With hearts full of service, a student organization is pumping exceptional success into the blood drives at Kalamazoo College.
The Red Cross Club, led by Abby Barnum ’23, has earned a Premier Blood Partners Program award from the American Red Cross, designed to recognize community efforts in benefiting the local blood supply. The award honors the Red Cross’ highest contributing sponsors, starting at 50 donations collected per year, with a minimum blood-drive size of 30 units.
As many as 50 students, faculty, staff and community members have signed up for each of the blood drives at K, which are conducted once per term, amounting to three times a year. After a few cancellations and donation deferrals for low blood-iron levels, about 35 to 40 typically will donate.
“It’s a really big honor,” said Barnum, a biochemistry major and aspiring physician assistant. “The Red Cross person who arranges the blood drives told me, ‘you guys are doing so well, we’re going to give you this special recognition because you just keep knocking it out of the park.’ It was nice to hear that we’re making a difference even though we’re a smaller school.”
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented Barnum and Red Cross Club members from conducting blood drives at K until last spring. But now, a local Red Cross representative will collaborate with Health Care Center Coordinator Jennifer Combes to schedule each drive. That empowers about 10 active Red Cross Club members to volunteer both before and after the drives.
“The week before a drive we’ll have at least two people at tables at Hicks Student Center, and we encourage everybody as much as we can to donate,” Barnum said. “We let them know that donating saves up to three lives and we’ll give them free snacks afterward. On the day of, we have hour-long shifts. I usually take the day off from classes because it’s easier if at least one person is always there. One person does registration. Another works in the canteen, where we make sure everyone who donates gets a snack and is feeling OK afterward.”
Abby Barnum ’23 (left) joined Caelan Frazier ’24, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Blake Tresca at Declaration of Major Day in February. Barnum is a member of the Kalamazoo College Red Cross Club, a student organization being recognized by the American Red Cross for the success of its blood drives.
How to help the Red Cross Club
Kalamazoo College will host its next Red Cross blood drive from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in the Hicks Banquet Room.
For an appointment, visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter sponsor code kzoocollege or call 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767).
Donors of all blood types are needed and blood can only come from volunteer blood donors.
Barnum has seen the importance of blood donations from a young age on through family members. Her grandfather has hemochromatosis, a condition in which one’s body accumulates too much iron, which forces him to donate blood regularly whenever he’s eligible. Her mom also began donating blood years ago, setting an example for Barnum.
As a result, Barnum became a blood drive officer at her high school and began donating herself. Later, her dad benefitted from blood donations when he suffered from two non-malignant brain tumors. And since, she has worked in Bronson-affiliated emergency rooms as a medical scribe in downtown Kalamazoo, Paw Paw and Battle Creek through Helix Scribe Solutions, which provides services to physician groups, healthcare systems and hospitals.
“I’ve seen the amount of help that just one blood donation can provide,” Barnum said. “Donating takes such a small portion of your day and you can really change someone’s life with it.”
If the thought of needles prevents you from donating, but you still want to help, remember that students can always join the Red Cross Club.
“We’re always looking for new people and the time commitment is once a term for maybe four hours,” Barnum said. “It’s an easy way to feel good about yourself and boost your resume with volunteer work. It’s also a good way to contribute to society and have a positive impact on the world around you.”
Rachel Kramer ’23 in the Centre for Research in Applied Biology (CeRAB) at UENR with Ankrah, Babae, Kramer and Rabi Baidoo from left to right.
Kramer collecting samples from schoolchildren.
Kramer and friends sharing a home-cooked meal by Ankrah during the “going-away party” they all threw for her at the end of the summer.
With the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11, Kalamazoo College commonly celebrates the accomplishments of scientists such as Rachel Kramer ’23.
The day, first marked by the United Nations in 2015, encourages women scientists, and targets equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. Such a day is desired because U.N. statistics show that fewer than 30 percent of scientific researchers in the world are women and only about 30 percent of all female students select fields in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) to pursue in their higher education. Only about 22 percent of the professionals in cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence are women, and representation among women is especially low professionally in fields such as information and communication technology, natural science, mathematics, statistics and engineering.
Kramer often found herself comforting community members like this child as they gave their blood samples for tropical disease research.
Rachel Kramer ’23 stands with a NeTroDis Research team at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). From left to right in the bottom row are Dr. Kenneth Bentum Otabil, Kramer, Ms. Blessing Ankrah, and Theophilus Nti Babae. From left to right in the top row are Charles Addai and Emmanual Bart-Plange.
Kramer enjoying fresh Ghanaian coconut after Sunday service.
However, Kramer—a biochemistry major with a concentration in community and global health and a minor in Spanish—is bucking that trend. She will attend the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine in July 2023. Plus, she completed 10 weeks of research last summer investigating health inequities in Ghana, Africa, while collecting data and researching Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD’s) for her Senior Integrated Project (SIP).
The lead up to her SIP opportunity began two summers ago when she decided to get into volunteer work abroad through International Volunteer Head Quarters (IVHQ). At that time, she spent two weeks in Ghana, where she performed health care outreach by providing wound care to people in remote areas under the supervision of local health professionals.
Kramer, the NeTroDis Team and their study clinician, Dr. Vera Darko (far right), on the far left meet the president of the regional hospital (middle) to inform him of their research.
Ankrah and Otabil introduce Kramer to UENR’s Dean of Science at UENR, Professor SF Gyasi.
Kramer and her host mother, Blessing Ankrah.
While she was there, she saw people with parasitic diseases which she later found out were considered to be NTD’s. Such diseases are of special interest to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). In fact, the two organizations have a roadmap for eradicating NTD’s by 2030, which involves working with local researchers in endemic regions to collect data to inform policy to better protect and serve the people affected by NTD’s.
“I saw children 5 years old and younger with these ulcers half an inch deep in their ankles and feet,” Kramer said. “It struck me and I knew that these things shouldn’t be happening.”
Even before returning to Michigan, Kramer knew she wanted to go back to Ghana and develop her SIP there as her way of helping to solve the health issues she witnessed. She just didn’t know what might provide that opportunity.
Kramer in front of Kalamazoo College’s Dow Science Center, holding her 101-page SIP just before turning it in.
Kramer and UENR students and staff packed into vans like this with all their gear to travel to fieldwork destinations.
A microscopic view of a participant sample.
After several random conversations asking people, including K alumni, about anyone doing research there, Kramer reached out through Twitter to Blessing Ankrah, a researcher with the NeTroDis Research Group, a non-governmental agency at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani, Bono Region of Ghana.
“Two weeks later, she ended up responding and said she’d be happy to collaborate,” Kramer said. “We started talking on Zoom and WhatsApp, and she decided to have me work on a project where they were updating the prevalence rates of two neglected tropical diseases called schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis.”
Terrain such as the one pictured were roads teams had to walk several miles on in order to reach some of the communities. This contributes to why diseases are considered neglected. They are difficult for researchers and health personnel to reach.
Multilingual UENR students are seen translating the research forms from English to Twi so the community members, who speak Twi, could participate in the research.
Kramer celebrating Doris Berkoh’s (professor of Biochemistry at UENR) birthday with other UENR Biological Science faculty and staff.
