way that the poet laureate position speaks to her creative side. Fairfax established its poet laureate position in 2020 through ArtsFairfax, a nonprofit organization designated as the county’s local arts agency. Since then, a chosen community member has served as a literary arts ambassador, promoting poetry in the county, region and state. She was selected for the role last October and will serve until 2024.

Supported through funding from the county, Badra has established a Poetry in the Parks program. In April, as a part of Arab American Heritage Month, she is conducting a poetry reading followed by a ghazal workshop to create an awareness for the lyric poems, which are common in Middle Eastern culture. She will conduct more poetry readings in June for Pride Month, in August for a Poetry Beneath the Stars workshop outdoors, and in November for a guided poetry workshop conducted by a naturalist at a local wetland area.

Additionally, Badra is creating “poetry plaques” that she hopes will be used as a long-term resource. Plaques placed in nature often have information about flora and fauna, but these will have a poem related to the region or the area’s environment.

“They will include a poem, a bio of the poet, some writing prompts for people to engage in and a QR code where county residents can submit their own writing inspired by that location,” Badra said. “We’re creating not only some environmental engagement, but some creative products as well.”

After graduating from K, Badra earned a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from George Mason University, where she was the poetry editor of So to Speak, a feminist literary and arts journal, and an intern for Split This Rock, a national network of socially engaged poets witnessing injustice and provoking social change.

Her poems have appeared in publications such as the Cincinnati Review, Guesthouse, Mizna and Beltway Poetry Quarterly among others. She also has led writing workshops at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Split This Rock Poetry Festival, OutWrite DC and in high schools. She has been a featured reader for Split This Rock’s Sunday Kind of Love series, a judge for Brave New Voices in DC, and a participant in Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, a festival commemorating the 2007 bombing of a historic book market in Baghdad, Iraq.

Badra’s first chapbook, Dialogue with the Dead (Finishing Line Press, 2015), was largely inspired by her older sister, Rachal, who graduated from K herself in 2005, before passing from an undiagnosed genetic heart condition in 2012.

Poetry Month: Fairax County officials greet poet laureate Dani Badra at an ArtsFairfax event
Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill (left) and Chairman Jeffrey McKay congratulate Danielle Badra ’08 on being named Fairfax’s poet laureate. Photo by A.E. Landes Photography.
Poetry Month: Nicole Tong standing with Dani Badra
Nicole Tong (left), who was the first poet laureate for Fairfax, Virginia, congratulates Kalamazoo College alumna Dani Badra ’08 on succeeding her. Photo by A.E. Landes Photography.
Poetry Month: Dani Badra portrait
Fairfax Poet Laureate and Kalamazoo College alumna Dani Badra ’08. Photo by Holly Mason.

“When she died, I found a folder of poems that I didn’t know she’d been writing,” Badra said. “When I found them, I knew I wanted to publish them somehow. They weren’t really in a publishable format, so through them, I created a much-needed dialogue with her.”

Much like the chap book, Badra’s manuscript, Like We Still Speak (University of Arkansas Press, 2021), was inspired by her sister. It earned the 2021 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. It was also named a semi-finalist for the Khayrallah Prize and listed in Entropy’s Best of 2020-2021: Poetry Books and Poetry Collections list.

Like We Still Speak improves upon the ideas and polyvocal poetic forms behind Dialogue with the Dead and expands on them to include more voices, like my wife, and my mom and dad,” Badra said. K Professor Emerita “Di Seuss is in there, too.” She credits Seuss as playing a pivotal role in her development as a poet and expressed gratitude for the years at K she spent under her tutelage.

Badra works full-time as a technical writer and management analyst for Fairfax County Land Development Services, and she appreciates the opportunities that come with serving as a poet laureate.

“The poet laureate position appealed to me because it allows me the opportunity to pursue my heart’s passion,” Badra said. “In a way, I can also bring that same passion to other people in my community. I enjoy engaging with people as well as with these outdoor spaces. At the end of the day, people will take away from the programming what they do. I hope that I just inspire a group of people, however many that is, to want to walk around in nature and write about it.”

K Alumna’s First Libretto Wins Prestigious Opera Prize

A Kalamazoo College alumna has won one of the largest and most prestigious awards for opera composers in the U.S. for her first-ever libretto. 

Ginger Strand ’87 has been awarded the 2023 Charles Ives Opera Prize, along with composer Laura Schwendinger, for their 2019 opera, Artemisia. The honor, granted by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, includes a $15,000 prize for Strand as librettist and $35,000 for Schwendinger as composer. 

