After 40 Years, Change Ringing Remains as Sound as a Chapel Bell

Amid the hum of campus events, you might hear a sound of distinction at Kalamazoo College. The tower of Stetson Chapel houses a set of eight English change ringing bells, one of only a few dozen towers of its kind in North America, and 2024 marked 40 years since their installation.

Each tower bell bears the college motto, Lux Esto, and each is inscribed with a Biblical quotation along with the name of a person associated with the college during its first century. The names include Titus Bronson, who was Kalamazoo’s first permanent settler; college co-founders Thomas W. Merrill and Caleb Eldred; first college president James A.B. Stone and his wife and coeducation pioneer, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone; founder of the First Baptist Church of Kalamazoo Jeremiah Hall; Madelon Stockwell, protégé of Lucinda Hinsdale Stone and the first woman graduate of the University of Michigan; and sixth college president Arthur Gaylord Slocum.

Yet for many students, faculty, staff and alumni, the bells are more than a treasured College artifact. They are woven into the fabric of daily life, from marking the beginning of weekly Community Reflections to announcing the annual Day of Gracious Living. The bells represent the sound of the deep traditions that shape K experiences, as forged by people like the late T. Jefferson Smith and his widow, Carol Smith. A long-time beloved math professor, Jeff Smith is credited with being the driving force behind bringing change ringing and the tower bells to Stetson Chapel.

The College first hired Jeff Smith 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 proved to be too good to pass up, and yet in hindsight, was as vital to K as it was to him. A story in the Washington Post in 1963 said the National Cathedral was looking for recruits to learn how to ring its bells. The experience he developed guided Jeff Smith toward thinking that Stetson Chapel might be a site for change ringing.

“I just knew Jeff would be interested in that, and he was,” Carol Smith said. “And with the encouragement of the ringers at the Cathedral, he was properly introduced to the art and practice of change ringing.” 

The Smiths returned to K in 1967 when his work in Washington concluded. Stetson tower remained empty at the time—and throughout its first half-century in all—but Jeff created a week-long orientation course that addressed the mathematics behind change ringing with hand bells.

Two years later, Tom Farthing ’83—now an avid ringer himself—arrived as a student at K. His first exposure to change ringing was at a recruiting meeting in January 1980.

“Ringing bells was an interactive thing for me,” he said. “As my daughter once said, ‘It’s an idea social activity for introverts.’ I think he advertised the course in algebraic group theory. The students maybe were kind of interested in group theory, but they turned out to be really interested in change ringing, so that was the start of everything at Kalamazoo College.”

The active student group and Jeff’s enthusiasm helped convince the College to investigate whether the tower could hold eight swinging bells, weighing several hundred pounds each. College trustee Maynard Conrad raised funds to buy and install the bells, and in 1983—the year of the College’s sesquicentennial—then-President David Breneman gave the project its final approval. Tom Farthing’s wife, Chris ’85, was among the people who went door to door, talking to K’s neighbors about the bells and what to expect once they were installed. The bells were cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London and installed on June 2, 1984.

“Whitechapel sent over one of their installers, Bill Theobald, who was this wonderful, curmudgeonly kind of man,” Chris Farthing said. “He is who many would think of as an English bell ringer, and he trained us. He was in Kalamazoo for several months. When it was safe for us to handle the bells, he said he could tell who was ringing them when he walked up to the tower based on how well the bells were striking.”

Fast forward 40 years and hundreds since have learned to ring at K, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and area residents. Stetson Chapel would also be the site of many change ringing firsts and records, including what was at the time the longest continuous piece of ringing, or peal, in North America.

With the retirement of Jeff Smith in 1993, there was no longer a natural way to recruit new ringers from the student population. The number of student ringers began to decline until, at a Commencement one spring, the tower had to remain silent for want of a band. To address this need, then President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran formed an advisory group to recommend a sustainable ringing program at K that would encourage a steady stream of new student ringers into the tower year after year. She chose John Fink, professor emeritus of mathematics, to lead the group. Fink had been close and personal friends with Smith, and had learned to ring during a sabbatical in Oxford, England.

“Oxford has 21 towers, so bell ringing is a big activity there,” Fink said. “I decided before I went that I would learn how to ring, so Jeff taught me rope handling. When Jeff was here, there was a constant stream of new students coming into the tower because of his magnetism. He could just make you want to do it, and you couldn’t say no. But then Jeff retired, so we didn’t have faculty to steadily encourage students and replenish the tower. The people in the tower got older, and the tower personnel got more detached from the College. I rang with the band for a couple years, but we had three kids, two jobs and one car, and I was chair of the department, so something had to give. From maybe the late ’90s on, I sort of rang on the periphery for many years.”

Regardless, Fink was happy to serve alongside people such as Margaret Miller, who is a member of the Kalamazoo College Guild of Change Ringers. Together, they devised some recommendations on how to regenerate a sustainable program of ringers for College events and more.

“We determined that we needed to have a way to incentivize sticking with it long enough to learn how to do it well,” Miller said. “There had always been a PE credit available for change ringing, but it was designed for people to do an independent study who were already active ringers. We determined that we needed a formal course that anyone could sign up for.”

Miller, who started change ringing as an undergrad at Smith College in 1977, leads course instruction with Fink listed as instructor for administrative reasons.

“It’s not just an artificial connection to PE because there’s a connection for ringing between mind and body,” Fink said. “You have to know when to pull and how to pull it, to coordinate what you hear with what you pull and see. There is a lot for the body to do, and the patterns are bringing plenty to occupy the mind. It’s a perfect PE course in lots of ways.”

More on T. Jefferson Smith: Scholarship Honors Late Professor Emeritus

T. Jefferson Smith and Bill Theobold look over the change ringing bells that eventually were installed at Stetson Chapel
In 1984, T. Jefferson Smith and Bill Theobald admired the chapel bell that displayed the name of Titus Bronson. Each bell bears the college motto, Lux Esto, and is inscribed with a Biblical quotation along with the name of a person associated with the college during its first century.
T. Jefferson Smith and Bill Theobold standing in the bell tower before the change ringing bells were installed
Smith and Theobald look over the tower where the chapel bells would be installed.
A double decker bus travels through the Kalamazoo College campus
A double decker bus traveled through the Kalamazoo College campus, marking the arrival of the chapel bells from England’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
Change ringing bells in the back of a box truck loaded for delivery to Kalamazoo College
A truck delivered the eight English tower bells that were installed in Stetson Chapel’s bell tower in 1984.