According to the CDC, schistosomiasis parasites live in some types of freshwater snails, and humans become infected when their skin touches contaminated water. Health-care professionals diagnose schistosomiasis through urine and stool samples. Within days of becoming infected, patients typically develop a rash or itchy skin. Fever, chills, cough and muscle aches can begin within a month or two of infection. If left untreated, this disease can become fatal.
Soil-transmitted helminthiasis, the CDC says, targets human intestines as parasites’ eggs are passed in feces. If an infected person defecates outside—near bushes, in a garden or on a field, for example—parasitic eggs are deposited on soil. People can ingest the parasites when they eat fruits and vegetables that have not been carefully cooked, washed or peeled. Some infections can cause a range of health problems, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood and protein loss, rectal prolapse, and slowed or stunted physical and cognitive growth. Similar to schistosomiasis, if untreated, this disease can become fatal.
Group photo of Kramer and the junior year biological science students on the field trip to Mole National Park
Kramer celebrating Cultural Day at a local Montessori.
Kramer standing with members of a community NeTroDis researchers visited after watching them construct a hand-made xylophone with wooden planks, leaves and a hole in the ground.
Ankrah became a host mom to Kramer as both worked on the project to update and investigate the relevance, intensity and risk factors of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in selected rural and hard-to-reach communities in the Bono and Bono East regions of Ghana. The opportunity was funded by the Hough SIP Grant and the Collins Fellowship through Student Projects Abroad (SPA) funding, both of which were through Kalamazoo College. .
“This summer was an experience where I was not only a researcher, but I was also a student and a family member,” Kramer said. “Blessing was able to show me what the food was like, what the people were like, what the culture was like and it was just an amazing life experience.”
Kramer with UENR students in the savanna on the field trip to Mole National Park.
Kramer in the Centre for Research in Applied Biology (CeRAB) at UENR microscopically analyzing samples.
Bringing clothes for community members during fieldwork visits.
Yet research definitely remained the purpose of her visit. For the first three weeks, it was necessary for the researchers to perform paperwork during business hours to ensure the ethical approval of the project by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) committees at UENR. During the evening hours, Ankrah introduced Kramer to her family and friends including host brother Lord Owusu Ansah; the university’s president, vice president and dean of science; and regional hospital leaders.
When the five-week field work began, Kramer and her fellow researchers traveled to eight isolated communities that had as few as five and as many as 200 residents to collect socio demographic and qualitative data along with urine and stool samples.
NeTroDis team walking on the dirt road to get to the communities. From left to right Theophilus Nti Babae, Otabil, Divine and Kramer.
Kramer at one of the community sites for field work.
Kramer with Ankrah for their daily “pre-work selfie.”
“We would get up at 4:30 a.m. and ride in a packed van for about three hours,” Kramer said. “When we arrived to the communities, many times we would have to walk a distance with all of our gear. Some of these communities were only a few households and are located so far from public roads, and that’s why these diseases are considered neglected. It took us two hours to walk to one of the communities on foot and there was no way to get there with a car. Since there are so few people living in these remote places, there’s no way the government would fund roads to these communities.”
After traveling back to the UENR campus from the field, the researchers stored their samples in freezers before resting for a few hours and then returning to the lab around 7 p.m. in the evening when they analyzed up to hundreds of samples. The immediacy was imperative despite their long days because the urine and stool samples would go bad within 24 to 48 hours.
Kramer standing with her head researcher, Dr. Kenneth Bentum Otabil.
Rachel Kramer exchanging a gift with the vice chancellor of UENR after introducing NeTroDis’s summer research project to him.
Kramer with children at local market.
After the field work, Kramer’s biggest roles were inputting data, helping with the preparation of samples, and microscopic analysis of the specimens.
“Once we got our data from all eight communities, we compiled all of it and I worked with a data analyst at the university who helped me compile it to get our overall prevalence rates and associate the risk factors to the positive cases,” Kramer said.
This work became the basis for her SIP.
“This was the first time I met someone in Ghana who was older than me yet shorter and we had so much fun dancing together when I visited this community,” Kramer said.
A research participant dressed in beautiful Ghanaian clothing gives her blood sample for research.
Kramer with Ankrah for their daily “pre-work selfie.”
“Now that my written SIP has been submitted, all that’s left to do is present my SIP at the annual Chemistry and Biochemistry SIP Symposium during the spring trimester and then wait to find out whether I attain honors from the faculty for my work,” Kramer said. “So many people questioned why I decided to do something so big for my SIP since I have already been accepted to medical school. But just because I have been accepted doesn’t mean I need to take a step back, so I decided to pursue a passion instead. I did this because I have seen these diseases firsthand and how disproportionately they affect people of low socio-economic status in tropical regions. I was emotionally driven to take part in the global movement to end the neglect. Additionally, I knew that this opportunity would enhance my cultural competence which can help me be a better physician to people in the future. Eventually, I’d like to be a study clinician in similar studies and even create the policies that can protect and serve people. With this foundational-level research under my belt, I am motivated to continue my research focus on NTD’s in medical school.”
And this might not be the last of her research outside of medical school.
“I’m still in contact with my host mom,” Kramer said. “I have a number of people in Ghana I text every week just to talk about various things like the projects they’re working on. Currently, they have two new projects that are going to be funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation regarding an NTD called Onchocerciasis, which is transmitted through biting black flies. I asked Blessing if it is possible for me to work remotely while I’m in medical school on those projects, and she said I probably could, but it is also possible that I could go back to Ghana during this upcoming summer to join their new projects in projects in person. Overall, I loved being abroad and how it opened up my eyes to the world and cross-cultural differences. Being a future physician, I was introduced to the atrocities of Neglected Tropical Diseases and I saw just how invaluable being a part of the team that is working to end the neglect really is.”
For Natalie Gross ’24, the Kalamazoo Promise paved the way not only to Kalamazoo College, but also to a valuable internship experience.
During summer 2022, Gross worked as an information technology intern at CSM Group through the Higher Promise program.
The Kalamazoo Promise is a scholarship program that provides up to 100 percent of tuition and mandatory fees for post-secondary education for any student who graduates from Kalamazoo Public Schools. In the Higher Promise program, the Kalamazoo Promise facilitates job matching between regional companies and Promise scholars seeking internships.
In her Kalamazoo Promise internship at CSM Group, Natalie Gross ’24 performed inventory and maintenance of software and updates on company devices.
Kalamazoo Promise scholar Natalie Gross ’24 worked last summer as an information technology intern at CSM Group through the Higher Promise program.
Gross applied to the program in fall 2021, received resumé building help from the Kalamazoo College Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD), and interviewed with a Promise representative before being sent five options of regional business partners. While Gross ranked her interest in the options, companies also ranked their interest in the internship candidates so mutually agreeable matches could be made.
In her IT internship at CSM Group, Gross performed inventory and maintenance of software and updates on company devices. She also helped with research into intranet options for communication within the company.
“It was different every day,” Gross said. “IT is really a job where when something comes up, you deal with it. I would go in with a list of things to do, and I would work through those, and then there were also things that would come up more immediately that I would deal with.”
Gross liked the variety of tasks as well as meeting many people throughout the company as they came to the department for help.
“I appreciated how everyone treated the IT department,” she said. “It didn’t feel like we were there to just help you and then you’d leave. Everyone came in and they were interested in who I was and how I got there. It was an easygoing conversation and personal relationships with every employee.”
Focusing on the IT side of computer science complemented Gross’ classroom experiences at K, which have focused more on programming and development.