The award came as a surprise to Strand. While they knew they had been nominated by Academy member and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shulamit Ran, the prize is not awarded regularly. Established in 2008, the Charles Ives Opera Prize has only been previously awarded in 2008 and 2016. The prize is granted to a recent work that reflects the mission of the Academy to foster and sustain interest in literature, music and the fine arts by rewarding “works of highest aspiration and superior craft,” according to artsandletters.org

“I opened my email and there was this letter from the American Academy that said, ‘Good news from the Academy.’ I kind of thought I was being pranked or something; it just seemed unreal,” Strand said. “I called Laura, and asked, ‘Is this for real? Did we just win the Charles Ives Opera Prize?’ She was in a museum and she started screaming. She hadn’t seen her letter and I got to be the one who broke the news. It was very exciting and felt out of the blue, in particular being my first-ever libretto.” 

A five-member jury unanimously voted to award the Charles Ives Opera Prize to Artemisia

In the 35 years since Strand “learned how to learn” at Kalamazoo College, she had written copy for a consulting firm, short stories, essays, one novel and three books of narrative nonfiction before branching into opera. 

“It came about completely by chance,” Strand said.  

Having met at the MacDowell artist residency program, Strand and Schwendinger were long-time friends when Schwendinger confided in Strand over lunch that she was going to compose an opera and thought Strand should write the text. 

“She wanted to write about an amazing Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi,” Strand said. “One of the reasons Laura and I became friends is that we have a lot of interests in common, one of which is women artists in history.” 

A five-member jury unanimously voted to award the Charles Ives Opera Prize to Ginger Strand ’87 for her first libretto, “Artemisia.”
Although Artemisia Gentileschi is better known now, the Baroque painter was ignored in history for a long period, with many of her works attributed to her father, Strand said.  

While Artemisia Gentileschi is better known now, she was ignored in history for a long period, with many of her works attributed to her father, Strand said.  

“She had a life story that was basically already an opera,” Strand said. “Her father taught her to paint and then he hired one of his assistants to teach her the art of perspective, and this assistant raped her. Her father sued for damage to property, because she was considered his property, and in the course of the trial, Artemisia was tortured to see if she was telling the truth. After the perpetrator was convicted, she was hastily married off to some other dude that she quickly dispensed with, and she went on to become a painter of great renown and had a rather illustrious career.” 

Schwendinger shared her concept of Artemisia’s paintings coming to life in the opera, and the two went their separate ways to compose the music and write the words. 

“It was really a collaborative process, partly because I didn’t necessarily know everything about what a composer needs out of a libretto,” Strand said. “Laura would say things like, ‘I see this moment as an emotional high point, and what we really need here is an aria; we need the two characters to sing something really intense.’ Then I would go away and work on that. Or, ‘I want all the singers on the stage here; they don’t have to be literally in the same place, but we need a big moment where they’re all contributing to the song,’ and I would work on that. Sometimes it was something as simple as, ‘You can’t end the line on this word, because the singers won’t be able to sing it.’ It was a learning process the whole way along.” 

The process was also fun for Strand. 

“Because it was an opera and not a work of nonfiction, I could make things up, although I based it on facts,” Strand said. “My starting point was her actual biography, some letters she wrote, and the paintings, of course. Then, where the historical record was faulty, I could imagine things and put them in, and that was super fun and unusual for me to give myself permission to make things up. It’s not something you’re allowed to do as a nonfiction writer.” 

The writing process took about a year, followed by another year or so of production before two premieres—a shortened chamber orchestra version in New York City and a full orchestra version in San Francisco. Strand attended both. 

“At certain moments, it was exhilarating,” she said. “Other moments, it was excruciating, thinking things like, ‘Why did I write this so long?’ Laura’s experience was completely different from mine because I was focused on the story and the words and she was focused on the music.” 

Author Ginger Strand at her New York City home
Ginger Strand ’87 has been awarded the 2023 Charles Ives Opera Prize, along with composer Laura Schwendinger, for their 2019 opera, “Artemisia.” Photo by Monika Graff.

Strand and Schwendinger will be awarded the Charles Ives Opera Prize at the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ annual ceremony in New York City in May. In the meantime, they’re continuing to collaborate on more operas—one of many writing projects for Strand. 

“I’m always nursing several obsessions, which is something my particular career has enabled me to do,” Strand said. “I don’t always know what will come of them. I’m working on another book proposal. Laura and I are thinking about possible future operas. I’ve got a couple essays and all kinds of things I’m working on. I always have a number of balls in the air, which goes all the way back to my K experiences, being comfortable working on multiple things at once.”

Payne Fellowship Sets Up K Alumna for Foreign Service Work

A Kalamazoo College alumna is being honored with a prestigious fellowship that helps people interested in pursuing careers in the foreign service follow a path toward work in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Aramide Apo-Oyin ’22 will complete graduate school through a Payne Fellowship, named to honor former U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne, and then work on the front lines of pressing global challenges such as poverty, hunger, injustice, disease, climate change, conflict and violent extremism with USAID.

