math

Heyl Earns Goldwater

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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.

Walking In Memphis with K Students

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K Math Students in Memphis Feb 2016Six Kalamazoo College math and computer science students traveled to Memphis, Tenn., March 3-5 (or, in K-speak, the end of 9th Week!) to attend the annual conference of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (ACM-SIGCSE). They attended plenary and workshop sessions, volunteered with various conference management activities, and interacted with conference organizers, presenters, and other students from around the world. They also helped develop a mobile app that will be used for student volunteers at the 2017 conference. (And they may have enjoyed a stroll along Beale St., famous for its BBQ, Blues, and beverages.)

From left to right in the photo taken by Elizabeth Fiator ’16 are Noah Getz ’17, Luis Diniz (visiting international student from Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Will Lewis ’16, Owen Galvin ’17, Melany Diaz ’16. Their conference and Beale St. guides were K Associate Professor of Computer Science Pam Cutter, Ph.D., and Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Alyce Brady, Ph.D.

Kalamazoo College grad Raven Fisher hopes to change children’s futures, one math problem at a time

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Kalamazoo College graduate Raven Fisher at Dewing Hall
Raven Fisher ’14

Raven Fisher ’14 has now begun her studies at Western Michigan University as a prestigious W.K. Kellogg Foundation Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellow. The Detroit native and University Liggett High School graduate was a math major at K. Her goal is to teach middle school math. Raven excelled in many areas at K both in and out of the classroom. She was very active in the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement. In both her sophomore and senior years, Raven, and her classmate Roxann Lawrence ’14 served as Civic Engagement Scholars who co-led the Community Advocates for Parents and Students at Interfaith Homes, a tutoring program that hopes to ensure that all students, no matter their economic circumstances, can take advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise, which offers free college tuition to any Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate.

 

More-in-FourPeat

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Kalamazoo College has won the coveted Klein Cup for the fourth consecutive year. “If we keep this up, perhaps the award should be re-named the K Kup,” said John Fink, the Rosemary K. Brown Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science. The Klein Cup honors the first place finisher in the annual Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition (LMMC). This year’s math dust-up took place a Lawrence Technological University (Southfield, Mich.) and featured 20 teams from nine schools. K sent three teams that placed first, second, and tenth. Not bad. And since half the first place team and all of the second place team are underclassmen, the prospects for next year look good. K Kup, indeed! This year’s K math hornets included: first place team–Umang Varma and Tibin John; second place team–Raoul Wadhwa, Ngoc (Van) Truong, and Raj Bhagat; tenth place team–Sajan Silwal, Mehmet Kologlu, and Alex Townsend.

Professor John Fink Honored by the Mathematical Association of America’s Michigan Chapter

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Professor John Fink
John Fink, Ph.D., is Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at K.

K Professor John Fink, Ph.D. has received the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America “for the many contributions he has made to his institution [Kalamazoo College!], to our [MAA Michigan] Section, and to the larger mathematical community for many years,” sayeth the citation. Fink is K’s Rosemary K. Brown Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science. A longtime member and past governor of the MAA Michigan section, he was honored with the Section’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2001. In 1989, he co-founded the Michigan All-Stars team of high school mathematics students, serving as the team coach in national competitions for 17 years. He served as Department of Mathematics and Computer Science chair at K for 10 years. This spring, he was recognized with Kalamazoo College’s Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship Award for Excellence in Teaching. He delivered his acceptance lecture May 6 in the Mandelle Hall’s Olmsted Room to a standing-room only audience of students, faculty, staff, family, friends, and fellow math aficionados. Congrats, Professor Fink. If dedication, love, and talent count for anything, you really add up!

The William Randolph Hearst Undergraduate Research Fellowship at K

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Thanks to a generous gift from The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Kalamazoo College has established the William Randolph Hearst Undergraduate Research Fellowships. These competitive fellowships will provide support for summer research projects for K students majoring in the sciences or mathematics. The goal is to continue the College’s success in preparing individuals for graduate studies and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines.

Eight fellowships will be awarded each year for the next three years beginning this summer 2014. Each award will consist of a $3,000 stipend to defray travel and living expenses. Eligible disciplines include biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, and mathematics. Projects must be investigative and have the goal of generating primary research results. K first-year, sophomore, and junior students are eligible to apply.

Kalamazoo College Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences Jim Langeland ’86, Department of Biology, will serve as faculty coordinator for the program.