With the course now providing a fresh influx of talent, people such as Carol Smith maintain hope that the traditions surrounding the chapel bells will continue.

“We were so fortunate to have 60 some years in the area and Jeff’s devotion to the College was quite real,” Carol said. “It’s so nice to think about the bells again. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 40 years.”

People like Miller, too, can cautiously look forward to the next 10 years and what the 50th anniversary of the bells might bring.

“It seemed important to celebrate 40 this year just because there are still a lot of people around who remember when the bells were installed, and that might not be the case in 10 years,” Miller said. “Jeff, of course, has already sadly left us and it just seemed like a milestone that ought to be recognized. And who knows what will be happening in 10 years? People who graduated in the last several years who have settled or resettled back into Kalamazoo, have become permanent members of the band. They’re the people we’re going to hand this over to. My hope is that the next generation down will grab hold and keep it an active bell tower.”

Local Grants Help the Arboretum Bloom 

Binney Girdler’s unpopular opinion is that she prefers the Not-So-Magnificent Pines to the Magnificent Pines. 

And if you know what that means, then you—like Girdler, a professor of biology and the director of the environmental studies program at Kalamazoo College—are probably already a fan of “the Arb.” 

The Lillian Anderson Arboretum, located about five miles west of campus at 7787 W. Main St., encompasses 140 acres of forest, fields and wetlands, with five miles of walking trails. K faculty and students have long treasured the Arboretum as a living learning laboratory for courses as diverse as biology, German and art. 

Over the past few years, the Arboretum has increasingly taken its place as a valuable community resource as well. During the pandemic, when families and individuals sought outdoor recreation at unprecedented levels, nearby residents discovered the beauty of the Arb like never before—and as COVID-19 restrictions eased, they continued to take advantage of the free access to a variety of natural settings. 

While the Arb is a private facility, K welcomes its use by members of the public—and yet, increased use means accelerated wear and tear. Hikers track in invasive species. More cars and trail users cause faster degradation of the parking area and pedestrian surfaces. 

Sara Stockwood, director of the College’s Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center and the Lillian Anderson Arboretum, therefore appreciates community support that helps keep community access possible. Local foundations have contributed more than $100,000 in grant support for projects and physical improvements at the Arb over the past two years. 

Collaboration and partnership with the Consumers Energy Foundation, ENNA Foundation, Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, Kalamazoo Rotary Club and Seminary Hill Sustainability Internship as well as Stryker and Zoetis through the Kalamazoo Nature Center have enabled entrance trail upgrades, a new welcome sign, installation of a new well, replacement of the Batts Pond bridge, continuation of pollinator habitat research, a three-year sheep-grazing research project, and development of a land-management plan. 

“The Arb is part of the College’s operating budget,” Stockwood said. “That helps with our maintenance costs and keeping things safe. The local foundation grants really allow it to flourish, improving the experience for both college students and community visitors. The grant funds allow us to dream about what we could do and help give some momentum to making progress toward our goals.” 

Physical improvements 

Grant-supported physical improvements over the past couple of years have included replacing and upgrading some aging features.  

Erosion from rain and snow melt off the parking lot, in addition to regular use, necessitated regrading the entrance trail and adding another layer of crushed asphalt millings.  

The hand-pumped well went offline several years ago after a failed water-quality test, and a new well had to be drilled to provide visitors with fresh drinking water.  

Two additional photo monitoring sites, where visitors are encouraged to take and submit pictures to help the College track how the landscape changes over time, were installed—one on the Power Line Trail and one on Old Field.  

The bridge over Batts Pond desperately needed a replacement. The original bridge was more than 20 years old, and every few years, high water levels have submerged it under as much as a foot of water. 

“We’d been trying to figure out how to manage a bridge where the water levels change so much,” Stockwood said. “You have to be able to get across there. It’s a spot where classes do research and it’s one of our big access points, close to Oshtemo Township Park. We were spending so much time trying to make extension bridges, and then they would float away, and we would go get them and bring them back.” 

The new bridge, supported by grant funds, is fixed on either end, with a floating dock in the middle, made from the same material as the Arb’s wetland boardwalk. That will allow the bridge to rise and fall with the pond’s changing water level, keeping it accessible year-round and minimizing ongoing maintenance. 

“These projects are all big, and anything that has infrastructure related to it has maintenance and upkeep,” Stockwood said. “The local grants have allowed us to make that a focus, so that as our numbers are increasing, as people are spending more time out there, we’re able to accommodate and focus on the trails feeling accessible and safe and welcoming.” 

Four students gaze up at the trees during a class at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum
Binney Girdler, a professor of biology and the director of the environmental studies program at Kalamazoo College, conducts some classes at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum.
A family, surrounded by tall trees, walks on one of the trails at Lillian Anderson Arboretum
During the pandemic, when families and individuals sought outdoor recreation, nearby residents discovered the beauty of the Arboretum like never before.
A butterfly perches on a sign that says Lillian Anderson Arboretum
The Arboretum is a tremendous asset for both the College and the community. 

Arboretum Projects 

Grant funding also supports new and continuing projects at the Arboretum, notably pollinator research, a grazing study and development of a land-management plan. 

One long-term project involves pollinator research along the power line. For many years, Arb staff and students have managed a stretch of the power line, working to remove invasive species, plant a native prairie ecosystem, and survey pollinator activity. Many students have completed internships and Senior Integrated Projects while taking part in the ongoing research. 

New over the past couple of years is a research project, also along the power line, to compare a hands-off land-management approach to traditional mowing and to sheep grazing. Girdler, Stockwood and Ann Fraser, emerita professor of biology, have worked with Lauren Burns, owner of local contract grazing company Tending Tilth, to coordinate the project with student involvement. 

Planned to run for a minimum of three years, the project consists of data collection from vegetation surveys, soil sampling, pH monitoring, evaluation of carbon sequestering, and growth rates on plots of land that are mowed, grazed by Burns’ sheep, or left alone. 

“It pushes students to use what they’re learning in class in a tangible way,” Burns said. “They’ve had hands-on experience in what it’s like to design a study and perfect it over a couple years and what it looks like when a student adopts a project started by another student, what to focus on, how to avoid losing data. I hope to inspire young people to pursue careers in agriculture and science, and I think this really supports that.” 

The benefits go far beyond those directly experienced by Burns and K students. 