“I knew that this fellowship was perfect for me because of the partnership with USAID, which does invaluable work around the globe,” she said. “The Donald M. Payne Fellowship gives me an opportunity that combines my interest in public health and public service on a global scale.”

The Payne Fellowship this year received more than 500 applications and only 30 fellows were selected. Apo-Oyin applied when she recognized the value she could bring to the fellowship, including her own background as a Nigerian American woman and the diverse experiences she had through the liberal arts at K.

“Initially, in college, I was on the pre-health track as a biology major, but I discovered my love of public health and service through my internship with the Advocate Aurora Health Transition Support Program,” Apo-Oyin said. “Through this public health internship, I was able to assist people from under-resourced communities in the Chicagoland area to help them overcome barriers to care that they were experiencing. These barriers included finding transportation to their next appointment, applying for Medicaid/Medicare, scheduling follow-up appointments, and educating patients on discharge instructions to reduce their risk of being readmitted to the hospital. In doing this work for over a year my passion for public health and service grew.”

Such experiences led Jessica Fowle—K’s director of grants, fellowships and research—to see Apo-Oyin as an ideal candidate for a Payne Fellowship as the two worked together throughout the application process.

Payne Fellow Aramide Apo-Oyin at Commencement in 2022
Aramide Apo-Oyin ’22 will complete graduate school through a Payne Fellowship and then work on the front lines of pressing global challenges with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“It was a true joy to work with Aramide as her fellowships advisor on the application process for her Payne Fellowship,” Fowle said. “Applying to this type of program requires reflection on and synthesis of scholarship, internships, co-curricular involvement, and life experience—articulating a vision for the future that captures the goal of the program. Aramide took full advantage of the opportunities at Kalamazoo College and is poised to fully engage with the educational and experiential foundations as a Payne Fellow, graduate student, and foreign service officer.”

The Payne fellowship provides up to $104,000 over two years toward tuition and fees in completing a master’s degree in international development or a related field; room, board, books and education-related expenses; and a stipend for housing, transportation and related expenses for two summer internships. Apo-Oyin is currently deciding which international development program she will be attending later this fall.

Her adventure will begin this spring when Apo-Oyin participates in an orientation at Howard University; there she will become familiar with all the aspects of the fellowship and enhance her understanding of and skills for an international-development career. She then will work in her first internship this summer, tending to international issues at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Her second internship will be overseas on a USAID mission next summer.

All of it represents a challenge Apo-Oyin is happy to accept as she takes her next step toward a career in the foreign service.

“I spent part of my formative years abroad in Nigeria and London,” Apo-Oyin said. “It was then that my interest in international work was ignited. Growing up in these places, I could see the difference between high-income and low-income countries. This experience widened my perspective of the world from a young age and planted a seed for my interest in international development. Now, If I have any advice for anyone who is interested in applying for this fellowship or other international affairs fellowships, it would be not to doubt yourself. Trust that your story of who you are and why you’re interested in this work is unique to you and it’ll only allow you to stand out in this process. Do your best to surround yourself with people who believe in you and trust in yourself.”

Restorative Justice Lessons Lead to Job Skills

Kalamazoo College is known for providing academic experiences that can lead to real-world jobs. Take the example of Steph Guyor ’22.

Guyor’s senior seminar, led by Associate Professor of English Ryan Fong, tackled the concept of restorative or transformative justice, a newer community-based practice that helps society do more than hold law breakers accountable in a criminal justice system. Instead, restorative justice also addresses the dehumanization an offender typically experiences with their punishment, offering basic services along with pathways for making amends to victims and the community, reducing the likelihood for recidivism.

“Within the U.S., justice is traditionally focused on the offender and the crime they committed,” Guyor said. “The punishments are seen as deserved. Yet by focusing on the punishment, the factors that led to the harm being committed often go unexamined, and the needs of the person who’s harmed remain unmet. Viewing punishment as the only appropriate response around accountability ends up taking the form of shame and isolation, which furthers the relational divide and deters people from changing their harmful behaviors. Restorative and transformative justice work to reorient accountability away from punishments and toward meaningful consequences that allow connections to be restored and relational dynamics to be restored.”

Guyor, who double majored in psychology and women and gender studies (WGS), was intrigued by these concepts and said Fong’s class was enjoyable because it allowed her to see justice in a different way. Then came an opportunity to connect those studies to a job, when she heard Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo was hiring a restorative justice coordinator. The nonprofit organization is a secular, daytime shelter and resource center open 365 days a year that helps local residents address homelessness, poverty, substance abuse and other crises.

