political science

Honors Day Rewards Student Excellence

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Honors Day Convocation
More than 250 students including Rebecca Chan ’22 were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, at the Honors Day Convocation at Stetson Chapel.

Family Weekend served as the backdrop for the Honors Day 2019 convocation. More than 250 students were recognized Friday, Nov. 8, for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Physical Education. Recipients of prestigious scholarships were recognized, as were members of national honor societies and students who received special Kalamazoo College awards. Student athletes and teams who won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards also were honored. The students receiving Honors Day awards or recognition are listed below.

FINE ARTS DIVISION

Brian Gougeon Prize in Art
Kate Roberts
Beth Schulman
Zoe Zawacki

The Margaret Upton Prize in Music
Sophia Yurdin

Cooper Award
Maria Jensen

Sherwood Prize
Rebecca Chan
Brianna Taylor

Theatre Arts First-Year Student Award
Rebecca Chan

MODERN AND CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES DIVISION

LeGrand Copley Prize in French
Rebecca Chan
Thomas Saxton

Hardy Fuchs Award
Christian Zeitvogel

Margo Light Award
Daniel Fahle

Romance Languages Department Prize in Spanish
Emiley Hepfner
Hayden Strobel

Clara H. Buckley Prize for Excellence in Latin
Kelly Hansen

Provost’s Prize in Classics
Jessica Chaidez
Annabelle Houghton

Classics Departmental Prize in Greek
Lydia Bontrager

HUMANITIES DIVISION

M. Allen Prize in English
Abigail Cadieux
Jessica Chaidez

John B. Wickstrom Prize in History
Fiona Holmes

Department of Philosophy Prize
Mitch Baty
Julia Bienstock
Emma Fergusson

L.J. and Eva (“Gibbie”) Hemmes Memorial Prize in Philosophy
Max Bogun
Zoe Celeste Schneberger
Nick Wilson

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

Winifred Peake Jones Prize in Biology
Natalie Barber
Abigail Gray
Madeline Harding
Grace McKnight

Department of Chemistry Prize
Aleksandra Bartolik
Grace McKnight

First-Year Chemistry Award
Robert Barnard
Saudia Tate
Andrew Walsh

Professor Ralph M. Deal Endowed Scholarship for Physical Chemistry Students
Leonardo Sota

Lemuel F. Smith Award
Christopher Vennard

Computer Science Prize
Shruti Chaturvedi
Caroline Skalla

First-Year Mathematics Award
Haley Crabbs
Thomas Saxton
Carter Wade

Thomas O. Walton Prize in Mathematics
Lisa Johnston
Dahwi Kim
Samuel Ratliff

Cooper Prize in Physics
Revaz Bakuradze
Samuel Barczy
Kate Roberts

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

Departmental Prize in Anthropology and Sociology
Yuridia Campuzano
Mauricio Guillén
Jillian Lynk

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Economics
Rebekah Halley
Chaniya Miller

William G. Howard Memorial Prize
Georgie Andrews
Jade Jiang
Zachary Ray
Adam Snider

Wallace Lawrence Prize in Business
Nathan Micallef
Sage Ringsmuth

Irene and S. Kyle Morris Prize
Mihail Naskovski

William G. Howard Memorial Prize in Political Science
Ava Keller
Christian Zeitvogel

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

Division of Physical Education Prize
Walker Chung
Kaytlyn Tidey

Maggie Wardle Prize
Darby Scott

COLLEGE AWARDS

Gordon Beaumont Memorial Award
Yasamin Shaker

Henry and Inez Brown Prize
Mya Gough
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Rosella LoChirco
Elizabeth Munoz
Erin Radermacher

Virginia Hinkelman Memorial Award
Jilia Johnson

HEYL SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Samuel Ankley
Ben Behrens (’20)
Carter Eisenbach
Rachel Kramer
Rachel Lanting
Alexis Nesbitt
Suja Thakali
Elizabeth Wang

POSSE SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Jayla Ekwegh
Naile Garcia
Devin Hunt
Juan Ibarra
Angel Ledesma
Milan Levy
Katharina Padilla
Milagros Robelo
Emilio Romo
Diego Zambrana

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARS
Class of 2023

Donald Brown
Claire Kvande

VOYNOVICH SCHOLARS

Audrey Honig
Nikoli Nickson

ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA
CLASS OF 2022

Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honor society that recognizes excellence in academic achievement during the first college year. To be eligible for membership, students must earn a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and be in the top 20 percent of their class during the first year. The Kalamazoo College chapter was installed on March 5, 1942.

