Kalamazoo College is receiving nearly $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice through a shared grant to proactively prevent domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus.
K is the only Michigan institution and one of just a few small private schools among 60 colleges and universities nationwide to receive part of the $18 million being distributed. K’s portion, totaling $298,698, will:
create a Campus Coordinated Community Response Team;
expand training for campus safety officers and Title IX investigators;
expand victim services;
hire a full-time project coordinator who will focus on culturally relevant prevention efforts;
further enhance the College’s focus on student safety; and
support a K partnership with the Kalamazoo YWCA and the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. The partnership will bring a victim advocate to campus for 20 hours a week and formalize response to incidents that involve students in the city.
“This grant is very competitive, so we’re excited to have this additional funding and support,” said Ellen Lassiter Collier, K’s Title IX coordinator and director of gender equity. She added documented endorsements of existing efforts from students, faculty and staff likely were determining factors for the Department of Justice in securing the shared grant.
“This kind of grant traditionally goes to public schools,” Lassiter Collier said. “That speaks to the work the College is already doing and the support we receive from across campus.”
K’s existing efforts include programs such as Green Dot, which offers bystander training that statistically reduces the likelihood of dating and domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. Green Dot at K is funded through the State of Michigan Campus Sexual Assault Grant Program, which gave the College about $18,600 in 2016 and $41,800 in 2017.
The Department of Justice grant, though, will enhance such efforts and others, including the creation of targeted online training programs for students, to ensure the programs and training materials are culturally competent considering K’s diversity, and relevant to its student experiences such as study abroad.
With study abroad, for example, “We want students to know that the College is still a source of support and potential investigation should something happen abroad,” Lassiter Collier said.
For more information on the grant from the Department of Justice, visit its website.
Mattie Del Toro ’20 is a student worker for Residential Life, which has updated its suggestions for students regarding what to bring to campus this fall.
When Mattie Del Toro ’20 reflects on choosing Kalamazoo College, she remembers an experience brought to her by the letter K.
As a high school senior, Del Toro attended a Colleges That Change Lives fair near her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a good friend had been looking into Knox College. Next to the Knox table, among the Ks and in alphabetical order, was Kalamazoo College.
“I remember thinking, ‘Is (Kalamazoo) the name of a city from a Dr. Seuss book? There’s no way that’s a real place,’ ” says Del Toro, a business and art history major and studio art minor. “I thought if anything it had to be a college named after someone rather than the name of a city.”
“I fell in love with the campus,” says Del Toro, who ended up enrolling at K. “I graduated with a high school class of 50, and when I saw how small and intimate the school is, I was sold. I received a great financial aid offer that made it about the same in terms of affordability as the University of New Mexico, and it was a chance to go across the country for the whole liberal arts experience.”
Del Toro is now a student worker for Residential Life, which has updated its suggestions regarding what to bring to campus for fall. Based on her experiences, as a first-year student living in Trowbridge Hall and as a resident assistant at Harmon Hall, here’s what Del Toro suggests.
Talk with Your Roommate About What to Bring to Campus
K students living on campus this fall should already have received their room assignment with their roommate’s name and kzoo.edu email address. Del Toro suggests contacting your roommate to arrange who will bring what, especially if at least one of you is coming from a considerable distance.
Mattie Del Toro ’20 advises that first-year students consider making their rooms as homey as possible in thinking about what to bring to campus. Items such as dry-erase boards can help students feel more at home.
Del Toro, for example, arrived in Kalamazoo for her first year by plane with her mom and then-boyfriend, now fiancé, bringing Del Toro’s belongings in a total of nine suitcases. Appliances, for example, weren’t an option for her.
“What you bring might depend on whether you’re from Michigan or someplace farther,” she said, adding that a roommate brought a microwave, curtains and mini-fridge, which she was happy to stock with food.
Shop for What You Can in Kalamazoo
Nine suitcases might not sound like much for transporting everything someone might need for an entire term. Del Toro, however, admits she packed too much and advises that less is more.
“When I left for fall, I packed stuff that I took home during winter break,” Del Toro said. Those items included several blankets and some heavy winter gear after she realized she only needed some long-sleeve shirts, jeans and jackets for the crisp weather that arrives late in the fall term.
When those items and other bulky items are necessary, shop for them in Kalamazoo or place online orders from your hometown and pick them up in Kalamazoo. Del Toro says to consider items such as mattress pads, shower caddies and “items that Mom would normally provide,” such as cleaning supplies and laundry detergent.
Preview Your Room Space
Residential Life doesn’t keep floor-plan measurements for specific rooms. Del Toro, however, advises that students look at pictures of residence hall rooms in K’s virtual tour to estimate their potential floor space. Those visuals should provide ideas as to where students can put items such as small cabinets and bins.