“I saw the posting and thought it could be an opportunity to make change locally in Kalamazoo in a way that’s influenced by getting to know people,” Guyor said. “I knew I wanted to try to find a way to integrate the psychological understanding of why people do what they do with a socially informed understanding of how social circumstances influence it.”

And today, Guyor relishes her job, which involves learning more about the restorative justice practices in place around the country while collecting data to determine what she can do to solve problems in Kalamazoo. Hopefully, that will lead to a new yet well-rounded restorative justice program at Ministry with Community that reduces the likelihood of repeat offenses.

“It comes with a lot of responsibility that a big part of me was afraid to take on given the idea that I did just graduate,” she said. “But it’s also a unique opportunity that I’m excited to have. I think the goal will be a culture shift within the organization so there will be fewer incidents with fewer people breaking community expectations, and more trust between the members, and between members and staff.”

Guyor said a common misconception about restorative or transformative justice is that it’s soft on offenders—that it lets people off the hook and fails to follow through on a punishment. She cautions against that idea.

“In reality, facing the people who you hurt and holding the space for them to explain their hurt is a lot harder,” Guyor said. “Restorative justice is about having high expectations for people along with a lot of support. It makes sure we’re holding people accountable to the changes they work toward, but not in a way that revolves around shame. In punitive settings, you’re doing things to people. In permissive settings, you’re doing things for people. But restorative justice is more about working with people to make change.”

Fong said he’s likely to continue teaching about restorative and transformative justice at K.

“So many students, especially WGS students, are interested in social justice and activism, but don’t always know what it looks like in practice beyond demonstrations and non-profit work,” he said. “In the wake of the 2020 protests and calls to defund the police, I saw many students wondering what that demand meant. Doing a deep dive into restorative and transformative justice was one way to understand how abolitionist organizers were working in concrete ways to build new systems and structures that address and eliminate violence.”

He’s also incredibly proud of Guyor and honored that he played a role in helping her find her career path.

“I hope she keeps drawing on the skills and knowledge she gained at K and as a WGS student to continue on it for the rest of her life,” Fong said. “That’s really my hope for all our WGS students: that they find meaningful ways to put their education into action.”

Donations Fund Restorative Justice Programs

Ministry with Community, a nonprofit organization, accepts donations for the restorative justice programs being built by K alumna Stephanie Guyor ’22. To donate directly to restorative justice efforts, visit the organization’s website.

Restorative justice professional Steph Guyor '22 outside Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo
Steph Guyor ’22 took classroom experiences with restorative justice and transformed them into a career at Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo.
Guyor, who double majored in psychology and women and gender studies at K, now works as the restorative justice coordinator at Ministry with Community in Kalamazoo.

A Practice in Gratitude: Scholarship Honors Late Professor Emeritus T. Jefferson Smith 

The late T. Jefferson Smith was a long-time beloved Kalamazoo College math professor, the driving force behind bringing change ringing and the English tower bells to Stetson Chapel, and a true Renaissance man with a breath-taking assortment of hobbies. 

Known as both Jeff and T.J., Smith was respected and admired by students and colleagues alike during his nearly 30 years at Kalamazoo College. His life and legacy are now being honored with the Professor T. Jefferson Smith Memorial Scholarship. 

An anonymous donor established the fund as a practice of gratitude after a classroom experience where students were asked to name a personal hero, and many shared stories of teachers that changed their lives. 

“I thought, ‘Shouldn’t we do something to recognize teachers for how much they do for us?’” the donor said. “My feeling is that teachers may not know the impact they have on students, in part because students have a long trajectory ahead. Learning experiences can have an effect that may not appear for 10, 20, 30 years. It’s important to recognize our teachers for the formative effect they have on us at a very formative time of life.” 

Smith was initially hired by Kalamazoo College in 1961; after his first year of teaching, he was offered a research position with the geophysical staff at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. The opportunity was too good to pass up. Smith told his family that working in applied science would balance his theoretical training and benefit his future students when he returned to the College, which he did eagerly in 1967. Smith taught at K for nearly three decades before retiring in 1994. 

“Jeff and I enjoyed, admired and had deep and sincere affection for our students and our colleagues,” said his widow, Carol Smith, who was a reference librarian at K for many years. “K was a wonderful place to be and we loved all the time there.” 

Smith died in April 2019, at the age of 88. The scholarship, which supports Kalamazoo College students with financial need, would have pleased him, Carol Smith said. 

