Category: Students

Student Chronicles Dad’s Bosnian War Survival

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Emma Kovacevic ’26 finds that not many of her Kalamazoo College peers are familiar with the story of the Bosnian War, although she knows it well. The conflict, prompted by the fracturing of the former Yugoslavia, lasted from 1992–95. About 100,000 people were killed, and more than 2 million people were displaced in the fighting. It was the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. And Emma’s Bosnian father, Ruzmir Kovacevic—the subject of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP)—suffered as a prisoner of the Serbians during the hostilities. 

“I would describe my dad as my hero,” Emma said. “He has gone through so many things in his life. I don’t know of anyone that’s gone through so much, and he’s still cracking jokes about random things all the time. I haven’t seen that kind of resilience in anyone else, so it’s inspiring and I’m grateful to have him in my life. He’s the bravest person I know and my biggest role model.” 

Ruzmir grew up in the small town of Doboj in Bosnia. His mother was an elementary school teacher, and his father worked as a salesperson at a local store. His childhood was centered on family, school and a tight-knit community where everyone knew each other. He was an outgoing and natural leader, his daughter said, the kind of person who was always surrounded by family and friends. 

Bosnian War survivor with family
Emma Kovacevic ’26 (second from right) with her family, including her dad, Ruzmir.

Neighbor vs. Neighbor 

After high school, Ruzmir attended the University of Sarajevo, where he studied sports medicine. Like many young men in the former Yugoslavia, he also completed mandatory service in the Yugoslav army. His leadership ability stood out so much that military leaders asked him to stay beyond his required service as he ascended to the rank of first lieutenant. A few years later, the country began splitting apart. When fighting broke out, Bosnia descended into violence and ethnic conflict. In towns like Doboj, neighbors suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a brutal war. 

“It was really interesting to hear about it because during the war, he was fighting against these people who taught him how to fight, how to clean his rifles and how to figure out the best ways to go about a war,” Emma said. “From what he told me, he had a lot of trouble going through that. He was fighting against some people that he knew in his hometown because it was all Yugoslavia.” 

There was no official Bosnian army, so Ruzmir and the men of his community formed what they called the Patriotic League. They counted their rifles, took inventory of their weapons, made a plan and held their line as long as they could. 

University of Sarajevo student ID belonging to Bosnian War survivor
Ruzmir’s student ID from the University of Sarajevo shortly before the Bosnian War.

Brutality from Former Friends 

Ruzmir was captured by Serbians after being wounded by a grenade that badly damaged his right leg. The Serbians wrapped the wound in a cast and refused to let surgeons remove the shrapnel. He was taken to a concentration camp where Bosnian prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment. Emma said he played sports growing up with some of the Serbians, who ended up beating him and denying him food for long periods of time. 

At one point, a twist of fate briefly freed Ruzmir. A relative of his girlfriend, who held a high-ranking position in the Serbian military, arrived at the camp and escorted him out under the pretense of questioning. For a few days, Ruzmir stayed with family members who were packed into a tiny studio apartment. Fifteen people shared the cramped space, but he described it as heavenly, Emma said. 

The freedom didn’t last. Serbian officers soon discovered he was missing and recaptured him, sending him back to the camp for an additional two and a half months. In all, Ruzmir spent about nine months in captivity. By then, many prisoners had died or disappeared. When Ruzmir first arrived, more than 50 men were held in the camp. By the end of his imprisonment, only about a dozen remained. 

The prisoners were rescued almost by accident. After hearing reports that Bosnians were being held in the old prison facility, the German Red Cross scheduled an inspection. To hide the evidence, guards forced the remaining prisoners into a conference room and cleaned the cells. The prisoners heard the inspection happening and began screaming for help. 

After recording their names, the Red Cross inspectors warned Serbian authorities they would return in two weeks. If conditions had not improved, the prisoners would be taken out of the country as refugees. Two weeks later, the Red Cross inspectors kept their promise. 

Bosnian War memorial images
This gallery is a permanent memorial dedicated to the Srebrenica genocide that occurred on July 11, 1995, during the Bosnian War. Gallery 11/07/95 aims to educate visitors and preserve the memory of the genocide through photography and personal artifacts.

Free at Last 

Ruzmir boarded a bus to Germany and spent a few years there with his younger brother and father. He later arrived alone in Grand Rapids, where a significant Bosnian refugee community had already taken root. Ruzmir had been a year and a half away from finishing his sports medicine degree at the University of Sarajevo when the war interrupted his education. The credits didn’t transfer to the U.S., but he became a massage therapist. Emma said he loves his career and wouldn’t trade it for anything, though. He also helps resettle other refugees arriving in Michigan from all over the world. 

Ruzmir’s father survived the war but died in 2001 when he had a heart attack and stroke simultaneously caused by PTSD. However, he met a Bosnian woman, Amra, who had also fled. They had two daughters, including Emma. He built a life with his family. 

“I’ve had a really supportive family, and as my parents are two immigrants, they have always wanted the best for my sister and me,” Emma said. “They’ve always wanted for us to have the education that they didn’t really have access to. They made a lot of sacrifices to support my sister and I in growing up to have access to the things that were taken away from them. I chose K because I just love it. I love what it stands for, the liberal arts education and the relationships I can have with my professors.” 

Ruzmir and Emma with family in Bosnia
Ruzmir and Emma with family in Bosnia.

55 Minutes 

Emma and her father had talked for years about writing a book together. It was a “someday project”—something to tackle after a master’s degree or maybe a Ph.D. There was time. 

But in 2023, Ruzmir went into cardiac arrest. He was technically dead for 55 minutes. 

“I saw the strongest person I know die for that long,” Emma said.  

He recovered. The nurses called him their Christmas miracle despite 13 broken ribs from the CPR, so Emma started thinking about the book differently, and yet was still hesitant. It was big material. Heavy material.  

Then, three days before the spring term of her junior year, her father went into cardiac arrest again. She realized she needed to make her dad the subject of her SIP. 

“I thought, ‘OK. It’s time. I can’t wait any longer,’” Emma said. 

He has since turned 56 and the SIP is finished. 

“He has a pacemaker and defibrillator,” Emma said. “They’ve saved him twice now, so I’m just grateful that I’ve been able to do this with him and talk to him about it, even though I could see how hard it was for him. He continuously says that he is so grateful for this opportunity. I hoped that I’d be able to do it later in my life, post-K, but with the inclusion of the SIP in the K-Plan, I’m just grateful that it gave me that push to start sooner.” 

Her advisor, Professor of English Marin Heinritz ’99, has guided her through the entire process. Emma first took Introduction to Journalism with Heinritz in her sophomore year, and the two have been close since. 

“I know that’s not true at other universities,” Emma said. “My sister goes to Michigan State, and her professors just don’t connect with her as an individual.” 

The view of Sarajevo looking down from Trebević Mountain
The view of Sarajevo looking down from Trebević Mountain.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel 

Emma said Ruzmir wanted the story to be told because the Bosnian War is not something that gets taught much in the U.S., because it happened recently enough that people are still grappling with it, and because it happened distantly enough that many Americans don’t know it happened at all. 

She knows he’s proud of her. He has been sending the PDF of her SIP to his friends and massage therapy clients. One of them printed it out and put it in a folder to share with others. 

Emma has been accepted to a master’s program in teaching at the University of Michigan. She wants to be a high school English teacher. She also wants to keep writing, and eventually, when her father is ready, to turn the SIP into the book they always planned. 

“He just needs a little break first,” she said. “I would hope that it will help people understand that even if they think their life is over with any horrible thing that happens, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo
A pedestrian area in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo, near the Gallery 11/07/95 memorial site.
Ruzmir and Emma Kovacevic
Ruzmir and Emma Kovacevic
Baščaršija bazaar and Sebilj fountain in Sarajevo.
A view of homes in Bosnia
A view of homes in Bosnia.

