A nonprofit organization honored Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez this weekend with an award that recognizes his efforts to support and create greater opportunities for students in Kalamazoo.
El Concilio, established in 1981, serves the local Latinx community by providing culturally sensitive social services, advocacy and programs that foster self-sufficiency, preserve cultural heritage and support the community’s economic well-being. Gonzalez received its Nezahualcoyotl Award, an annual honor granted to a Latinx professional leader, at the Nuestras Raices Gala on Saturday at the Radisson Plaza Hotel of Kalamazoo.
In a letter to Gonzalez, El Concilio Chief Executive Officer Adrian Vazquez-Alatorre noted that as president of K, Gonzalez has worked to create a path for many generations of students to walk and achieve their dreams. He also cited the College’s partnership with El Concilio through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement, which works to build experiential education opportunities to help students develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills of social responsibility, intercultural understanding, lifelong learning and leadership.
“In collaboration with Kalamazoo College, we had over 50 student volunteers and interns in the last few years,” Vazquez-Alatorre said. “Thank you for all you have done for the Latinx students inside and outside of Kalamazoo College.”
“I am deeply honored to receive the Nezahualcoyotl Award from El Concilio, an award named after leader, poet and visionary whose legacy still echoes through centuries,” Gonzalez said. “This recognition reflects the shared commitment between Kalamazoo College and our community partners to empower students through education, opportunity and cultural pride. Receiving the Netzahualcoyotl Award reminds me of his timeless words: ‘Let us leave at least flowers, let us leave at least songs.’ As I prepare to retire from Kalamazoo College, I hope that our work leaves behind something beautiful—something that uplifts not only individuals, but entire generations and echoes beyond today.”
Suzie Gonzalez ’83 (from left), President Jorge G. Gonzalez and El Concilio CEO Adrian Vazquez-Alatorre were among the people attending El Concilio’s Nuestras Raices Gala on Saturday where President Gonzalez received the Nezahualcoyotl Award.
A recent discovery is absolutely the bee’s knees for Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross.
Stuligross is a bee ecologist who studies how the insects respond to environmental stressors such as climate change and pesticides. Her research combines field work, lab experiments and collaboration with students to understand how such pressures affect bees.
“I love studying bees because they are charismatic, incredibly diverse in their biology, and also are essential for ecosystems because of their role as pollinators,” she said.
So, when alumnus Nathan Rank ’83 brought her what he believed to be a recently deceased rusty-patched bumble bee, she was excited. The species hadn’t been officially documented in Michigan since 1999, when the insects were last found in Washtenaw County. Together, Stuligross and Rank—a professor of entomology and ecology at Sonoma State University in California—examined the specimen he found in a local driveway while visiting relatives.
Rusty-patched bumble bees are identifiable through distinctive rusty-orange-colored patches on the abdomen of workers and males, which also have a black head and a mostly yellow thorax with a black band between their wings. Through high-resolution photography, Stuligross and Rank agreed on Rank’s original conclusion, confirming the species.
“Finding a rusty-patched bumble bee in Kalamazoo is incredibly exciting because it was listed as a federally endangered species in 2017 and it hasn’t been documented in Michigan for over 25 years,” Stuligross said. “As someone invested in pollinator conservation, this finding is a hopeful sign that more may be out there, which would be exciting news for the future of the species.”
Rusty-patched bumble bees are exceptional pollinators, especially for wildflowers and Michigan crops such as blueberries and cranberries. Pollinator insects in general are ecologically important because they move pollen from the male parts of plants and flowers to the female parts, allowing for seed production. Bumble bees of all types are especially important to agriculture because of their unique buzz pollination technique, which is required to pollinate certain plants such as tomatoes and cranberries. They are also more active in cold weather than other bee species, making them particularly valuable in Michigan for pollinating early spring plants.
Ongoing surveys in the area now are looking for more rusty-patched bumble bees, but so far, only the one individual has been found.