“Education was paramount in Jeff’s mind—the combination of the intellectual fulfillment of education and the ability to change your life,” Carol Smith said. “He grew up in rural Georgia—no plumbing, no running water, milk the cows before you go to school. His family was very close, very warm. They were very, very poor, and no one then had a college education, but his interest in music and education was encouraged. Jeff was an outstanding high school student, and he must have had some scholarship help to get through college, even though he worked as well. This scholarship would have meant so very much to him. It’s a perfect memorial for Jeff, and my children and I appreciate it very much.” 

Contributing to the fund is a practice of gratitude and appreciation for Alan Hewett ’71, very much in the spirit of the establishment of the scholarship. 

“I have supported K continuously since I graduated as a form of appreciation for the training and growth I gained there,” Hewett said. “I just added a gift to the T.J. Smith fund because T.J. was such a good mentor for me and because I wanted to acknowledge and honor that experience and the man. My biggest hope is that, in some small way, it will provide an opportunity for a few more people to attend K and gain some of the advantages that I received from K.” 

Those advantages included the opportunity to learn from Smith. 

“He was not only my favorite professor; he was one of the main reasons I went back to reunions while he was still teaching,” Hewett said. “At the time, it didn’t occur to me that T. J. was a Renaissance man.  I just liked his teaching style. In retrospect, he truly was a Renaissance man, interested in so many things and fun to be around.” 

Smith would bring his many interests into the classroom, incorporating stories of fighting kites, bell ringing, playing the viola, bicycle racing, model airplanes, bread baking and more into math lectures. (After retirement, he would continue and expand his hobbies, including yo-yos, spinning tops, apple growing, antique tractor restoration, the melodeon—a small, accordion-like musical instrument—and more.) 

“He could make people who didn’t care much for math enjoy it because they could get into the story,” Hewett said. “He managed to take things that were fun to do and move them into something you would have to use math for.” 

Smith received the Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching Award in 1985 for outstanding achievement in creative work, research and publication. In 1993, he was presented the Weimer K. Hicks Award for providing excellent service in the performance of his job and making a significant contribution to the College in founding the Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers in 1977 and spearheading the 1984 installation of eight English bells in the tower of Stetson Chapel. Those efforts also led to him being named Ringing Master of the College in 1988. 

Change ringing with Smith has been a key part of the K experience for many alumni, including Tom Farthing ’83. With his first term under his belt, Farthing started winter term 1980 confident that he could handle the academics, yet unsure how and where he fit into the College—until the first Sunday of the term, when he tried change ringing. 

“It made sense to me immediately,” Farthing said. “It was this two-pronged thing: There was an activity that made sense to the way my brain works, and then there was Jeff, who was teaching people, encouraging people, smoothing the path. I found my people there, and that was the majority of my connection with the College.” 

The change ringing community brought Farthing together with his wife, Christine (Stibal) Farthing ’85, who was a friend in college. They stayed in contact after graduation, eventually becoming a couple, due to the community Smith developed and nurtured so well. 

“When I was a sophomore, my suitemates threw a surprise birthday party for me, and they invited Jeff, and he came,” Farthing said. “I can still picture him walking toward our suite and instantly everyone was all around him, which was typical. He was so engaging and eloquent and full of stories. He was just a magnet.” 

Smith was also an excellent professor, Farthing said, always prepared and interesting, and a role model. 

“He was big on self-improvement,” Farthing said. “He knew he should improve his handwriting because he was writing in front of students, so he studied calligraphy and developed his beautiful handwriting. He would work on his vocabulary, one word at a time. I remember ‘ubiquitous’ was his word for a while, and he just worked it into everyday conversation, and you’d say, ‘Oh, there’s that word again.’ ‘Copacetic’ was another one. He did that for years.” 

In the Smith family home on Bulkley Street, Carol Smith said, “there was a little southern porch off our bedroom, and Jeff turned it into his office. One of the classroom buildings was being renovated and he got an old chalkboard, which he put up in his office. He would go through his lectures, even writing on the board, before all his classes.” 

Smith was devoted to his students as well as his family, Carol Smith said. 

“He was extremely ethical, caring and warm and generous,” she said. “He was very devoted. He was quite passionate about things in an understated way.” 

Within the math department, those qualities helped Smith serve as a respected colleague and mentor. He was the first person whom Professor of Mathematics Emeritus John Fink met in Kalamazoo, greeting Fink at the train station with a firm handshake—a grip Fink can still feel.  

When Fink was a young professor struggling with the transition from his mathematics Ph.D. program to an undergraduate classroom, Smith—who generally was not one for giving advice—offered him a phrase Fink would return to again and again. 

