awards

Professor Receives Lucasse Award for Teaching Excellence

Posted on
K Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss
K Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss

Kalamazoo College’s highest teaching honor is the Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship, awarded to a K faculty member in recognition of outstanding classroom teaching. The 2015-16 Lucasse Lectureship recipient is Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss. And for this honor, she gets to deliver a lecture! Hear this outstanding teacher talk about her love of teaching – and celebrate her award – Thursday May 19, 4:00-5:30 p.m., in the Olmsted Room of Mandelle Hall.

“I love what I do every day, and I wake up every day looking forward to it,” says Professor Stevens-Truss. “I get to learn with young people and share my love of learning with them. For now, life doesn’t get better than this.”

Professor Stevens-Truss is a medicinal biochemist who has taught at K since 2000. She previously taught at the College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan. Her teaching responsibilities at K include Antibiotics: Global Health and Social Justice, Introductory Chemistry II, Biochemistry, and Principles of Medicinal Chemistry. Her research focuses on understanding the enzyme nitric oxide synthase and its involvement in Alzheimers’ disease, research she enjoys carrying out with her students.

She has also been involved in numerous outreach programs that have taken her and her students into the Greater Kalamazoo community and bringing the community to the K campus. These have included Art & Science of Medicine, a summer workshop for high school students intending to pursue a career in medicine, and Sisters in Science, a K student group supporting young girls who demonstrate an aptitude for math and science.

She currently helps lead the Science and Social Justice Project, an initiative of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) at Kalamazoo College and the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School. The Project aims to study and promote the value of social justice in scientific education and research, and to identify, connect, and coordinate scholars doing science and social justice teaching and research.

Professor Stevens-Truss recently helped coordinate a three-day “Science and Social Justice Think Tank” at the ACSJL attended by professors, scholars, scientists, public health and environmental leaders from across the country working at the intersection of science and social justice, as well as stakeholders in academic institutions and scientific organizations who can speak to diversity in the STEM fields and to the changing landscape of science and society.

Professor Stevens-Truss earned a B.A. degree at Rutgers University and a Ph.D. degree at University of Toledo. She is a married mother of two children who enjoys photography, bowling, watching sports (“especially those involving my kids”), and watching CSI.

The Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship (for outstanding classroom teaching) and Fellowship (for outstanding achievement in creative work, research or publication) at Kalamazoo College were established in 1979. The awards were created to honor Florence J. Lucasse, alumna of Kalamazoo College Class of 1910, in recognition of her long and distinguished career and in response to the major unrestricted endowment gift given to the college in her will.

Heyls On Their Way to K (Mostly)

Posted on
2016 Heyl Scholars
2016 Heyl Scholars who will attend Kalamazoo College or WMU School of Nursing. Front row, from left: Shukrani Nsenga, Loy Norrix HS; Anna Roodbergen, Vicksburg HS; Brianna Harrison, Kalamazoo Central HS; and Hannah Laurin, Kalamazoo Central HS. Second row, from left: Taylor Ashby, Kalamazoo Central HS; Kento Hirakawa, Portage Central; and Kelsi Conroy, Kalamazoo Central HS. Back row, from left: Michael Orwin, Portage Northern HS; Matthew Krinock, Portage Northern HS; and Samuel Maddox, Gull Lake HS. NOTE: Two Heyl Scholars were not pictured.

At a dinner last evening Kalamazoo College feted the dozen 2016 Kalamazoo county high school graduates who earned Heyl Scholarships for Kalamazoo College (science and math) or Western Michigan University (nursing). The scholarship covers tuition, book costs and room charges. The winners are (l-r): front row — Shukrani Nsenga, Loy Norrix; Anna Roodbergen, Vicksburg; Brianna Harrison, Kalamazoo Central; Hannah Laurin, Kalamazoo Central; second row — Taylor Ashby, Kalamazoo Central; Kento Hirakawa, Portage Central; Kelsi Conroy, Kalamazoo Central; back row — Michael Orwin, Portage Northern; Matthew Krinock, Portage Northern; and Samuel Maddox, Gull Lake. Not pictured are Julie Zabik and Marjorie Wolfe, both from Loy Norrix. Harrison, Conroy and Laurin will attend WMU. Nsenga, Roodbergen, Ashby, Hirakawa, Orwin, Krinock, Maddox, Zabik and Wolfe are on their way to K! (Photo by Tony Dugal)

Study Abroad in Soccer

Posted on
Andrew Bremer at US Soccer Paralympic Training
Andrew Bremer at US Soccer Paralympic Training. Photo by Hana Asano.