“The rusty-patched bumble bee used to be common in Michigan, but it has been lost from about 90% of its historic range,” Stuligross said. “That’s why this sighting is so exciting and a reminder that conservation efforts are so important to protect our biodiversity. We will keep looking in hopes of finding additional bees or even a colony, and we will be watching closely again next spring when new colonies appear. Community members can play a role by planting native flowers, reducing pesticide use and keeping an eye out for these bees in their gardens and on flowers in the area.”
Community members can further help by spending time in nature to observe native bees while taking photos and uploading images to the iNaturalist app or Bumble Bee Watch website. Rusty-patched bumble bees typically are found in prairies, woodlands, marshes and agricultural areas. They feed on nectar from a variety of flowering plants, including asters, goldenrods and bee balms.
“This discovery reinforces how important it is to learn about and conserve the biology in our own backyards,” Stuligross said. “The bee was found in someone’s driveway, and it was discovered because someone was curious and wanted to learn more. For students studying biology, it is essential to see concrete examples of conservation successes, like the finding of this endangered bee, as encouragement to continue the work that we do. It’s also a reminder that science is not something that happens far away. It’s something that happens right here in our own backyards and everyone can be a part of it. Finding this bee is also a reminder to students and the broader community that conservation work is essential. We are always working to conserve habitat and provide resources for wild pollinators to thrive.”
Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of Biology Clara Stuligross and alumnus Nathan Rank magnified a recently deceased bumble bee to confirm that the insect Rank found in a local driveway is a rusty-patched bumble bee.
Finding a rusty-patched bumble bee is significant because the insect hasn’t been documented in Michigan since 1999.
Community members can help scientists look for more rusty-patched bumble bees like this one by taking pictures of native bees and sharing them through the iNaturalist app or the Bumble Bee Watch website.
Kalamazoo College has appointed four faculty members as endowed chairs, recognizing their achievements as professors. Endowed chairs are positions funded through the annual earnings from an endowed gift or gifts to the College. The honor reflects the value donors attribute to the excellent teaching and mentorship that occurs at K and how much donors want to see that excellence continue. The honorees are as follows.
Sarah Lindley, Robert W. and JoAnn Stewart Chair
Lindley, a professor of art, previously received an endowed professorship when she was named the Arcus Social Justice Leadership Professor of Art in 2017.
Since 2001, Lindley has taught a range of ceramics and sculpture courses, and has managed and maintained K’s ceramics, sculpture and woodshop studios and equipment. Lindley served as an Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Faculty Fellow in 2010–11, and in that capacity helped found the Community Studio in downtown Kalamazoo’s Park Trades Center. She has had several solo, two-person and group exhibitions featuring her own work regionally, nationally and around the world.
Lindley earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from the University of Washington.
Sarah Lindley
Morgan Loechli, Dow Trustee Chair
Loechli, an assistant professor of physics, arrived at K in 2023 from Washtenaw Community College, where she was a part-time physics instructor while earning her doctorate.
Since then, Loechli has led six students in summer research and taught courses including Introductory Physics I and II, Introduction to Relativity and Quantum Physics, and Introduction to Climate Science. She conducted climate science research while earning her Ph.D. in applied physics at the University of Michigan. Loechli also has a master’s degree in applied physics from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Dickinson College.
Morgan Loechli
Carlos Vazquez Cruz, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Junior Chair
Vazquez Cruz has been an assistant professor of Spanish at K since 2022. His teaching interests include Spanish creative writing, Latin American contemporary narratives, Latin American poetry and the visual arts and music in Spanish Caribbean literatures. He has also written one hybrid book of mixed genres, two collections of stories, two novels, three collections of poetry and one book of essays, along with research articles in peer-reviewed journals. Five of his books have been awarded by the Puerto Rico PEN, and he received the Banco Santander Spanish Creative Writing Fellowship (NYU, 2008-2010), the New Voices Award (Festival de la Palabra de Puerto Rico, 2014) and the Letras Boricuas Fellowship (Flamboyán Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2022).
Vazquez Cruz holds a Ph.D. in Latin American literature with a graduate certificate in digital humanities from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Fine Arts in Spanish creative writing from New York University and a bachelor’s in Spanish education from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras.