Student’s Book Reviews Show Human Costs of Court Rulings

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While some pre-law students focus on statutes and precedents, Ella Miller ’26 has spent her senior year exploring the emotional truths and human lives that exist in the gaps between court rulings.

As an English major at Kalamazoo College, Miller’s Senior Integrated Project (SIP) began as an ambitious challenge to bridge the plain reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court with the realities of immigrant experiences. Her Race, Law and Politics class, along with her Advanced Nonfiction course, inspired her to pair four major Supreme Court cases on immigration with four books written by authors deeply connected to the decisions’ impacts. Through the combination of case briefs and literary analysis, Miller examined how legal reasoning resonates beyond the courtroom.

“It was stylistically interesting to insert a Supreme Court opinion while also providing facts, and the organization intrigued me,” she said. “I thought it would be interesting to write reviews about books that were influenced by these major Supreme Court decisions, some of which I was learning about in class.”

Connecting Law and Literature

Miller organized her SIP around four immigration-related groups and eras: Chinese immigrants during the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese Americans during World War II, Latin American immigrants affected by contemporary policies, and refugees impacted by the 2018 Trump v. Hawaii ruling.

She selected landmark cases associated with each topic, then sought books across genres that offered lived perspectives on the decisions’ consequences. Her final author list included:

  • John Okada, No-No Boy, paired with Korematsu v. United States.
  • Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America, tied to the era of Chinese exclusion.
  • Sandra Uwiringiyimana and Abigail Pesta, How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child, connected to modern refugee issues.
  • Areli Morales, Areli Is a Dreamer, linked to DHS v. Regents of the University of California, related to the recent Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) case.

By examining fiction, nonfiction, a memoir, and even a children’s book, Miller highlighted the diverse ways personal stories illuminate historical and legal realities.

“What makes them all special is the different ways a story can be told,” she said. “A historical nonfiction book offers documented evidence, while a novel can convey emotional truths through fictional characters. And the children’s book, which was my favorite, brings hope and understanding.”

Bringing Clarity to Complex Cases

Drawing on skills from her constitutional law coursework, Miller began each book review with a one-page case brief, which is a concise summary designed to make a legal case accessible to any reader.

“Case briefs can be eight pages long, so I wanted to take the most prominent parts and briefly summarize them with background, the main issue, and the court’s ultimate decision,” she said. “I talk about the author, how we can see some of the big issues in society reflected in how the decision was reached, and how that decision was then felt by the people impacted by the decision.”

Ella MIller in Salamanca, Spain, before studying court rulings
Ella MIller ’26 stands in the historic inner courtyard of the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca in Salamanca, Spain, during her study abroad experience.
Miller with a group in León, Spain, before studying court rulings
Miller with a group at the joined cathedrals of Salamanca in Castile and León, Spain.

With that foundation in place, she used each book to explore how the court’s rulings were experienced by real people. For Miller, the contrasts revealed what legal texts alone seldom show.

“I think each of these books is valuable, and you can take away a lot on your own,” she said. “But having a real understanding of how the court was reasoning through these decisions adds another layer to how people are affected. In Korematsu v. the United States, for example, the decision allowed for Japanese internment to be held constitutional for domestic safety. But when you read No-No Boy, you can see that Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not a threat in any way.”

Ichiro, the protagonist of No-No Boy, returns home from years in an internment camp and has to come to terms with his dual heritage and how to build a future in the country that imprisoned him.

A Project That Shaped a Future Career

Although the SIP more than satisfied academic requirements, it also reshaped Miller’s confidence and confirmed her path toward law school.

“K is great with giving you lots of creative control in your work, and I’ve never felt stifled,” she said. “But to be given a blank slate where I could choose the topic and my sources while exploring what’s interesting to me gave me a lot of confidence as a writer. It made me feel more prepared for the next steps in my life because I plan to go to law school, and writing is super important. I need to think argumentatively and critically, so I feel my SIP was valuable in giving me the confidence to know that I can produce something like this.”

Faculty mentors played a key role. Miller credits Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas for ongoing guidance, Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry for deepening her interest in law, and Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92, her advisor, for helping her explore connections between law and literature.

Outside the classroom, Miller holds leadership roles in K’s student organizations related to law. She’s the president of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity chapter and the secretary for the Aspiring Law Students Organization. She said the experiences strengthened her sense of purpose.

Next Steps: Spain, Service and Law School

After graduating this spring, Miller hopes to spend a year teaching English in Spain through a Fulbright grant. If she’s not selected, she will teach through the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP), which is also based in Spain. She studied abroad in Madrid and hopes to return to deepen her language skills and global perspective.

“International relationships are really relevant to law,” she said. “The experience would help shape the kind of legal career I want.”

Law school applications will follow next year. But if there’s one lesson Miller hopes readers take from her SIP, it’s that Supreme Court decisions are not abstract.

“The law impacts people in enormous ways,” she said. “If you’re not directly affected, it can be hard to understand that. Literature gives us a way to see what those impacts look like in real life.”

36 Jars, 45 Poems and 4,800 Miles for Mom

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Monica Berlin holds baby Eliza Karlin - 45 poems
Eliza Karlin ’26 and her mother, the poet Monica Berlin. Berlin was the Richard P. and Sophia D. Henke Distinguished Professor of English at Knox College. Her poems and essays were published in several journals over the years including Bennington Review, The Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review and Midwestern Gothic.
Monica Berlin and Eliza Karlin - 45 poems
Berlin authored two chapbooks—“Your Small Towns of Adult Sorrow and Melancholy” and “Maybe to Region”—along with two volumes of poetry in addition to “No Shape Bends the River So Long”: “Elsewhere, That Small” (2020) and “Nostalgia for a World Where We Can Live” (2018), which won the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize. 

On an August morning last year, Kalamazoo College student Eliza Karlin ’26 pulled onto the highway outside Galesburg, Illinois, driving a silver Mini Cooper—just like the one her mom once had—and began a 4,800-mile journey along the Mississippi River. 

For her mom, poet Monica Berlin, the same trip over a decade earlier—routed spontaneously with paper maps—provided inspiration and collaboration with her longtime colleague Beth Marzoni. Together, they coauthored Berlin’s first book, a volume of poetry titled No Shape Bends the River So Long, which won the 2013 New Measure Poetry Prize. 

No Shape followed Berlin’s 2013 journey in a collaborative “we,” a voice that felt expansive and fluid, Karlin said. She would travel the same route carrying something heavier: Berlin died unexpectedly in November 2022, during Karlin’s first term at K—making hers a journey of grief, memory, self-discovery and enduring connection. 

“I obviously didn’t know what to do when she died,” she said. “I took a leave of absence shortly thereafter. I remember thinking, ‘How would I ever be able to manage my grief?’ I thought that following in her footsteps would be one of the best ways to do that.” 

Karlin’s trip became the foundation of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP), a poetry collection titled Bend the River Out of Shape No More, molded by travel, memory and a search for healing. 

Mapping What Came Next 

Karlin began planning the trip as a junior. Logistics required careful mapping, estimating mileage and costs, choosing stops and deciding whether to travel alone. Ultimately, she realized solitude mattered. 

“While it may have been safer to do it with someone else, it was more impactful to do it by myself,” she said. 

She woke up early, sought out unfamiliar food, and wandered through large cities such as Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans and Minneapolis, and smaller towns including Cairo, Illinois; Natchez, Mississippi; and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The rhythm became steady: drive, listen, observe, write. She also created a soundtrack of albums she had never heard before. 

“Memphis was Daft Punk,” she said. “The bottom of the river was Cat Stevens. The headwaters were Big Thief.” 

Those sounds fused with place. Now, she said, the emotional contours of each region are linked to distinct sonic landscapes in her mom’s memory. 

Her Mom as a Passenger 

In a way, Karlin’s mom was by her side the whole time. The Mini Cooper’s passenger seat held 36 small jars, each containing some of Berlin’s ashes. During the 25-day trip, Karlin scattered them at different points along the river and wrote a poem after each stop. 