Elizabeth Abel
McKenzi Baker
Natalie Barber
Samuel Barczy
Aleksandra Bartolik
Mitchell Baty
Julia Bienstock
Alexander Bowden
Haylee Bowsher
Irie Browne
Elizabeth Burton
Abigail Cadieux
Rebecca Chan
Gabriel Chung
Haley Crabbs
Sofia Diaz
Adam Dorstewitz
Imalia Drummond
Daniel Fahle
Emma Fergusson
Kaitlin Gandy
Levon Gibson
Jessica Gracik
Madeline Guimond
Emiley Hepfner
Ellie Jones
Joseph Jung
David Kent
Yung Seo Lee
Marissa Lewinski
Donna Li
Isabella Luke
Deven Mahanti
Clara Martinez-Voigt
Mihail Naskovski
Rushik Patel
Houston Peach
Anthony Peraza
Lucas Rizzolo
Marco Savone
Isabella Shansky-Genovese
Caroline Skalla
Emily Smith
Abby Stewart
Emily Tenniswood
Carter Wade
Samantha White
Zachary Worthing
Christian Zeitvogel

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Performing Arts: Music
Marilu Bueno
John Carlson
Emily Dudd
Sarma Ejups
Peter Fitzgerald
Rose Hannan
Garrett Hanson
Koshiro Kuroda
Milan Levy
Matthew Mueller
Clarice Ray

MIAA AWARDS

These teams earned the 2018-2019 MIAA Team GPA Award for achieving a 3.3 or better grade-point average for the entire academic year:

Men’s Baseball
Women’s Basketball
Men’s Cross Country
Women’s Cross Country
Men’s Golf
Women’s Golf
Men’s Lacrosse
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Softball
Women’s Swimming and Diving
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

Student Athletes 2018-2019

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association each year honors students at MIAA member colleges who achieve in the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average for the entire academic year.

Hayleigh Alamo
Georgie Andrews
Hunter Angileri
Lauren Arquette
Brooklyn Avery
Julia Bachmann
Sonal Bahl
Nicole Bailey
Lillian Baumann
Brad Bez
Rose Bogard
Jacob Bonifacio
Maria Bonvicini
Alexander Bowden
Molly Brueger
Jane Bunch
Pierce Burke
Alexander Cadigan
Gabriel Chung
Isabelle Clark
Noah Coplan
Rachel Cornell
Chase Coselman
Eva Deyoung
Alexis Dietz
Adam Dorstewitz
Amanda Dow
Sydney Dowdell
Thomas Fales
Colton Farley
Anders Finholt
Clifton Foster
Jakob Frederick
Brendan Gausselin
Sarah George
Jacob Gilhaus
Anthony Giovanni
Rachel Girard
Sophia Goebel
Preston Grossling
Garrett Guthrie
Rebekah Halley
Emily Hamel
Grace Hancock
Megan Heft
Alyssa Heitkamp
Mathew Holmes-Hackerd
Matthew Howrey
Benjamin Hyndman
Samantha Jacobsen
Benjamin Johanski
Jaylin Jones
Jackson Jones
Claire Kalina
Grace Karrip
Lucas Kastran
Maria Katrantzi
Greg Kearns
Jackson Kelly
Brandon Kramer
Benjamin Krebs
Matthew Krinock
Stefan Leclerc
Kathryn Levasseur
Rosella LoChirco
Molly Logsdon
Nicholas Ludka
Andrea MacMichael
Rachel Madar
Deven Mahanti
Cydney Martell
Samuel Matthews
Eliza McCall
Benjamin Meschke
Hannah Meyers
Nathan Micallef
Zachary Morales
Max Moran
Amanda Moss
Elizabeth Munoz
Kelly Nickelson
Nikoli Nickson
Ian Nostrant
Drew Novetsky
Michael Orwin
Dylan Padget
Paul Pavliscak
Calder Pellerin
Anthony Peraza
Erin Perkins
Eve Petrie
Zach Prystash
Daniel Qin
Erin Radermacher
Harrison Ramsey
Zachary Ray
Jordan Reichenbach
Benjamin Reiter
Lucas Rizzolo
Margaret Roberts
Scott Roberts
Lily Rogowski
Marco Savone
Ashley Schiffer
Nicholas Schneider
Justin Schodowski
Darby Scott
Justin Seablom
Sharif Shaker
Drew Sheckell
Nathan Silverman
Maya Srkalovic
Abby Stewart
Grant Stille
Shelby Suseland
Garrett Swanson
Jacob Sypniewski
Nina Szalkiewicz
Jack Tagget
Leah Tardiff
Emily Tenniswood
Cade Thune
Matt Turton
Madison Vallan
Zachary Van Faussien
Travis Veenhuis
Tejas Vettukattil
Vanessa Vigier
Maija Weaver
Megan Williams
Hannah Wolfe
Sophia Woodhams
Austin Yunker
Christian Zeitvogel