The Hearst Foundation and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation are national philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health, and social services. The Hearst Foundations identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive, and inspiring lives.

Jordan Klepper ’01 joins The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

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Kalamazoo College alumnus Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show
Jordan Klepper ’01 is the newest correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Mon-Thu at 11pm on Comedy Central. The Kalamazoo native earned a B.A. degree in math at K and performed in Monkapult, the student-run improve troupe.

Jordan Klepper ’01 has joined The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as the newest correspondent on the popular late-night Comedy Central show. During his March 3 debut episode, Jordan reported “live” from Ukraine, but his take on events in the politically unstable country quickly devolved in a comedic take on his own new and perhaps unstable job status.

Jordan has performed at New York City’s Upright Citizens Brigade (UBC) improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group for three years. He was also a correspondent on the comedic sports show Friday Night Tailgate on the Big Ten Network for three seasons, and performed at Second City and iO theaters in Chicago, where he met his wife and frequent collaborator Laura Grey. Together, Klepper and Grey created and starred in the UCB Comedy-produced pilot Engaged, which they later turned into a web series. His TV credits include IFC’s Bunk and MTV’s I Just Want My Pants Back.

Jordan grew up in Kalamazoo, attending Kalamazoo Central High School and the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center. A Heyl Scholar at K, he earned his B.A. degree in mathematics, while participating in many Theatre Department and Festival Playhouse productions. He often performed in K’s student run improv troupe, Monkapult.

Jordan’s sister, Caycee (Klepper) Sledge ’05 is K alumna and classmate of another well-known Monkapult alumnus, Steven Yuen ’05, who appears as Glenn on AMC’s popular TV show The Walking Dead.

Jordan is the first new correspondent on The Daily Show in more than two years and joins Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, Aasif Mandvi, and Jessica Williams. The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.

Check out a selection of web videos, short films, and web series featuring Jordan Klepper and Laura Grey at http://klepperandgrey.tumblr.com and http://splitsider.com/2014/03/the-daily-show-hires-jordan-klepper-as-its-newest-correspondent.

Break a leg, Jordan!

Raven Fisher ’14 is National Student Day Winner

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Raven Fisher
Raven Fisher

Raven Fisher ’14 earned third-place honors and a $1,000 prize in the 2013 National Student Day Contest that celebrates and promotes social responsibility by college students. The math major from Detroit received her award based on votes from online supporters who read her testimonial, titled “Lifelong Commitment to the Community.”

Lifelong Commitment to the Community
by Raven Fisher

All my life, I have enjoyed assisting those around me, rather it be with homework or an errand that they needed me to run. I have never seen these things as burdens but as opportunities to give back to my community.

During my junior year of high school, I was working at a summer math camp which helped youth from ages 13-21. We worked on a variety of math concepts in order to bring these students up to speed for the upcoming school year. While working with the students, I realized that a lot of them had a hard time grasping concepts that should have been mastered in 6th grade. However, given one on one attention and different options to learn the concepts, the students started catching on immediately.

On the last day of the camp, we played a Jeopardy math game. The students answered every question correctly and even corrected me on a problem in which I had solved wrong. Seeing their faces and senses of accomplishment gave me the same feeling. This is when I committed myself to lifelong community service and aspirations to be a math teacher.

Since then, I have done KDO [Keeping the Doors Open], a math summer camp at Kalamazoo College which helps middle school students stay on track with their math classes. I am also the Civic Engagement Scholar for Community Advocates for Parents and Students, which attempts to eliminate the inequities in education by providing underprivileged students with resources such as tutoring. After college, I will continue my passion for service as a teacher!

Congratulations, Raven!

 

Kalamazoo College Faculty News

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Some recent news about Kalamazoo College professors:

PUBLICATIONS and EXHIBITS
Carol Anderson (Religion) published “The Possibility of a Postcolonial Buddhist Ethic of Wealth,” an article in Buddhist-Christian Studies…Rose Bundy (Japanese Language and Literature) published “Beneath the Moss,” a set of translations by Fujiwara Shunzei, in the new translation journal Transference…Henry Cohen (Romance Languages) published “The Eldorado Episodes of Voltaire’s Candide as an Intertext of Augusto Roa Bastos’ Yo El Supremo: A Utopia/Dystopia Relationship” in Revista De Estudios Hispanicos…Kiran Cunningham ’83 (Anthropology and Sociology) published “Structured Reflection for Transforming Learning: Linking Home and Away,” in the Salzburg Global Seminar’s Creating Sites of Global Citizenship…Péter Érdi (Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies) co-authored three papers: “The Past, Present, and Future of Cybernetics and Systems Research” in the journal Systems; “An Integrated Theory of Budgetary Politics and Some Empirical Tests: The U.S. National Budget, 1791-2010” in the American Journal of Political Science; and “Anxiolytic Drugs and Altered Hippocampal Theta Rhythms: The Quantitative Systems Pharmacological Approach” in Network: Computation in Neural Systems…Jim Langeland ’86 (Biology) and Blaine Moore (Biology) are co-authors of a paper accepted for publication in Molecular Biology and Evolution that contributes to the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. The project was partially funded by a GLCA New Directions Initiative and had four Kalamazoo College students or alumni as co-authors (see a recent K News & Events article about this here.)…Amy Lane (Anthropology and Sociology) published “Religion is not a Monolith: Religious Experience at a Midwestern Liberal Arts College,” an article in Journal of College and Character…Sarah Lindley (Art) exhibited her sculptures in shows at Eastern Michigan University, Alma College, and Hope College…Bruce Mills (English) published An Archaeology of Yearning, a book by the Etruscan Press…Siu-Lan Tan (Psychology) co-authored three chapters and served as primary editor for the book, The Psychology of Music in Multimedia (Oxford University Press, 2013).

AWARDS and GRANTS
Kiran Cunningham ’83 (Anthropology and Sociology) has been awarded the 2014 Dr. Winthrop S. and Lois A. Hudson Award, awarded biannually for the purpose of honoring outstanding K faculty members…John Fink (Mathematics) has been awarded the Lucasse Lectureship for Outstanding Teaching at K…Alison Geist (Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Civic Engagement) was awarded one of the first Kalamazoo County Spirit of Health Equity awards…Binney Girdler (Biology and Environmental Studies) has been awarded grants from the Michigan Botanical Foundation and from the Central Michigan University Institute for Great Lakes Research…Bruce Mills (English) has been awarded a GLCA New Directions Initiative grant for his work on building a civil rights oral history archive…Lanny Potts (Theatre Arts) was awarded the 2013 Wilde Award for “Best Lighting Designer of the Year” in the state of Michigan for his work on “The Light in the Piazza” at Farmer’s Alley Theatre…Regina Stevens-Truss (Chemistry) has received funding from the GLCA Expanding Collaboration Initiative to study digital resources for learning experimental science.

NEW POSITIONS
Alyce Brady (Mathematics and Computer Science) is an Arcus Center Faculty Fellow. She will work collaboratively with universities in Sierra Leone to develop sustainable open-source academic record-keeping software…Reid Gómez is Mellon Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, focusing on campus climate, faculty development, and curriculum development…Starting July 1, 2014, Mike Sosulski (German and Media Studies) will serve as Associate Provost and Paul Sotherland (Biology) will be the inaugural Coordinator of Teaching, Learning, and Educational Effectiveness.

ENDOWED CHAIRS
The following Kalamazoo College faculty members are the recipients of newly endowed chairs: R. Amy Elman, William Weber Professor in Social Science…Laura Lowe Furge, Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry…Gary S. Gregg, Ann V. and Donald R. Parfet Distinguished Professor of Psychology…Ahmed M. Hussen, Edward and Virginia Van Dalson Professor of Economics and Business…Richard Koenig, Genevieve U. Gilmore Professor of Art…Amy MacMillan, L. Lee Stryker Assistant Professor of Business Management…Ed Menta, James B. Stone College Professor of Theatre Arts…Taylor G. Petrey, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone Assistant Professor of Religion.

Kalamazoo College’s Only Rhodes Scholar Offers Advice to WMU Finalist

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Former K President George Rainsford and Rhodes Scholar recipient Becky Gray in 1981
Former K President George Rainsford congratulates K student and Rhodes Scholar recipient Becky Gray in 1981.

Kalamazoo College alumna Becky Gray ’81 is the only student from K or Western Michigan University ever to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. In a Nov.15, 2012 Kalamazoo Gazette article, she offered some words of advice for Rhodes Scholarship finalist Mitch Zajac, a WMU graduate student and former football player.