“It’s a benefit to Lauren because it has the potential to prove that her business model is good for the planet,” Girdler said. “It’s great for students to be exposed to this approach. For me, intellectually, it’s very cool to work with a farmer and businessperson who’s willing to take this approach. That’s a personal benefit. It’s a benefit to the Arboretum, because it’s helping us understand better ways to manage the Arboretum. That can have knock-on effects, especially if we are able to publish our results for other land managers and for scientists generally, for the field of vegetation management and trying to do things without as much fossil fuels, in the face of climate change and the face of invasive species, a lot of the wicked problems we’re going to need to tackle in this adaptive way.” 

The College is working with the Kalamazoo Nature Center to develop a five-year land-management plan for the Arb that should be complete this spring. The plan follows the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation, a widely adopted set of principles and practices. 

“We’ve been identifying goals and targets and figuring out how that all matches with our values,” Stockwood said. “That will give us some targeted areas of the Arb that we want to focus on, especially with invasive species removal, and it’ll continue some things that we’ve been doing.” 

The plan also includes some new types of monitoring, including deer and avian health. 

“Having a land-management plan gives us direction, versus just tackling things as they come up,” Stockwood said. 

Of course, some things will still come up. Trees will fall across trails and need to be dealt with in the moment. A management plan, however, will aid in more proactive scheduling of maintenance and improvement work. 

“It also ties in our values and gives us reasoning for why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Stockwood said. “That could help us make a case for other projects and grants. I’m hoping that we can tie in more classes, too; if we have specific monitoring goals, we can ask a class to help us with that. It doesn’t just have to be the student trail crew or a staff member, we can bring in different parts of our community to help us reach the management goals if it’s clear what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.” 

Common ground 

The Arb is a tremendous asset for both the College and the Kalamazoo-area community.  

“Since I got here in 2001, almost every class I have taught has used the ecosystems out there as a laboratory,” Girdler said. “I’m an ecologist, so of course it offers a lot for my classes, but also, a lot of first-year seminars go out there. Art classes use it. We just had a German class go do some forest bathing, which is a particularly German idea of connecting with nature. Student groups meet and hike there. Students work on the Arb Crew. It’s part of campus, and once they know it’s there and it’s theirs, students will often pile in a car and just go to be away from the world a little bit, which is what I do when I go out there.” 

Along the trails of the Arb, town and gown can coexist peacefully and even support each other. 

“I think it’s a really important community asset that folks can visit, dawn to dusk, anytime of the year,” Stockwood said. “It’s a place for recreation and relaxation, that’s part of campus, but not on campus; part of the College, but away from the rigor of daily campus life. A free outdoor space that is maintained for walking, outdoor recreation, and is used very heavily by the community. 

“With the amount of people that we see coming through, there’s maintenance that has to happen to keep up, and the grants really, really help support the community. I hope that visitors learn something while they’re out there, either through some of our interpretive signage, or by meeting a student or staff member, or just seeing something and being curious and exploring it.” 

Perhaps they’ll climb Gathje Hill or encounter grazing sheep along the power line. Maybe they’ll stop to snap and submit photos at the monitoring sites. Most likely, they’ll pause to admire one or both stands of pines, where they can form their own opinions. 

“I don’t know why people think they’re not so magnificent,” Girdler said with a shrug. “It’s a matter of taste, I guess.” 

Hear from Artist Regarding Climate-Themed ‘Tipping Point’ Display

An immersive art exhibition titled Tipping Point—created by a Kalamazoo College faculty member and developed through eight years of projects—has drawn acclaim from viewers as it approaches subjects such as climate change, fossil-fuel extraction, environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.

You’re invited to hear directly from that artist, Jo-Ann and Robert Stewart Professor of Art Professor Tom Rice, in a free lecture at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, February 6. The presentation will take place in room 2008 at Western Michigan University’s Richard Center for Visual Arts.

Rice stated that “tipping point” is a term made popular by journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell in his 2000 book, Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

“Gladwell was talking mostly about what he calls social epidemics or trends that suddenly have great success in our culture and how that happens,” Rice said. “Climate scientists, however, use the term to focus on changes to the atmosphere, oceans, carbon sinks, air temperature and ecosystems. In an ideal world, I’d want my work to be a tipping point as Gladwell describes it—one that starts a social epidemic toward real progress in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. There are other things that need to be done to slow the pace of global warming, but reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is critical.”

Art images from Tipping Point exhibit
“Tipping Point” is currently in the Albertine Monroe Brown Gallery at Western Michigan University’s Richard Center. It features a 95-foot drawing of the mountain-top removal mining process, works addressing the complexities and absurdities of oil refining, and miniature silverpoint drawings portraying accidents related to fracking and crude oil transportation in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields.

The collection, currently in the Albertine Monroe Brown Gallery at the Richard Center, features a 95-foot drawing of the mountain-top removal mining process, works addressing the complexities and absurdities of oil refining, and miniature silverpoint drawings portraying accidents related to fracking and crude oil transportation in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields.

Rice says that his use of plastic made from natural gas is intended to raise questions in the viewer’s mind about the ubiquity of petroleum-based products in our culture. 

“If people will be led to discuss the contradictions, then I’ve done my job,” he said. “While the effort to transition to renewable, upcycled and sustainable materials is gaining strength—even within industry—the truth is that complete divestment from petroleum-based design is going to require a growing awareness of how deeply petrochemical byproducts are embedded within capitalism. Everything from dyes and adhesives, the plastic in the products we use every day—such as our cell phones and computers—all the way to packaging and the synthetic fibers contained in our clothing and furniture are built on the foundation of petrochemicals.”

As a result, when presenting his work, Rice often questions whether his lecture is an artist’s talk or more of a call to action. To decide for yourself, hear the lecture or visit the exhibition, which is on display through Friday, February 7.

“Avoiding a complete climate disaster is going to mean sacrifice from all of us,” he said. “As author Naomi Klein says in her book This Changes Everything: Capitalism and the Climate, it’s going to take mass social movements to start the change we need in regards to battling global warming and environment degradation. It’s not one behavior or action that humans can take to slow the pace of climate change and environmental degradation. We really can’t predict with certainty when the tipping point will be, or what outcomes will result, but we can be sure that our climate is changing and those changes are not only making the planet warmer, but less inhabitable for humans and many other forms of life.”

Director to Join ‘Coconut Head Generation’ Screening at K

Alain Kassanda, the director of Coconut Head Generation, will virtually join a screening of her film live at 4 p.m. this Saturday, January 25, in Dewing Hall room 103 at Kalamazoo College. The event will be co-hosted by the African studies concentration and the student organization KalamaAfrica. 

