Senior Integrated Project Archives

A Stone Flower Followed Him Home

Posted on September 28, 2026September 28, 2026

The Stone Flower monument in Croatia — The Stone Flower, also known as Kameni Cvijet, is a concrete memorial monument designed by architect and sculptor Bogdan Bogdanović. Completed in 1966, the monument is located at the site of the former Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia. All photos by Noah Peters ’27.

A chance encounter at a Croatian memorial inspired Noah Peters ’27 to investigate how societies remember, reinterpret and preserve the past.

Peters stopped in the small Croatian village of Jasenovac after a massive stone flower caught his attention. He lifted his camera in a place still scarred by fighting between Croatian forces and a Yugoslav Army/Bosnian Serb paramilitary coalition.

At the time, Peters didn’t understand what the monument commemorated or how much the unplanned stop would change his journey. It was early in a 10-week solo backpacking trip through Europe, immediately after a study abroad experience in Aberdeen, Scotland.

He had few plans beyond seeing new places, taking photographs and eventually returning to Kalamazoo College. But the structure drew him into a history he had never studied—one that stayed with him throughout his travels and reshaped his academic plans.

Called Kameni Cvijet, or The Stone Flower, the monument commemorates victims of Jasenovac, a World War II concentration camp established by the fascist Ustaše regime in what was then the Independent State of Croatia. Serbs, Jews, Roma, political opponents and others were imprisoned and killed there.

After visiting, he began reading about the site and realized, in his words, that it represented “a theatre of the Second World War and of the Holocaust that is not particularly known or paid attention to in the West.”

A self-taught photographer and history and political science double major, Peters already had an interest in Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia. His visit to Jasenovac gave those interests a new focus and pushed him to turn his curiosity into a formal research project.

Peters came to K from Grand Rapids, Michigan, partly because of study abroad and the pre-orientation program LandSea. He was drawn to opportunities for adventure and exploration, but he never expected those interests to become part of his academic work. As he continued through Eastern Europe, visiting concentration camps and memorial sites in Hungary and Poland, he began comparing what the sites commemorated, how they presented their histories and what they asked visitors to understand.

From Backpacking to Research

Peters’ questions soon grew beyond a single monument: Why do Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina tell different stories about World War II? How had the dissolution of Yugoslavia reshaped memories of the conflict? What could the monuments themselves reveal about those changing interpretations?

The resulting Senior Integrated Project (SIP) combined historical research with photojournalism, drawing on both of his majors while allowing him to investigate how political forces continue to shape public memory. As he explored the subject, he discovered it was far bigger than a single project could hold.

“I’ve thought about this project every single day since, and it has been endless refining of a topic and an area of research that a career could be dedicated to,” he said.

Competing Memories

In Yugoslavia, World War II involved Nazi occupation, domestic fascist regimes, competing resistance movements, ethnic conflict and genocide. Peters explained that socialist Yugoslavia developed an account of the conflict that emphasized partisan resistance and liberation after the war.

After Yugoslavia dissolved in the 1990s, governments and communities increasingly commemorated the war through competing national frameworks. Even the death toll at Jasenovac is difficult to establish, in part because records were destroyed or inaccessible and postwar accounts were shaped by political and ethnic conflict.

Peters examined how those differences appeared at the sites themselves, including which monuments were maintained and which were damaged as an inadvertent consequence of war, while others were deliberately vandalized and destroyed. Their condition, he said, can indicate which histories governments and communities choose to recognize.

“You can’t really destroy them, demolish them or take them down because that would be very overt revisionism,” he said. “But you can leave them and allow them to be overgrown without nationally recognizing them anymore.”

Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija — Peters stands near Necropolis for the Victims of Fascism in Novi Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a World War II memorial site on Čamića Brdo hill. Opened in 1975 and designed by architect Bogdan Bogdanović, it commemorates about 700 civilians massacred there by Ustaše forces in August 1941.