Professor, Author to Deliver Weber Lecture

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William Weber Lecture Speaker Joe Soss
Joe Soss, the University of Minnesota’s Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service, will deliver the annual William Weber Lecture in Government and Society at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

A professor and author known for exploring the interplay of democratic politics, societal inequalities and public policy will visit Kalamazoo College on Tuesday. Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service Joe Soss will deliver the annual William Weber Lecture in Government and Society at 8 p.m. in the Olmsted Room at Mandelle Hall.

Soss holds faculty positions in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the political science department and sociology department at the University of Minnesota. His open-to-the-public lecture, “Preying on the Poor: Criminal Justice as Revenue Racket,” shares a title with his current book project.

In the upcoming book, Soss and coauthor Josh Page will argue that police officers, acting as street-level enforcers for a program promoted by city officials in Ferguson, Missouri, used fines and fees to extract resources from poor communities of color and deliver them to municipal coffers.

The authors will further argue that what happened in Ferguson is not an anomaly in U.S. history or of contemporary American governance while offering a political analysis of the origins, operations and consequences of revenue-centered criminal justice practices that have grown in the U.S. since the 1990s.

Soss also co-authored a 2011 book, Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race, with Richard C. Fording and Sanford Schram. That book explained the transformation of poverty governance over 40 years and received the 2012 Michael Harrington Award, the 2012 Oliver Cromwell Cox Award, the 2012 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award and the 2015 Herbert Simon Award.

The Weber Lecture was founded by Bill Weber, a 1939 graduate of Kalamazoo College. Weber also founded the William Weber Chair in Political Science at the College before passing in 2012. Past lecturers in this series have included David Broder, Van Jones and DeRay Mckesson. For more information on Soss and his work, visit his website.

Change Ringing Award Honors K Alumnus, Student

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One Kalamazoo College alumnus and one student have ensured K’s reputation as a home for change ringing will continue by earning a national award named after a former K professor.

Change Ringing Award Recipient Ian McKnight
Ian McKnight ’19 is one of two with Kalamazoo College ties to receive the first Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award.

Ian McKnight ’19 and Sam Ratliff ’21 are among ringers from towers in Kalamazoo; Kent, Connecticut; Shreveport, Louisiana; Northampton, Massachusetts; Marietta, Georgia; and Sewanee, Tennessee, to earn the first Jeff Smith Memorial Young Ringer Award from the North American Guild of Change Ringers. The award recognizes bell-ringing achievement and a commitment to local change ringing communities.

Change Ringing Award Recipient Sam Ratliff
Sam Ratliff is studying mathematics and computer science on study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland, this fall and rings regularly with the band at St. Machar’s Church there.

The award is named after the late Jeff Smith, a longtime and beloved professor at Kalamazoo College. In addition to teaching mathematics, Smith taught hundreds of students to ring changes and inspired the College to install change ringing bells at Stetson Chapel on campus.