“This internship has been a great toe in the water for what life could be like post-grad,” Gross said. “It has given me a little bit of direction on where to go and to look to. I am still open to every side of computer science, but it’s helped me narrow down a bit and be a little more focused.”
Her experiences at CSM Group along with the structure of the Higher Promise program collaborated to also provide Gross with practice and training for being part of a workplace. Higher Promise planned professional development classes every other week for the interns, which included resumé building with the CCPD, a diversity-and-inclusion seminar, and CliftonStrengths assessment with coaching on understanding your personality in the workplace.
“There were a lot of fun things that we did,” Gross said. “I learned about how to be professional in a more personal way. I always had this idea that professionalism was something really stiff, and you didn’t have a lot of personality in it. I learned that you can be interesting and professional at the same time; it doesn’t have to be a trade-off.”
Gross also learned about professional communication and speaking up for herself. Through the Higher Promise program, she was assigned a mentor at her internship, and she was also encouraged to reach out to anyone in the company and network.
As a female student in a male-dominated field, Gross chose Alyce Brady, the Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Computer Science and computer science department co-chair, as her advisor at K. She appreciated that in CSM Group’s small IT department, there was a female employee.
“It was nice to have that representation,” Gross said. “I was told there that they wanted to hear my experiences as a woman and they wanted to know what it was like for me in the IT department. They wanted our voices to be heard and they were interested in my opinions.”
A double major in computer science and French, Gross plays on the softball team, works in the Office of Admission as a tour guide, and spent August to December studying abroad in Rennes, France.
She thinks all K students should study abroad, visit the CCPD, take advantage of the opportunities that are advertised in College emails, and immerse themselves in the K community.
“K has this environment where you’re able to connect with people outside of your major and your interests, which I think is not always the case in a lot of smaller schools,” Gross said. “A lot of my friends I’ve met just randomly. I have friends from the softball team and computer science and French classes, and yet I’ve also been able to open up and find friends outside of my immediate interests. I think K really gives you an option to have a more expansive social circle and to meet people outside of your interests.”
A major grant awarded to Kalamazoo College helped 17 students begin experiencing a new dimension of hands-on learning in their humanities coursework through a visit to New Orleans over winter break.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation granted $1.297 million in January 2022 to provide new learning opportunities through the College’s Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) project. HILL builds student coursework rooted in the College’s commitment to experiential learning and social justice to address issues such as racism, economic inequities and homelessness, while examining history, how humans share land, and the dislocations that bring people to a communal space.
Within HILL, there are multiple academic departments represented with clusters of classes that emphasize collaborative learning within the humanities and humanistic social sciences:
The Beyond Kalamazoo course clusters focus on location or dislocation and emphasize place-based learning through an integrated travel component in New Orleans, St. Louis or San Diego.
The Within Kalamazoo cluster, which emphasizes a theme relevant to location or dislocation, where faculty directly collaborate on coursework that engages directly with social issues in the Kalamazoo community.
The digital humanities hub, which publishes, archives and assesses outcomes in relation to course work and partnerships beyond and within Kalamazoo.
New Orleans was the first site on which the Beyond Kalamazoo cluster focused. In fall, courses consisted of Lest We Forget: Memory and Identity in the African Diaspora in New Orleans, taught by Associate Professor of Anthropology Espelencia Baptiste; Public Art and its Publics led by Professor of Art and Art History Christine Hahn; NOLA Divided: Race in the Big Easy, led by Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas; and The World Through New Orleans, led by Associate Professor of Music Beau Bothwell. Each course operated independently with discipline-specific instruction.
Students interested in doing place-based research in New Orleans applied for the Beyond Kalamazoo cluster, which included six weeks of preparation, instruction on research methodologies in the humanities, the seven-day research trip, and post-trip research and writing. Those students were put into research groups formed by research interest and a distribution of one member from each of the cluster courses, so every group had at least one representative from each of the four cluster courses.
The students’ pre-trip collaboration—based on their knowledge from their respective courses within the departments of English, art history, anthropology-sociology and music—helped them create a collaborative research project that would emphasize location or dislocation, problem solving and social justice in New Orleans.
During a volunteer day, Jenna Paterob ’23 worked with her peers to create signs for Ms. Gloria’s Garden at People for Public Art in New Orleans.Community partners such as Lower Nine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the long-term recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Ida and Rita, and the levee breaches of 2005; and People for Public Art, an organization of artists that funds, creates and documents works of public art for the City of New Orleans to reflect the stories of the people, were significant contributors to the experiences Kalamazoo College humanities students had.“Throughout the day, I discovered that we were seeing different types of public art, allowing us to feel like we were a part of the community,” said Jenna Paterob ’23 of her humanities experience at People for Public Art in New Orleans.
Kalamazoo College students enrolled in Humanities Integrated Locational Learning classes this fall called their experience in New Orleans educational, eye-opening, fun and immersive.“There is a ton of history that none of us knew about before going there, even though we had all taken a class about the city,” said Josh Kuh ’23. “I thought it was valuable to have this structured opportunity that felt like doing more than observing for research.”During a volunteer day, Jenna Paterob ’23 worked with her peers to create signs for Ms. Gloria’s Garden at People for Public Art in New Orleans.
Their subjects of interest for the projects included the city’s theatre scene, public transportation and historical ties to slavery with each student connecting their social justice interests with each of a variety of community partners. Students were encouraged to use onsite and digital archives at the Historical New Orleans Collection for their projects when applicable.
The community partners included Lower Nine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the long-term recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Ida and Rita, and the levee breaches of 2005; and People for Public Art, an organization of artists that funds, creates and documents works of public art for the City of New Orleans to reflect the stories of the people. Students then worked with these partners during their on-site visit this winter.
Morgan Acord ’23, an English major with a passion for literature, found Salinas’ class to be fascinating because New Orleans has a literature culture all its own, she said. She appreciated that their trip also included cultural opportunities such as participating in a second-line parade, seeing the Oak Alley and Whitney plantations, and observing French and Spanish artifacts at the New Orleans Archive.
Yet for Acord, filling a need for social justice work through a nonprofit was the biggest benefit.
“We helped an 80-year-old woman and her husband who had been sleeping on an air mattress in their kitchen after Hurricane Ida,” Acord said. “They were living in a shotgun-style house and all of her belongings were in what I assumed was the living room. Overall, it showed how catastrophic those New Orleans hurricanes were. You see the footage on TV, but to see it firsthand and see how people live in houses still under repair is eye opening. It felt good on the surface to be able to help, but it was eye opening to know how privileged some of us are.”
Together, Acord and classmates including Josh Kuh ’23, an anthropology-sociology major from Seattle, tore a front wall out of the house that had been destroyed by termites, painted baseboards, and laid down flooring in what was to be the couple’s bedroom. Professor Mills along with Lower Nine representatives assisted in painting the ceiling and the dining room.
“There is a ton of history that none of us knew about before going there, even though we had all taken a class about the city,” Kuh said. “I thought it was valuable to have this structured opportunity that felt like doing more than observing for research. We provided a meaningful service to the organizations that we were working with. I think the biggest takeaways of mine involved seeing firsthand how extensive the hurricane damage was. I saw the disarray in this house and it hadn’t been fixed even though it had been almost 20 years since some of the damage happened.”