The Monument to the Revolution at Mrakovica in Kozara National Park, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a 33-meter tall cylindrical sculpture made of concrete fins and embedded metal plates. It commemorates the Yugoslav Partisans and civilians who fought and died during the 1942 Kozara Offensive in World War II.

Peters stands inside the ruined interior of the abandoned Hotel Igman on Mount Igman in Bosnia and Herzegovina, originally built for the 1984 Winter Olympics.

The Spomen Vlak (Memorial Train) at the Jasenovac memorial, featuring a Yugoslavian Railways class 20 steam locomotive and red freight cars.

Seeing History Through a Camera

Photography gave Peters a way to document and compare those differences. What began as a personal interest became central to examining how monuments communicate through their design, condition and surroundings, even before a visitor reads a plaque or understands the historical context.

“Many Western viewers of these monuments don’t know the context in which they were built,” he said. “Just like I did at one point, they gravitate toward these sites because they look cool. But while they are fascinating, they still represent how easy it is to impose different narratives on historical sites.”

By placing the monuments within a shared visual record, Peters could consider how public memory is preserved, altered or allowed to fade. His photographs invite viewers to ask who built the structures, what they were intended to commemorate and how their meanings have changed.

Bringing the Research Home

Peters presented his work at K’s summer research symposium in August. Surrounded largely by STEM projects, he used his photographs to draw visitors to his poster and introduce them to a history many had not encountered.

The experience reinforced his hope of bringing greater attention to Jasenovac and its contested history, particularly among English-speaking audiences in the United States. Support from the College through the Cook-Lahti Award for Undergraduate Research or Creative Activity provided Peters with the resources to pursue his questions thousands of miles from campus after his initial study abroad experience.

Peters is quick to name the mentors who supported his project. Christina Carroll, associate professor of history, and Jessica Fowle, director of health careers, fellowships, and undergraduate research helped turn his initial curiosity into a research agenda, encouraging him to pursue the topic more deeply and seek the funding that made his return trip to Europe possible.

“Dr. Carroll has been this consistent, driving force for me. She has pushed me to make the most of my time here at K and on this topic,” he said. “Jessica helped me apply for the grant, refine my research proposal and get a clear idea of what I wanted to do, both for myself and to present to the grant committee.”

It became the kind of opportunity he hopes other K humanities students will seek out.

“Be ambitious with what you want to research,” he said. “Be ambitious with how far you want those grants to take you, and where those funds can take you. The grounds for creating opportunities for yourself are here for anyone. It’s not easy, but all it takes is persistent work.”

Looking Beyond the Monument

Peters now plans to pursue graduate study and continue investigating public memory in the former Yugoslavia, particularly at Jasenovac. Photojournalism also remains a possibility.

The Stone Flower first taught Peters to look beyond a monument’s appearance. His research has since taught him to examine what public memorials preserve, what they leave unspoken and who has the power to shape their meaning.

The Stone Flower Monument — A close-up of The Stone Flower with an upward view through the petals. The monument is near Lonjsko Polje Nature Park, a large wetlands preserve that causes many white storks (one is visible) to nest near the monument.

Peters stands outside the Monument to the Revolution at Mrakovica. — Peters stands near the Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija, which is located on the Petrova Gora mountain range in Croatia. The abstract structure is a prominent example of Yugoslav World War II memorial architecture called Spomenik, which means monument in Serbo-Croat. The monument was vandalized, with many of its steel panels being stolen, during Operation Storm in the War of Croatian Independence in 1995.

A Job Where the Wild Things Are

Posted on June 13, 2026June 13, 2026

Bison in the wild crossing the road at Yellowstone Park — Bison crossing the road in the wild at Yellowstone Park.

When Nat Ward ’26 begins their full-time job as an avian field biologist with HWA Wildlife Consulting next week in Laramie, Wyoming, they will launch a career shaped by four years of study, fieldwork and discovery at Kalamazoo College.