Dominique Somda, the director of African studies at K, said the film explores the daily lives of students at the University of Ibadan, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Nigeria, while focusing on their engagement with important social and political issues through a film club hosted by the Institute of African Studies. It also highlights the activism of Nigerian youths, particularly their involvement in the 2021 #EndSARS movement, a mass protest against police brutality. Somda explains that SARS, also called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, was notorious for abusing ordinary citizens. In fact, a video of a man being killed by police went viral, sparking outrage and demonstrations that largely were led by young people.  

The film club participants watched works by John Akomfrah, Jean-Marie Teno, Med Hondo and others, which helped them have compelling discussions about corruption, gender roles, LGBTQ+ rights, colonialism and more. The young people at the time were called “coconut heads,” a term that accused them of being lazy and passive. However, the label was ironically reclaimed, transforming it into a badge of defiance and identity. 

“This remarkable film centers on young people—students the same age as those at K—who, despite very different circumstances in another country, engage deeply with films that explore diverse ways of being human across the planet,” Somda said. 

Hoping that many will attend the showing, Somda would love for participants to be curious about youth activism, different ways of life and the rich complexities of Africa. She added that students interested in films and filmmaking will find a unique, meta aspect to this experience with it being an opportunity to watch and discuss a film about people watching and discussing films. 

“The film is about seeing, thinking and resisting,” Somda said. “Regardless of their positionality or political stance, I hope students at K can do the same—drawing inspiration from the vibrancy and resilience of the students at the University of Ibadan. This film helps viewers reflect on how every generation seems to think down on the younger generations, thinking that they were better, but actually shows how each and every generation has the opportunity to contribute and fight their own battles.”  

Editor’s note: This story was written by Lily Stickley ’25. She serves as a social media ambassador for the College Marketing and Communication team. She’s also the co-editor for K’s student newspaper, The Index.

Movie poster advertises "Coconut Head Generation," a film by Alain Kassanda
African studies and KalamaAfrica are co-hosting a special screening of “Coconut Head Generation” on Saturday, January 25, at Kalamazoo College.

She also explained that the film is the first installment of what she hopes will evolve into a rich and engaging film series, Seeing Africa

“As we relaunch the African studies program at K, one of our core missions is to challenge and transform how we view the continent,” Somda said. “Rather than seeing Africa as a place of lack, waiting to be saved by foreign intervention, we aim to present it as a continent of vibrant humanity—a place where people suffer, smile, laugh, fight, debate and generate new ideas and movements. I, for one, think that this is going to be a wonderful installment, and I am excited to see how it continues going forward. This spring, the classes Africa Today and Global Black Feminism will provide great spaces to further explore themes of youth, art, activism and social justice from Africa, so please come and join the #KAfricanStudies community.” 

Potts Earns Sixth Wilde Award for Best Lighting

A faculty member’s success again is spotlighting Kalamazoo College through his standout work in Michigan’s professional theatre scene. 

For the sixth time, Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts has been selected as the recipient of a Wilde Award for Best Lighting, an honor distributed through EncoreMichigan.com. The web-based publication focuses on the state’s professional theater industry, uplifting the top productions, actors, artists, designers, writers and technicians. The awards are named for Oscar Wilde, an 1800s Irish poet and playwright. 

Potts previously received Wilde Awards for Farmers Alley Theatre productions such as The Light in the Piazza in 2012, Bridges of Madison County in 2018 and Bright Star in 2021. This time, the honor comes because of his work in the 2024 Farmers Alley Theatre production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a show presented at K that featured youthful characters trying to figure out their own personalities through competitive spirits and strong desires to spell. It’s a story of kids coming together and creating bonds between them.  

The summer performances—along with a Famers Alley production of School of Rock—united K students with professional Actors’ Equity Association performers and stage workers, just like in the summer stock productions they once had with the Playhouse’s launch in 1964, 60 years prior. 

Potts’ local work began in summer 1986. After serving the John F. Kennedy Center for the American College Theatre Festival as a stage manager, he worked as a technical director and lighting designer with the Kalamazoo Civic Youth Theatre program. He was hired in 1987 as the technical director for K’s Festival Playhouse and since has sustained a 25-year teaching career within higher education while also providing guest masterclass design instruction at various venues, and providing professional presentations on lighting design, design communication, and leadership and creativity within the arts at professional conferences and workshops. 

The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo awarded Potts last fall with a Community Medal of Arts. Since 1985, the annual award has recognized an artist who is a leader in their field, has a significant body of creative activity, has received local and/or national acclaim, and has impacted the Kalamazoo community through art. 

“When we reflect upon celebrating the 60th anniversary of Festival Playhouse, the creative drive of Nelda K. Balch, the creative force for community good in Dorothy U. Dalton, the special relationship which forged the impetus for Festival Playhouse 60 years ago, and the creative artists who have participated in that work, I’m honored to be a small piece of that much greater story,” Potts said. “I am so thankful for the opportunity to work for our community, with gifted artists, and especially, to create with our amazing students. #luckyme.” 

Wilde Award recipient Lanny Potts
Theatre Arts Professor Lanny Potts has earned his sixth Wilde Award for Best Lighting through EncoreMichigan.com
Six cast members from The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee dressed as tweens for the show
Potts’ most recent Wilde Award recognizes the professional lighting work he did with the Farmers Alley Theatre production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at K’s Festival Playhouse. Photo by Klose2UPhotography.
Cast members rehearse "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee."
The summer performances of “Spelling Bee”—along with a Famers Alley production of School of Rock—united K students with professional Actors’ Equity Association performers and stage workers. Photo by Klose2UPhotography.

Grants, Music Department Harmonize for Keyboard Renewals  

Musicians, like all artists, are people obsessed with the details of their art. And like all artists, they require quality tools to create their best work. Vocalists, of course, carry their instrument with them at all times. Instrumentalists often spend years, even decades, learning the idiosyncrasies of their instrument. Pianists, however, don’t have the luxury of bringing their own piano to a lesson, a practice session or a performance. 

“If you’re a pianist trying to work on those details, and you have an instrument that cannot respond to the subtleties that pianists work on extensively, then your learning is hampered. Your performance is hampered. Even the audience’s enjoyment of what they’re hearing will be somewhat diminished,” said Andrew Koehler, Kalamazoo College professor of music, music department chair and conductor of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia. 