Carlos Vazquez Cruz
Lanny Potts, James Stone Senior Chair
Potts, a professor of theatre arts, arrived at K in 1987 as the technical director for K’s Festival Playhouse. In addition to teaching classes in areas such as scenic design, lighting design and stage management, Potts serves as artistic director of the Festival Playhouse Theatre.
The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo awarded Potts last fall with a Community Medal of Arts. He also has received six Michigan Wilde Awards for Best Lighting for his work at Farmers Alley Theatre. At K, he earned the 2024–25 Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship, honoring his contributions in creative work, research and publication.
Potts has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University.
A recent honor handed to Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement Director Sashae Mitchell ’13 will help students continue strengthening community partnerships beyond Kalamazoo College through critical engagement and collaborative learning for years to come.
Mitchell is one of 18 faculty and staff from 13 states selected for the 2025–26 cohort of engaged scholars through Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars Initiative. The effort is a professional-development program that supports early-career faculty and staff in strengthening their community-engaged efforts and programs.
Scholars were selected this year based on their commitment to centering equity in their civic- and community-engagement work. In applying, members of the cohort were asked to outline their interest in the program and share how they expect to grow with it.
“I am truly honored and elated to have been selected for the fifth cohort of Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars Initiative,” Mitchell said. “It’s a privilege to work alongside an amazing group of faculty and staff from across the country who are deeply committed to advancing community engagement in higher education. This opportunity aligns closely with one of my core professional goals of developing my identity and practice as a community-engaged scholar and researcher, so I’m excited to grow through this experience.”
Throughout the academic year, Mitchell will participate in virtual meetings, in-person retreats and collaborative scholarly work to strengthen her own scholarship and, in turn, empower K students, faculty and staff and lead change in the Kalamazoo area.
“What excites me most about this opportunity is that it not only supports my own professional development, but also directly benefits the work of the CCE,” Mitchell said. “One of our ongoing priorities has been to amplify the impactful work happening through the CCE, both on campus and in the broader community, and being part of this national cohort will help us elevate our story, share our successes, and identify areas for growth.”
Sashae Mitchell ’13 has been selected for the 2025–26 cohort of engaged scholars through Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholars Initiative.
Mitchell earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at K, where she was actively involved in the CCE as a Civic Engagement Scholar through Community Advocates for Parents and Students (CAPS), a grassroots community organization that provides tutoring opportunities to Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) students who live at Interfaith Homes. It offers a structured but fun environment with relationship-based homework help, literacy and math support, field trips and information about getting into colleges. After graduating, Mitchell worked with the W.E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo, where she contributed to research teams analyzing data on the Kalamazoo Promise and other aspects of KPS.
Mitchell later earned a master’s degree in international education and development from the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, she has worked with organizations in the U.S., South Africa and her home country of Jamaica, conducting research on educational disparities. She has also implemented and evaluated interventions and innovative solutions to address these inequities.
As the CCE’s director, Mitchell promotes, develops, manages, funds and evaluates sustainable and effective academic and co-curricular programs while building strategic relationships with community partners and faculty, overseeing programming, collaborating with on- and off-campus partners, and leading CCE teams.
“By learning alongside peers from across the country, I’ll gain new insights into best practices in community-engaged scholarship and programming,” Mitchell said. “These lessons will inform how we support our student leaders, strengthen our community partnerships, collaborate with faculty and deepen the impact of our work. Ultimately, this honor helps position the CCE to be even more intentional, reflective and sustainable in serving both our students and the community.”
Campus Compact Vice President Nicole Springer said each engaged scholar, including Mitchell, already has demonstrated an impressive level of dedication and passion for civic and community engagement.
“Each year, our engaged scholars learn with and from each other, engage in scholarship production, and connect in collaborative ways that contribute to their own individual leadership and the growth of the field of higher education civic and community engagement,” Springer said. “I can’t wait to see how this group progresses over the next year as they engage in this transformative process.”
A two-week experience in Japan recently helped Provost Danette Ifert Johnson work toward establishing new Kalamazoo College study abroad partnerships and opportunities for students.