Like many Kalamazoo College student athletes over the years, junior Andrew Bremer will enjoy a spring term international experience. His travel will take him to Spain, the Netherlands and (possibly) to Brazil, not as a currently enrolled K student but instead as a member of the United States Paralympics soccer team.

“Before all this happened,” says Andrew, “I’d only been on a plane once, and never out of the country.”

“All this” started with a June 2015 invitation to attend training camp for the U.S. team. That first camp for Andrew (requiring his second plane trip) took place at the National Training Center for Soccer in Los Angeles last October. Andrew had to miss a week of fall term classes as well as two soccer matches (he plays defense for the Hornet team). The second training camp occurred in November (after Thanksgiving and therefore the end of fall term, “thankfully,” smiles Andrew) at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego.  For training camp number three Andrew flew to Florida in early January.

“Missing week one of winter term was tough,” says Andrew, who is as hard working and disciplined in his studies as he is on the pitch.  The economics and business major (and mathematics minor) enjoyed the full support of his K professors and soccer coach, as well as that of Associate Dean of Students Dana Jansma, who notified the College’s communication office about Andrew’s story and his plans for junior spring term.

He will take a leave of absence that term because he learned in late January that he is invited to join the U.S. Paralympics soccer team. The team will train for most of the month of April in Atlanta. At the end of that month the team will depart for Barcelona, Spain, for a pre-Paralympics tournament to include seven of the eight teams that will compete at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In addition to the U.S. squad, the eight teams include Russia, Ireland, Brazil, Ukraine, Argentina, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

“The pool play format guarantees us at least three games in Spain,” says Andrew. After the tournament the team will return to Atlanta in mid-May for more training. Then it’s off to a four-team June tournament in the Netherlands, organized by the International Federation of Cerebral Palsy Football. After that tournament Andrew will wait to see if he’s made the roster for Paralympic Games in Rio.

He feels his chances are pretty good, and the prospect of playing there (September 7-18) he considers the most exciting aspect of his soccer study abroad adventure.

“The team will stay in the Olympic Village,” says Andrew, “and the atmosphere will be electric.” He says that the Paralympics soccer matches that followed the London Olympics drew crowds of some 13,000 spectators on average. And the stadium in Rio can hold 15,000 people.

His participation in the Paralympic Games will mean Andrew misses the first few days of fall term, but he’s proven he can handle that challenge. He plans to do preliminary research for his Senior Individualized Project while in Atlanta, where training occurs nearby the liberal arts school Oglethorpe University and its library. During previous trips to Los Angeles, San Diego and Bradenton (Fla.) Andrew grew accustomed to finding a quiet place between practices to knock off some study. And, as good fortune would have it, he completed most of his requirements for his major in his first two years at K. All that remains for economics and business will be the SIP and senior seminar.

True to his liberal arts nature, Andrew intends to snag that math minor as well. And speaking of liberal arts, it’s evident in his soccer too: though he plays defense for K, for Team U.S.A. he prowls the pitch as a forward. He’ll resume the former when he steps foot again on MacKenzie Field fall term. And academically, “I’ll complete all my degree requirements in time for June commencement.

A challenge? Yes. But in some ways enrolling at K at all may been his toughest initial test, what with the familial tug of Calvin College (both his parents are graduates, and the family lives about two blocks away from the campus) and Hope College (his older brother is a graduate and his younger sister a current student). How did Andrew navigate these cross currents?

“I love the Quad,” he says, “and K’s academic rigor. In fact, I love it here so much that it’s painful to take the leave from spring term.” Now that’s a student athlete! With quite a family sports pedigree. His older sister swam the Rice University (Houston, Texas) team. His older brother played hockey for the Flying Dutch, and his younger sister is a member of Hope’s soccer team.

Will they or his parents attend any of his matches overseas? “Probably not in Spain or the Netherlands,” says Andrew. “But if I’m on the roster for Rio, well, they’ve already inquired about plane tickets.”

Toward that end, K shouts out a huge “Good luck, Andrew!”

Heyl Earns Goldwater

Posted on

Heyl Scholar Raoul WadhwaRaoul Wadhwa ’17 has won the very competitive and nationally prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. The Goldwater Scholarship Program was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering and to foster excellence in those fields.

Raoul will graduate in June 2017 with majors in chemistry and mathematics. At K he currently serves as the Civic Engagement Scholar for the Center for Civic Engagement’s Spanish Medical Interpreting group. He coordinates students from K to serve as medical translators for Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking staff, nurses, and doctors at a local medical clinic. “I first participated in this program as a first-year,” says Raoul, “and I enjoy working with a group of fellow students to improve the health of our community.” He has yet to decide where he will attend graduate school, but he has no uncertainty over his decision regarding his undergraduate education. “I am really glad that I was able to attend K,” says the Heyl scholar. “The relatively small community size fosters the building of close relationship with classmates and colleagues, and I value that about K.” According to Diane Kiino, the College’s director of health sciences and community and global health, K’s last Goldwater Scholar (Tibin John ’15) also was a Heyl Scholar.