Jenna Paterob ’23, a business and psychology double major and art minor, took Professor Hahn’s class in fall because she often feels like she overlooks public art.
“Our experience in New Orleans was educational, eye-opening, fun and immersive,” she said. “It isn’t every day that we get to go into a new area of the country and interact with the community there. I feel like we were able to see bigger issues encapsulated in the city such as tourism, racism, white supremacy and classism. “I feel like when we stay in one place for a long period of time, we may become a little desensitized to the issues that surround us. Therefore, going to a new area, especially as someone who has never been out of the Midwest, was definitely an educational experience for me.”
Paterob had a social justice experience with People for Public Art in New Orleans. During the volunteer day, Paterob worked with her peers to create signs for Ms. Gloria’s Garden. The location offers opportunities for children to garden, cook, sew, make jewelry and music, and take yoga and meditation classes. The garden is managed by a nonprofit, Developing Young Entrepreneurs, which provides youths and young adults with entrepreneurial skills and a safe space for people to feel free to be themselves.
“When I first discovered that we were going to be making signs, I was confused about what that had to do with public art,” she said. “Throughout the day, I discovered that we were seeing different types of public art, allowing us to feel like we were a part of the community. Painting signs for plants in a garden may not be the first thing people think of when they think about public art, but we really did create some fun and beautiful pieces of art that communicate information and improve the garden. I liked that day because I was exposed to a whole new setting and sense of community. I also learned that the organization creates a bunch of impactful pieces, such as the memorial pieces they showed us. They took a tragic event that was minimized and silenced by certain people and allowed the community to come together to grieve. I learned a lot about New Orleans and how the residents interact with their community through learning about the public art there.”
Ally Noel ’24, an anthropology-sociology and English double major, had similar praise for her experience at People for Public Art.
“That day shifted my entire trajectory in terms of my research in New Orleans,” she said. “Going into New Orleans, I had this idea of what I thought I wanted to study but then after Monica (Kelly, representing People for Public Art) was telling the story of the lower mid-city and the inequities that exist there, I realized I wanted to do research on the closure of Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina hit. That was the day that everything clicked for me, and I realized, being in that space was important. A student can study a space from afar, but being there helps research in terms of learning and making meaning of the experience.”
Salinas is serving as the curriculum coordinator for integrated travel to New Orleans and a co-principal investigator for the HILL initiative as a whole.
“The primary vision of this initiative is collaboration, be that students sharing their knowledge with other members of their research group based on the cluster class they took, community partners holding space for students to learn about the work they do in New Orleans and the stakes of that work, and research groups working across disciplines in the humanities to develop a digital humanities research project that reflects both their academic knowledge and their experiences in the city,” Salinas said. “We asked students to commit to one eight-hour work day with two of our community partners. Students self-selected according to interest or research investment, frequently with research group members on different work sites. Afterward, students were able to come together and share those experiences with each other and discuss what they learned. It was these moments that enhanced their research and, ultimately, their collaborative projects. HILL’s curricular design relies on students being able to share their experiences, to talk to each other about what they learned, to root in in the type of instruction they received in their cluster classes, and to make those concrete connections back to things like community-building as a crucial element of the humanities.”
As they reflected on their experiences, the students praised the opportunity to go to New Orleans and said they would encourage their peers to seek HILL-focused, place-based learning classes as well.
Baptiste’s class, for example, set the table for students such as Maya Nathwani ’23, an anthropology-sociology and biology double major, to examine history away from campus when she missed a study abroad opportunity because of COVID-19. Lest We Forget: Memory and Identity in the African Diaspora in New Orleans provided Nathwani with a life-changing experience in her college years that she otherwise would’ve missed.
“The class emphasized understanding what history is and how it’s created and produced, along with who has the ability to share and pass on history, impacting how we remember the past,” Nathwani said. “Going to do research in a space where I’d never been was intimidating just because I’d never done it before. But I would encourage other students to try these classes, too, because the professors prepare you to be successful.”
Kalamazoo College students exemplified academic excellence in the classroom along with outstanding achievements around campus and around the world in 2022. Based on your clicks, here are the top 10 news stories featuring K students from the past year. Watch for our top news stories of faculty and staff, alumni and the College coming soon.
Grace Hancock ’22 and her Senior Integrated Project (SIP) are proving that something fishy is going on with climate change. She is a great example of the women celebrated by the U.N. every February 11 on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The National Science Foundation has selected Ola Bartolik ’22 as a Graduate Research Fellow to support her graduate career at the University of Michigan. The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions.
The Delta of Michigan Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Kalamazoo College welcomed 42 inductees for 2022 at an induction ceremony on June 8.
The mission of the Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought and recognize academic excellence.
For the first time in nearly 10 years, a Kalamazoo College student received a merit scholarship from Alpha Lambda Delta, the honor society for first-year academic success.
Shahriar Akhavan Tafti ’24 will receive one of 50 undergraduate scholarships worth $1,000 to $6,000 each, as the honor society issues a total of $105,000 nationally through the Jo Anne J. Trow Award.
Will Keller ’23 told the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo about his Big Year. For bird enthusiasts like Keller, a Big Year is a personal challenge or an informal competition to spot and identify as many bird species as possible within a calendar year in a specific geographic area.
Rebecca Chan ’22, Libby Burton ’22, Matthew Flotemersch ’20 and Kiernan Dean-Hall ’22 initially were chosen among about 1,900 students, artists and young professionals to represent the U.S. in about 140 countries for one academic year. Julia Bienstock ’22 later became the fifth K Fulbright recipient.
Much like student-athletes would gather to sign letters of intent when formally selecting their collegiate destinations, six K chemistry students met to officially declare where they will attend graduate school.
The Senior Integrated Project (SIP) of Katie Rock ’23, cataloging the earthworms inhabiting Lillian Anderson Arboretum, uncovered an invasive species never before officially documented within our city, the jumping worm.
Eight Kalamazoo County high school students seeking to major in STEM-related fields have earned Heyl Scholarships to attend Kalamazoo College in the 2022-23 academic year.
Imagine being in a remote area of the Adirondack Mountains when you hear a scream. Darkness is falling and a storm is approaching. Would you know what to do? Ava Apolo ’25 and Julia Leet ’22 did.
Congratulations to the students who reached the Dean’s List in fall 2022.
Congratulations to the following Kalamazoo College students, who achieved a grade point average of 3.5 or better for a full-time course load of at least three units, without failing or withdrawing from any course, during the fall 2022 academic term. Students who elect to take a letter-graded course on a credit/no credit basis (CR/NC) are not eligible for Dean’s List consideration during that term. Nor are students who receive an F, NC or W grade for that particular term. Students with incomplete (I) or in-progress (IP) grades will be considered for the Dean’s List upon receipt of their final grades. Dean’s List recognition is posted on students’ transcripts. Kudos to the entire group for fall 2022.