The Fulbright Scholars Program honored Ifert Johnson with an International Education Administrators (IEA) Award, which allows U.S. higher education administrators to learn about participating countries’ higher education systems. The people involved exchange information on best practices, explore the potential for new partnerships with institutions of higher education in the host country, and raise the profile of their home institution within the host country and the U.S. cohort.
Ifert Johnson specifically visited the students, faculty and staff at several institutions including the University of Tokyo, Tsuda University, Hiroshima Shudo University, Kansai University, and existing K study abroad partners Sophia University and Waseda University. Her cohort also met with officials from Education USA and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). During the program, they each completed an individual project for which Ifert Johnson visited International Christian University and Kyorin University.
In addition to Japan, IEA alumni have visited France, Germany, Taiwan, Korea and India.
“Given K’s strong commitment to study abroad, I was initially interested in participating so that I could better support our institutional efforts,” Ifert Johnson said. “IEA programs exist in several countries around the world, so I worked with Center for International Programs Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft to determine what would be of greatest strategic benefit to us and our students. I was honored to be selected to represent K abroad and I’m looking forward to seeing how our new and strengthened relationships benefit our students.”
Provost Danette Ifert Johnson (top left) specifically visited the students, faculty and staff at several institutions including Kalamazoo College study abroad partners Sophia University and Waseda University through an International Education Administrators Award provided through the Fulbright U.S. Scholars Program.
Cecilia Vollbrecht, assistant professor of chemistry, is one of just 10 faculty members from institutions across the country to be chosen for a new fellowship that will help students in the chemistry and biochemistry department at Kalamazoo College attain new skills.
The fellowship, called Accelerating Curricular Transformation in the Computational Molecular Sciences (ACT-CMS), is managed by the Molecular Science Software Institute (MolSSI) through funding from the National Science Foundation. Through 2027, Vollbrecht will participate in an annual weeklong bootcamp at MolSSI, where she will receive curriculum development and assessment training to help her introduce computer programming and computation in her courses.
“I’m really glad to be selected for this fellowship along with other talented scientists,” Vollbrecht said. “Since arriving at Kalamazoo College, it has been my goal to make sure our students are getting the most current skills they need to succeed and that means constantly evaluating where our curriculum can improve. I think adding more computational knowledge, such as coding, into our chemistry and biochemistry curriculum will help our students leave K with essential skills for a broad range of scientific pursuits.”
Incorporating new skills will benefit physical chemistry courses such as Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy, a class taken primarily by juniors and seniors where they discuss the molecular reasoning for chemical energy, how quantum mechanics applies to chemistry, and how molecules interact with light to produce chemical reactions.
“I want to make sure our students have skills such as basic knowledge of computer coding and data-visualization techniques, which are important no matter what career they go into,” Vollbrecht said. “When students complete the modules that are added to the course, they will have a deeper understanding of the chemistry topics as well as the ability to explain basic coding techniques and write a bit of their own code.”
Students taking courses from Assistant Professor of Chemistry Cecilia Vollbrecht will build skills in computer programming and computation thanks to her new fellowship.
Vollbrecht said she has already started including some cyberinfrastructure skills in the Thermodynamics and Kinetics class she leads. But the goal is to enhance present learning in that class and others.
“I think these curricular adjustments will help all of our students,” she said. “Most fields our students enter today will involve working with computers to either collect, analyze or share data. The more background knowledge they have on the subject, the more prepared they will be to contribute to projects. I think this is a quality investment by NSF that will help continue training the next generation of scientists.”
Vollbrecht added that the weeklong workshop will be a great chance to connect with and learn from other people working toward the same curricular goals. It is a chance to share ideas and best practices, and to workshop how to best fit these new skills into K’s courses effectively.
“Although I have used programming extensively in my career, the workshop is a great chance to learn from other instructors on how to best teach these skills to our students,” she said. “As a fellows group, we are also working toward making an online repository where we can post our materials for other instructors to use. The goal is to help other instructors also have an easier starting point for introducing their students to these topics as well.”