Change ringing developed in England and is traditionally heard after royal weddings as well as before and after most English church services. It requires a group of ringers working in tight coordination to ring the bells in changing permutations. Because each tower bell takes more than a second to complete its full 360-degree rotation, the bells can’t ring traditional music or melodies. That constraint led to an intricate system of generating unique permutations known as change ringing.

In addition to strengthening the abilities of the Kalamazoo band of change ringers, McKnight and Ratliff have both rung quarter peals. A quarter peal contains a series of at least 1,250 permutations rung in rapid succession according to rules that ensure no permutations are repeated. A quarter peal takes about 45 minutes of concentration and cooperation among the band of ringers, creating beautiful sounds.

McKnight graduated with a degree in political science in June after earning a senior leadership award. He once wrote about his experience with change ringing in K’s student blog. He now works for State Rep. Darrin Camilleri in Detroit.

“It’s a real honor to receive an award named for Jeff Smith, without whom I would probably never have discovered ringing,” McKnight said. “I first went to the tower after hearing the bells that he brought to Kalamazoo College and was hooked after just one practice. For four years since, ringing has been a great joy and a source for friends on both sides of the Atlantic. I know that will continue to be the case for many years to come.”

Ratliff is studying mathematics and computer science on study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland, this fall and rings regularly with the band at St. Machar’s Church there.

“I heard that ringing was a cooperative musical, physical and mental exercise, all of which interested me, so I dropped into the tower the first week of my first year at K,” Ratliff said. “The algorithmic methods that we use to make music held my attention and I’ve been ringing ever since.”

The Kalamazoo College ringers welcome visitors and would be pleased to show anyone how the bells are rung. The ringers can be contacted at kzooringers@yahoo.com.

Influential Professor Noah Feldman to Deliver K’s Flesche Lecture

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A respected law professor called “one of the stars of his generation” by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, and one of the “most influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire magazine will deliver the Donald C. Flesche Visiting Scholar Lecture at Kalamazoo College.

Noah R. Feldman, the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a senior fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard, will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in the Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Flesche Lecture Speaker Noah Feldman
Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman will deliver the Flesche Lecture at 8 p.m. April 9.

Feldman specializes in constitutional studies with an emphasis on the relationship between law and religion, constitutional design and the history of legal theory. He is also the director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law.

“We have outstanding faculty who provide students with opportunities to think and learn. Experts in these fields are an important complement to that,” Interim Provost Laura Furge said. “This gives our students an opportunity to bring questions to the table, apply what they’re learning and bring it into a conversation.”

Feldman received his bachelor’s degree in near-Eastern languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1992. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his Ph.D. in Oriental studies from Oxford University in 1994. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1997 and served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as a senior constitutional adviser during the drafting of Iraq’s interim constitution in 2003. In 2011, Feldman appeared in all three episodes of Ken Burns’ PBS series Prohibition as a legal commentator, and he is a regular contributor to Bloomberg Opinion. He has written seven books since 2003 including, What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (2004), Divided By God: America’s Church-State Problem—and What We Should Do About It (2005) and The Three Lives of James Madison (2017).

The lecture series is named after Donald Flesche, a professor emeritus of political science and the longtime “Voice of the Hornets” at countless K athletics events. Flesche taught at Kalamazoo College from 1962-1998; in 2001, he was honored with the Weimer K. Hicks Award, recognizing a current or retired employee of the College who has provided support for programs or activities beyond the call of duty. The lectureship endowment was started by Flesche’s former students to honor his inspirational teaching and ensure that the conversations on campus include some of the world’s best scholars.

Events such as the Flesche Lecture and the Weber Lecture, which brought leading Black Lives Matter Voice DeRay Mckesson to campus in October, provide K with “an opportunity to bring in an opinion maker who sees excellence in our academic programs and invite them to be a part of our fellowship of learning,” Furge said.

 

K Student’s Fellowship Targets Cyber Threats

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As global cyber threats target U.S. businesses and the government, organizations such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace respond, and so will Natalie Thompson ’19.