Fall 2022
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Morgan Acord Kayla Acosta Khalil Adams Beren Akpinar Maya Alkema Adnan Alousi Fanny Alvarado Zahra Amini Paige Anderson Eleanor Andrews Mia Andrews Michael Ankley Madison Anspach Ava Apolo Alexandra Armin Lora Armstrong
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Aidan Baas Lindsey Baker Baylor Baldwin Madison Barch Evan Barker Ethan Barnes Gabriella Barry Evelyn Bartley Elena Basso Jenna Beach Daniel Beccari Annabel Bee Samantha Bekolay Conner Bell Carolyn Bennett Cassandra Bennett Eleanor Bernas Willow Bigham Thalia Bills Ella Black Henry Black Daphne Bos Mairin Boshoven Mabel Bowdle Adelaide Bowen Jaylen Bowles-Swain Holly Bowling Ella Boyea Yvette Boyse-Peacor Allison Bozyk Lukas Broadsword Avery Brockington Eamon Bronson Chloe Bryant Anna Buck Christopher Bullard John Bungart Leah Bunnell Donovan Burleigh Drake Butcher
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Amaia Cadenas Isaiah Calderon Eleanor Campion Olivia Cannizzaro Christopher Cayton Abigail Caza Alexandra Chafetz Josetta Checkett Yongwan Cho Trustin Christopher Noah Chukwuma Noah Chun Yaire Cisneros Tovar Eva Clancy Nathaniel Clark Alisha Clark Kai Clingenpeel Mai Elise Code Madeleine Coffman Sedona Coleman Quinn Collins Zachary Connor Jordan Cook Josee Cooke Kyle Cooper Indigo Corvidae Mia Crites Isabella Cross August Crothers Lilian Crowder Smith Gwendolyn Crowder Smith Chase Cummins
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Gabrielle Daane James Dailey Lillian Daniels Talia Dave Kylah Davis Zachary Dean Tali Deaner Shruti Debburman Lillian Deer Ethan DeNeen Laura DeVilbiss Devi DeYoung Liam Diaz Michaela Dillbeck Samuel Douma Jordan Doyle
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Sally Eggleston Jairo Eguia Rebecca Elias Elise Elliot Sara English Justin Essing Caleb Ewald Sam Ewald Chad Ewing
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Jazmyne Fannings Claire Farhi Ella Faris Madalyn Farrey Samuel File Blake Filkins Julia Fitzgerald Sofia Fleming Ella Flourry Stephen Flynn Gigi Fox Kinga Fraczkiewicz Caroline Francis Janna Franco Emma Frederiksen
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Alondra Gallardo Ethan Galler Valeria Garcia Roberta Gatti Lyrica Gee Vrinda Girdhar Lukas Graff Westin Grinwis Elizabeth Grooten Cassandra Grotelueschen Amelia Grupp Cristian Guasgua Kendra Guitar Zoe Gurney Abigail Gutierrez
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Marissa Haas Sophia Haas Sydney Hagaman Emily Haigh Alison Hankins Geneva Hannibal Luke Hanson Madeline Hanulcik Sophie Hartl James Hauke Tanner Hawkins Beatrice Hawkins Jiniku Hayashi Katherine Haywood Jeremiah Heath Megan Herbst Sophia Herold Ella Heystek Sierra Hieshetter Devon Hobbs Garrick Hohm Annika Hokanson Madeline Hollander Ronin Honda Jaelyn Horn Joseph Horsfield Molly Horton Charles Horvath Tyler Houle Gavin Houtkooper Jakob Hubert Ethan Huebsch Samuel Hughes Alek Hultberg Lukas Hultberg Keaton Hunt
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Carson Ihrke Daniel Isacksen
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Gloria Jackson Colton Jacobs Tristan James Morgan Jenkins Hao Jiang Anne Catherine Johnson Cloe Johnson Maxwell Joos
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Amalia Kaerezi Kiana Kanegawa Jessica Kaplan Judah Karesh Ella Kelly Emilia Kelly Alyson Kemery Roze Kerr Mphumelelo Khaba Hunter Kiesling Vanita Kihuithia Vivian Kim Joshua Kim Anwen King Caleb Kipnis Claire Kischer Alexander Kish Sofia Klein Noah Kleiner Steven Kloosterman Rhys Koellmann Cole Koryto Daniel Koselka Marissa Kovac Emma Kovacevic Katherine Kraemer Jordyn Kravitz Molly Kreibich Laryn Kuchta Claire Kvande
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Olivia Laser Braeden Lavis Annmarie Lawrence Madeleine Lawson Grace Leahey Ilem Leisher Margaret Lekan Sage Lewis Thomas Lichtenberg Ava Loncharte Madeline Lovins Caden Lowis
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Gionna Magdaleno Natalie Maki Andrew Mallon Arjun Manyam Lesly Mares-Castro William Martel Daniel Martinez Molly Martinez Joaquin Martinez Stephanie Martinez Natalie Martinez Gracen Martini-Zeller Hollis Masterson Kanase Matsuzaki Virginia Matta Zachary Maurice Benjamin Maurice Lily May Megan McGarry Lucas McGraw Leo McGreevy MacKale McGuire Ashlynne McKee Regan McKee Jacob McKinney Kira McManus Abbey McMillian Amy McNutt Sophia Merchant Maximus Mercurio Gabriel Meyers Brittany Miller Elizabeth Miller Ella Miller Cooper Mills Jade Milton Ameera Mirza Elana Mitchell Jackson Mitchell Lina Moghrabi Jana Molby Raven Montagna Mackenzie Moore Aiden Morgan Emma Morrison Wyatt Mortensen Madeline Moss Lorelei Moxon Phumuzile Moyo Mary Ellen Muenzenmaier Elizabeth Muenzenmaier Karis Mulcahy Claire Mullins Anna Murphy Erin Murphy Madison Murphy Ryan Muschler
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Elias Nagel-Bennett Alex Nam Robert Newland Emma Newlove Nguyen Nguyen Anna Nguyen Theodore Niemann Dustin Noble Malin Nordmoe
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Jeremiah Ohren-Hoeft Akinyi Okero Gabriel Olivier Alexander Olsen Emma Olson Fatima Ortega
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Chelsea Paddock Eleanor Parks-Church Hannah Parsons Eric Paternoster Jenna Paterob Morgan Paye Mia Pellegrini Isabella Pellegrom Adriana Perez Herrero Maya Peters Charles Peterson Sydney Pickell Mia Pierce William Plesscher Elaine Pollard Evan Pollens-Voigt Grayson Pratt Melissa Preston Lucas Priemer Elena Pulliam Hailey Pullo Bea Putman Noah Pyle
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Suha Qashou Alex Quesada Matthew Quirk
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Leah Ramirez Lafern Ramon Roman Ramos Sadye Rasmussen Sara Reathaford Isabel Reyes Keegan Reynolds Maxwell Rhames Sheldon Riley Ashley Rill Michael Robertson Narelle Robles Olivia Roncone Luke Rop Alec Rosenbaum Brigid Roth Mia Roukema Eli Routt Tabitha Rowland Charlotte Ruiter Nathaniel Rulich Elliot Russell
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Sophia Sajan Greta Salamun Bobby Samples Birch Saperstein Leonardo Sarver Maxwell Saxton Fiona Schaffer Isabel Schantz Vivian Schmidt Audrey Schulz Hannah Schurman Mae Scott Vivian Segovia-Perez Isabella Shapiro Elijah Shiel Joseph Shumunov Emma Sidor Kiersten Sjogren Colby Skinner Meganne Skoug Ping Smith Grace Snyder Anoushka Soares Jack Soderberg Allison Sokacz Hanis Sommerville Erin Somsel Brandon Speed Maxwell Spitler Ella Spooner Sophia Sprick Adam Stapleton David Stechow Eleanor Stevenson Molly Stevison Emma Stickley Lily Stickley Elena Stolberg Liliana Stout Kate Stover Helen Stoy Madilyn Stratton Donovan Streeter Eller Studinger Abbygale Stump Senchen Subba Hannah Summerfield Jenna Sutton Christan Sydney Brandon Sysol Ella Szczublewski
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Chau Ta Claire Taylor Lucien Taylor Nicole Taylor Benjamin Teletnick Levi Thomas William Thomas Minh Thu Le Sophia Timm-Blow William Tocco Alexander Tolman Renee Torres Vincent Tremonti Frances Trimble May Tun Francesca Turnage
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Hannah Ulanoski Tristan Uphoff Ifeoma Uwaje
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Samantha Vande Pol Hannah Vander Lugt Cameron VanGalder Mitchel VanGalder Rae Vansparrentak Francesca Ventura Evan Vicker Lucille Voss
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Joseph Wade Audrey Walker Ivy Walker Natalie Ward McKenna Wasmer Jadon Weber Riley Weber Margaret Wedge Emerson Wesselhoff Grace Westerhuis Ryley White Ava Williams Carson Williams Jackson Willits Jordyn Wilson Siona Wilson Zoe Wilson Ruby Winer Leah Wolfgang Alexa Wonacott Reagan Woods Maximillian Wright Kevin Wu
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Lingrui Xiang William Xu
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Hillary Yousif
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Kathryn Zabaldo Camryn Zdziarski-West Christian Zeitvogel Jacob Zeller Ariana Zito
Isabella Pellegrom ’25 conducted a launch party for her album, “Nomadic Tendencies,” at a sports bar near her home in Minnesota and performed to rave reviews in the nearby town of Pepin, Wisconsin.