With the end of the academic year, Kalamazoo College is bidding farewell to its retiring faculty and staff who have nearly 260 years of service time among them. As they embark on their well-deserved retirements, the College thanks them for their significant contributions, the legacies they leave behind, and the indelible marks they have made on students and colleagues alike.
RETIRING FACULTY
Tom Askew, Physics
Askew has been a professor of physics at Kalamazoo College since 1991 and served as a visiting research professor at Argonne National Lab from 1992–2008. Since 2009, he has served as the director of the College’s engineering dual degree program, formerly known as the 3/2 engineering program.
Askew earned K’s Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Outstanding Achievement in Creative Work, Research or Publication in 2000–01. He has maintained professional associations in the American Physical Society, Materials Research Society and International Association for Energy Economics. His research has received funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Research Corporation, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Kalamazoo College congratulates and thanks its retiring faculty and staff.
Before K, Askew was a technical staff member at Dupont Research from 1984–91. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Gordon College, served as a research and teaching assistant at Princeton University, and acquired a master’s degree and Ph.D. in experimental condensed matter and materials physics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Karyn Boatwright, Psychology / Women, Gender and Sexuality
Boatwright has been a psychology faculty member at K since 1998. Beginning in 2017, she partnered with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Michigan in conducting a Feminist Psychology of Women course, addressing the importance of reproductive health services for all. Students in that class yearly write, direct and produce a theatre piece titled, Pro-Voice Monologues: Stories of Reproductive Justice presented at K in front of a live audience before conducting an interactive panel discussion with local leaders. Her other recent courses have included Introduction to Psychopathology, Feminist Psychology of Women, History and Systems of Psychology and Counseling Psychology: Theory and Practice.
Boatwright was a psychotherapist in private practice before working in higher education. Her professional memberships have included the Society of Counseling Psychology, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, the Counseling Psychology Section for the Advancement of Women, the Association of Women in Psychology and the Society of the History of Psychology. She holds a master’s degree in community and agency counseling and a doctorate in philosophy from Michigan State University.
Andy Mozina, English
Mozina studied economics at Northwestern University and attended Harvard Law School for a year before earning a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University. He then completed a doctorate in English literature at Washington University in St. Louis, moving to Kalamazoo to teach literature and creative writing at K after graduation.
His classes at K have included an introductory course in creative writing, a first-year seminar titled Co-Authoring Your Life, and intermediate and advanced courses in fiction. Outside the classroom, he served as the faculty advisor of The Cauldron—an annual publication of student art and written creative work. He also earned the Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Outstanding Achievement in Creative work, Research or Publication from K in 2010–11.
Mozina’s first novel, Contrary Motion, was published in 2016. He also wrote a book of literary criticism titled Joseph Conrad and the Art of Sacrifice along with two short-story collections, The Women Were Leaving the Men, which won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award; and Quality Snacks, which was a finalist for The Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award. In 2023, he released his latest novel, Tandem.
Tom Rice, Art and Art History
Rice, the Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art, is a multimedia artist who has worked in drawing, painting, video and performance while teaching at K for the past 32 years.
In 2019, Rice received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in visual arts that allowed him to research the realities of fossil-fuel extraction and create mixed-media art at the University of Alberta in Canada. That art was featured in an exhibition titled Tipping Point earlier this year at Western Michigan University. He earned the Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Outstanding Achievement in Creative Work, Research or Publication from K in 2001–02.
Rice’s commissioned works have included pieces for the Xerox Corporation and the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial. His work has been exhibited at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art, the Evansville Museum, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, the Lansing Art Gallery, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the Urban Institute of Art and the Kresge Art Museum.
Enid Valle, Spanish
Valle served on K’s faculty for 36 years, joining the College before it had a Spanish department. She concludes her career as a professor of Spanish, having also served the College as chair of the Departments of Romance Languages and Literatures, Spanish Languages and Literatures, and German Studies. Her classes have ranged from a course dedicated to Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient, to Woman Artists and Innovators, a 400-level course she taught this spring.
Within her professional memberships, Valle fulfilled roles as vice president (2006–07) and president (2007–08) of the Ibero-American Society for 18th Century Studies (IASECS). She also has been a member of the American Society for 18th Century Studies and the Modern Language Association.