Natalie Thompson's Fellowship Addresses Cyber Threats
Natalie Thompson ’19 will help the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace respond to global cyber threats.

Thompson, a math and political science double major from West Olive, Michigan, is the first Kalamazoo College student to earn a James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship. Each year, Carnegie chooses about a dozen graduating seniors or recent grads from a pool of several hundred nominees to serve as junior fellows. The junior fellows work with Carnegie’s senior scholars for one year in Washington, D.C., to conduct research for books, co-author journal articles and policy papers, participate in meetings with high-level officials, contribute to congressional testimony and organize briefings attended by scholars, journalists and government officials.

An ‘Unparalleled Opportunity’

Beginning Aug. 1, Thompson will work in Carnegie’s Cyber Policy Initiative, run through its Technology and International Affairs Program, to promote technology while reducing or eliminating cyber threats that could harm the country’s financial stability, data and transaction integrity, and communication chains.

Students applying for the fellowship are first nominated by their institution and prepare statements of interest and issue-specific essays for their program of interest. Carnegie selects about three or four students to interview for each position and must demonstrate some knowledge of and passion for their focus topic. Plus, according to its website, Carnegie selects only the top 5 percent of its applicants each year for junior fellowships with students.

“I think it’s an unparalleled opportunity,” said Thompson, who added this is just the second year K has been a nominating institution for the fellowship. “Think tanks and nonprofits in Washington, D.C., like Carnegie often prefer employees with several years of work experience or a master’s degree in their field in research positions like these. I hope to take my undergraduate degree and the great writing and research skills I learned at K and transfer them into policy expertise. It’s difficult to describe how exciting it is for me and I hope it’s exciting for the College.”

Before they graduate from K, students including Thompson complete a senior individualized project (SIP), serving as a capstone to their educations in the liberal arts and sciences. Anne Dueweke, K’s director of grants, fellowships and research, who serves as the College’s nominating official for the fellowship, said Thompson’s SIP, about media technologies and their impact on public deliberation, probably factored into Carnegie’s decision to select her.

“I think her SIP certainly had something to do with it along with other experiences in which she has been able to develop her research skills,” Dueweke said. “But Natalie really stands out in her intellectual curiosity. She is incredibly well read and engaged in the topic of cybersecurity, and on many related topics as well. She is also a very sophisticated thinker and writer. The Gaither Fellowship is a perfect fit for her.”

Global Cyber Threats on the Rise

As an example of the cyber threats she might address as a fellow, Thompson described “deepfakes.” Deepfakes are an artificial intelligence-based technology that produce or alter video or audio to convincingly present something that didn’t occur. Video and audio manipulation techniques are not new, but technological advances have made the manipulations more convincing. Usually this means criminals or hackers fool the public into believing a famous influencer, business executive or politician said something they never did. She could explore what such a tactic means for government intelligence connections, diplomatic relations and state-to-state hacking.

State-to-state hacking concerns also have escalated in recent weeks because of China’s government and how it allegedly spies on U.S. businesses. National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Department officials brought to light some of those issues this month at a cybersecurity conference, as reported through the Washington Post.

As a result, “what policies will we need to consider?” Thompson asked. “Could there be diplomatic, legal or military responses? Right now, we don’t have clear policy standards or regulations for what to do in these situations.”

Thompson said she’s comfortable in Washington, D.C., as she was among K’s first students to study away there through an internship with Whitmer & Worrall, a bipartisan government relations and strategic consulting firm. However, several K faculty and staff members were instrumental in encouraging her to seek the fellowship. Those influencers included Dueweke, Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies Peter Erdi, and Kalamazoo College’s Political Science Department.

“Dr. [Jennifer] Einsphar especially has been a tireless mentor for me during my time at K,” said Thompson of the associate professor of political science. “We’ve had so many conversations. She’s an incredible scholar and I’ve loved her courses. Dr. Erdi has also been a tireless advocate for me. He encouraged me to combine hard science and social science, and helped me think from an interdisciplinary perspective.”

Learn more about the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship through the organization’s website.

Senior Performance Series Runs Through Sunday

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Kalamazoo College students are continuing the tradition of directing and performing in their own thought-provoking theater productions this week through the Festival Playhouse’s Senior Performance Series.