It’s the time of year when Spotify and Apple Music users look forward to the apps revealing the artists, songs and genres they’ve listened to most and the statistics that surrounded them in 2022. But search for an artist less familiar, and you might find a new voice to appreciate: a Kalamazoo College student reaching new audiences and achievements with her first album.
Isabella Pellegrom ’25, from Eagan, Minnesota, has produced and released Nomadic Tendencies, a 10-track collection of her vocal talents. Spotify describes Pellegrom as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter, who pulls inspiration from indie pop, soft rock and jazz, while embedding her own voice. As a storyteller, she hopes to find truth and unite others around her. The album reflects a journey of self-discovery and self-love to highlight the idea that everyone builds a wall and runs away only to return and appreciate the people who matter most in their lives.
That theme of running away followed by an inevitable return helped her realize the moment she finished writing the song Nomadic Tendencies that it would be the title track of her album.
“It was one of the first times I’d just written a song from front to end all in one go,” Pellegrom said. “It was cool to talk about this person who tends to go everywhere because they can’t really find their place. It worked because I realized it correlated to the story of this person throughout the album who is constantly going to new places, whether it’s for better or worse. She’s meeting new people or finding out more about herself, and so has these tendencies to always move around. I liked it because at the very end, it comes back to I’ll Come Home to You because she eventually finds out that her home is with the people who have always supported her.”
Pellegrom first discovered her love of music and singing when she was about 6 years old.
“I have an older sister and she had given me her old MP3 player,” Pellegrom said. “It had maybe 15 songs on it, and by the end of the first week I had it, I knew every lyric to every song that was on it. I sang along to them and pretended I was a little pop star. I loved it.”
You can hear Isabella Pellegrom’s album, “Nomadic Tendencies,” on all streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
Yet over the years, she became not only a vocalist, but an instrumentalist through guitar, saxophone and piano, and a songwriter whose talents and shared messages have grown with her.
“It’s funny to look back at the songs I first wrote because, when I was 10 years old, I would write and sing about things like fairy-tale princesses,” Pellegrom said. “It wasn’t anything that had to do with what was happening in my life. I would like to say I’ve improved since then. I’ve joined choirs, I’m in band (Academy Street Winds) at K now and I did jazz band in high school. I also just recently got into acapella (the student group Limelights) where I’ve learned to arrange music, which has helped me put together and break apart songs. Music is a huge part of my life and it’s nice that I’ve kept it separate from what I hope to do with my career. In that way, it’s allowed me to take off some pressure and just do it because I love it.”
While boating on the Mississippi River one day a couple of summers ago, Pellegrom’s family voted on which town they would stop in to find dinner. The decision turned out to be fateful.
“My mom and her friend, who had this little café, were just eating, when all of a sudden, the café had this live artist,” Pellegrom said. “The artist was Tim Cheesebrow, and my mom knew I wanted to get back into playing guitar. She was wondering if Tim taught lessons and he gave us his card.”
Pellegrom spent those lessons working on songwriting and collaboration.
“He helped me with my songwriting by saying that a lot of times it’s good to keep a continuous theme or have a main message,” Pellegrom said. “It was helpful because I ended up finishing a lot of my songs for those lessons. It was the first time I got to collaborate with someone in terms of songwriting. Through these lessons, I eventually had about 13 songs that I thought were great together. Tim also has his own at-home studio and he’s been producing music for a long time.”
Pellegrom recruited some fellow musicians, pared her songs to the 10 that worked best together, and produced Nomadic Tendencies at Cheesebrow’s studio.
“That’s what I spent the majority of my summer doing the year I came to K,” said Pellegrom, whose parents, Jeffrey ’88 and Mary ’88, also attended K along with a grandfather and some of her aunts and uncles. “I got help from other local musicians for the baselines and the drumming. Tim helped me out with the guitar and walked me through the whole process of what it takes to release it. It all felt like a fever dream at the time and it still kind of does. It’s now out in the world and I’m really proud of it.”
Pellegrom conducted a launch party at a sports bar near her home in Minnesota and performed to rave reviews in the nearby town of Pepin, Wisconsin. She has plans to release a second album, although when is not yet decided as she tries to balance an intended biochemistry major and music minor. Medical school is a possibility for her, too, one day. Yet in the meantime, she will enjoy the success of releasing Nomadic Tendencies.
You can hear Pellegrom’s music on all streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music; she performs covers on YouTube; and you can follow her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. Her website is IsabellaPellegromMusic.com.
“I love it when people listen to it,” Pellegrom said. “The best part is realizing that I released it for me. I don’t really have any expectations for it. I don’t need for something to come from it. I just felt it was time to release it. I was ready to put this project that I’m really proud of into the world and move on to other songs and other projects. In terms of my goals for it, the main goal was to release it and hope that people who listen to it can enjoy it.”
Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg ’23 and Eleanor Carr ’23 were two of the integral people working with K Votes to support student voting by organizing shuttles to the polls for the 2022 Midterm Election.
A nonpartisan and nonprofit initiative is saluting Kalamazoo College today as one of 394 U.S. institutions doing the most in higher education to encourage student voting.
K is being recognized as a 2022 All-In Most-Engaged Campuses honoree, meaning that the College:
Reported its 2020 student voting data to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), which is run through the Institute of Democracy and Higher Education (IDHE) at Tufts University.
Shared that data with the All-In Campus Democracy Challenge, an effort that strives to improve and increase democratic-engagement activities on college campuses.
Developed and submitted to the All-In challenge a 2022 voter-engagement action plan.
Signed on to a national list of institutional presidents committing their colleges to efforts that increase student turnout at the polls.