“You get a closet and drawers, but it’s beneficial to have bins and totes of your own as well,” Del Toro said. “I quickly realized I didn’t have the surface area I needed for certain items, and the virtual tour would’ve helped me plan better.”
Make Your Room Your Home
Del Toro says that on a residential campus such as K’s, it’s important that students make their residence hall room their home.
Items such as rugs, pictures of family and friends, twinkle lights suspended through adhesive hooks, and small pieces of furniture negotiated with roommates can ward off homesickness and make your room feel like an owned space.
“I didn’t want to get so comfortable in my space that I disrespected my roommate,” she said. “But any home goods can give you more than a brick wall, a desk and a bed,” allowing for greater comfort.
Kalamazoo College is included in the newly published 2019 edition of “The Best 384 Colleges,” the annual college guide of the Princeton Review.
Kalamazoo College is included in the newly published 2019 edition of “The Best 384 Colleges,” the annual college guide of the Princeton Review.
The guide says K “brings a personalized approach to education through a flexible, open curriculum featuring real-world experience, service learning, study abroad, and an independent senior year project.” Among praise from students quoted in the guide’s Kalamazoo College entry: K “allows students to really develop personal relationships with their peers and professors” and is “a campus run by and for the students.”
Students also tell the Princeton Review that K:
“Will try as hard as possible to get you to graduate in four years.”
Enables students, through its open curriculum, to “have more time to explore exactly what they want to learn, rather than being required to take classes in which they have no interest.”
Has “a huge culture” among alumni “of giving back to the school and being there for each other” and for current students.
Has professors who “view students as equals and peers, and are open to listening to everyone’s ideas in classes.”
Provides “good food and fun activities” for students and a wide array of clubs and athletics that are open to everyone.
Attracts students “who show creativity, ambition and motivation.” “You will never find any two students who are the same here,” one student says.
“Our students in the Princeton Review say it in their own words: Kalamazoo College provides a distinctive liberal arts education that is among the best available anywhere,” said Eric Staab, Kalamazoo College dean of admission and financial aid. “It’s a real testament to the enduring value of the K-Plan and the K experience.”
The Princeton Review says the college rankings are based on surveys of 138,000 students at 384 top colleges that includes a wide representation by region, size, selectivity and character.
Kalamazoo College will celebrate its relationship with the acclaimed Posse Foundation when it welcomes the organization’s president and founder, Deborah Bial, as its 2018 Commencement speaker June 17.
Posse Foundation President and Founder Deborah Bial will be the 2018 Commencement speaker at Kalamazoo College.
Since 2009, Posse has sent 10 students — a “Posse” — a year to K from Los Angeles. Each Posse add its varied experiences in the nation’s second-largest metro area to the College’s mix while its members provide one another with the support of peers from back home.
That’s the idea behind Posse: to give talented, high-achieving students from urban public schools the opportunity to attend top colleges and universities on full scholarship while ensuring they have a support group to help them navigate the cultural challenges of a new landscape. The College will admit its 10th Posse cohort in fall 2018.
Bial has said she launched the foundation in 1989 after hearing a former scholarship student from the Bronx who had left an Ivy League college say he might never have dropped out “if I’d had my posse with me.”
Since then, Posse has sent more than 8,400 students to its 56 partner schools. Kalamazoo College was Posse’s first partner in Michigan, beginning with a five-year commitment made possible by a donation from Jon Stryker ’82, a member of the College’s Board of Trustees and founder and president of the Arcus Foundation.
Posse candidates undergo rigorous screening, then participate in an eight-month training program that develops their skills as individuals and as members of a team. Evidence of the success of Posse is the 90 percent-plus persistence and graduation rate for scholarship recipients.
Bial earned her B.A. at Brandeis University and her M.A. and Ed.D. at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. In 2007, she received a MacArthur Fellowship, an award that recognizes exceptional creativity and potential, accompanied by a $500,000 grant.
In an interview with WNET-TV, Bial said Posse’s overarching goal is to ensure that the United States benefits from the talents and knowledge of all of its people.
“The future of our democracy and global competitiveness will depend on our ability to develop leaders who reflect the country’s rich demographic mix,” she said. “Improving access to top universities for underrepresented students is critical to achieving this.”
President Jorge G. Gonzalez said he is eager to hear Bial’s message to the class of 2018.
“The visionary efforts of Deborah Bial have brought to Kalamazoo College, and colleges and universities across the nation, a rich yet underrepresented vein of talent,” he said. “She has inspired us all by demonstrating the incredible potential in America’s urban public school districts, and we are deeply honored to have her as our commencement speaker.”
The 2018 Commencement at Kalamazoo College is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 17 on the college quad. The 318 members of the class of 2018 represent 29 states and 12 countries.
Juana Bordas, an authority on integrating diverse viewpoints into workplace leadership, will speak at an upcoming community program where Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez will provide the introduction.