That’s the big picture explanation of why, for more than 20 years, the music department at Kalamazoo College has wanted to restore, enhance and update its piano and keyboard collection in support of every student, faculty and community member who makes and enjoys music on campus. Now, thanks to grant support from several local organizations, that work is almost complete. 

The keyboard renewal project funded the restoration of the College’s performance pianos, added new pianos to classroom and studio spaces, and updated the instrument collection in several of the College’s practice rooms. 

Piano keyboard restoration project
For more than 20 years, the music department has wanted to restore, enhance and update its piano and keyboard collection in support of every student, faculty and community member who makes and enjoys music on campus. Now, thanks to grant support from several local organizations, that work is almost complete.

Many of the pianos had aged beyond the lack of nuance that would impede a professional pianist, and into a space of no longer being functional instruments. 

“Pianos are very complicated technological mechanisms,” Koehler said. “They break down, and they need to be repaired carefully and expertly to remain in good functioning order. It takes a lot of money, and it’s complicated to do.”  

The College received nearly $150,000 toward the project from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, Marvin and Rosalie Okun Foundation, H.P. and Genevieve Connable Fund, Thomas A. Todd Foundation and Burdick-Thorne Foundation. 

In addition to the professional rebuilding of two nine-foot Steinway grand pianos in Stetson Chapel and in Dalton Theatre and significant restoration of a Mason and Hamlin piano in the Light Fine Arts Building Recital Hall, the project has provided a variety of electronic keyboards and tiers of pianos for all levels of musician. 

Rebuilding and restoring the three performance pianos is key to the continued use of both Stetson and Dalton for College as well as community events and concerts, said Susan Lawrence, Kalamazoo College music event coordinator, piano teacher and accompanist.  

“We do a lot with community here on campus, hosting other music organizations, bringing in community works with some of our ensembles,” Lawrence said. “People use Stetson for weddings and a lot of different things. In Dalton, people rent that out, and we bring artists in that the community comes to hear. There are community members who play with the symphony or with some of our other ensembles. The community benefits from those pianos.” 

Among the music department’s ensembles, the Kalamazoo Philharmonia orchestra, the Academy Street Winds band and the Kalamazoo Choral Arts choir intermix K students with a substantial number of community members. 

“That’s a town-and-gown kind of relationship,” Koehler said. “Community members are here, they’re using these facilities, the concerts are also thus populated by their acquaintances, their friends. Beyond students and parents, the music department is a place where people come to campus to hear these performances. Any choir concert will feature the piano; a lot of orchestra concerts do. We have guest recitals. Our final exam in music is an opportunity to perform for others. That is the end goal of almost all our performance-based activity. We want to play for others. We want to share what we’re doing. That is a critical part of the ethos of music making, that’s how we’re sharing with the larger community, and those instruments will make a big difference.” 

As students develop their musical abilities toward that end goal, offering a range of keyboard and piano options for their use is crucial regardless of their primary instrument or type of musical interest. 

“Every musician who walks through this department touches a piano in some way, for theory, composition, music production,” Lawrence said. “Most of them don’t want to be famous pianists, and they may not sit down to hone a craft, but they need a functioning instrument.” 

The department worked to create tiers of instruments for the range of student needs. 

“The piano is a really important part of how all musicians come to understand music, because the keyboard is a visual representation of the spectrum of notes: the lower pitches ascending to the higher ones, arranged from left to right,” Koehler said. “All musicians are expected to have at least some passing familiarity with how it works. Even if you’re a singer or a violinist who’s trying to make sure you’re in tune and you’re hitting the right pitch, sometimes you have to go to the keyboard, even if it’s one-finger kind of level of piano playing, to say, ‘OK, I think I’ve got those intervals right. I’m doing it correctly.’ All of that absolutely is necessary.” 

Electronic keyboards in some of the practice rooms in the Light Fine Arts basement serve as basic or entry-level options. They offer full keyboards—88 weighted keys that mimic the feel of a piano—as well as the ability to connect to a computer for recording, theory, composition and music-production work. In addition, they will weather basement conditions better than an acoustic piano. 

High-quality used upright pianos in several practice rooms provide a step up from the electronic keyboards for an intermediate or advanced student, while grand pianos in other rooms allow faculty to work with more serious students. Finally, there are the fine performance pianos in Stetson, the Recital Hall, and Dalton. 

“The end result of this project is instruments that support our students’ learning, that allow them to do that kind of nuanced work that I was talking about earlier, and that fundamentally is what we’re here to do: Support the learning of our students and allow them to share it with the community,” Koehler said. “We want to make sure that we provide the materials that they can do that with.” 

College pianos endure heavy use, and so it is important both to start with strong pianos and for students to learn how to care for them. 

“Students learn to take care of their own instruments,” Lawrence said. “Pianos seem more like furniture to some people in some ways, and they may think it’s going to be there forever, and it’s not if you don’t take care of it. We have covers and locks on all the performance pianos. It’s important that we teach anyone who comes in and uses a piano how to take care of it.” 

With that careful maintenance, and aided by recent improvements to climate control in Light Fine Arts, the music department expects the keyboard renewal project to make a difference on campus and in the wider community for years to come.  

“Our annual maintenance fund helps us do simple things, like keep the pianos in tune, and maybe some basic action regulation to make sure the hammers are the right shape to hit the string in the right way and create the range of sounds that you want,” Koehler said. “Then sometimes, of course, like we’re seeing here, whole things have to be replaced, or much more significant work has to be done to re-regulate aspects of the complex machine that is the piano. We’re grateful to these organizations for supporting this work, because in the 20 years we’ve been waiting to get this done, these complex machines kept getting worse. It’s just wonderful to turn the corner on this, and we should be in a good place for 10, 20 years or even longer.”  

K Staffer Thanks Donor, Family in a Tale with Heart

Kalamazoo College will have an additional reason to celebrate life in February alongside Wendy Fleckenstein, K’s administrative secretary to the president and provost. About four years ago, Wendy was seriously ill and awaiting a heart transplant. Now, she will be the featured survivor at an American Heart Association Go Red for Women Gala on Friday, February 28, at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo.

Locally, the event this year concludes American Heart Month, which raises awareness about heart disease and how to prevent it. It’s a time to encourage people, especially women, to focus on their cardiovascular health with cardiovascular disease being the leading cause of death for both men and women, as well as most racial and ethnic groups, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

“It’s such a huge honor for me and a way to recognize the donor and his family, because without them, I wouldn’t be here to tell my story,” Wendy said. “I hope I can be an inspiration to anybody to get them to make sure they’re staying on top of their heart health, especially if they have a family history. I think that’s really key.”