Valle holds degrees in comparative literature including a bachelor’s from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and a master’s from the University of Michigan. She also holds a Ph.D. in romance languages (Spanish) from the University of Michigan.
RETIRING STAFF
Grace Alexander, Facilities Management
Alexander began working at K as a part-time custodian in 2016. Two months later, she was promoted to the full-time role she held until retiring this May. Colleagues said her kind and caring demeanor helped her build relationships across campus. She could be counted on to properly clean any space assigned to her while leading with team spirit.
Charles Hines, Facilities Management
Hines was a custodian for almost 10 years. His co-workers said he came to work with contagious positivity. His congenial energy and flexibility helped him build and maintain relationships with students, faculty and staff.
Rod Malcolm, Admission
Malcolm was serving as the Office of Admission’s senior associate director when he retired. Over his nearly 26 years at K, he fulfilled roles including coordinator of international admission, coordinator of student of color recruitment and Posse Scholarship liaison. He also played a critical part in establishing a Toyota Success Fund scholarship that brings first-generation IDEA schools students from South Texas to the College.
Malcolm volunteered as the Young Men of Color student organization advisor and participated in campus events such as Black Joy Week, Cafsgiving and Monte Carlo while also playing on several intramural teams. Colleagues said he has been everything that is good about K.
Jacqueline (Jackie) Srodes, Center for Career and Professional Development
Colleagues said that in more than 21 years of service before retiring from the Center for Career and Professional Development, Srodes played crucial roles in career coaching, meeting with more than 1,000 students and alumni during that time. She helped grow the Career Ambassador program and partnered with faculty to present in classrooms on subjects such as creating professional documents and preparing for interviews.
Margie Stinson, Information Services
Stinson began her employment at K as a part-time programmer and analyst before fulfilling a full-time role and eventually retiring after nearly 15 years of service. Colleagues have credited her with an ability to methodically support the departments and projects to which she was assigned through her deep knowledge, attention to detail and documentation skills. They also noted she helped end-users to ensure system functionality, testing and configuration.
Melvin Williams, Facilities Management
Williams retired from K in February after more than 17 years as a custodian. Colleagues said he could strike up a conversation with anyone he encountered, and his flexibility, good judgement and authentic efforts ensured that the occupants of his buildings were happy.
A visit to the off-campus community studio and several Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs) painted a picture of life at Kalamazoo College during the city’s Art Hop festivities in May. During the monthly celebration that draws crowds to downtown Kalamazoo, the Park Trades Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., was the ultimate place for the local arts community to be.
Located only about a mile from campus, the Park Trades Center has been leasing space to artists and artisans for more than 30 years. A former manufacturing facility, this 105-year-old building has 95 studio spaces, including space used by Kalamazoo College since about 2010. Art students from K gather there throughout their senior year beginning with their SIP-preparation class in fall. That continues in winter as they work independently, and in spring when advisors meet with students. Every so often, the facility hosts Art Hop, giving students a spotlight within the city.
Josie Checkett ’25 was among the seniors who exhibited her work and benefited from the Park Trades Center this year. Her SIP, titled Shooting the Moon and Other Failures, represented her journey with growing up and the big changes that took place when she left behind her teenage years to become a young adult.
“When I became a senior and got studio space in the Park Trades Center to start working on my SIP, going there almost every day to work shifted my mindset from being an art student to being an artist,” Checkett said. “You get exposed to more opportunities to show work, you meet other people who work or have studios in the building, and you’re not beholden to the hours and resources of the Light Fine Arts building. If you do it right, it’s almost like doing a residency.”
The main area of K’s community studio at the Park Trades Center is used as a classroom and a critique and exhibition space, with the rest split into individual spaces for each studio art major or SIP student to work. In a typical year, about 12 to 15 students conduct studio SIPs in the department, Professor of Art Sarah Lindley said.