The biology major will help monitor raptors and other wildlife around wind-energy facilities across Wyoming and neighboring states, helping ensure that birds such as eagles can safely navigate areas with wind turbines. They will record bird activity, identify species through visual and audio observations, document wildlife interactions and help reduce bird fatalities.

Ward is eager to begin the position, which draws directly on the skills they developed through their K education, including ecological field methods, species identification, environmental data collection and conservation research.

“I built personal relationships with professors that helped me understand how they got to where they are,” Ward said. “I used that to inform my decisions and directions. That, along with the classes I’ve taken and everything I’ve learned, has prepared me for the future. When I graduate, I’ll be set.”

Ward plans to walk at Commencement at 10 a.m. Sunday, but their K story began with a simple campus visit alongside a cousin. A student guide extolled the benefits of study abroad, small class sizes and the overall community, and Ward realized they had found the right college.

“I knew from high school on that I really wanted to go to K thanks to that visit, so much so that I only applied to about three schools,” they said. “I knew that if I got in, I’d immediately be coming here.”

When they arrived, Ward initially planned to pursue veterinary medicine. That changed after taking Ecology and Conservation with Professor of Biology Binney Girdler, a course that introduced them to environmental science and wildlife management. The experience allowed Ward to imagine a future working with animals while addressing broader environmental challenges.

“I because interested in wildlife management immediately when I saw all of the experiences that Dr. Girdler had throughout her career, as well as the different career paths I could follow with a biology degree,” Ward said. “I could see her passion come through in her teaching. As I’ve taken more classes with her, I’ve developed a more personal relationship with her, and that’s a nice thing about K: the professors know you by name and you know them by name.”

That sense of direction expanded during Ward’s junior-year study abroad experience in Thailand, where they explored environmental systems, sustainability and culture through an immersive, field-based program.

In Chiang Mai, Ward studied the region’s history, government and environmental issues. After traveling north, they worked with indigenous communities to learn about sustainable farming practices, including integrated pest-management techniques that rely on natural ecological relationships rather than chemical pesticides.

Ward also hiked between villages through forested regions while conducting plant transects, identifying species and examining how land-management practices affect biodiversity. After heading south, they kayaked between islands along traditional Indigenous routes and snorkeled in coastal waters, identifying species while studying ocean ecology.

Their most memorable experience, however, came during a six-week internship focused on animal monitoring.

“I worked at an elephant camp and sanctuary, where we would take the elephants down from the jungle every day and make sure they were cared for, fed and bathed,” Ward said. “I miss it dearly.”

Back in the United States, Ward continued building their skills through their Senior Integrated Project (SIP), which took them to West Yellowstone, Montana. There they worked with Buffalo Field Campaign, a nonprofit dedicated to ending the harassment and killing of Yellowstone bison.

The project focused on brucellosis, a disease affecting bison populations in the Yellowstone ecosystem, and examined its role in ongoing policy discussions surrounding the nation’s last continuously wild bison population. Through the work, Ward explored the intersection of wildlife biology, public policy and conservation management.

Ward’s research also highlighted contemporary challenges facing the species. Because Montana classifies bison as livestock rather than wildlife, animals that move beyond Yellowstone National Park boundaries can be captured or killed despite their ecological and cultural significance.

“With that, I know there is legislation on the federal level that can further affect where bison are and are not allowed to roam,” Ward said. “On the opposite side, elk and other ungulates are allowed to roam freely with no kind of legislation in place in that area, so it’s hypocritical.”

The experience provided Ward with firsthand insight into the scientific, political and social dimensions of conservation work. Just as importantly, it introduced them to the landscapes of the American West, where they now hope to build a career.

“The mountains are gorgeous, and there’s just a vast amount of nature,” Ward said. “You’re able to walk around and see elk, moose, bears, owls and more.”

As Ward heads west again, they carry with them the experiences, mentorship and global perspective that transformed a prospective pre-veterinary student into a wildlife professional ready to help protect species and ecosystems across the region. And it all started with a campus visit four years ago.