“The gulf between where professors are as trained Ph.D. mathematicians and where the students are is so vast,” Fink said. “It was a shock to me, and I think it’s a shock for a lot of people. I came into Jeff’s office, and I was complaining about something, and he said, ‘It’s the undergraduate gamble.’ He didn’t say much more than that, but I carried it with me. It’s the undergraduate gamble. Whenever I would get frustrated, those words would come back to me. What’s the gamble? Well, I’m betting on the potential that is not yet evident in this student. I think that was Jeff’s approach to lots of things. He would bet on the potential, and I think he won most of the time. 

“Jeff was a great mentor for me. He took the undergraduate gamble on me. When I didn’t see anything in myself, he saw something in me—or maybe he didn’t, but he behaved in a way that would bring it out of me anyway.” 

In department meetings, two professors who had strong personalities would sit at either end of the table and “be talking past each other with lots of energy,” Fink said. “At some point, Jeff would just put his head into the exchange and say, ‘So what I hear is this.’ He would say it in a clear, accurate and eloquent way, and whatever he said, that turned out to be what the department did.” 

Smith had an appreciation for clarity, rigor, economy and beauty, Fink said; a positive, generous, attitude; a disarming Georgia accent and “aw shucks” attitude; and a way of holding students to rigorous expectations while maintaining a positive relationship with them. 

“If I was in the hallway outside of his classroom, I would listen to Jeff teaching and just appreciate his wonderful approach to the subject,” Fink said. “Whenever I would think that I might have gotten up to Jeff Smith quality in my own teaching, I would stand outside his classroom to listen and see how much farther I had to go.” 

Smith taught Fink how to handle the ropes for change ringing before Fink’s 1990 sabbatical to Oxford, England, so that Fink could ring while he was there. Fink currently teaches a class at Kalamazoo College on ringing, and is part of the band of change ringers that regularly rings in Stetson Chapel tower. 

When Fink learned of the Professor T. Jefferson Smith Memorial Scholarship, he felt joy, he said. He recalled how former students and change ringers came from all over the country for Smith’s memorial service, which he saw as a measure of the impact Smith had. 

“It’s fitting, then, that he can still have an impact on future students by this scholarship,” Fink said. “Now, I want those scholarship recipients to know Jeff in the way his students and colleagues did. This scholarship allows Jeff’s relationship to the College and his memory to be part of the foundation of another student’s education.”  

If you would like to support K students and give in honor of Professor Smith, please make a gift online to the Professor T. Jefferson Smith Memorial Scholarship or contact Nicki Poer, associate director of special initiatives, at 269.337.7281 or nicki.poer@kzoo.edu

Jeff Smith pointing at a blackboard
The late T. Jefferson Smith was a long-time beloved Kalamazoo College math professor and the driving force behind bringing change ringing and the English tower bells to Stetson Chapel.
T. Jefferson Smith received a plaque for 25th anniversary at Kalamazoo College before retiring with nearly 30 years of service in 1994.
Jeff Smith on Chapel Steps
Smith was respected and admired by students and colleagues alike. His life and legacy are now being honored with the Professor T. Jefferson Smith Memorial Scholarship. 
Jeff Smith with Students
Smith died in April 2019 at age 88. The scholarship named for him, which supports Kalamazoo College students with financial need, would have pleased him, his widow, Carol Smith, said. 
Smith received the Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching Award in 1985 for outstanding achievement in creative work, research and publication. In 1993, he was presented the Weimer K. Hicks Award for providing excellent service in the performance of his job and making a significant contribution to the College in founding the Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers.
Jeff Smith with Student
When Professor of Mathematics Emeritus John Fink learned of the Professor T. Jefferson Smith Memorial Scholarship, he felt joy. He recalled how former students and change ringers came from all over the country for Smith’s memorial service. 

Fulbright Extends U.S. Student Program Top Producer Honors to K

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has named Kalamazoo College a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. Students. This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

K has four representatives in the U.S. Student Program, leading to the honor for the fifth time in the past six years. K is the only college in Michigan to earn the top producer distinction in the bachelor’s institution category.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships to graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists so they may teach English, perform research or study abroad for one academic year.

Many candidates apply for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program as graduating seniors, though alumni may apply as well. Graduating seniors apply through their institution. Alumni can apply as scholars through their institution or as at-large candidates.

K’s student representatives in 2022-23 and their host countries are Rebecca Chan, Taiwan; Libby Burton and Kiernan Dean-Hall, Germany; and Julia Bienstock, Spain. Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas represents K as a Fulbright Scholar, and Matthew Flotemersch ’20 was accepted into Fulbright’s U.S. Teaching Assistant Program in Austria for 2022-23.

“This distinction reminds us of what intercultural experiences mean to our students and why Kalamazoo College is an exceptional model for learning on a global scale,” Center for International Programs Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft said. “We’re extremely proud of all of this year’s Fulbright representatives and our status as international immersion leaders.”

About the Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. It is also among the largest and most diverse exchange programs in the world.