“Students have 24-hour access throughout the year, and many use the studio throughout the long winter break, which provides continuity in addition to an accessible workspace,” Lindley said. “The space is managed by a post-baccalaureate fellow, who is a working artist and also has a studio in the space. The fellow serves as a liaison between on- and off-campus resources, a mentor for students, a safety monitor for tool use, an exhibition coordinator and a helper with other essential programming in the department.”
Jacob Converse is the current post-baccalaureate fellow and he relishes his studio manager title. He said students and faculty are lucky to share the Park Trades Center with many working artists and people in trades of several varieties. The professionals include glass blowers, furniture and cabinetry makers, book binders, papermakers, barbers and photographers. It even has a wallpaper-printing studio.
“Art Hops are an exciting event with many Park Trades Center members opening their doors to the public to explore, shop and meet others interested in the arts,” Converse said. “It’s a hallmark experience for our students who gain vital exhibition experience along with the benefits of sharing ideas and receiving constructive feedback for future endeavors.”
Art Hop is an important part of the student experience for all levels of students. The studio hosts art hop exhibitions for seniors in fall and winter, which highlight the different stages of SIP development, and the spring features the department show. There were even a few non-art majors included this year because the students enjoyed their art classes and were proud of what they created.
“I know many of the students who attended this year’s Art Hop enjoyed meeting some local alumni, and many of the recently declared art majors are looking forward to working here, as they appreciated this exciting introduction to the studio space and its multifunctionality,” Converse said.
Kalamazoo College art students gather at the Park Trades Center throughout their senior year beginning with their SIP-preparation class in fall. That continues in winter as they work independently, and in spring when advisors meet with students. Every so often, the facility also hosts Art Hop, giving students a spotlight within the city.
Josie Checkett ’25 was among the seniors who exhibited her work at and benefited from the Park Trades Center this year.
The annual student show at the Park Trades Center remains a highlight of the academic year for Kalamazoo College art students with many venturing off campus to share their work and participate in the local arts community.
Lindley said the Gilmore Foundation supported the Park Trades Center for several years, and there have been numerous community collaborations there over the years, including partnerships with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement along with some student-run community projects. The pandemic changed that somewhat. But the annual student show remains a highlight, with many students venturing off campus to share their work and participate in the local arts community.
Checkett says she hopes that students will continue to push their arts horizons there.
“It’s easy, especially when you live on campus, to forget we are living within an entire community, and one that has a very active art scene at that,” Checkett said. “Both showing work at Art Hop and attending other parts of the event gets students out into that community. When you’re an art student and your studio time, your critiques, most of the other art you see on a daily basis is all made by your direct peers, it’s good to broaden that scope. The Park Trades Center provides a valuable experience.”
The Kalamazoo College Singers will present the Michigan premiere of Hymnody of Earth, a song cycle composed by musician and choral director Malcolm Dalglish, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at K’s Stetson Chapel, 1200 Academy St.
The composer himself will play the virtuosic hammered dulcimer and will be joined by International Percussion Ensemble Director Carolyn Koebel on percussion. Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa will be conducting the 45-voice college choir.
This 70-minute program features 19 songs, many of which are inspired by eco-poet Wendell Berry. This is the fourth time Ludwa has directed the piece, having previously led three performances in Indiana. He notes that the work is an all-time favorite among participating singers and audiences.
Hymnody features the hammered dulcimer, an ancient instrument, often considered an ancestor of the piano, that has been popular in various cultures, including in the Middle East and Europe. Dalglish and Koebel are performing the piece with several other choirs in the Midwest this spring.
While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Dalglish designed and built more than 60 hammer dulcimers. He was a founding member of the popular folk trio Metamora and has nine albums, including solo offerings on the Windham Hill label. The American Boychoir, the St. Olaf Choir, the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and others have commissioned his folk-inspired music. In 1997, he formed the Oolites, an engaging young group of folk singers. Hymnody of Earth was their second CD; it is a spiritual celebration of nature that has been performed by choirs around the world.
The Kalamazoo College Singers are a mixed soprano, alto, tenor and bass choir.
Composer Malcolm Dalglish
Associate Professor of Music Chris Ludwa serves as the director of the Kalamazoo College Singers.