“Environmentalism appeals to me because I see how much it impacts our daily lives,” Ward said. “I know how the ecosystem works and how we fit into it. With climate change and other environmental issues prevalent, I can see how I could make a change in the field, and that’s really appealing.”

Nat Ward caring for an elephant — Nat Ward ’26 cared for elephants through an internship in Thailand.

Nat Ward goes for a wild ride on an elephant in Thailand.

Bison on the road in the wild at Yellowstone Park — A bison crosses the road in the wild at Yellowstone Park.

Soccer Study: Team Dynamics Matter More Than Individual Talent

Posted on April 22, 2026April 22, 2026

Miyani Sonera driving downfield during a Kalamazoo College women's soccer game — For Miyani Sonera ’27, a biology project about soccer was as much about learning the research process as it was about the result. “Getting to design a study, analyze data and see it published, that was incredible,” she said. “It showed me how much there is to explore when you ask the right questions.”

In soccer, chemistry might outweigh star power.

A new study from Kalamazoo College, published in Football Studies, found that a soccer player’s individual ability accounts for only about 11% of performance variation in small-sided games. Their combination with teammates? Roughly double that.

In the study, Associate Professor Santiago Salinas, soccer alumnus Shun Yonehara ’24 and student-athlete Miyani Sonera ’27 ran 78 small-sided matches—three-on-three, men and women, rotating teammates through ever-changing combinations. Because each athlete played with many different teammates, the researchers were able to separate the influence of individual ability from the impact of specific teammate combinations.

The research drew inspiration from an unlikely source in quantitative genetics. “In biology, we often separate the effects of genes and environment to understand why organisms differ,” Salinas said. “We realized we could apply the same idea to soccer. Players are like genotypes, teammates are the environment, and performance is the resulting phenotype.”

What they found surprised even the researchers. Individual player effects accounted for only about 11% to 12% of the variation in performance, while teammate combinations explained 20% to 23%. The rest, nearly two-thirds, remained unpredictable, likely influenced by opponent dynamics, moment-to-moment decisions, and the inherent randomness of low-scoring games.

“When you actually see the numbers, it’s eye-opening,” Yonehara said. “I expected teamwork to matter, but I didn’t expect individual impact to be that small.”

For Yonehara, the research question was personal. A biology major who played soccer throughout his life, he had long felt that games are won in moments that often miss the highlight reels.

“People talk about great teams like they’re just a collection of great individuals,” he said. “But from playing, you know that without cohesion, without players doing the unseen work, the whole thing falls apart.”

The study also compared match performance with traditional skill assessments including passing accuracy, dribbling speed, shooting precision and ball control. Those measures, commonly used in evaluations and tryouts, did not strongly predict how much a player helped their team in games.

“That was a big takeaway for me,” Sonera said. “Being great in isolated drills doesn’t necessarily translate to being effective in real gameplay.”

Sonera, who has loved soccer since childhood, was drawn to the project because it merged science with a sport built on collaboration.

“Soccer demands understanding your teammates,” she said. “That’s part of what makes it beautiful. This research puts numbers behind that idea.”

Shun Yonehara during a rainy Kalamazoo College men's soccer game — Shun Yonehara ’24 currently works as a research assistant for Momoko Yoshimoto, an associate professor at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker, M.D., School of Medicine.

Santiago Salinas, one of five endowed chairs, kneels in a river — Associate Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas traditionally teaches classes such as vertebrate biology and human physiology. His research interests include his work in the K Fish Lab, where he and his student collaborators study the ways fish populations cope with changes in the environment.

In the men’s dataset, the researchers observed that teams made up of complementary roles such as a scorer, a facilitator and a defensive-minded player tended to outperform teams of similar player types. Although that pattern did not appear in the women’s data, Salinas cautioned that the difference might reflect sample size rather than a fundamental distinction.

Together, the results challenge conventional approaches to scouting and performance analysis, which often rely on individual statistics or fixed lineups.