“It wasn’t perfect, but it was really something to follow in her footsteps—to travel that distance by myself with her in my passenger seat, with her ashes,” Karlin said. “The whole experience helped so much. I feel like a completely different person after the trip. I feel stronger, braver, more … cool.” 

Berlin had drafted much of No Shape while riding in a passenger seat. Karlin cherished the parallel. 

“It was a two-person adventure for them,” she said. “The dominant pronoun became ‘we’ or ‘us’ during their trip. Mine was just ‘me’ or ‘I,’ but I was writing all the poems on the road. It felt like I was writing with her.” 

Karlin wrote 42 of the 45 poems included in her SIP during the trip itself, often pulling over to walk, reflect and write. Her SIP opens with three deeply personal poems she wrote beforehand. These earlier poems, she said, served as grounding context for the ones that followed. 

The rest unfolds as reflections on space, meditations on grief, portraits, odes and moments of clarity. Half share the title Ashen—a sequence of sonnets written after each ash-scattering ritual and modeled after Berlin’s final book, also a sonnet collection. 

Across states and landscapes, Karlin found her internal landscape shifting, too. Some days she wrote five poems; other days, she wrote none. At one point early on, she noticed her tone becoming cynical. 

“I realized I didn’t want to be cynical on this trip,” she said. “This was a beautiful opportunity to grieve my mother, find joy in the world, and move on.” 

‘There Was So Much Love’ 

The trip held joy, sadness, anger, confusion and love. But as the miles passed, something in her softened. There were practical challenges as well. As a trans woman driving alone through parts of the American South, she expected to feel afraid. Instead, she found compassion. 

“Even strangers had so much care,” she said. “There was so much love in the people I interacted with day to day. I thought that was beautiful.” 

Together, the poems trace a young writer’s emotional landscape as she moves toward acceptance—not by leaving grief behind but by carrying it differently. 

For Karlin, the project’s success is measured in feelings first: relief, transformation and gratitude. She also points to the stories she carries now and the ones she is still learning to tell. 

“Storytelling is huge for me,” she said. “It can be anything. It can be poetry, improv theatre, even Dungeons and Dragons. And this trip helped further my storytelling ability.” 

The ambitious trek was supported by a Hearst Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a grant administered through the Provost’s Office. Over the past three years, these fellowships have provided a total of $125,000 to assist 10 students annually in support of their research. 

“I would like to say I’m grateful to all the people who supported me as a student, at K and elsewhere,” Karlin said. “It would have been impossible without them.” 

Her SIP, she said, was fun, but also sacred, transformative, life-altering, irreplaceable and unattainable through anything but her educational journey at K. 

“I have a more profound outlook on life because of it,” she said. “Going forward, I think it will guide me emotionally and personally. I grew up around a lot of poets, but I’ve liked interacting with the poets here even better. I saw a lot of pretentiousness when I was younger. Here, the experience has only felt real. I think that authenticity is a lot more about what poetry means and I love that.” 

Lake Itasca, Minnesota, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River
Lake Itasca, Minnesota, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee. - 45 poems
Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee.
Abraham's Oak at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
Abraham’s Oak is a concrete sculpture at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.
45 poems
A sunset in Natchez, Mississippi.
Scenic overlook of the Mississippi River valley - 45 poems
An overlook of the Mississippi River valley in Iowa.

An Excerpt From Eliza’s SIP: Ashen (Final)

Friends of yours tell me stories of how you came to
the Headwaters of the Old Man. You drove, solo, like me,
through the night only to see the state government shut
down & with it, the state park. Barricades couldn’t stop you. Your small self
pushed them away, & drove through to the welcome center. A year later, you would go
again with a friend & ask her, “Why are there so many people here?”
I follow you, as I always will, & walk the same
path & I have the same thought &, in addition “Why are there so many
naked babies?” A man asks me to take his picture & I watch the others,
working up courage to drop you off. & I realize, this place, this River
is not my own. It belongs to the millions who have followed it,
up & down, up & down, up & down. I release
you one last time & I think “she’s gone” but know
you never are.

Class: Is Civil Discourse Still Possible in Politics?

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Americans are struggling to talk across political divides, but a classroom at Kalamazoo College recently became a laboratory for civil discourse. Political Science Associate Professor Justin Berry led what he describes as the best class he’s had the privilege of teaching: a senior seminar on political polarization that challenged students not just to study the problem but to actively engage with it.

“I teach a lot of the bigger kinds of classes—intro classes—on Congress and the presidency,” Berry said. “This was my first opportunity to teach a seminar-oriented class, and I was excited about the chance to design something new. I picked a topic that I thought was pertinent to what they’ve learned over their time in political science. It’s a topic that’s particularly relevant to the democracy they’re participating in today.”

Berry designed the course to give students the tools and experiences they need to model what he calls civil disagreement. Over the term, students examined the forces driving political polarization in the United States, from widening divides among elected officials and the public to the ways media and social media reinforce differences. They analyzed the most recent election cycle using various sources, and through dialogue and interviews, they practiced ways to communicate across these differences.

“I wanted to give them the space and the tools to engage in difficult conversations,” he said. “I wanted them to fundamentally disagree on ideas, concepts and values, and yet do so in a constructive, civil way, which I think is absent from our politics today.”

Berry also noted the delicate balance between creating a sense of safety while fostering genuine disagreement in a course of this nature.

“I want to engender an environment that’s intellectually, politically and socially safe, but at the same time, I don’t want it to be so safe that people aren’t actually sharing their true beliefs,” he said. “If everybody’s feeling happy and comfortable, we’re probably not engaging in a real political discussion because politics is conflictual.”

The class was able to achieve that balance, Berry said.

“There was enough overlap, commonality and trust in one another for us to engage in a meaningful conversation on a weekly basis,” Berry said. “Yet there was also enough disagreement to lead to a meaningful exchange. A student would have a strong opinion, attitude or concept, and people would push back and give different perspectives. I heard students say time and again that in their discussions, they changed an attitude or an opinion toward something and I thought that was great. That’s real conversation.”

Student observing a cell phone
Justin Berry teaches his polarization and civil discourse students
Political Science Associate Professor Justin Berry teaches his polarization and civil discourse students.

The Assignment That Changed Perspectives

The centerpiece of the course was an intentional challenge: students had to interview someone with drastically different political views and write about their conversation. For many students, this meant stepping far outside their comfort zones. What they discovered often surprised them.

Lyrica Gee ’26 spoke with her uncle in Florida, whose politics differed sharply from her father’s despite their similar upbringings.

“I had gone home with some of the questions that we’ve been asking in class,” she said. “I talked to my dad about it and heard some of his answers about the way he was raised by his parents and their ideological lenses. Then, going into that interview with his brother, who ended up with a totally different political perspective, it was interesting to see how such a similar background landed them in these different situations.”

Libby McFarlen ’26 emphasized the humanizing effect of the face-to-face conversation she had.

“It’s so much easier to see what people think and dismiss it when it’s online,” she said. “But when you’re actually speaking to someone face-to-face, it personalizes those opinions. You realize that your opinions about people who disagree with you are attached to a real person, not to a statistic or someone on the other side of a phone screen.”

Berry mentioned two outcomes from the project that were especially noteworthy to him.

“I had one student who interviewed her dad, and she valued the experience so much that she wants to do it with all of her family members and record the conversations to trace her family’s political story,” he said. “I also had some students who assumed those they interviewed had very different beliefs, only to find false polarization once they had the conversation. Sometimes our assumptions are just false, and these things that we think divide us are our own misperceptions.”

Two students talking in a polarization and civil discourse class
Reagan Woods ’26 (left) talks with Lyrica Gee ’26.
Student leads the class on polarization and civil discourse from a blackboard
Libby McFarlen ’26 leads a discussion.

Student-Led Learning Creates Community

For Reagan Woods ’26, the seminar did more than explore polarization; it gave students practical ways to understand and challenge it.