Diversity conference speaker Juana Bordas is a Nicaraguan immigrant who has become a national leader on Hispanic issues.
Bordas, a Nicaraguan immigrant who has become a national leader on Hispanic issues, will headline Kalamazoo County’s annual Respecting Differences conference, speaking April 10 at Chenery Auditorium. The College is a sponsor of the event, along with Western Michigan University, the cities of Kalamazoo and Portage, and Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Bordas, in the 2007 book “Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age,” explores the intersections between Latino, African-American and Native American approaches to leadership, and how incorporating them into the mainstream can strengthen leadership and inspire an increasingly multicultural workforce.
Bordas says all three approaches “center on collective or group welfare” and “value generosity and reciprocity.”
“Multicultural leadership resonates with many cultures and encourages diverse people to actively engage, contribute and tap their potential,” she says, adding, “Our future depends on our ability to develop the potential of our culturally diverse world.”
Bordas heads Mestiza Leadership International, an organization that develops and promotes diversity and leadership programs for organizations across the country. She is a former faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership and was founding president and CEO of the National Hispana Leadership Institute.
A Colorado resident, she has been widely recognized there for her work in developing Latina leaders, including being inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
DETAILS
Juana Bordas, featured speaker at “Respecting Differences, will appear at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave., Kalamazoo, with an introduction by Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez. Tickets are free and now available.
Kalamazoo College’s rich diversity will be on display Saturday, Feb. 10, as the Asian Pacific Islander Student Association and KDesi join forces to stage their award-winning annual Asia Fest.
The Asian Pacific Islander Student Association and KDesi will team up Saturday to stage Asia Fest.
In an “Asia’s Got Talent” showcase at Dalton Theatre, students from the two groups will perform music and dances representing their cultures. Judges will choose the winning act. The students will also stage a fashion show.
Everyone is invited. Asia Fest director Li Li Huynh says doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show gets underway at 8 p.m. Food will be provided.
The two groups received the College’s 2016-2017 Black and Orange Leadership Award for Best Collaborative Initiative for last year’s show.
Greater Kalamazoo is asked to consider this: What is your position in times of challenge and controversy? Join in a celebration of Martin Luther King’s legacy at a convocation that begins at 10:50 a.m. Monday at Stetson Chapel with organizer, educator and curator Mariame Kaba.
Join in a Monday celebration of Martin Luther King’s legacy at a convocation that begins at 10:50 a.m. at Stetson Chapel with Mariame Kaba.
Kaba’s work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice and supporting youth leadership development. She is the author of many articles and publications on criminal justice, abolition and ending the mass incarceration of minorities in our country. She dedicates herself to working with youths and empowering them for leadership. Kaba is also the founding director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization dedicated to ending youth incarceration, and the co-founder of the Chicago Freedom School. Hear Kaba’s Thursday interview on WMUK’s WestSouthwest.
Tamara Morrison ’20, an Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership student liaison, will present an opening address. The convocation is open to the public. A brunch and workshop will follow for students who RSVP’d in advance.
At 7 p.m. Monday in 103 Dewing Hall, Intercultural Student Life will sponsor a public showing of the movie “Gook.” In the movie, Eli and Daniel, two Korean American brothers who own a struggling women’s shoe store, have an unlikely friendship with 11-year-old Kamilla. On the first day of the 1992 L.A. riots, the trio must defend the store while contemplating the meaning of family and thinking about personal dreams and the future. Popcorn and pizza will be provided.
A Kalamazoo woman who participated in last year’s Kalamazoo County initiative to provide under-documented residents with government-issued IDs has earned one of three Regional Fellowships from the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College.
Nelly Fuentes received one of three Regional Fellowships.
Nelly Fuentes, of Movimiento Cosecha Kalamazoo, hopes to expand the organization with the project funds she receives through the Fellowship, which runs until June 2018. Movimiento Cosecha seeks permanent protection, dignity and respect for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Fuentes, who migrated to Michigan around 2000 and arrived in Kalamazoo in 2006, hopes to expand the organization to about 25 members. She wants to culminate her efforts with a May Day celebration for farmworkers in coordination with other local Movimiento Cosecha chapters, including one in Grand Rapids.
Each Regional Fellow receives a $5,000 stipend and funds for travel and project-related expenses, in addition to professional development and coaching for their social justice-related goals.
“The Regional Fellowships are our way of providing concrete support to local leaders who are working for justice and equity in Southwest Michigan,” said Mia Henry, executive director of the Arcus Center. “We believe that our partnership with these visionary organizers will help them strengthen the impact and increase the reach of their projects, which will benefit our community well after the fellowship period ends.”
Also receiving fellowships are:
Linda Cypret-Kilbourne and Julie Dye, who are creating a campaign that will inform and educate K-12 teachers about institutional racism related to Native American-themed mascots in interscholastic sports.