“Our findings suggest that some players make everyone around them better,” Salinas said. “But that kind of impact is hard to see unless players are tested in multiple contexts.”

Sonera hopes coaches take that message seriously.

“I’d like to see coaches think beyond who looks best on their own,” she said. “Building balanced lineups and focusing on how players connect could make a huge difference.”

Yonehara echoed that idea, comparing team building to constructing a well-balanced system rather than collecting stars.

“It’s like building chemistry in a video game or a trading card deck,” he said. “It’s not just about rating, it’s about fit.”

Although the study focused on soccer, the researchers believe the approach could apply broadly across team sports, particularly those that are fluid and fast paced, such as basketball or hockey.

For the research team, the findings support a long-held belief in team sports that what matters is not just who the players are, but how they work together.

Water Policy Speaker, SIPs Highlight Earth Day at K

Posted on April 20, 2026April 20, 2026

A Michigan Environmental Council representative who wants to keep the state’s water clean, filled with wildlife, and available to all Michiganders will speak at Kalamazoo College on Earth Day.

Reese Dillard, the council’s water policy coordinator, will deliver a keynote titled Relationship Building: A Means to Energize a Political Movement at the 2026 Senior Integrated Project (SIP) Sustainability Symposium. Her talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, 205 Monroe St. Senior presentations will follow at 7:30 p.m.

Dillard argues that political engagement can be challenging, but affecting change for the sake of the environment is possible through building relationships and making connections. By doing so, Michigan can grow a community of individuals committed to policy that prioritizes environmental success and collaborative government.

Before joining the environmental council, Dillard worked for Michigan House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski and as a field service technician for a botanical garden and arboretum. She holds a degree in political science from the University of Michigan and has taken coursework in criminal justice and corrections at Siena Heights University.

SIPs at K are capstone experiences, a lot like a senior thesis. A total of 17 seniors will present their work tied to sustainability including Luke Werner ’26, who looked at history to examine how we can protect the modern-day Great Lakes; and Hailey Yoder ’26, who worked toward coral reef restoration in the Galápagos Islands.

Together, the students’ projects and Dillard’s keynote reflect a shared goal of turning knowledge into action. The free public event is sponsored by the Larry J. Bell ’80 Environmental Stewardship Center and K’s environmental studies concentration.

Portrait of Earth Day speaker Reese Dillard — Reese Dillard, the Michigan Environmental Council’s water policy coordinator, will speak on Earth Day—Wednesday, April 22—at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

This Student Looked to the Past to Help Protect the Great Lakes Today

Posted on April 14, 2026April 14, 2026

Student in a hat and jacket holding a fish he caught — Luke Werner ’26 holds a pike.

On summer mornings along the shores of the Great Lakes, Kalamazoo College student Luke Werner ’26 recognizes the rhythm of the water as something almost instinctive, shaped by years of fishing trips, charter boats and stories of salmon runs. And what began as a personal connection to Michigan’s waters became something far more ambitious: a deep historical investigation into how those waters were nearly lost and what their past can teach us about protecting them today.

Werner spent the past year immersed in archives, government reports and decades-old ecological data to complete his Senior Integrated Project (SIP). Unlike many sustainability-focused projects rooted in biology or environmental science, Werner’s work emerged from the history department—an intentional choice that underscores a central argument of his research: understanding environmental crises requires an understanding of the past.

His project traces the rise, collapse and partial recovery of fish populations in the Great Lakes, revealing how human decisions over centuries, rather than a single ecological disruption, set the stage for disaster.

“I wanted to go back and really look at the history of the region,” Werner said. “We tend to latch onto big moments, including the invasions and the tipping points. But the more I learned, the more I realized those were just the final dominoes.”

A Crisis Centuries in the Making

Long before invasive species such as sea lampreys and alewives devastated the lakes in the mid-20th century, the ecosystem had already been strained by human impact. Werner points to a gradual shift away from the reciprocal relationship Indigenous communities such as the Anishinaabe had with the land.