“Polarization in past political science courses has been an undergirding theme that doesn’t get talked about,” she said. “It’s almost like the boogeyman—this unnamed force that drives our political differences and our current political economy. I like that we have a course where we can address it head-on and say, ‘This is what this is. Let’s name it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s dissect it.’”

The seminar’s structure was deliberately collaborative. Rather than traditional lectures, students led discussions, preparing activities and questions to engage their peers with weekly readings on topics such as media, geographic, and identity-based polarization. Woods described these readings as tools that could be kept in a tool belt, ready to use for class discussions, as well as outside the classroom.

“We have this tool belt full of theories, so what do we do with it now,” she asked. “Do we tackle polarization? Is this a problem we can fix? And while there is no one answer to that, I think it still got the gears turning. We can ask, ‘Is polarization an inevitable problem?’ Dr. Berry also mentioned that we’ve been more polarized before when we fought the Civil War and during the revolution, but we survived as a nation. This is not a hopeless cause, which I think was a hopeful message.”

Hollis Masterson ’26, who is pursuing majors in political science and history, appreciated how the seminar synthesized his undergraduate work.

“The interview assignment and leading class discussions were probably the most important to the classroom experience,” he said. “They offered a great sense of community and understanding among us about where our politics lie, our backgrounds, and that variability of where we all come from.”

Berry said the students embraced the student-led process.

“One thing I found really special about the class was how kind and gracious they were with one another,” he said. “In today’s world of social media and our phones, more often I’ll walk into a classroom, and students won’t be engaging with each other. But because they were developing the lesson plan, I would walk into class, and no one was on their phones—they’d be chatting about the reading they’d done. They posted questions on social media to poll other K students about their attitudes toward topics like political violence, and then they brought up the results in class. We would talk about the different responses in the community, so the conversations didn’t just end in the class; they kept flowing. That, for me, is a rare occurrence.”

The student-led approach created unexpected benefits. Masterson noted that the class brought together political science majors who had rarely shared a classroom before their senior year.

“It became this slow development of a community,” he said. “I wish we could have started this cohort sooner, but having the opportunity to tie everything together as a group made this one of the most valuable experiences of my education.”

Two students talk about their civil discourse and polarization class
Hollis Masterson ’26 (left) talks with Dymytri Hayda ’26.
Reagan Woods talks with Libby McFarlen.

From Skeptic to Scholar

Maddie Hanulcik ’26 had an experience with the course that reflects the transformative power it had.

“I was excited to take the senior seminar with my cohort, but to tell you the truth, I wasn’t excited about the topic,” she said. “We know that polarization exists, so I wondered whether we needed to make a whole class about it.”

Hanulcik’s perspective shifted drastically as the course progressed. What she initially dismissed as obvious became fascinating as she discovered the depth and breadth of polarization’s impact. The transformation was so complete that Hanulcik chose polarization as the focus of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP). Her project examines why Generation Z has significantly lower faith in democracy than Generation X and how the media influences this decline.

“If people don’t believe in democracy, that’s really scary,” Hanulcik said. “Even if a democracy is not functioning the way you want it to, it’s important to change it for the better instead of just abandoning it. We need to have things like civil discourse and a civil society to keep democracy alive.”

Two students listen in civil discourse and polarization course
Lilly Cleland ’26 (left) and Maddie Hanulcik ’26
Students in a classroom sit in a semicircle around their professor
Senior Libby McFarlen (from left), Estrella Arana, Lilly Cleland, Maddie Hanulcik, Reagan Woods and Lyrica Gee talk with Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry.

Challenging Assumptions

Perhaps the course’s most powerful lesson was how small the actual policy differences could be between opposing sides.

“Despite the fact that ideologically and verbally we have all of these differences, when it comes down to policy, the difference between a moderate Republican and a moderate Democrat is maybe an inch wide,” Gee said. “The difference between voting for one person and voting for the other is sometimes just about how much you dislike the other team.”

Hanulcik, a self-described libertarian, was one of only two non-left-leaning individuals in a class of 20. Initially, that made her feel uneasy, but as class conversations progressed, she found common ground she hadn’t expected.

“People started asking me why I felt the way I did, and after explaining, they said, ‘Oh, I share almost every belief that you have. I just came to it in a different way in my head.’”

The experience helped Hanulcik recognize her own polarization.

“At the beginning of the class, I was polarized against people who were polarized,” she said. “But then I realized I have to have conversations and help them understand the dangers of polarization and what it can lead to.”

She came to see polarization not as a simple left-right divide but as a problem created by extremes on both sides.

“Most individuals here in the U.S. have a similar concept of good or bad,” she said. “Discourse is driven by the extreme ends of both parties, and folks are slowly pulled from the middle. At what point do we lose that extreme dialogue and start communicating with folks in the middle?”

McFarlen captured a common takeaway from the course: people on both sides of the aisle really aren’t as different as they think; they are just shaped by different environments and experiences.

“It doesn’t mean they are your enemies,” she said. “It just means that they think differently, and it’s important to try to understand why people think the way they do.”

Gee reflected on how social media algorithms and sensational journalism exacerbate division for entertainment and profit.

“We’re stoking this fire between the two sides to make it more entertaining,” Gee said. “The entertainment aspect is making us grow further apart because we are sitting in our anger rather than in any critical thinking.”

Associate Professor Justin Berry
Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry
Civil Discourse and Polarization Class
Seniors Maddie Hanulcik, Reagan Woods, Lyrica Gee, Lilly Cleland, Estrella Arana and Libby McFarlen listen to Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry.

Beyond the Classroom

The lessons students learned have already begun influencing how they engage with politics beyond the classroom. McFarlen said the course changed how she views political campaigns, making her more attentive to how candidates target different audiences and frame their messages.

For Masterson, the course sparked greater interest in state and local politics, where he said bipartisanship still occasionally exists. He’s applying to master’s programs at Tufts University, George Washington University, and three Australian universities, having fallen in love with Australian politics during study abroad.

Gee, who plans to pursue political journalism in Washington, D.C., sees the course as foundational to her future work.

“I always want to look toward educating others and helping them get through really complex bureaucratic systems,” she said. “Having some of these ideas in my head is going to be very helpful in understanding the complexities within people.”

Hanulcik plans to join the Peace Corps after graduation.

“I love being abroad,” she said. “I like moving all the time, and I like helping people in some way, shape or form. I want to live my life as a life of service.”

Libby McFarlen listens in the civil discourse an polarization class
Libby McFarlen ’26

A Model for Democratic Citizenship

For Professor Berry, the course represents more than an academic exercise. It’s about preparing students for democratic citizenship in a fractured era.

“We have reached the point where we can no longer discuss politics with those with whom we disagree,” he said. “I wanted to provide students with a venue to grapple with difficult political questions and model how to engage in civil disagreement. It is a vital component of democratic citizenship, and it is not a skill we have effectively modeled for them.”

The results speak for themselves. What began as a required senior seminar became what multiple students described as their favorite class at K. In a moment defined by division, the course offered a glimmer of hope, proof that with curiosity, respect, and honesty, real conversation is not only possible; it’s transformative.

Estrella Arana ’26

Festival Playhouse Explores Body Image in ‘Most Massive Woman Wins’

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In a waiting room at a liposuction clinic, four women sit with their thoughts, their bodies, and their personal histories. What unfolds is The Most Massive Woman Wins, the next production by the Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College. 

It’s a play that confronts body image, misogyny and the personal costs of trying to fit into a society obsessed with women’s appearances. Written by Madeleine George and directed by Milan Levy ’23, the show will run at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 26 to Saturday, February 28, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, March 1. Tickets are available at festivalplayhouse.ludus.com. 

Since graduating from K, Levy has built a directing résumé that includes codirecting Smart People with Face Off Theatre Company, Kalamazoo’s Black-owned theatre company, in fall 2024. When Professor of Theatre Arts Lanny Potts reached out about the opportunity to direct at Levy’s alma mater, they immediately said yes. For Levy—who also serves the College as a program coordinator in the Office of Student Activities—this show is deeply personal. 