Senior Performance Series
Senior Performance Series shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14-Saturday, Feb. 16, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17.

This year’s Senior Performance Series shows are:

  • The Exception and the Rule, directed by Mitch Herr ’19; and
  • Realm of the Dead, written by Hunter Himelhoch ’19 and directed by Louise Thomas ’19.

The Exception and the Rule is about a merchant who rushes to Sacramento seeking wealth only to encounter self-imposed difficulties. The characters represent different areas of socioeconomic power and demonstrate problems inherent in a capitalist society.

“As a political science and theatre arts double major, getting to stage a play by Bertolt Brecht, one of the most prominent political theatre practitioners, is a huge honor and lesson,” Herr said. “The experimental nature of this play is still unusual in today’s theatre, even though he crafted [the play] in 1930.”

“Realm of the Dead” explores figures from Yiddish folklore, specifically Lilith and the Angel of Death, and their relationships to each other, humanity and a Jewish girl named Rebecca.

“I’ve spent about a year working on it and I’m really glad that it is being produced at K since it has given me the chance to fine-tune the show,” Himelhoch said. “It’s been very interesting to hear the actors’ interpretations of the script because they have greatly influenced this new version. I can’t wait for the audience to see it and I hope that they will enjoy the experience as much as I have.”

The shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14, through Saturday, Feb. 16, with a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, at the Dungeon Theatre. General admission tickets will be available at the door. They’re free for Kalamazoo College students and employees with a College ID and $5 for the public.

For more information, visit http://reason.kzoo.edu/theatre/festival/.

New Study Abroad Programs Will Connect Students, Interests

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Students will learn about social, racial and economic issues in five new study abroad programs coming to Kalamazoo College in the 2019-20 academic year.

Center for International Programs Executive Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft said the new programs will align with K’s values and offer experiences in:

  • Havana, Cuba. From early September through late November, students will live in a historic Afro-Cuban working-class neighborhood. The program will help students

    New Study Abroad Programs
    Kalamazoo College students will have five new study abroad programs to choose from in the 2019-20 academic year including one in Havana, Cuba. Creative Commons-licensed photo of Plaza Vieja by Brian Snelson (exfordy). Photo available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/32659528@N00/495266522/. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.

    understand how the current government and economic systems affect the typical Havana resident.

  • Seoul, South Korea. Students will take courses in English from mid-August to mid-December across disciplines such as computer science, business, economics, East Asian studies and political science, and will have opportunities to learn Korean. The program is ideal for business and economics students who want to experience a large international city. It would also help East Asian studies students, who might have already traveled to China or Japan, develop an understanding of an additional country in Asia.
  • Sao Paulo, Brazil. K students, from early August through early December, will learn in this program about the African roots of Brazilian culture and study the local effects of issues such as poverty and inequality while working with the people affected through local organizations.
  • Cali, Colombia. Offered from July through early December, this program will focus on Afro-Colombian experiences as the city has the second-largest population of people with African descent in South America. Students will study race and ethnicity from an Afro-Columbian perspective.
  • Oaxaca, Mexico. The fall-term experience will be K’s second program in Oaxaca. Students in this program will enroll directly into a local university, live with local families selected by the university’s international student office and take classes with local Oaxacans.

“What students will do in these new programs and who they work with will connect well with who they are,” Wiedenhoeft said. “They will get more agency and choice, yet the programs are structured and tailored to fit into majors and interests at K.”

Most students will participate in the new study abroad programs as juniors. However, Wiedenhoeft added there will be some flexibility in the future to involve sophomores.

“These programs will provide a lens of personal experience very different from what students would receive by learning in a museum, for example,” Wiedenhoeft said, noting alumni will also recognize and appreciate how the programs are structured. “Students will work alongside local organizations and people while maintaining the traditions of study abroad at K.”

These five opportunities will join 45 others in 22 countries accessible to K students. For more information on the CIP or to schedule an appointment to discuss the new study abroad programs or others, call 269.337.7133 or visit the CIP at Dewing Hall.