Fulbright awards about 9,000 merit-based scholarships in the United States and more than 160 countries every year to accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds and fields. Fulbrighters study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to complex global challenges. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually.

Rebecca Chan for Fulbright U.S. Student Program
Rebecca Chan ’22
Libby Burton '22
Libby Burton ’22

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by an annual appropriation from Congress to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.

“On behalf of President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken, congratulations to the colleges and universities recognized as 2022-2023 Fulbright Top Producing Institutions, and to all the applicants who were selected for the Fulbright Program this year,” said Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “Thanks to the visionary leadership of these institutions, administrators, and advisors, a new generation of Fulbrighters—changemakers, as I like to say—will catalyze lasting impact on their campus, in their communities and around the world.”

Kiernan Dean Hall
Kiernan Dean-Hall ’22
Fulbright Recipient Julia Bienstock 22
Julia Bienstock ’22

Matthew Flotemersch ’20

Alumni Distinguished Themselves Nationally, Globally in 2022’s Top Stories

Kalamazoo College alumni continued to distinguish themselves locally, nationally and around the world through personal accomplishments, professional achievements and efforts that will make a difference in the educations of K students for years to come. Here are their top 10 stories of the year as determined by your clicks at our website. 

10. Mental Health Pro Lauds Benefits of Gratitude 

When we address our mental health, we sometimes need to hear from people like Kristin Meekhof ’97, the author of A Widow’s Guide to Healing. She knows what it means to find strength after grief. 

Mental Health Professional Kristin Meekhof
Kristin Meekhof ’97 is a licensed therapist, life coach, speaker and best-selling author.

9. Award-Winning Journalist Addresses First-Year Students at Convocation 

Lila Lazarus ’84, an award-winning journalist, producer and motivational speaker, was the keynote speaker for Kalamazoo College’s 2022 Convocation on the Quad. Watch a replay of her speech. 

Lila Lazarus
Lila Lazarus ’84 is an award-winning journalist, producer and motivational speaker

8. ‘Reckoning’ Examines K’s Past to Build a Better Future 

Anne Dueweke ’84 believes we cannot understand where we are unless we understand where we’ve been, especially when it comes to the racial climate of the U.S. and, closer to home, Kalamazoo College. 

Portrait of Author Anne Dueweke
Author Anne Dueweke ’84

7. New Fellowship Provides Post-Grad Opportunity Abroad for K Students 

A generous leadership gift from Robert Sherbin ’79 is opening the doors to independent exploration outside the United States for Kalamazoo College graduates. 

Bob Sherbin establishing fellowship abroad
Robert Sherbin ’79

6. Alumna, Professor Emerita Earns Pulitzer Prize 

Alumna, Professor Emerita and former writer-in-residence Diane Seuss ’78 celebrated more recognition for her latest poetry collection, and this honor was the most prestigious yet. Seuss was granted a 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for frank: sonnets, a collection of poems that discuss topics including addiction, disease, poverty and death. The collection previously received the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the LA Times Book Prize for poetry. 

Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss ’78

5. Super Bowl Halftime Show Was Planned Through K Alumna 

Alix Reynolds ’11 had a hand in transforming the field at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles into a sparkling nightscape, duplicating a scene from Compton, California, as it set the stage for musicians Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent. 

Super Bowl Halftime Planner Alix Reynolds in the empty seating bowl at Sofi Stadium
Alix Reynolds ’11, an account manager for Lititz, Pennsylvania-based ATOMIC.

4. K Announces $5 Million Gift to Support Student Access 

Robert J. Kopecky ’72 established the Ervin J. and Violet A. Kopecky Endowed Scholarship Fund, named in honor of his parents, and the Robert J. Kopecky ’72 Endowed Study Abroad Fund. He also contributed to additional study abroad funding, current-use scholarships and the Kalamazoo College Fund. 

Bob Kopecky '72
Bob Kopecky ’72

3. Alumna, Professor Emerita, Poet Garnering Recognition 

With accolades rolling in for her latest book and a new collection of poetry on the horizon, Diane Seuss ’78 marked National Poetry Month in April with virtual readings across the country while reflecting on the successes and challenges of the past two years, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Updike Award and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Book Cover for Frank:Sonnets by Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss ’78 published her fifth collection of poetry, “frank: sonnets,” in 2021.

2. $500,000 Gift Establishes Endowment for Equity in Women’s Athletics 

The gift, from Dana Getman ’68, established the Getman Endowment for Equity in Women’s Athletics, which supports the College’s strategic plan, Advancing Kalamazoo College: A Strategic Vision for 2023. Getman hopes creating this fund will inspire others to recognize and address inequities women face in athletics and beyond. 