“Being someone who grew up a plus size woman, I saw so much of myself and the insecurities I’ve held, spoken through the words of these women,” Levy said. “I wanted to explore this play for myself, and everyone who would connect to this story.”  

Four actors from "The Most Massive Woman Wins" huddle during a rehearsal
Victoria (Gracie) Burnham ’27 (from left), Shay Kruse ’28, Helen Stoy ’26 and Sofia Gross ’29 are among the student actors in “The Most Massive Woman Wins” slated for February 26–March 1 at the Festival Playhouse.

The play unfolds as a series of monologues and scenes that move between the clinic’s waiting room and the women’s memories of schoolyards, workplaces and relationships. Each character has arrived at the same door, having traveled a completely different path to reach it. 

Liliana Stout ’26 plays Sabine, a Ph.D. student and committed feminist who wrestles with an internal conflict between her politics and her desire for intimacy, driving much of the play’s emotional tension. Stout describes the character as deeply angry and in constant dialogue with herself. 

“She can’t overcome the loneliness, and she has to find a way to balance being the deeply moral, feminist person that she is while wanting the love that she hasn’t found,” Stout said. 

Two casts will perform in the production, with Stout being the only actor to take the stage each night. Stout noted that the ensemble spans the full range of K class years, from a first-year student to seniors, and at least one cast member is performing on stage for the first time. The other actors include: 

  • Gracie Burnham ’27 and Emily Reese ’27 who portray Rennie, a teenager consumed by an eating disorder, trying to gain the love and acceptance of her mother.   
  • Sofia Gross ’29 and Shay Kruse ’28 who play Carly, a loving mother who believes her hard work will ensure her daughter doesn’t end up the way her and her mother did. What happens when this belief is challenged? 
  • Helen Stoy ’26 and Zoee Perez ’26 who act as Cel, a woman who struggles with self-harm and needs the help of others to keep her grounded. 

The play is set in the 1990s, but both Levy and Stout say its concerns feel urgently modern, as medications promising rapid weight loss dominate public conversation and the media continues to project narrow definitions of beauty. 

“We’re returning to the 90s in a way,” Levy said. “People are now using Ozempic and GLP-1s to lose weight. It’s all about looking skinny but that doesn’t equate to healthy. Expecting us all to have the same body or work towards it, is putting an impossible standard.” 

For Stout, the play is an invitation to empathy rather than judgment. She hopes audiences leave with a more generous understanding of why people arrive at decisions around changing their bodies. 

“It’s easy to stop and judge someone for doing something like plastic surgery or liposuction and say they’re lazy, or taking the easy way out, or that they just don’t love themselves,” she said. “I hope watching the show encourages people to take a moment to pause and instead find a way to understand what they’re going through and show them love instead.” 

Levy wants audiences, especially those who have felt the pressures these characters embody, to feel seen. 

“I want this show to give voice to the things people never felt they could share or say out loud,” they said.

Ensembles Present Concerts, Feb. 15 and 20 

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Kalamazoo College will sound as vibrant as it feels this month, with two campus music ensembles inviting audiences to shake off the winter chill through music inspired by movement, mood and color.  

Academy Street Winds 

The Academy Street Winds will present a dance-themed concert featuring waltzes, a tango, a malambo, and more at 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 15, at Dalton Theatre. Winter Dances will feature a title piece by Brian Balmages, the celebrated work Satiric Dances by Norman Dello Joio, and other selections that capture the emotions and motions of movement. Admission is free; donations are appreciated. 

The ensemble is a beloved creative outlet for woodwind, brass and percussion musicians, bringing together both students and community members to expand the group’s sound and capabilities.Adjunct Assistant Professor of Music Greg Bassett serves as the group’s director. 

Kalamazoo College Jazz Band 

The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band, directed by Visiting Instructor of Music Sandra Shaw, will present Colour My World at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 20, at Dalton Theatre. Admission is free; donations are appreciated.  

The concert will begin with Chicago’s Colour My World. It will continue with tunes that describe different colors to add visual stimulation and evoke specific emotions and feelings while reflecting shared experiences. Listeners are encouraged to dance if the music inspires them during the show. 

For more information about both performances, contact the Department of Music at 269.337.7070 or Susan.Lawrence@kzoo.edu. 

Jazz Band ensembles
The Kalamazoo College Jazz Band will be one of the ensembles performing this month.

Student-Athlete Finds a Family Legacy, Her Own Mark at K

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Zara Strauss prepares to throw the shot put and set a new personal mark during a women's track and field meet
Zara Strauss ’29 became the first Hornet to be named MIAA Field Athlete of the Week since Kalamazoo College relaunched track and field. All photos by Kimberly Moss.
Track and field student-athlete Zara Strauss '29 holding a javelin
Strauss competes in shot put and weight throw and plans to expand into additional outdoor events this spring.
Track and field student-athlete Zara Strauss '29 prepares to compete in the shot put and set a new personal mark
Strauss’ first collegiate track meet was January 17 at Trine University’s Sean Brady Invitational, where she beat her personal record in the shot put with a throw of 9.84 meters.

When Zara Strauss ’29 stepped into the throwing circle for her first collegiate track meet at Trine University’s Sean Brady Invitational on January 17, she was focused on one thing: beating her own mark. A personal record in the shot put—9.84 meters, nearly a third of a meter beyond her high school best—felt like a solid start, especially with a sixth-place finish in the competition. 

What she didn’t expect was the flood of Instagram tags that followed on January 20, alerting her that she had just made Kalamazoo College history. Strauss became the first Hornet to be named Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Field Athlete of the Week since K relaunched the sport, marking an early milestone in the program’s new era. The conference honor is given to a female student-athlete who demonstrates a standout individual performance in competition. Recipients are selected from nominations submitted by head coaches at each MIAA member school.  

For the first-year international student from Tokyo, Japan, the honor was both surprising and affirming. 

“I was really shocked,” she said. “I didn’t even know the award was a possibility, to be honest. People started tagging me on Instagram when it was announced, and I wondered what was going on. I wasn’t disappointed in my performance that day, even though I wanted to do better. Getting the award boosted my confidence. I felt a lot better about how I had done.” 

When Strauss first pursued track and field as a sophomore in high school, she discovered her strength in throwing events after a coach nudged her away from sprinting. Since then, she has embraced the technical challenges of shot put, discus, javelin and hammer throw, constantly refining her form and experimenting with new techniques such as rotational throwing. 

At K, Strauss competes in shot put and weight throw during the indoor season and looks forward to expanding into additional events outdoors. She trains closely with head coach Kyle Morrison and throws coach Luke Decker, both of whom she credits with helping her see measurable improvements in technique and distance.  

But choosing K was about more than athletics. Strauss has deep family ties to the College as her grandparents, Professor Emeritus of History David Strauss and retired instructor Dhera Strauss, both taught at K. 

Her family’s connection to Japan traces back to her grandfather taking students there years ago. Her father, Benjamin Strauss, then studied abroad in Japan during college, where he later moved with her mother, Monique. An unexpected job transfer for her dad turned what was supposed to be a couple of years into 19 years in Tokyo, where Strauss was born and raised. 

With her brother and cousin also enrolled—and her cousin living immediately across the hall at Hoben Hall—campus quickly felt like home, even as she navigated life far from Japan. She visits her grandparents weekly, a routine that helped ease the homesickness she felt early on. 

That sense of connection extends to her teammates. As one of six throwers and the only woman in the group, Strauss describes the squad as tight-knit and supportive. Teammates offer feedback on technique, share late-night meals after practice and travel together to meets. A friendship formed during LandSea with sprinter Gwyneth Dunaway ’29 has also carried onto the track, reinforcing the community she hoped to find at a small college. 

Strauss admits that earning conference recognition so early in the program’s return brings a mix of pride and perspective. She feels some responsibility to continue that excellence as one of the first standouts of the relaunch, but she’s determined to keep the experience grounded in enjoyment and growth. 