Emerita Professor of Physical Education Jeanne Hess introduced Wendy to American Heart Association Development Director Caleb Porter when Wendy’s health stabilized after the transplant.

“Caleb told me what they do, and he said I would be an incredible survivor story for the gala,” Wendy said. “They will play a video interview of me, have a silent auction, a live auction, and an open-your-heart donation request. I’m glad to be participating in it.”

Heart transplant survivor Wendy Fleckenstein rings the heartiversary bell
Wendy Fleckenstein, the administrative secretary to the president and provost at Kalamazoo College, rings the heartiversary bell on the anniversary of her heart transplant.

The video will show that in January 2018, Wendy thought she had a cold. The timing was annoying considering it coincided with her first days as a K employee. It lingered for several days, forcing her to visit an urgent care facility.

“They didn’t have an x-ray machine there, so they just said, ‘It looks like you’ve got a sinus infection. Here’s an antibiotic for that,’” Wendy said.

A week later, she still wasn’t well. Wendy could hear a crackling sound coming from her lungs when she tried to sleep, prompting a pneumonia scare and a trip to a second urgent care center.

“They did an x-ray and that doctor didn’t wait for the radiologist to read it,” Wendy said. “She said, ‘Yes, there’s something in your lung. Here’s an antibiotic for pneumonia.’”

A diagnosis more serious, though, was coming. Before she could even get home, in fact, Wendy’s doctor called back with news from the radiologist and said, “You need to get back here. It’s congestive heart failure.”

Wendy was stunned. Heart conditions are common in her family, although she was still three months away from her 48th birthday. To her knowledge, no one that young among her relatives had ever suffered such an ailment.

“They never were able to figure out what caused it, other than perhaps an illness that just settled in the heart and the heart just didn’t recover,” she said. “They did a nuclear stress test. They did a heart catheter and all of that showed nothing. My arteries were pristine and I did fine on the stress test.”

Wendy thought she was in the clear after her doctors installed a defibrillator shortly after the College’s Commencement in 2018. Her condition already was responding well to medications and the procedure strictly was a safeguard in case her heart rate got too slow or she experienced cardiac arrest.

Yet something happened in November 2019, a short time before the pandemic shuttered much of the country.

“We’re pretty certain that I had COVID,” Wendy said. “I was very sick. I was in bed for about a week with no smell, no taste, a high fever and a cough that lingered into February and March.”

Her heart health soon varied significantly, often from day to day, and it was quite noticeable to her family and friends that something was wrong. April 30, 2021, was her last day working at K before her health required her to take a break.

“Louise, one of my best friends here, told me we had to do something,” Wendy said. “She said, ‘You can’t just stay in bed. You’re not getting better,’ so she picked me up and took me to the ER. I had no idea that my body was shutting down. We think now that the COVID took out my heart.”

Wendy was hospitalized for six days in early May, leading her cardiologist to suggest she be moved to another facility to receive a pump called a left ventricle assistive device (LVAD). Yet upon arrival, tests found that Wendy’s heart was bad on the left and right sides, leaving a transplant as the only option.

Her condition became dire, even grave at times. Thankfully, after some improvement helped her get well enough to potentially survive the operation and get stronger afterward, she went on the transplant list and the heart of a 16-year-old boy saved her life. Although Wendy knows her body could still reject the heart at any time, the transplant went well.

“I don’t know anything about him,” she said. “I don’t know where he’s from, just that a donor can be from up to about 1,200 to 1,250 nautical miles away. I really wish that I knew at least his name, his birthday and something that he liked to do. I’ve developed a passion for drawing and painting that I never had before, so I wonder whether he was an artist. I didn’t have curly hair like this before either. I asked my doctor if there was any chance this boy had curly hair. He said he didn’t think there could be anything that connected our DNA, but I would rather think it’s that than the medication.”

Wendy feels better today than she has in a long time and her recovery allows her to think of the donor and his family often.

“In the first days when they had me up and walking around the hospital, the psychiatrist saw me in the hallway and asked me how it felt to know I had somebody else’s heart beating inside me,” Wendy said. “I hadn’t really thought about it until he asked me and I said, ‘guilty.’ I didn’t know why I got to live and someone else had to die. I don’t think I knew until about the two-year mark that a kid saved my life. It hits especially as a parent, knowing that because of him, and because of their decision to donate his heart to me, there are so many things I get to do that they will not experience with him. They’ll never see him graduate high school or college, get married, have children. Their holidays will never be the same. I just decided that this young life saved me and I was going to fight to get back. I do everything I can to live my life and celebrate him.”

There’s no guarantee Wendy will ever meet the donor’s family, although she has opportunities to write to them despite not knowing their names. It ultimately will be up to the family to decide whether they want to meet her, but if she has the chance one day, she will tell them how grateful she is.

“I would tell them how much their gift means, not only to me, but to my family,” Wendy said. “It would’ve destroyed my mom to lose a child, so just to be here is so special. I’m so proud of my kids and what they’re doing in their lives, and to watch them be parents is just the greatest feeling.”

Wendy said that if not for having to fill a big medicine box every month, she wouldn’t know she has a heart problem anymore. Because of that and more, she’s eager to tell her story at the gala.

“I probably don’t work out as much as I should, but I try to keep the donor and his family in my mind every day,” she said. “Being asked to share my story with the American Heart Association is so important with their mission to educate women about heart health and how to get the help that they need. I never realized until the last few years that women are at the highest risk for cardiovascular issues, and the symptoms of a heart attack for women are different than they are for men.

“I had no clue that I was so sick, and when you get the rug pulled out from under you, you realize you might not get a chance to do the things you want to do again. It’s overwhelming and pretty scary, so I’ll just say to live your life to the fullest, love your family and friends, and tell people you love them.”

Face Off Theatre Presents ‘Sunset Baby’ at K

A local theatre company’s full-circle moment will come to fruition this week when it presents Sunset Baby at the Nelda K. Balch Festival Playhouse, 139 Thompson St.

Face Off Theatre presented The Mountaintop in its first season at Kalamazoo College 10 years ago and is returning to stage Sunset Baby at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Also, before the Saturday night performance, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St., will host a community discussion about the play at 5 p.m. with Bianca Washington Ciungan—a local actor, director and theatre professor at Hope College—serving as the moderator.