“The crisis wasn’t just caused by these fish showing up,” he said. “It was enabled by hundreds of years of decisions, including overfishing, damming rivers and pollution. We refused to cooperate with the lakes.”

By the time invasive species entered through shipping routes and canals, native fish populations were already vulnerable. The result was catastrophic as sea lampreys decimated large fish, while alewife numbers escalated.

“It genuinely became an international crisis,” Werner said. “You had industries collapsing, thousands of jobs lost, and entire ecosystems out of balance.”

The Man Behind the Salmon

In the 1950s, Howard Tanner, a fisheries biologist, was at the center of the most pivotal response to that crisis, as his bold proposal helped reshape the Great Lakes.

Student holding up a fish he caught near the Great Lakes — Werner holds a large mouth bass.

Sustainability SIP Symposium Scheduled

Kalamazoo College will celebrate Environmental Education Week April 20-24. Events will include the annual Sustainability SIP Symposium on April 22, which is Earth Day, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership. The event will honor more than a dozen students from a variety of majors who pursued themes of climate change, the environment, and sustainability in their research and projects. For more information, watch envirostewardship.kzoo.edu.

Tanner, who had experience studying salmon in the Western United States, proposed introducing Pacific salmon, specifically coho and Chinook, into the Great Lakes as a biological control for alewives.

“He knew salmon were strong, cold-water fish that could survive in the lakes,” Werner said. “And more importantly, they prey on alewives.”

At the time, the idea was far from an assured solution. Introducing another non-native species carried risks, especially in an already unstable ecosystem. But Tanner framed it as a calculated, science-driven intervention.

“It was a gamble, but it was an intentional one,” Werner said. “That’s the difference. These fish were chosen.”

Within a year of Tanner’s proposal, hundreds of thousands of salmon were released into the lakes. The alewife populations plummeted, and a new recreational fishing economy took shape.

“Tanner’s work didn’t just help stabilize the ecosystem,” Werner said. “It created this entire multi-billion-dollar recreational industry that still exists today.”

A Solution That Requires Constant Attention

Werner is careful not to describe the salmon introduction as a clean victory.

“It’s more like it was managed into something sustainable and only with constant effort,” he said.

Today, fish populations in the Great Lakes are still carefully balanced through a combination of stocking decisions, invasive species control and strict regulations. Too many salmon can deplete alewife populations, which in turn harms the salmon themselves. Too few salmon allow alewives to rebound.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Werner said. “They actually have to adjust how many salmon they introduce each year to keep everything in balance.”

That balancing act extends beyond species management. Werner points to modern environmental protections such as limits on commercial fishing, pollution controls and habitat preservation as direct responses to past failures.

At one point, Michigan alone had more than 10,000 commercial fishing licenses. Today, that number has dropped to just a few dozen.

“That’s one of the biggest changes,” he said. “We’ve shifted from this mindset of extraction to something much more intentional.”

Why History Matters

For Werner, the most important takeaway from his project isn’t just what happened, but how we understand it.

“It’s really critical to analyze and reflect on our past,” he said. “We repeat the same mistakes all the time if we don’t.”

By placing environmental issues in a historical context, his work reveals the complexity behind them, showing that crises are rarely sudden and solutions are rarely simple.

“Being a history major, it’s impossible for me to take things at face value,” Werner said. “There are always layers—economic, social, political—that shape what happens.”

That perspective, he argues, is essential for anyone working in sustainability.

“I wanted to move beyond the big headlines, the big titles, and the simple understanding of history and look at the myriad causes of these issues from the late 1600s through the 1950s,” he said. “Realistically, there were hundreds of different factors that led to this crisis.”

Looking Ahead

As Werner considers a future in environmental work—whether with state agencies, conservation groups or fisheries management—his SIP serves as a capstone and a starting point. What began as a personal connection to the Great Lakes has evolved into a deeper understanding of how fragile yet resilient those systems can be.