Her achievement also arrives at a meaningful moment on the calendar. February 4 marks the National Day of Women and Girls in Sports, a global celebration of participation, visibility and equity. Strauss, who attended an all-girls school and helped pioneer a new wrestling team for girls in her high school league, sees the day as a reminder of why representation matters. 

“I think it’s important to create that space for women to be able to have their own league and to see themselves in their sports,” she said. “I feel like I’ve always grown up around women in sports, and it’s important to give women the attention they deserve.”  

Student-athlete Zara Strauss competes in the shot put during a track and field meet at Trine University
Choosing K was about more than athletics for Strauss, who has deep family ties to the College.
Track and field student-athlete Gwyneth Dunaway climbs on the shoulders of Zara Strauss
Strauss formed a friendship with sprinter Gwyneth Dunaway ’29 while the two participated in LandSea orientation. Their friendship has carried over onto the track.

Make Your Mark
with the Hornets

You can support Kalamazoo College student-athletes like Zara Strauss ’29 by participating in Hornet Athletics Giving Day on February 18. Visit our website to make a mark with a gift that will help fund the highest priorities of our teams and provide resources such as equipment, travel and coaching excellence.

As K’s track and field program builds momentum in its return season, Strauss hopes to keep building, too, while refining her form, chasing new personal records and contributing to a team goal of making an immediate mark on the MIAA standings. If her debut is any indication, both she and the Hornets are off to a record-setting start. 

“I’ve made some good friends, and K is a fun place to be,” Strauss said. “I’m really enjoying my first couple of months here, and I can’t wait for the next four years.” 

Outdoor Leadership Conference Returns to K

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The Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference is returning to Kalamazoo College February 6–8, offering a weekend of student-led workshops, networking and hands-on learning focused on outdoor leadership and sustainability education. 

The annual event will connect more than 50 students from small, medium and large institutions across the region. K students will be able to participate at no cost and without the need to travel. 

“It really doesn’t matter what students’ majors are. It’s just all about outdoor leadership and sustainability education,” said Josie Belsky ’28, one of the five conference organizers including Madeline Moss ‘26, Zoe Allen ’28, Chloe Brown ’28 and Ava King ’28. 

Belsky’s journey to organizing the conference began when she attended last year’s event at Earlham College. Moss had heard about the conference through her first-year seminar, Wheels of Change. After missing last year’s conference while studying abroad, Moss jumped at the opportunity to help organize when Sofia Fleming ’25, a previous conference attendee, reached out. 

For Moss, an English major, the conference represents an opportunity to bridge academic interests with outdoor pursuits—a combination not always obvious to those outside the field. 

Outdoor Leadership Conference
Kalamazoo College last hosted the Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference in 2020 with gatherings like this one at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. The conference is returning to K Feb. 6–8.

“At K, we don’t have a lot of leadership-specific courses or an outdoor education major, so this is an opportunity for us to be able to touch base with students from other schools who might be interested in that and who have a lot of background in it, while also learning from them,” Moss said. “Being able to intersect my interest of the outdoors and sustainability with English is a nice thing about the conference.” 

This interdisciplinary approach defines the conference’s appeal. Workshops range from technical skills such as scuba diving and rock climbing to more philosophical discussions about what wilderness means and how to decolonize one’s understanding of the outdoors.  

Planning the conference has been a crash course in event management for the organizing students, who have met weekly since the start of the academic year with support from Outdoor Programs staff. The planners have coordinated with campus organizations like the Office of Student Activities. They’ve also reached out to local organizations such as the Kalamazoo Nature Center and engaged with students about their Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs) and other campus initiatives. 

The organizers emphasize that the conference welcomes everyone, regardless of outdoor experience. 

“One of the bigger barriers is that it can be a little intimidating to go to a conference—you feel like you have to come in with something, but in reality, it’s for everyone,” Belsky said. “There’s no experience necessary. You don’t even have to be an outdoorsy person. It’s just meant to be fun.” 

Hosting the conference offers an opportunity to showcase how K’s sustainability infrastructure has evolved, particularly through the Environmental Stewardship Center. 

“K has gone through a lot of changes, and I think this feels somewhat grounding back to our history of sustainability in leadership and student-led learning,” Moss said. “The fact that we hosted this conference back in 2020, before the pandemic, and a lot of things have shifted since then, and the fact we’re adapting it to the way that the school is now, says a lot about our dedication to creating a space of outdoor stewardship.” 

Attending this conference at other schools has been eye-opening for K students. Last year at Earlham, for example, Belsky and others learned about Earlham’s Quaker heritage and toured facilities including horse stables, composting operations and a community building where people sell handmade art and pottery. 

But beyond workshops and campus tours, the conference creates lasting connections. 

“I’m still in contact with the people I met at last year’s conference,” Belsky said. “One of them came to visit me and my roommate last year, too, which was fun.” 

She also emphasizes the conference’s professional value. 

“It’s a good way to network with people and make connections that will help you so much in your future career,” Belsky said. 

The organizers express deep appreciation for Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner, Outdoor and Environmental Coordinator Greta Farley ’22 and Outdoor Leadership Training Center Coordinator Hannah Wolfe ’21, who provided crucial guidance. Farley’s perspective as a former student organizer has been particularly valuable. 

“Sometimes we get fogged up with the student mindset and think we’re so busy that we couldn’t possibly do this,” Moss said. “But it felt grounding to have them tell us that we’re capable of it, and we could do so much more than we expected.” 

With the conference happening on campus, the organizers have a simple message for the K community: Join us. 

“The fact that it’s here is huge for us because we know, especially for student-athletes and people involved in student organizations, it’s hard to get away on the weekends,” Belsky said. “Your lives get busy, especially at K, because we’re always so involved. But it’s here. It’s so close, so come join us.” 

For more information, registration and schedules, see the conference’s website. 

Ten Days Opened a World Through Short-Term Study Abroad  

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For some Kalamazoo College students, study abroad can feel out of reach—too long, too expensive or too intimidating to fit into already full academic and personal schedules. But for 23 students who spent 10 days in the Dominican Republic during winter break, a short-term, faculty-led program offered something transformative: a first step into global learning that reshaped how they see the world and themselves.  

Led by Associate Professor of Spanish Ivett López Malagamba, the immersive experience brought students to Santiago de los Caballeros, a mid-sized city in the Dominican Republic, where they lived with host families, conducted daily academic work and navigated life almost entirely in Spanish.   

Students sitting at an outdoor table in the Dominican Republic while on short-term study abroad
Kalamazoo College students who participated in short-term study abroad over winter break were welcomed to the Dominican Republic with a special dinner.
Students participate in an orientation during short-term study abroad in the Dominican Republic
Students participated in an orientation when they arrived in the Dominican Republic.

An Accessible Path to Global Learning  

The short-term program targets students who may face barriers to longer study abroad opportunities, including first-generation college students, students of color, student-athletes and those balancing multiple commitments on campus. It was first launched as a pilot program in 2019, funded through a grant from the Mellon Foundation, which supported faculty planning, along with Center for International Programs funds. Additionally this year, the Ambassador Martha L. Campbell and Consul General Arnold H. Campbell Foreign Study Endowment and the Robert J. Kopecky ’72 Endowed Study Abroad Fund helped high-need students afford the experience. The Campbell Endowment was established in 2009 to support and enhance the foreign study experience for K students. The Kopecky fund was established in 2022 to help maximize the number of students who participate in study abroad while encouraging students to explore the culture around them during their international experience. 

For some participants, the Dominican Republic trip marked their first time traveling internationally or even boarding an airplane.  

“For them, this was not just an academic experience; it was a personal milestone,” López Malagamba said.  

Academically, the program is tied to the Spanish curriculum. Students must have completed Spanish 201, the final course in K’s language requirement sequence for Spanish. In the fall, participants enroll in a preparatory course and attend predeparture sessions focused on Dominican history, race relations, politics and the country’s deep connections to the United States and the Caribbean. And once they are in the Dominican Republic, the learning is nonstop.  