Julie DyeLinda Cypret-Kilbourne
Cypret-Kilbourne is a co-founder of the Michigan Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media, a member of the National Coalition Against Racism in Sports and Media and a chairperson of Native American Student Community Organization Movement. Dye is a Pokagon Band and Walpole Island First Nation Potawatomi Native American. As an anti-racism and environmental activist, she works to improve the lives of Michigan’s indigenous people through education.
Kalamazoo College graduates Gina Bravata and Ryan D’Mello, who are addressing race-based health inequity through anti-racism and implicit bias training for future healthcare providers as co-leaders and co-organizers of the Social Justice Interest Group at Western Michigan University’s Homer Stryker, M.D. School of Medicine.
Bravata was born and raised in Kalamazoo and is a student at the Stryker School of Medicine. Before attending medical school, she was a chemistry teacher in Newark, N.J. She is interested in using her background in education and health to promote health equity by increasing discussions regarding the integral link between social justice and medicine.
D’Mello was born in Kalamazoo and has lived, worked, researched and volunteered there. After graduating from Kalamazoo College, he worked with a team of local health professionals on The Kalamazoo Heart Project, evaluating undetected heart disease in the community.
About the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership
The mission of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College is to develop and sustain leaders in human rights and social justice through education and capacity-building.
The publisher Sourcebooks announced Tuesday that Kalamazoo College again is included in the annual “Fiske Guide to Colleges,” a useful resource for high school students and their families when they research prospective colleges.
Kalamazoo College again will be one of more than 300 schools featured in the 2018 version in the “Fiske Guide to Colleges”
The 2018 publication, compiled by former New York Times Education Editor Edward B. Fiske, is a selective, subjective and systematic look at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and the UK.
The “Fiske Guide to Colleges” is available as a paperback book, as an iPad app on iTunes, and as a Web program on CollegeCountdown.com. The guide’s readers discover the personality of a college based on a broad range of subjects throughout the text including the student body, academics, social life, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food and extracurricular activities.
Kalamazoo College “aims to prepare students for real life by helping them synthesize the liberal arts education they receive on campus with their experiences abroad,” the publication says, adding that K students are passionate and determined to make a difference. The guide also discusses the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College’s four-part, integrated approach to an excellent education in the liberal arts and sciences. K-Plan tenets include:
rigorous academics. The flexibility and rigor of K’s curriculum provides students with a customized academic experience;
experiential education. Students connect classroom learning with real-world experience by completing career development internships or externships, participating in civic engagement and service-learning projects, and getting involved in social justice leadership work;
international and intercultural experience. Students choose from 42 study abroad programs in 24 countries across six continents; and
independent scholarship. As the culmination of their learning, students explore a subject of their choice, resulting in an in-depth, graduate-level research thesis, performance or creative work known as a Senior Individualized Project.
The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) has announced the 2016-17 Regional Fellows. The program helps leaders in Kalamazoo County clarify the core values they want their work to exemplify, increase their effectiveness, and bring a stronger social justice focus to their work. Fellows will engage often with the ACSJL for eight months, attending training and coaching sessions while laying the groundwork for their projects.
Names of the fellows and a brief description of their projects follow.
Jesselyn Leach is the creator of #Gang4Change, an initiative explores how art and social justice can work together. The project will work with Kalamazoo teens and young people, providing them the opportunity to connect with their artistic selves in music, spoken word poetry, slam poetry, cyphering, and other creative genres.
BlackOut, a project of Maxwell T. Isaac and Lexington Everson Fate, is designed to lay the foundations of greater visibility and sovereignty for the Black community of Kalamazoo. BlackOut is comprised of parts: the Living Narrative and the Living Action. The former will increase the visibility of Black stories as told by their authors, sharing their experiences with injustice in Kalamazoo. The latter will fortify leadership and community ties through community awareness events and trainings.
Movement for the Movement is a collaboration created by Kama Tai Mitchell and Lillie Wolff ’04. It will examine and address the systemic barriers that impede people with marginalized identities from accessing and benefitting from healing arts spaces and resources. When shared equitably and accountably, healing arts practices, such as yoga, can aid in transforming the harmful and dehumanizing effects of oppression and privilege.
Remi Harrington‘s project is called City Schools and BMFA (balancing motherhood for the future of America). Her work will promote parental engagement and community integrated education for the purpose of dismantling the cradle to the prison pipeline. The work will create intercultural spaces in neighborhoods to support academic mastery through industry centered, project based learning. These spaces will also develop employable skill sets and will build an infrastructure for a sustainable community.
Chris Wahmhoff is a creator of the Edison Ducks in a Row, a project that began in April of 2015 after two ducks were adopted and Edison neighborhood kids began to take interest. The program helps educated kids and young adults about farm animals and basic urban farming techniques. The eventual goal is to transition public school food sources to local farming in the Edison neighborhood.