Dana Getman, Katie Getman and Teresa Getman for Equity Endowment
Dana Getman ’68 (center) visits the Kalamazoo College Fitness and Wellness Center with his wife, Teresa (left) and his daughter Kate Getman.

1. K Receives $5.25 Million Gift from Alumnus Larry Bell ’80 

This transformative gift will establish endowed funds to support the Center for Environmental Stewardship, a distinguished chair in American history, and food justice and sustainability programming. Additional funds will support both the Larry J. Bell ’80 Endowed Scholarship, which was established in 2017, and the Kalamazoo College Fund. 

Larry Bell at Homecoming_instagram
Shannon Bell (from left), Larry Bell ’80 and Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez.

Climate Change Conference Puts Global Spotlight on K Alumna, Team’s Art

Artwork at U.N. Climate Change Conference shows pictures, paintings and posters of Earth's environment with QR codes for more information
Nicki Bailey ’21 collaborated with the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) network to create an art exhibit for the U.S. Center at COP27, the annual U.N. Climate Change Conference.

When the United Nations’ annual climate change conference convened in El Sheikh, Egypt, on November 6, it had a recent Kalamazoo College grad in attendance.

Since leaving K, Nicki Bailey ’21 has begun a master’s program in ecology at Colorado State University, where she has come under the tutelage of Gillian Bowser, who represents the institution’s Natural Resource Ecology Lab. Bowser’s expertise in climate change connects her with the U.S. State Department, and it was this connection that led Bailey to the opportunity to attend the climate conference.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the entity that addresses the world’s response to climate change, organizing the event more commonly called COP27, or the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“K was the birthplace of my passion for this subject because it’s where I found I could pursue climate action as a career, and it gave me the tools to pursue it,” Bailey said. “I worked in Dr. Ann Fraser’s lab from my sophomore year through my SIP (Senior Integrated Project). Between that and studying abroad my junior year, the experiences helped me jump into new and uncomfortable situations like going to a conference with 50,000 people in Egypt and feel comfortable with asking questions.”

The convention’s accomplishments in years past included the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of the agreements is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system while allowing ecosystems to adapt naturally and enable sustainable development. This year’s goals included implementing plans to provide reparations for loss and damage associated with climate disasters.

Within the conference, Bailey collaborated with the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education (YEAH) network to create an art exhibit for the U.S. Center at COP27. The exhibit connected student photos, artwork and scientific graphics to tell the story of youth engagement in climate action across the country.

Bailey’s opportunity with the project arose in September, and it involved sending several drafts of the project to the State Department before leaving for Egypt. The process was “super collaborative and really intensive for those two months,” Bailey said. “We were trying to achieve what the State Department wanted while keeping student voices at the center of the project.”

At Colorado State, Bailey studies pollinators and citizen science, enabling her to contribute photos and illustrations from her own work to the project alongside student contributions from other institutions.

“The essential message was combining scientific research and artwork to create action, specifically youth action, in the face of climate change,” Bailey said. “I’ve come from more of a scientific background, however, having this space with all this scientific knowledge being shared, we thought it was important to highlight how artwork can convey that message. We ended up making a collection that centered on topics of the land, the water and youth action in a thematic wave.”

After presenting the art project, she met people from backgrounds and careers from all around the world including Energy Department Secretary and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, all of whom were focused on reversing climate change.

“Every day there were hundreds of events that were going on simultaneously, so we had to be decisive about where we wanted to go,” Bailey said. “I would go to a talk and then several networking events in the U.S. Center that my advisor helped put together. I then would try to go to a negotiation in the afternoon. I got to go to one high-level ministerial conversation on carbon financing. That was super interesting because there were all these countries represented and all had a chance to argue for what they needed to prioritize.”

Bailey remembers one comment made during negotiations that was particularly striking to her.

“‘If we continue to emit greenhouse gases at our current rate, it is not the planet that will be lost, it is humanity,’” Bailey said. “As a scientist studying declining pollinators, I often hyper fixate on the loss of biodiversity as a detrimental effect of climate change. We need to remember that humanity is at the center of climate change’s widespread damage, and we are the only solution. We need to strengthen our infrastructure, focus on creative nature-based solutions, and mitigate climate change for our future generations.”

When she leaves Colorado State, Bailey could see herself involved in government work, but she would like her main focuses to be community engagement, citizen science and education.

“K provided me such a close-knit community in science and climate advocacy that I felt overwhelmed coming to a big research university,” Bailey said. “I want to emphasize for others that it’s OK to put yourself out there and try something outside your comfort zone. I feel like K helped me get those skills to keep pushing myself outside my comfort zone and attend conferences like COP27. I feel like I belong and have an important voice.”