From award-winning filmmakers and scientists tracking migratory birds to alumni shaping public policy, professional sports and global education, Kalamazoo College graduates made headlines in 2025 for work that reflects the breadth of a K education and its impact on the world. This year’s top alumni stories highlight achievements rooted in creativity, curiosity and service, demonstrating how K alumni continue to lead, innovate and open doors for others long after Commencement. Here are the top 10 features as determined by your clicks.
10. Alumnus Honored for Innovative Opera Grand Rapids Film
Cody Colvin ’18 was honored in February with the Michigan Association of Broadcasters’ Best Independent Producer award, which recognizes the best public television program in the state by an independent producer. Colvin shares the honor with fellow producers Emilee Syrewicze and Phil Lane for their work on Stinney: An American Execution, a cinematic capture of Opera Grand Rapids’ groundbreaking world premiere.
Colvin served as director, producer and co-executive producer on the project, which tells the harrowing true story of George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old Black boy who, in 1944, became the youngest person ever legally executed in the U.S. after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of two white girls in South Carolina.
9. Alumni Tout Digital Release of Grassland
Three Kalamazoo College alumni with ties to the film Grassland celebrated the drama’s digital release on Apple TV+ in 2025. The movie stars Quincy Isaiah ’17, best known for his role as Magic Johnson in HBO Max’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, with Adam Edery ’19 contributing as a producer and Shon Powell ’18 as consulting producer.
Grassland aims to shed light on modern marijuana incarceration issues. After festival premieres and a private screening at K’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the project continues to spark conversation and advocacy, with its team partnering with organizations such as the Last Prisoner Project to drive real-world policy changes.
8. Alumnus Wants Study Abroad to Change Lives in Oklahoma
A growing study abroad program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University is drawing rave reviews from students thanks in part to K alumnus Kyle Lincoln ’10, who serves as an associate professor of history and study abroad director at the institution.
Lincoln, influenced by his own study abroad experience in Rome through K, has helped develop opportunities for full-semester, half-semester and summer-term programs offered through exchange partnerships, federally-funded programs, special fellowships offered by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and competitive programs for foreign language study. He said he brings to SEOSU the same belief that was instilled in him at K: that immersive, global experiences should be encouraged and accessible to all students, not just a privileged few.
7. Fulbright, Language Fellows Draw Global Spotlight
Eleven recent K graduates are pursuing their passions around the world as Fulbright scholars and teaching assistants, while continuing a rich tradition of post-grad international learning and service. Erik Danielson ’25, Alex Nam ’25, Leo McGreevy ’25, Stacy Escobar ’21 and Joseph Horsfield ’25 are Fulbright scholars in the U.S. Student Program. Fuzail Ahmed ’25, Maya Hester ’25, Sierra Hieshetter ’25 and Alexa Wonacott ’25 are serving the Spanish government through teaching assistantships and the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP) of Spain. Madeline Hollander ’25 and McKenna Lee Wasmer ’25 are fulfilling government teaching assistantships through NALCAP in France.
6. Alumna Finds Where Birds of a Feather Flock Together
Sarah Rockwell ’02—a senior research biologist with the Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) in Ashland, Oregon—followed 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.
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. Separately, she worked with KBO Director of Conservation Jaime Stephens to study Oregon vesper sparrows.
With both species, Rockwell and her collaborators made harnesses equipped with GPS tags that the birds could comfortably wear 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 GPS devices could be collected for data retrieval. Their efforts to protect the birds by finding what threats they might face during their migrations have proven successful.
5. Alumna Equips the Fight Against Parkinson’s Disease
Nicole Polinski ’12 is among the people playing important roles in the fight against Parkinson’s disease at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), headquartered in New York City. She ensures that industry and academic researchers have access to the biology tools—called reagents—and preclinical models that they need for performing biology and chemistry experiments that could provide more methods for the condition’s diagnosis and treatment.
4. Chance Encounter with Alumni Opens Student’s Doors to K
A chance meeting at Kalamazoo House in September 2023 between the Hesslers (Nancy ’68 and Jan ’65) and Lily Toohey ’26 started like many K stories as the proud alumni were praising their alma mater, encouraging the unsure student to apply.
They exchanged numbers, and when Toohey let the Hesslers know that she had been accepted and offered an excellent scholarship, the couple promised per-term financial support that would cover the rest of her tuition.
Toohey arrived at K with an associate’s degree in business and went on to pair her business major with an art minor. Through study away in the New York Arts Program, she completed two photography internships, including behind-the-scenes work at New York Fashion Week, coming away with a new focus on fashion marketing photography.
“You know, my parents took a chance on me,” Nancy said. “I asked my dad once, when I wanted to thank my parents, ‘What can I do?’ He said, ‘Pay it forward.’ …Lily is doing amazing things and making the most of the opportunity. If I can be part of that, as far as I’m concerned, that’s the very least I could do. It’s up to those of us who can and who have benefited from K’s education to support young people in experiencing it, too.”
3. K Honors Alumni, Friends During Homecoming
Each year during Homecoming and Reunion Weekend, K recognizes alumni whose accomplishments, service and achievements bring honor and distinction to the College and represent the lasting value of a K education. In 2025, David Strauss received the Weimer K. Hicks Award, Susan Stuck Thoms ’70 and David Thoms ’70 received the Distinguished Service Award, Quincy Isaiah earned the Young Alumni Award, and Lila Lazarus ’84 received the Distinguished Achievement Award.
2. Alumnus Conquers Curveball to Work in Major League Baseball
If you’re familiar with the 2011 movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, you might have a ballpark idea of what Thomas Bentley ’25 now does as an analyst for the Minnesota Twins. Although Hill’s character is fictional, he represents an amalgamation of everyone who serves a Major League Baseball team in pro personnel. Bentley performs similar work by evaluating statistics to determine how the Twins might improve their organization by making trades with other teams.
Last spring, Bentley joined alumni such as Jordan Wiley ’19 and Samantha Moss ’23 by working in Major League Baseball roles within two years of Commencement. Another young alum, Jack Clark ’17, is the manager of MLB draft operations and has worked in professional baseball since 2020. And like theirs, Bentley’s position is ideal for someone who has been a baseball fan since childhood.
1. Local Roots, Dream Job Grow from Civic Engagement Internship
When Olivia DiGiulio ’25 arrived at K, Michigan was new to her. She was a Portland, Oregon, native with a budding interest in civic engagement and a curiosity regarding how policy could shape communities. Just four years later, she is growing local roots and works in what has become an ideal full-time role in youth advocacy.
The bridge between those two points was a Community Building Internship (CBI) through the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement (CCE). In summer 2024, DiGiulio was placed with the Kalamazoo Youth Development Network (KYD), a nonprofit that supports after-school and summer programs across the city. And today, she works as a policy and advocacy coordinator at the Michigan After-School Partnership (MASP), a statewide organization that does for Michigan what KYD does for Kalamazoo by supporting out-of-school programs, advocating for funding and pushing for systemic change.
“Truly, this is my dream job,” DiGiulio said. “I have to pinch myself that I get to do this work. And it all started with that summer internship.”