“It’s changed how I see the lakes,” he said. “It’s not just about what’s in them, it’s about our relationship with them.”

As his research clarifies, that relationship—shaped over centuries—will determine how the Great Lakes are sustained for generations to come.

“If we could get some agreements between governments—even if it’s just state and provincial governments—I think that would be a big boon for the environmental and economic success of the region,” he said.

Kindness Empowers Education: Pass it on

Posted on April 7, 2026April 7, 2026

Two women in front of a sign that says Othakarhaka Foundation, Passing on the Kindness — Meghan London ’26 stands with Ida Puliwa Mwango, the founder of the Othakarhaka Foundation, outside the organization’s headquarters in Malawi.

The first time Meghan London ’26 set foot in Malawi, Africa, she didn’t yet know she would one day build her Senior Integrated Project (SIP) around a nonprofit organization there. But standing in the heat with her family in 2023, watching women pause their work in the fields to greet visitors they were just meeting, she began to understand something she would carry back with her to Kalamazoo College: generosity can thrive even where resources don’t.

That realization now sits at the heart of London’s work. A double major in anthropology and political science, she has spent the past year documenting the efforts of the Othakarhaka Foundation, a group that helps girls overcome barriers to education. Her project, housed in critical ethnic studies, draws on interviews, field research, and personal experience to tell the stories of young women whose lives have been reshaped by their access to education.

Secondary school requires fees in Malawi, and in many families, boys are prioritized when resources are limited. Additionally, London quickly learned that the barriers facing girls extend beyond tuition costs.

“Girls may be expected to take care of relatives or spend hours helping their families by collecting firewood,” London said. “Othakarhaka looks at all of those factors.”

That holistic approach became a central theme of her research. The organization, for example, plants trees closer to villages so that girls don’t have to travel long distances for firewood. It operates a health clinic, so illness doesn’t derail education. It provides meals, bicycles, and even a library, implementing small interventions that collectively enhance attendance.

In July 2025, with support from the Center for International Programs, London returned to Malawi for two weeks to conduct her fieldwork. She interviewed about a dozen young women, most between the ages of 18 and 25, all of whom had been connected to Othakarhaka. Their stories, she said, were varied but shared common threads.

“Some were still in school, some were teen mothers, and many had faced financial barriers,” London said. “But all of them talked about how much the organization helped them continue their education and improve their lives.”

In Malawi, pregnancy often ends a girl’s formal education. Schools don’t allow pregnant students to attend, and returning after childbirth is rare. Othakarhaka works to change that, advocating for young mothers and helping them reenter school when possible. For London, those interviews were among the most meaningful parts of her project.

“They were so determined,” she said. “Some wanted to start businesses, some wanted to go into trades like welding, and one wanted to go to law school. Many of them said they wanted to give back by passing on the kindness once they were able to.”

That phrase “passing on the kindness” is a model for how the Othakarhaka Foundation operates, and it’s embedded into what they aim to do. Program volunteers are encouraged to support others when they can. That creates a cycle of community investment that London found both practical and inspiring.

“It’s not just about receiving help,” she said. “It’s about becoming someone who can help others.”

Woman standing next to a table filled with supplies — London inside the Othakarhaka Foundation headquarters while she was in Malawi for her SIP.

Two women planting a tree — London plants a tree at the headquarters with the help of volunteers. The trees create environmental sustainability and represent the volunteers’ kindness.

About the Othakarhaka Foundation

The Othakarhaka Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Mulanje, Malawi, dedicated to increasing educational access for girls through a holistic approach that addresses financial, social and logistical barriers. Programs include school-fee sponsorship, a health clinic, a library, a sewing school, tree-planting initiatives, and girls’ empowerment camps. The organization is supported by thousands of volunteers and donors worldwide. Learn more at the Othakarhaka Foundation website or donate to the organization online.

While in Malawi, London also observed a girls’ empowerment camp hosted by the organization. Dozens of participants gathered to learn arts, music and dance, culminating in a community performance.