K at EB

Posted on
Victoria Osorio '16 and Sarah Glass '17
Victoria Osorio ’16 and Sarah Glass ’17

Two Kalamazoo College chemistry majors, Victoria Osorio ’16 and Sarah Glass ’17, attended the annual Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego, Calif. Experimental Biology is a joint meeting of six different societies including the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) as well as societies for physiology, nutrition, pharmacology, pathology, and anatomy. “The meeting is a great opportunity for students to present their work and attend a variety of engaging scientific talks,” says Laura Furge, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry. “There were more than 15,000 scientists in attendance.”

Osorio and Glass presented results of their research as part of the Undergraduate Poster Competition and as part of the regular scientific session for ASBMB. Their presentations centered on recent work in the Furge lab with protein variants of an important human liver enzyme called CYP2D6. CYP2D6 helps the human body process drugs. The titles of the Osorio and Glass posters were, respectively, “Susceptibility of Four Human CYP2D6 Variants and One Active Site Mutant to Inhibition by the Mechanism-based Inactivator SCH 66712” and “Activity and Kinetic Characterization of Human CYP2D6 Polymorphisms with Bufuralol and Dextromethorphan.”

There were more than 225 undergraduate posters in the ASBMB competition from students across the country and from a variety of college and universities. One Grand Prize and four Honorable Mention awards were presented to students in each of the four research topic categories (proteins and enzymes / metabolism, bioenergetics, lipids and signal transduction / DNA, chromosomes, and gene regulation / cellular and developmental biology). Glass won an Honorable Mention for the “Proteins and Enzymes” category and was recognized the next day in front of an audience of hundreds of scientists, educators and students at the award lecture for outstanding contributions to education. Glass’s presentation was based on the culmination of nearly three years of research in the Furge lab; Glass will complete her SIP with Furge this summer and the lab hopes to publish the results later in 2016 along with co-author Osorio and other recent Furge lab research assistants.

After graduation, Osorio will enter the Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program at Case Western Reserve University. Glass will complete her degree in Fall 2016 (two terms early), and she plans to start graduate school in biochemistry or pharmacology in 2017.

Travel to ASBMB for Osorio and Glass was supported by a grant to Furge from the National Institutes of Health. Glass also received an ASBMB Travel Award of $500.

Next year’s Experimental Biology meeting will be in nearby Chicago, Illinois, says Furge, “and we hope to take a large group of students from the Departments of Chemistry and Biology.”

Blind Date

Posted on

Kalamazoo College Professor Di SeussDI SEUSS NAMED one of two finalists for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry! A first in the history of Kalamazoo College to have one of her own so honored. Di is an alumna (class of 1978) and Di is our writer-in-residence and Di is an assistant professor of English. “Di is” is the roiling wellspring and outflow of her remarkable books, most particularly Four-Legged Girl, which the Pulitzer jurors describe as “A richly improvisational poetry collection that leads readers through a gallery of incisive and beguiling portraits and landscapes.”

I like to think of each Di’s books as a glimpse (part dark, part light, and both motion) of a journey into “Di Seuss named,” a good name for a vast, strange and absolutely singular land at the margins of the world.

Graywolf Press commissioned Di to write an essay on Myrtle Corbin, the four-legged girl and Di’s muse for part of her recent collection. You can see Myrtle–or a portion of her–on the cover of Di’s book. Di’s essay, writes her publisher, is “something dark, weird, and beautiful.” It calls forth the poet Emily Dickinson and (at least for me, albeit less explicitly) another hero, another “Di,” the photographer Diane Arbus.

“When born with two vaginas, what is a girl to do?” writes Di Seuss in her essay, “Wear white, collect plants by moonlight and construct an herbarium, become a recluse, write poems? Or take the other route: join the circus, become, as Myrtle did at thirteen, a live exhibit. Without the economic privilege a poetic genius freak like Dickinson was born into, the Four-Legged Girl went for the paycheck. She dressed all four of her appendages in striped socks and black boots and pulled up her skirt to reveal the four knots of her knees. She wore fringe and silk and a hair bow. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead in spit curls with whatever they used for styling gel in those days. Oh yeah. spit.”Four Legged Girl Book Cover

Arbus once wrote, “Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot….There’s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks are born with their trauma. They’ve already passed their test in life. They’re aristocrats.”