International Percussion Director Carolyn Koebel
“Dalglish’s songs are instantly accessible to anyone, yet somehow speak to the deepest part of our being on a soul level,” Ludwa said. “I’ve encountered few composers that can move both the skeptic and the most devout in the same way. His music is a balm to the weary human as he knits ancient musical traditions, texts that magically describe the magnificence of nature, and melodic and harmonic material that sends shivers up the spine and brings tears to the eyes.”
Tickets will be available at the door for a suggested donation of $15. For more information, contact Ludwa at 231-225-8877 or cludwa@kzoo.edu.
Maxwell Rhames ’25 and Daniela Arias-Rotondo, Kalamazoo College’s Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Endowed Chair in Natural Science, are receiving national recognition for their three years of work together that culminated in Rhames’ Senior Integrated Project (SIP).
Arias-Rotondo’s synthetic inorganic chemistry lab works to find ways of converting light into energy. In Rhames’ SIP, that meant examining what alternative metals could possibly be used to make things like solar panels less expensive, one day assisting a global shift toward renewable energy.
“When you have some sort of inorganic complex that absorbs light, that light can get transformed into chemical energy in the form of electricity,” Rhames said. “A common example is with solar panels, but the metals that they use in them are rare, and as a result, incredibly expensive. We were looking at taking some cheaper metals that you could find anywhere in a much more sustainable way and asking whether they can work.”
For their efforts, the two have received an honorable mention in the 2024 Division of Inorganic Chemistry Award for Undergraduate Research, which recognizes research that students and faculty perform in tandem. The award, given through the American Chemical Society, has three divisions between national labs, research universities and institutions that primarily consist of undergraduates. Rhames and Arias-Rotondo were honored in the primarily-undergraduates category, which covers scientists from hundreds of schools across the country.
“The traditional photoactive metals are iridium and ruthenium, and we’re looking at manganese, which is the third-most abundant transition metal on Earth,” Rhames said. “In the state we use it in, it’s stable and nontoxic, so it’s a great alternative. We’re looking at how we can bridge the gap between saying, ‘this could be really cool,’ and actually getting it to where we could apply it in some of these areas.”
Arias-Rotondo said she and Rhames use spectroscopy to understand what kind of light the compounds they create absorb and what happens after they absorb it.
Maxwell Rhames ’25 and Daniela Arias-Rotondo, Kalamazoo College’s Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Endowed Chair in Natural Science, have received national recognition with an honorable mention in the 2024 Division of Inorganic Chemistry Award for Undergraduate Research, which recognizes research that students and faculty perform in tandem.
“One of the problems that we’re finding is that once our compounds absorb light and get to what we call an excited state, that excited state doesn’t last long enough yet for them to be useful,” she said. “But Max’s work has been instrumental because he was the first one in the group to make these kinds of compounds. Now that we’ve been able to understand their properties and investigate some of them, other students in our lab can understand how to make them better. We are making a name for ourselves by laying the groundwork for making these compounds.”
Rhames has discussed his SIP at the Inter-American Photochemical Society and American Chemical Society conferences, where his fellow scientists were enthused about his work on a national scale.
“That’s been the coolest thing, because when you put something out there, you don’t know what people are going to think of it,” he said. “And generally, their reactions have been super rewarding. I enjoy doing the work myself, but it’s even cooler to know that other people find it equally exciting. It’s an added bonus.”
Rhames won’t be the first or the last in his family to graduate from K when he walks the stage at Commencement in June. Both of his parents, Frank ’92 and Jody ’92, are alumni, and his sister, Claire ’27, is a current student. However, he’s clearly found his own path having performed research in Arias-Rotondo’s lab ever since his first year on campus. In addition, he will start a Ph.D. program at the University of Delaware in fall, and he hopes to one day serve as a faculty member at an institution like K.
“K is small, so you get to make a lot of good connections with your professors,” Rhames said. “I was three or four weeks into my first term as a college student, and all of a sudden, I’m in a lab doing the work with the research. There are no post-docs or graduate students. It is just the undergraduates and the faculty doing all of the work. That would’ve been a lot harder to do had I not gone to K.”