“Every day is academic,” López Malagamba said. “Even when students are on a beach or in a community celebration, they are learning—about economics, migration, tourism, race, history and the environment.”  

Students visit Samana in the Dominican Republic during short-term study abroad
In the coastal region of Samaná, students encountered a lesser-known chapter of shared history: communities founded by formerly enslaved people from the U.S. who settled there in the 19th century.
Chocolate making at Sendero del Cacao
Students had a chance to make chocolate while learning about the country’s export economy through cocoa farming, studying the role of tourism in shaping cities, and examining the deep ties between the Dominican Republic and the United States. 

Learning Beyond the Classroom  

Students explored the Dominican Republic through lectures, guided visits and hands-on experiences that reinforced themes from their language coursework, including urban life, nature, the arts and professions. They learned about the country’s export economy through cocoa farming, studied the role of tourism in shaping cities, and examined the deep ties between the Dominican Republic and the United States.  

In the coastal region of Samaná, students encountered a lesser-known chapter of shared history: communities founded by formerly enslaved people from the U.S. who settled there in the 19th century. A guide, himself a descendant of those settlers, shared how English once flourished in the region before being suppressed and how that legacy still shapes Dominican identity.  

“These are moments where students realize that U.S. history doesn’t stop at our borders,” López Malagamba said. “It lives in other places, in other people’s stories.”  

Environmental justice was another key focus. Students learned how coastal communities balance the economic need for tourism with the protection of ecosystems, national parks and marine environments that sustain local livelihoods.  

Living with host families added another layer of immersion and challenge. Students had to adapt to new routines, unfamiliar foods and different cultural expectations, all while communicating in a second language.  

“There’s always a moment where students feel overwhelmed,” López Malagamba said. “They miss their familiarity. They realize how hard it is to express themselves fully. But then something shifts.”  

That shift often comes in small victories: asking for directions, explaining a preference at the dinner table or successfully navigating a conversation they once would have avoided.  

“By the end, students realize, ‘I can do this,’” she said. “That confidence is powerful.”  

Spanish Class at Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra
K students participated in a Spanish class while visiting the Dominican Republic.
Students visit Monumento a los Heroes de la Restauracion on study abroad
Students visited the Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración, which was built for the 100th anniversary of the Dominican War of Independence, which was fought in 1844 to gain sovereignty from Haiti.

‘I’m Hooked’  

For Tom Clark ’27, the Dominican Republic trip became a lifeline to study abroad after he had to cancel plans for a longer program in Greece. The business major, who is dual-enrolling at Western Michigan University to pursue exercise science, realized too late that he couldn’t balance a two-term study abroad with his academic timeline.  

“I went through all the predeparture stuff, was all ready to go, and then I realized I wouldn’t be able to do it,” Clark said. “But right as I dropped it, I got an email about this trip to the Dominican Republic. I saw it was over winter break, so it wouldn’t take away from credits that I would need. It was perfect.”  

The trip marked Clark’s first time leaving the country, and the experience immediately challenged his assumptions about privilege and perspective.  

“I thought I was familiar with other cultures,” he said. “I thought of myself as an empathetic person who could put himself in the shoes of others. And then I actually took the trip, and my understanding was much different.”  

Simple differences struck him immediately. Getting off the airplane, he looked for a water fountain to fill his bottle only to realize public drinking fountains don’t exist in places without widespread access to clean water. The language immersion then proved to be both challenging and rewarding. Clark hadn’t taken a Spanish class in nearly a year, and the first few days were rough. But surrounded by Spanish speakers constantly—including his host parents, who spoke no English—he found his skills returning and improving rapidly. Those challenges, in fact, became opportunities for connection.  

Among Clark’s favorite moments was a joint class session with Dominican students learning English as a second language, meeting people his age from vastly different backgrounds, yet fundamentally similar. He made a friend named Casey who runs a fashion brand with 60,000 Instagram followers and is working toward getting a green card.  

The experience reframed how Clark thinks about language learning. In a classroom, he explained, students have varying levels of investment. On the trip, everyone was committed, making the learning more dynamic and applicable.  

“We were talking about how another language is like learning a superpower,” he said. “I learned I could travel to many countries and be perfectly fine. I could meet people and connect better. The Dominican is a tiny island, so I’m hooked on imagining what the rest of the world is like.”  

Tres Ojos National Park
Tres Ojos, or Three Eyes National Park, is a 50-yard, open-air limestone cave.
Students at Tres Ojos National Park
Students walk through Tres Ojos National Park.

Discovering New Perspectives  

For Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta ’28, a first-generation college student, the Dominican Republic trip offered something unexpected: a chance to see her own culture through new eyes while discovering how much she still had to learn.  

“I have never learned so much in such a short amount of time about myself, my peers and an entirely new country,” Guerrero said. “With my Mexican heritage, I assumed because I’m Hispanic and because they’re Hispanic, there would be some similarities between us. There definitely were, but there was also so much nuance.”  

Although Mexico and the Dominican Republic were both colonized by Spain, Guerrero learned how French and African influences shaped Dominican culture differently. More importantly, she heard those histories directly from Dominicans themselves.   

Guerrero’s experience was framed with many memorable moments. She recalls feeling grateful for trying plantains for the first time, exploring caves and seeing the ocean.  

“I’d never felt so many emotions packed into one trip,” she said. “And I’m really excited to carry all of those lessons into study abroad.”  

Guerrero is next hoping to study at Belfast University in Northern Ireland, where she wants to explore political tensions and the media’s role in conflict—themes she first encountered in the Dominican Republic through a guest lecture on how the media weaponizes political relationships during elections.  

Santiago de los Caballeros Tour of the City
Students stopped at St. James the Apostle Cathedral during a tour of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic.
Downtown Santiago de los Caballeros
Associate Professor of Spanish Ivett López Malagamba (right) led the short-term study abroad experience through places such as downtown Santiago de los Caballeros.

Opening Doors for Student-Athletes  

For Riley Shults ’28, a runner on K’s cross-country team, the 10-day format meant he didn’t have to choose between his sport and international experience.  

The short-term trip to the Dominican Republic didn’t change Shults’ academic trajectory, he said, but it reinforced the direction he wanted to pursue. He is declaring an anthropology-sociology major in February and is now planning to study in Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter of his junior year through a program focused on community engagement and Indigenous cultures.  

“I knew that I wanted to care about people, and I knew that I wanted to travel the world,” he said. “This program was the first real experience that I got to have of that.”  

One question lingered throughout the trip: Can such a short program truly transform students in the way longer study abroad experiences do? And for Shults, the answer is unequivocal.  

“One hundred percent,” he said. “I barely talked to anyone on that trip before it, and now I see them every day. Every little aspect fundamentally changed who we are because we were forced to think about someone other than ourselves. It’s not just about me anymore. It’s about the whole world.”  

The change came through small moments that accumulated into profound shifts. Shults discovered he loves beans and rice. He overcame his lack of confidence in his language skills and found himself thinking in Spanish. He engaged with complex political histories he’d only read about in textbooks as his host mother shared stories each morning about the country’s history under dictator Rafael Trujillo.  

“I used to think one way, and now I think this other way,” he said. “Study abroad pulls people out of their comfort zones. Once you push past that boundary your learning is only limited to what you allow yourself to find.”  

One particularly memorable moment came during a Sunday block party in a working-class neighborhood of Santiago. Community organizers welcomed the K group with music, announcements and open celebrations. 

Students danced alongside children, parents and grandparents in the streets. Shults found himself at the center of that celebration, dancing with elderly women who grabbed his red hair for good luck. He moved freely without self-consciousness in a way he’d never experienced at home.  

“Every single person is not caring about what other people say, they’re just moving,” he said. “It’s such a different culture than ours. Here, people don’t just dance. We’re always thinking about what other people are doing. But that’s not what they think. They’re just going to have fun.”  