Later in her remarkable essay about her remarkable book’s namesake, Di Seuss writes, “I believe my association with her predecessor paved the way. My first love was the taxidermied two-headed lamb in my little hometown museum. He was John the Baptist to Myrtle’s Jesus. In his two soft heads and four sweet eyes I discovered the vulnerability and genius of marginality, the burden and the gift of originality….I love and lust after Myrtle Corbin because she is queered and empowered by her idiosyncrasy…dizzied by the realization of her absolute singularity. I experience my own body as a spectacle, an exhibit, a performance, and a condition. My legs are exponential….

“Our whole guise,” echoes Arbus, “is like giving a sign to the world to think of us in a certain way but there’s a point between what you want people to know about you and what you can’t help people knowing about you….I mean if you scrutinize reality closely enough, if in some way you really, really get to it, it becomes fantastic. You know it really is totally fantastic…. Nothing is ever the same as they said it was. It’s what I’ve never seen before that I recognize.”

Di’s poems (and prose) take me to what I’ve never seen before.

The Rosemary K. Brown Professor Chosen

Posted on

Kalamazoo College Professor Alyce BradyKalamazoo College today named Alyce Brady, Ph.D., the Rosemary K. Brown Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science. Alyce has taught in those departments at Kalamazoo College for 22 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She teaches a variety of courses in computer science from introductory classes to advanced courses on programming languages, data structure, dynamic Internet apps and software development in a global context. Her research interests include the application of computer science to social justice (Alyce served as the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Faculty Fellow from 2013-2015), the development of more effective computer science education exercises and opportunities for students, software design, academic computing applications and human-computer interfaces. In 2007 she co-authored a seminal article in computer science education, “A 2007 model curriculum for a liberal arts degree in computer science,” and in 2010 she co-wrote the article “Case studies of liberal arts computer science programs.”

The professorship was established with an endowed gift by Rosemary Kopel Brown and John Wilford Brown in 2001 as part of the College’s campaign, Enlightened Leadership in the 21st Century. The endowment was strengthened by another gift from the Browns during the recently completed Campaign for Kalamazoo College. Endowed professorships help ensure the presence of great faculty at K, and the faculty-student relationship is the cornerstone of the excellence of the K learning experience. The Rosemary K. Brown professorship funds “the position of an established teacher/scholar with demonstrated achievement and the promise of continued exceptional performance.” Rosemary and John have a deep and enduring connection with Kalamazoo College and Kalamazoo. Both served as trustees of the College. Rosemary is a lifelong mathematics educator who worked in several Kalamazoo Schools. John is the retired president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Stryker Corporation in Kalamazoo.

Endowed professorships do great and indispensable things for K. They confer a prestige that helps attract and retain the best faculty. The gifts that are their financial foundation free operational funds that an institution can use for other educational opportunities. And they provide the wherewithal for a great teacher to extend the power of his or her pedagogy and scholarly work. Case in point is the former Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, John Fink, who retired in 2015. John used the endowed fund in many ways, to the benefit of students in the United States and abroad. He attended critical workshops and served in the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America; he attended and accompanied students to meetings that allowed students to experience the culture of professional mathematics, he helped develop a middle school math outreach program in Kalamazoo and, with student involvement, sowed the seeds for a similar program in Ecuador. All these efforts, and more, were made possible the endowed professorship. Of K’s work in Ecuador John said, “It’s remarkable! The fewest crumbs of possibility inspire a feast of dreams.” The Rosemary K. Brown professorship allows great teachers to conceive and implement such possibilities and dreams.

Like John, Alyce is committed to projects that foster computer science and social justice together. As the ACSJL faculty fellow she helped launch and maintain a collaborative, social justice project to computerize academic

Kalamazoo College Professor Alyce Brady with colleagues and students
© Chris McGuire Photography.

records for two partner higher educational institutions in Sierra Leone. And she found ways to involve her students in that project. See photo, picturing (l-r): front row–Justin Leatherwood ’13; Jonas Redwood-Sawyerr, vice chancellor and principal, University of Sierra Leone; Alyce Brady;Abu Sesay, vice chancellor and principal Njala University; Ashton Galloway ’13; back row–Chris Clerville ’13; Tendai Mudyiwa ’14; Kayan Hales ’’14; Chirs Cain ’13; and Keaton Adams ’14.

The appointment, announced today, becomes effective September. The College congratulates Alyce Brady, its second Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, and the College is honored to have Rosemary’s name associated with Kalamazoo College in perpetuity.