K Votes, the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement’s (CCE) nonpartisan coalition to inform the College’s students, faculty and staff members about voting and civic engagement, is the primary driver of K’s efforts in increasing voter participation. In 2020, K eclipsed national averages for voter turnout as 83.7 percent of the student body cast ballots in the presidential election. That rate was the highest among all campuses in Michigan and put K in the top 4 percent of colleges and universities nationally that reported their data to the IDHE.
K Votes representatives work in partnership with their student peers, the local League of Women Voters and the national Rock the Vote organization—which is led by Executive Director Caroline DeWitt ’04, a K alumna—to register new voters, mail absentee ballots, provide rides to the polls, and distribute candidate information with maps to local polling places.
Those endeavors are the hallmarks of a robust get-out-the-vote effort, currently led by CCE Program Associate Riley Gabriel ’20 and K Votes Civic Engagement Scholar Thomas Lichtenberg ’23, along with students, faculty, emeriti faculty and staff.
“In addition to CCE staff, we could not have done any of this without the rest of the K staff and faculty who were eager to help with driving, helping register voters, and just getting the word out,” Lichtenberg said. “We appreciated the contributions of students Eleanor Carr, Lyrica Gee and Abby Stump, who worked closely with the CCE’s Students for Reproductive Freedom, and we collaborated with the NAACP and League of Women Voters of the Kalamazoo Area, registering voters at the Women’s March and assisting with their candidate forums, led by the LWVKA’s MerriKay Oleen-Burkey and Denise Hartsough.”
“Young people are shaping our future in myriad ways, and their informed engagement in elections is vital,” CCE Director Alison Geist said. “The CCE is grateful to our student leaders and all of the people in our community, both on and off campus, who energetically encouraged and enabled students to vote, many for the first time. Voting isn’t a panacea for social change, but it helps.”
LandSea leaders Julia Leet ’22 (left) and Ava Apolo ’25 received accolades from emergency medical services officials after they helped a woman who had fallen, causing a seven- to eight-inch gash on her leg that revealed a bone.
Imagine being in a remote area of the Adirondack Mountains with a companion when you hear something that sounds like a scream. A storm is approaching and darkness is falling. Not many people would instinctively know what to do or call on themselves to respond.
Ava Apolo ’25 and Julia Leet ’22, however, encountered that scenario as leaders this fall on LandSea, Kalamazoo College’s outdoor pre-orientation program that occurs before first-year students arrive on campus. They said the scream had the innocuous intonation of a bird call that Boy Scouts are known to use in the area, but it could’ve also been indicative of an emergency.
“We had set up camp at a location called High Rock, which is close to a canoe waterway,” Apolo said. “At first, we thought, ‘Who’s making that noise?’”
They decided to investigate. That’s when they found a woman who had fallen, causing a seven- to eight-inch gash on her leg that revealed a bone. Her adult daughter had screamed when she found her mom lying on the ground. The women had precious few supplies, no cell service and no way of getting help other than the two LandSea representatives.
“We determined it was safe for us to help, so Julia was the first to go down to their location with a med kit and I followed right after,” Apolo said.
Apolo and Leet knew exactly what to do. Both received wilderness medical training they were grateful to have as a part of their preparations for LandSea.
“Our patient wasn’t panicking and she communicated with us very well, which was helpful,” Apolo said. “Julia was the first on the patient, putting pressure on the wound, and I had a Garmin that works as a device for us to stay in contact with our directors. We also have an option to press SOS, which gave us a countdown and allowed us to talk with our directors and emergency response. I’d never had an experience with a real medical response like that. At first, I was freaking out inside, but I had to quickly flip a switch to act.”
The accident victim’s husband arrived on scene as it started to rain. Apolo and Leet had to cover their patient and begin thinking about what they might need to treat while brainstorming an evacuation plan.
“I definitely felt our training kick in,” Leet said. “We were following a scenario, except it was real life. We were taking her vitals, making sure our patient was as comfortable as possible. It was getting dark and we were making a lot of judgment calls as to the best way to help her. The family had arrived by canoe and they couldn’t canoe in the dark to get out. Our adrenaline was pumping.”
Many of those judgment calls were determined through Leet’s conversation with the fall victim.
“We’ve been taught that when someone falls, you have to be really sure that they didn’t hit their head because that can cause the most serious of injuries and you don’t often notice the signs of a head injury until a lot later, when it can be too late,” Leet said. “I consistently was asking her, ‘Are you sure you didn’t hit your head?’ and I was checking her LOC, which is level of consciousness. If that starts to go down, it’s an indication that there could be some sort of internal trauma to the brain.”
Their other concerns were for the victim’s loss of blood and her loss of feeling in her feet.
“She had a pretty big wound and I didn’t know what might’ve been severed,” Leet said. “I was consistently checking movement, circulation in her feet and stopping the bleeding.”
More than two hours into the rescue work, emergency medical services arrived on all-terrain vehicles.
“We had two fire department chiefs that showed up, two EMTs (emergency medical technicians), a forest ranger and some volunteers,” Apolo said. “The volunteers did the heavy lifting of getting her on a backboard.”
Once off the hill, the fall victim was taken into a U.S. Army helicopter.
“No private companies were allowing helicopters out at the time and the Army donated their services,” Apolo said. “Because of that, the patient and her family didn’t have to pay the thousands in hospital fees that a helicopter ride to the hospital would require.”
At this point, Apolo and Leet had finished their job. The family and first responders alike congratulated the K duo and expressed their appreciation.
“When they came down, they were prepared for the worst-case scenario,” Apolo said. “They realized her bleeding was stable, so they relaxed for a second, but were still quick about getting her evacuated. They said that we did a good job and there wasn’t anything different they had to do because Julia had also cleaned the wound once the bleeding stopped. They complimented us and the chiefs’ departments acknowledged on social media that we had responded, which was really cool.”
“Once the first responders came in, we were pretty much hands off,” Leet added. “We didn’t want to be in the way, which was kind of strange because we had spent a few hours talking to someone and we felt we got to know a good amount about her life. Then we knew that we would never see her again. The daughter expressed gratitude to us and so did the chiefs in the fire department, and then we tried to go on with our night.”
All that was left was the debriefing. LandSea and Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner and Assistant Director of Outdoor Programs Jess Port had a bare minimum of information regarding the emergency after receiving the SOS, so it was necessary to update them and the LandSea logistics leaders.
“The only information Jess and Jory got when we pressed the SOS button on the Garmin was, ‘Patrol B1 pressed SOS,’” Apolo said. “They don’t get information of who was involved, so at first, they were concerned it was a participant. When it wasn’t, it took down their stress level. It was new for them to see how EMS brought in their response teams.”
Meanwhile, the first-year students were aware of what happened, but removed from the scene, which helped them keep each other calm. As soon as the fall victim was evacuated, Apolo and Leet had dinner with the first-year students and informed them of what transpired.
“When we had a group debrief, they didn’t express distress from the situation; this affirmed that they were not strongly affected by it and a good amount separated from what happened,” Apolo said.
Yet for the two wilderness emergency responders, the crisis was a life-changing experience within the already life-changing experience of LandSea.
“Having the experience helped me know how a similar experience might affect me emotionally, and also what I might want to consider more in an emergency in the future like the weather and keeping the patient warm,” said Apolo, a biochemistry major who is considering medical school and a career in emergency medicine or women’s health. “I would definitely feel more prepared should I need to do it again in the future.”