Sunset Baby features Kenyatta, a former Black revolutionary, who visits his daughter, Nina, in East Brooklyn, New York. The estranged father looks to obtain pieces of his late wife’s legacy including the letters she wrote to him while he was in prison. Nina, meanwhile, pursues her own life with her boyfriend, Damon. Ron Ware portrays Kenyatta, Western Michigan University alumna Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina, and former WMU student Delanti Hall embodies Damon. K alumna Milan Levy ’23 will serve as a production manager.

Face Off Theatre Managing Artistic Director and founding company member Marissa Harrington, another WMU grad, will direct the play, her fourth at a K venue between company productions and the Festival Playhouse.

“I’ve directed at a lot of theatres,” Harrington said. “This is one of my favorites and an inspiring place to work. The College’s mission to lean into equity and representation with its stories makes this production a smart way to start our season. It’s a play by Dominique Morriseau, who is a fantastic playwright, and her work is hard. You want to produce a show like this with people who know what they’re doing. Everybody at K is a true professional and that has made this a great time.”

The director said she saw Sunset Baby for the first time herself with her husband in 2017 in Chicago.

“I was immediately taken by the story,” she said. “You have this beautiful woman in Nina who is strong, driven and convicted, and her father comes out of the woodwork to reconnect. That in itself is an intriguing storyline. But Dominique Morriseau weaves in current events with all her shows. She takes this man who was a figure in the Black Panther movement. He’s looking for things and Nina wants nothing to do with him. There’s discourse in this show around love, activism and their costs in fighting a system that isn’t made for you. When you have this interpersonal dynamic, between a man and his estranged daughter, that is powerful. You then layer in the idea that she was a lovechild—a product of two Black Panthers who wanted to continue their work through love because love was the answer after all that fighting. It’s a well-written, powerful show.”

Sunset Baby stage
The Festival Playhouse is hosting Face Off Theatre for its production of “Sunset Baby.” Five shows are available this week through Sunday.
Actors for Sunset Baby. Image says Face Off Theatre Company. "Sunset Baby" by Dominique Morisseau
Ron Ware (from left) portrays Kenyatta, Mikaela Johnson performs as Nina and Delanti Hall embodies Damon in “Sunset Baby.”

Sunset Baby will help Face Off Theater take its first steps toward its renewed goals of expanding opportunities for People of Color as actors, directors, stage managers, costumers and more in Kalamazoo while instilling a love for theatre in local Black and brown youths. Harrington said she grew up in South Central Los Angeles in an area that many would consider to be a bad neighborhood, where theatre was the only activity she had to shape who she is today.

“I think we take for granted the skills that youths gain from the arts,” Harrington said. “When we talk about arts education, we talk about a well-rounded education. All kids deserve to have access to that. We want to lean into how we can create community impact and change through what we’re doing. We talk about graduation rates, reading levels and attendance in Kalamazoo, and there are statistics to back up that. Kids engaged in the arts, especially with afterschool activities, their whole trajectory of learning changes. They’re more excited about learning and school, and their test scores increase. It’s about accessibility.”

Black and brown representations within all roles of theatre are important, she added, to ensure young people pursue that accessibility.

“Regardless of good intentions, safety means, ‘you look like me,’” Harrington said. “You look like me, I feel welcome, and I can do this, too. We’ve had 10 years of beautiful community work. Now it’s time to lean into training the next generation with an arts organization that is Black-ran, woman-ran and queer-ran to see what the need is in the community and address it. I think it’s important for us this year as an organization to show that we’re arts and activism together: artivism. That’s who we’ve been this entire time. But moving into this next generation, we see the importance of training Black and brown artists now more than ever. We want to be a beacon of light for the kids who don’t see themselves going into engineering or business, but they love creating, writing plays and seeing stories in their minds. They love taking a moment and recreating it. We have kids who have that talent, and they don’t have anywhere to put it. We want them trained to be hirable.”

Tickets for all performances of Sunset Baby and Face Off Theatre’s entire 10th season are available at its website.

Innovating for Impact: Students Craft Strategies for New Event Center

A new initiative within the economics and business department at Kalamazoo College is turning the classroom into a collaborative innovation experience, as students partner with Greenleaf Hospitality Group to craft strategies to attract area college students to downtown Kalamazoo.

The initiative is called the InKubator for Experiential Education. As part of the InKubator, senior business students will be serving as consultants to Greenleaf Hospitality Group (GHG), conducting research and preparing proposals on the types of experiences and events that might best attract K, Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College students to the highly anticipated Kalamazoo Event Center. The event center is slated to open on the southwest corner of North Westnedge and West Kalamazoo Avenue in the fall of 2027. The site is about a mile northeast of K’s campus.

The center will be the future home of WMU’s hockey and men’s and women’s basketball programs, as well as the Kalamazoo Wings hockey team. In addition to serving as a state-of-the-art athletic venue, the facility will feature seating for 8,000 guests for concerts, dynamic and flexible event spaces, and on-site parking. Spanning 450,000 square feet, including 20,000 square feet of flat floor space, the center offers versatile event spaces suitable for a variety of occasions, providing ample room for creativity and innovation.

Amy MacMillan, L. Lee Stryker Associate Professor of Business at K, is co-teaching the InKubator experience with Associate Professor Emeritus Timothy Moffit. The professors will serve as managing partners to the students, who will form consulting teams. Each team will be student-led with the support of K alumni mentors. Entrepreneurs, strategists, actors, artists and writers will be invited to lead activities that open the brain to innovative thinking.

“Experiential education has long been a distinguishing feature of Kalamazoo College,” said MacMillan. “In the InKubator, students will apply design thinking, problem-solving, communication and teamwork skills to a real project that will make a difference in our community. We’re building a bridge between college and career so students can hit the ground running after they graduate. We’re excited to partner with GHG on this initiative.”

Classes will meet half the time at the downtown Radisson in meeting space provided by GHG. Sarah Olszowy, vice president of marketing and technology for GHG, will provide feedback to students throughout the various iterations of their projects. The class will culminate in a final presentation of student proposals to Olszowy and other GHG representatives.

“This collaboration with Kalamazoo College harnesses the creativity and energy of emerging professionals to make downtown Kalamazoo an exciting destination for the next generation. Together, we’re shaping experiences that will not only attract students but also build a stronger connection between our vibrant community and its future leaders,” said Olszowy.