When the Money Runs Out, There’s Love

Posted on

Tuition Freedom Day BannerThe root meaning of philanthropy is love of humankind, and it is philanthropy that will power the entire operation of Kalamazoo College from this April 6 to the end of the term. That day, Tuition Freedom Day, marks an important divide in the funding of the Kalamazoo College learning experience. In any given academic year, the costs of all that has transpired before Tuition Freedom Day were covered by tuition; what comes after is covered by gifts to Kalamazoo College.

Tuition covers about 76 percent of the costs of a K education, according to Laurel Palmer, director of the Kalamazoo College Fund. “Tuition Freedom Day is a symbolic day marking the point in the academic year whenTuition Freedom Day tuition stops paying for a student’s education and support from donors takes over.” Even more important, the day “is an annual gratitude event to celebrate K’s generous donors,” added Laurel. “Their gifts make a K education possible.” During Kalamazoo College’s last fiscal year, alumni, parents and friends of the College gave more than $2 million to the Kalamazoo College Fund.

On April 6, the College’s fifth annual Tuition Freedom Day, “our goal is to have students write 750 thank-you notes,” says Laurel, “which will be mailed to alumni, parents and friends who gave to the Kalamazoo College Fund in support of scholarships, faculty excellence and the College’s greatest needs.”

K Awarded Top Civic Engagement Honor

Posted on
2016 Civic Engagement Scholars
2016 Civic Engagement Scholars

Kalamazoo College is Michigan’s 2016 Engaged Campus of the Year! Michigan Campus Compact (MiCC) recently announced K’s selection for the honor by a team of national reviewers at MiCC’s Awards Gala, held at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Center in East Lansing.

K students, faculty, staff and community partners represent the College
K students, faculty, administrators and community partners represented the College at the 2016 Michigan Campus Compact awards ceremony in Lansing.

The Engaged Campus of the Year Award recognizes an institution of higher education for exemplary commitment to the education of students for civic and social responsibility; genuine and sustained investment in community relationships; and a commitment to service learning and civic engagement opportunities for students across all disciplines.

In particular, the award is a tribute to the work of the College’s Center for Civic Engagement. Through service-learning courses and student-led programs, the CCE has engaged more than 5,500 K students in long-term, reciprocal partnerships to foster academic learning, critical problem-solving, and a lifetime of civic engagement while strengthening the community. “The students have worked with thousands of community residents, some 50 different organizations, and in more than 30 different community-based courses,” says CCE director Alison Geist.

Mallory McClure Innovations in Community Impact
K senior Mallory McClure ’16 accepted the Innovations in Community Impact award for K’s Swim for Success program.

Kalamazoo College also earned an MiCC Innovations in Community Impact award for its program Swim for Success (SFS). The Innovations Award recognizes creative and measurably effective approaches to community problem solving. SFS is a swimming program for local children that takes place on K’s campus three evenings a week. It is a partnership between K and the City of Kalamazoo led by Civic Engagement Scholars Kevin Ewing and Mallory McClure. More than 20 K students are involved as tutors or swim coaches in the program. Kevin and Mallory are both members of the college swim team and are also coaches in the SFS program. K students also provide tutoring onsite one hour before swimming lessons begin.

In addition, Susmitha Daggubati ’16 received MiCC’s 2016 Commitment to Service Award for students. The Commitment to Service Award recognizes outstanding students for their commitment to service. Students are chosen specifically for either the breadth or depth of their community involvement or their service experience(s) and the demonstration of meaningful reflection of those experiences.

Susmitha Daggubati Commitment To Service
K senior Susmitha Daggubati ’16 received the MCC’s 2016 “Commitment to Service” award.

Michigan Campus Compact is a coalition of college and university presidents who are committed to fulfilling the public purpose of higher education. The organization promotes the education and commitment of Michigan college students to be engaged citizens.

Four Awarded Fellowships for Research

Posted on

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced that four Kalamazoo College alumni have been awarded 2016 Graduate Research Fellowships. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. GRFP fellows are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

The four K alums are Amanda Mancini ’14, Jared Grimmer ’15, Patricia Garay ’11 and Monika Egerer ’13. Mancini, Grimmer and Egerer majored in biology at K, Garay majored in chemistry. For the 2016 competition, NSF received close to 17,000 applications, and made 2,000 award offers. Mancini will focus her research in biological anthropology, Grimmer and Egerer work in the area of ecology, and Garay conducts her explorations in the neurosciences. All four studied abroad at K and in different countries–Mancini in Ecuador, Grimmer in Spain, Garay in Costa Rica, and Egerer in Thailand. Congratulations, Hornet science graduate students!

National Science Foundation 2016 fellowship grants will support the graduate school research of four K alumni in ecology, neurosciences and biological anthropology.