“I think it’s good evidence that I can do hard things,” Leet said. “I was a psychology and Spanish double major. I want to become a marriage and family therapist, and pursue psychology to a higher degree. Although it’s not always a medical crisis, a mental-health crisis isn’t all that different in how you respond to it, so I think this was great practice for me. This kind of scenario tests your ability to stay strong and communicative, while making the right choices as best as you can.”
Appreciation from the LandSea Director
“This accident had many conditions that made it very challenging: unstable weather and intermittent thunderstorms; a long rescue that lasted into the late evening, well after dark; and managing both their own group of students and a patient outside of their group, nearly 4 miles down a trail within a designated wilderness area, which does not allow motorized vehicles. Despite these challenges, Ava and Julia did a great job. They remained calm, cared for the patient and her family, communicated the important information to dispatch using their satellite messenger, and saw to it that their own group remained safe and comfortable amidst stormy conditions during the multi-hour ordeal. These are the kinds of situations that our leaders train for during the nine-day wilderness first responder training that they attend as part of their LandSea trip leader role, but handling a real patient and all of the variables of an extended evacuation in the outdoors still presents a lot of challenges. The crews from Star Lake and Cranberry Lake Fire and Rescue who responded to the scene and evacuated the patient to the trailhead made multiple comments about how impressed they were with Ava and Julia’s response and treatment on the scene. From our perspective, we were equally thankful that they and the DEC Forest Rangers could help with the challenging work of evacuating the patient to the trailhead. After the trip had concluded a few days later, we wanted to debrief their group to see if the students needed to process any of what happened that day. Apparently, Ava and Julia did such a great job of remaining calm and keeping their group comfortable during the rescue that the students on the trip seemed a little confused which day we were even talking about when we were referring to the ‘incident’ that they experienced. That, to me, was a real indication of how well they handled themselves—that they could juggle the various responsibilities of that day so well that for the students in their group it felt like ‘just another day.’”
— LandSea and Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner
Growing up in various countries overseas, Peter Fitzgerald ’23 considered northern Michigan to be home base. Now a series of political internships have helped the Kalamazoo College senior connect more with his adopted home and envision a possible future.
With a dad who was a Foreign Services officer, Fitzgerald was born in Australia, and his parents now live in the Washington, D.C., area. In between, they lived in Denmark, Ukraine, Morocco and Belgium.
Every summer, however, he would spend with his grandparents in northern Michigan. His mom and cousins would stay there, too.
“We moved around so much,” Fitzgerald said. “That was a place to call home. In relation to other Foreign Service kids, it was unusual to have that kind of stability. I was always grateful to have that place that didn’t change.”
Peter Fitzgerald ’23 has played tennis his four years at K in addition to being a member of College Democrats, playing classical guitar, singing in the choir and pursuing a double major in history and political science, minor in music, and concentration in American studies.
Peter Fitzgerald ’23 has completed three political internships in his time at K, including a summer 2022 internship with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office.
That sense of Michigan as home, combined with both a cousin and a Foreign Services acquaintance attending K and a K representative visiting Fitzgerald’s Belgium high school, made K the only school Fitzgerald even considered attending. After taking a gap year in Belgium, he started at K in fall 2019.
Fitzgerald is a double major in history and political science. He is also working on a minor in music and a concentration in American studies. The K-Plan’s open curriculum has made it possible for him to explore a variety of interests and discover new ones.
“I knew that I loved political science,” Fitzgerald said. “I didn’t really plan on doing another major besides that, and then I took a history course with Dr. Boyer Lewis and I just loved it.”
He plays classical guitar and has sung in the choir, filled a leadership role in the College Democrats, and has played tennis all four years at K.
“I feel that having those interests and having a lot of leeway in what courses you take connects you to a lot more of the school than you otherwise would have the opportunity to experience,” Fitzgerald said.
At the beginning of winter term his first year, Fitzgerald was on Handshake looking for opportunities outside campus when he came across internships in Democrat Jon Hoadley’s 2020 U.S. House campaign for Michigan’s 6th congressional district, which includes Kalamazoo.
“I was curious if there was something I could do, along with my academics, to get to know the Kalamazoo area better,” Fitzgerald said.
He worked on Hoadley’s campaign, primarily making phone calls and canvassing, for about two months before the COVID-19 shutdown sent him to his parents in D.C.
“It was rewarding getting a start in the political world,” Fitzgerald said.
It was rewarding enough that when summer 2021 rolled around, Fitzgerald sought out another political internship, this time with Darrin Camilleri ’14, a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, representing District 23, south of Detroit.
Come summer 2022, Fitzgerald applied via Handshake for an internship with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office. He took advantage of K connections, reaching out to Christopher Yates ’83, who also played tennis at K and was recently appointed a Court of Appeals judge by Whitmer, to ask if Yates had any connections within the campaign. Within a couple days, Fitzgerald was contacted for an interview, and soon after that, he was in Detroit working for the governor’s office for three months.
This internship involved a lot of planning, coordinating and logistics for small business stops, community events and constituency groups, such as Native Americans for Whitmer.
“I would reach out to the small business owner, or whoever, make a plan, promote it and get people to attend,” Fitzgerald said. “We would drive to these events, two and a half, three hours, for a 15-minute visit with the governor. It wasn’t glamorous a lot of the time, but it felt really important, meaningful and worthwhile. It felt like we were making a difference.”
The internships have affirmed Fitzgerald’s interest in political work, perhaps with the State Department, and helped him envision some of the possibilities that lie along that path.
“I learned a lot,” Fitzgerald said. “I met a lot of people who could probably make more money doing other jobs, but they’re working for something that they believe in fundamentally. I felt like I had a relationship with Michigan, from spending my summers here growing up, but this job opened my eyes to people’s lives that I wouldn’t normally have interacted with. I still think I’m on a path where I’d like to work for the federal government, but also, I can see that people’s issues are really localized. People care about what’s in front of them.”
Working for the governor’s office was both humbling and uplifting for Fitzgerald.
“People have come up to me and asked me about issues in Michigan thinking that I had power over policy issues,” he said. “Even though I couldn’t do anything, just to be able to listen to people and share with someone who had that power felt really meaningful.”
The internships also helped Fitzgerald draw connections between coursework and real life.
“It makes an experience a lot more meaningful when you are able to make connections,” Fitzgerald said. “Whether it was from my American history course or my political science course, there were pertinent things I could draw from in relation to the issues we were talking about this summer. I am also bringing things I’ve done on this campaign back to K.”
Connections to people have also been key to Fitzgerald’s K experience. Networking and professional contact with alumni such as Camilleri and Yates, personal interest from President Jorge G. Gonzalez, academic inspiration from Professor of History and Director of the American Studies and the Women, Gender and Sexuality programs Charlene Boyer Lewis ’87, and guidance from men’s tennis Head Coach Mark Riley all combine to make K feel like a new home base for Fitzgerald.
“I think initially, I had some dissonance between knowing that I’m from here but never having lived really in the U.S.,” Fitzgerald said. “I felt out of my element for a time, but the people, my mentors and the friends that I have now, made it possible for me to feel like even though I did come with a different background, even though I felt maybe a little discombobulated at first, that there were people that I could rely on and who would support me.”