A class of Kalamazoo College business students discussing the Kalamazoo Event Center
Sarah Olszowy, vice president of marketing and technology for Greenleaf Hospitality Group, answers questions from K students participating in the InKubator initiative.
A class of Kalamazoo College business students discusses the new Kalamazoo Event Center
K students participate in the InKubator initiative.
Class of Kalamazoo College business students outside the Radisson Hotel and Brick and Brine downtown
Kalamazoo College business students in the InKubator initiative will attend half their classes at the downtown Radisson in meeting spaces provided by GHG. Standing with students in the first row are Associate Professor Emeritus Timothy Moffit (second from left), L. Lee Stryker Associate Professor of Business Amy MacMillan (third from left) and GHG mentor Sarah Olszowy (fourth from right).

ABOUT:

Kalamazoo College, founded in 1833, is a nationally recognized residential liberal arts and sciences college located in Kalamazoo, Mich. The creator of the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College provides an individualized education that integrates rigorous academics with life-changing experiential learning opportunities. For more information, visit www.kzoo.edu.

The Kalamazoo Event Center ushers in a new era for hosting collegiate and professional sports and events. It is positioned to become the must-experience destination in downtown Kalamazoo and southwest Michigan. Set to redefine the entertainment and sports landscape, this cutting-edge venue is currently under development and promises a dynamic space for diverse events. The center is owned and operated by Greenleaf Hospitality Group.

Greenleaf Hospitality Group (GHG) includes the Radisson Plaza Hotel, Wings Event Center, Wings West, the Kalamazoo Country Club, several outlets within these venues, and the future Kalamazoo Event Center. GHG strives to positively impact the greater Kalamazoo community by offering premier establishments for dining, hospitality, sports, and entertainment. For more information, visit www.greenleafhospitalitygroup.com.

Alumna Finds Where Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Update: Rockwell’s presentation now is available online.
Click the link and use the password v1R$ErPy to watch it.

A Kalamazoo College alumna will deliver a public virtual presentation through the Redwood Region Audubon Society (RRAS), highlighting the incredible journeys of two varieties of migratory birds including one that was found through her research to fly from Oregon to Brazil and back.

Dr. Sarah Rockwell ’02 works for Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO), a scientific nonprofit research organization in Ashland, Oregon, that focuses on achieving bird and habitat conservation through science, education and partnerships. Rockwell’s program, “To Southern California, Brazil, and Back: First GPS Tracking of Oregon Vesper Sparrow and Western Purple Martin Migration,” will be available through Zoom at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, January 16, at rras.org.

Rockwell joined collaborators from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and Cape Arago Audubon to work after dusk with purple martin bird colonies along the Oregon coast and at Fern Ridge Reservoir. Equipped with headlamps, they captured adult birds roosting in their nest boxes between about 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. and tagged them with a small GPS device. The next morning, after sleeping in tents, Rockwell and her collaborators observed the tagged birds to ensure their normal behavior, including flying and feeding their nestlings.

Separately, Rockwell worked with KBO Director of Conservation Jaime Stephens to study Oregon vesper sparrows. Together, they set up a mist net near a perching spot in a male’s territory and placed a speaker playing a vesper sparrow song under it. The birds perceived the song as a rival male, often causing them to fly into the net while trying to chase away the false intruder, allowing Rockwell and Stephens to band them.

With both species, Rockwell and her collaborators made harnesses so the birds could comfortably wear the GPS tags like a backpack with loops going around their legs. Rockwell then waited almost a year for the birds to complete their round-trip migrations so they could be collected for data retrieval as GPS tags for birds this small are too lightweight to transmit data, only store it.

Their efforts have proven successful.

“Before this study, we did not know where purple martins from Oregon went during migration and winter,” Rockwell said. “The unique subspecies of the western purple martin is estimated at just 3,500 pairs in the Pacific Northwest states, and it is considered to be of conservation concern. We had the same questions for the Oregon vesper sparrow, another subspecies unique to the Pacific Northwest that is currently under review for listing as threatened or endangered due to its small population size and declining trend. These are the first studies of their kind with these subspecies, tracking them with GPS tags year-round.”

As a student at K, Rockwell participated in the ecology and environment study abroad program in Ecuador. Through that program, she participated in field trips with an ornithologist that helped her and other students spot and identify birds. At the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazon, she also participated in a three-week bird survey, spending time in canopy towers counting birds and adding to the inventory at the station.

Two scientists wear headlamps while working with birds at night
KBO Senior Research Biologist Sarah Rockwell ’02 (left) works with birds alongside Field Technician Sam Webb on a boat at the Fern Ridge Reservoir. Photo by Daniel Farrar.
Scientist stands in water while retrieving birds in their nesting boxes with a pole
Rockwell retrieves purple martin nest boxes at Fern Ridge Reservoir. Photo by Sam Webb.
An Oregon vesper sparrow perches with a GPS antenna attached to it. Photo by Frank Lospalluto.

“It is hard not to fall in love with tropical rainforest birds like parrots, toucans, tanagers and hummingbirds,” Rockwell said. “When I returned, I took a vertebrate biology class with Dr. Paul Sotherland, which had a substantial bird component. When I found that I also loved learning the birds of Michigan, I took that as a good sign. My first field jobs after college were working with sea turtles and then endemic forest birds on the big island of Hawai’i at Volcanoes National Park. This is where I learned how to mist-net and capture birds. The first time I held a wild bird in my hands, I was hooked.”

Rockwell earned a job with KBO after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Fast forward 12 years and she’s now working there as a senior research biologist. In her position, she hires and supervises field crews and conducts field work from April-July. That means getting up early and spending a lot of time hiking and studying birds outdoors. The rest of the year, she pursues data management and data analysis using statistical software, writes reports and peer-reviewed publications, seeks grant writing opportunities, and plans for the next field season.

In her upcoming presentation, Rockwell said attendees can expect to see photos and maps from her research, and peek into where western purple martins and Oregon vesper sparrows go during the annual voyages they undertake.

“These first few birds have returned with fascinating information, revealing new discoveries about their incredible journeys, including unexpected lengthy fall stopovers, and for purple martins, winters on the beach in southeastern Brazil,” she said. “Determining the factors that limit population size in a migratory bird species can be challenging. It requires understanding what threats they may face in different parts of the year, and thus, the first step is knowing where they are throughout their annual cycles. A better understanding of overwintering locations and migratory stopover sites used by Oregon vesper sparrows and western purple martins, and potential threats originating during the non-breeding season, are key information gaps needed to target conservation actions.”