His experience now surfaces in unexpected moments back on campus. In a class about water systems, Shults reflected on the reality that Dominican tap water isn’t safe to drink.  

“I’m sitting in class thinking, ‘I lived this,’” he said. “I lived this example where you don’t have water right on the tap.”  

A resident of the Los Pepines neighborhood dances with Riley Shults '28
A resident of the Los Pepines neighborhood dances with Riley Shults ’28.
Visit to the Monumento a los Heroes de la Restauracion
The Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración is the tallest building in Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic.

Distinct Opportunities Bring Transformations  

Although the program lasts just 10 days, its impact extends far beyond winter break. López Malagamba noted that many students return with renewed interest in longer study abroad opportunities and greater confidence in navigating unfamiliar environments. For her, watching students undergo their transformations in just 10 days remains the most rewarding part of leading the program.  

“These students come back with a different understanding of what it means to be a global citizen,” she said. “They’ve lived with families who welcomed them. They’ve navigated challenges in a second language. They’ve sat with discomfort and come out stronger.   

“These programs remind students that the world is bigger than the U.S. and their immediate communities,” she said. “They learn that their actions matter, that their country has an impact elsewhere, and that shared humanity exists across borders. That’s the kind of learning that stays with you long after the trip ends.”  

Study Abroad Leads to Marine Research Adventure

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A student and professor performing marine research in the Galapagos Islands
Hailey Yoder ’26 (right) teamed up with Cheryl Logan, a professor at Cal State Monterey Bay, on labeling tubes for data collection in the field.
A view from the shore in the Galapagos Islands where Hailey Yoder performed marine research
Yoder’s favorite hike in the Galapagos Islands took her to a tide-pooling area where she saw starfish, small fish, crabs and small octopi.

When Hailey Yoder ’26 tells people she researches coral reefs, their response is often the same: “You live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. How do you do that?”  

For Yoder, a Kalamazoo College double major in biology and Spanish, the answer is both simple and extraordinary: It started with sending an email.  

That email, sent during her study abroad program in Ecuador, connected her with Margarita Brandt, a biology professor at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, who works with Galápagos Reef Revival. What began as a conversation about potential research ideas soon evolved into an opportunity to study coral reef restoration in the Galápagos Islands.  

“We just clicked and worked really well together,” Yoder said. “She invited me onto a project, and I really was just hoping that it would work out.”  

Bringing Coral Reefs Back to Life  

Yoder’s research starts with how climate change and ocean acidification have affected coral reefs in the Galápagos. The islands once boasted several coral reefs, but many have been wiped out by bleaching, leaving remaining structures vulnerable to complete destruction.  

The restoration process involves collecting coral fragments from around the islands and growing them in underwater gardens, where they’re suspended from ropes and nourished by ocean currents. Once mature, researchers implant them into the seafloor in organized patterns. To assess the impact, Yoder used GoPro cameras mounted in waterproof cases and weighted with zip ties—nothing fancy, she noted—placing them at consistent locations near restored coral sites. Through snorkeling expeditions, she positioned the cameras to capture the ecosystem unfolding around eight or nine individual corals. All the research was done under permits from Galápagos National Park and CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  

The results have been striking. At the first site Yoder analyzed, two new fish species appeared after restoration. Afterward, four or five additional species flourished.  

Community at the Center  

What distinguishes this research is its deep connection to local communities. The project employs Galápagos residents, including one community member who maintains and monitors the corals year-round. Researchers also lead programs bringing women and children—particularly those without previous opportunities to explore their island’s underwater world—on snorkeling expeditions to witness the restoration firsthand.  

“There are intricacies to coming into someone else’s home to perform research,” Yoder said. “I tried to focus on community and the local knowledge that people have.”  

This community-centered approach culminated in a symposium in the Galápagos, where Yoder presented her research entirely in Spanish. She created a Spanish-language research poster and discussed her findings with community members invested in their island’s ecological future.  

“They were all super excited about it and thought it was really cool,” she said. “It was pretty fun to be able to have that connection, too.”  

Taking Marine Research to the National Stage  

Yoder’s work has gained recognition beyond the islands. This January, she traveled to Portland, Oregon, to present a poster at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) conference, arriving just before K’s winter term began and returning during the first week of classes.  

The conference provided invaluable networking opportunities. A postdoctoral student from Boston’s National Institute of Health, who had previously worked with the same corals and researchers, offered career guidance and suggestions for future research directions. Yoder connected also with fellow undergraduates navigating similar paths.  

“With these conversations, I recognized that there’s not necessarily a right or wrong path to going into some sort of research like this,” Yoder said. “That was reassuring.”  

K’s Role in Marine Success  

Yoder credits K’s biology and Spanish departments along with the Center for International Programs with making her research possible. In all, they provided funds through: 

  • The Betty R. Gómez Lance Award in Latin American Studies, which was established by Lance after her retirement from K. It has been awarded posthumously until her passing in 2016; 
  • Jim and Deanna Tiefenthal Endowed Foreign Study Fund: established by Jim and Deanna (members of the class of 1966) in 2016 to support student international learning opportunities through K’s study abroad program; and 
  • Seminary Hill Sustainability Internship: established by Doug Doetsch ’79 and his wife, Susan Manning, to fund internships focused on sustainable agriculture or architecture.    
Marine research team poses near the ocean after a day of collecting data
Emma Saso (back row, from left), Daniel Velasco, José Barrios and Ava Besecker with Logan (front from left), Yoder and Catalina Ulloa after a full day of collecting data for marine projects.
Student in snorkeling gear while performing marine research
Yoder waited on the rocks right off of the bay where the coral sites are located, just after placing video cameras. “We waited here for 15 minutes as to not disturb the fish community and be out of the way before recollecting the cameras,” she said.
Student prepares to perform research in a wet suit
Yoder prepares to place cameras before snorkeling around to get a feel for the location and different plots and determine the most efficient way to take quality videos. 
An underwater view of a coral reef and a shark
Yoder had GoPro cameras mounted in waterproof cases and weighted with zip ties so they could be placed at consistent locations near restored coral sites.

Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas has been particularly supportive, helping Yoder refine her research question while providing guidance as she writes her SIP. Professor of Biology Binney Girdler has assisted with data visualization and helped Yoder narrow her focus. The department also helped fund her Portland conference trip.  

“They were supportive and beyond excited for me,” Yoder said. “To have a professor you look up to say that you’re doing something they’re proud of is so cool.”  

An Unexpected Love for Corals  

Yoder admits she initially gravitated toward sharks within the field of general biology, not coral reef or fish. However, the research transformed her perspective.  

“I gained this strong love for corals, because the way they work is so interesting, and they provide so many amazing services for the land and fish that they’re near,” she said.  

Her biology major, enhanced by marine research experience, positions her well for graduate school. She has applied to a master’s program to work with a different researcher studying the same coral reefs, with hopes of returning to the Galápagos over the next year to collect data from different reefs and expand her video collection. Her ultimate goal is to publish her research.  

“My knowledge is so much stronger because of the undergrad opportunity,” Yoder said. “But this master’s program will be a huge thing as well, because it will allow me to dive into the specifics and work more closely with coral scientists.”  

Advice for Future Hornets  

For prospective biology students, Yoder emphasized the opportunities available to those willing to pursue them. But opportunity requires initiative.  

“Sending the first email was just the first step of all of the things I’ve had a chance to do, because K gives you so many opportunities,” Yoder said. “You just need to be able to take advantage of them. Those resources will be there, but you have to reach out and ask for them. The answer is going to be ‘yes,’ if they can make it work.”  

Her message is clear: “Send the email and do the thing you want to do. Advocate for yourself.”  

For Yoder, that single email led to underwater gardens in the Galápagos Islands, international research presentations, professional connections across the marine biology field, and a future dedicated to understanding and protecting coral reef ecosystems—all from Kalamazoo, Michigan.