“The goal is for girls to feel like they can accomplish things, that their education matters, and that people care about them,” London said.

Her work has been guided by Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas. But London is also quick to credit those on the ground in Malawi, particularly the organization’s founders—Ida Puliwa Mwango and Ted Mt Mwango—for making the experience possible.

“They were incredibly generous with their time and support,” she said. “They invited me to stay at their house for a week, and they drove me to and from the organization. My project wouldn’t exist without them. They’re inspiring people, especially Ida. She is determined to change the world. I hope I can be a lot like her because she’s doing something meaningful.”

That perspective is already shaping London’s future. After graduation, she hopes to work in sustainable development, ideally with organizations that take the kind of long-term, community-centered approach she observed in Malawi.

“I want to create positive change,” she said. “And I think this kind of work, building systems that actually last, is important.”

For now, her project stands as an academic achievement and a personal turning point with a story of connection that began with a family trip and grew into a deeper commitment to global equity. At its core is a simple idea, carried across continents and communities alike: that kindness, when passed on, can multiply.

“This shows how valuable education is and how it can really change someone’s life,” London said. “A quality that I really took away from the organization and the work it does is that it encourages those it helps to ‘pass on the kindness’ once they are able to, helping others the way they were helped through volunteering, donations, and other forms of support. My SIP shows that the work Othakarhaka does has been incredibly meaningful for many different individuals.”

Student Chronicles Dad’s Bosnian War Survival

Posted on March 12, 2026April 2, 2026

Emma Kovacevic ’26 finds that not many of her Kalamazoo College peers are familiar with the story of the Bosnian War, although she knows it well. The conflict, prompted by the fracturing of the former Yugoslavia, lasted from 1992–95. About 100,000 people were killed, and more than 2 million people were displaced in the fighting. It was the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. And Emma’s Bosnian father, Ruzmir Kovacevic—the subject of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP)—suffered as a prisoner of the Serbians during the hostilities.

“I would describe my dad as my hero,” Emma said. “He has gone through so many things in his life. I don’t know of anyone that’s gone through so much, and he’s still cracking jokes about random things all the time. I haven’t seen that kind of resilience in anyone else, so it’s inspiring and I’m grateful to have him in my life. He’s the bravest person I know and my biggest role model.”

Ruzmir grew up in the small town of Doboj in Bosnia. His mother was an elementary school teacher, and his father worked as a salesperson at a local store. His childhood was centered on family, school and a tight-knit community where everyone knew each other. He was an outgoing and natural leader, his daughter said, the kind of person who was always surrounded by family and friends.

Bosnian War survivor with family — Emma Kovacevic ’26 (second from right) with her family, including her dad, Ruzmir.

Neighbor vs. Neighbor

After high school, Ruzmir attended the University of Sarajevo, where he studied sports medicine. Like many young men in the former Yugoslavia, he also completed mandatory service in the Yugoslav army. His leadership ability stood out so much that military leaders asked him to stay beyond his required service as he ascended to the rank of first lieutenant.

A few years later, the country began splitting apart. When fighting broke out, Bosnia descended into violence and ethnic conflict. In towns like Doboj, neighbors suddenly found themselves on opposite sides of a brutal war.

“It was really interesting to hear about it because during the war, he was fighting against these people who taught him how to fight, how to clean his rifles and how to figure out the best ways to go about a war,” Emma said. “From what he told me, he had a lot of trouble going through that. He was fighting against some people that he knew in his hometown because it was all Yugoslavia.”

There was no official Bosnian army, so Ruzmir and the men of his community formed what they called the Patriotic League. They counted their rifles, took inventory of their weapons, made a plan and held their line as long as they could.

University of Sarajevo student ID belonging to Bosnian War survivor — Ruzmir’s student ID from the University of Sarajevo shortly before the Bosnian War.

Brutality from Former Friends

Ruzmir was captured by Serbians after being wounded by a grenade that badly damaged his right leg. The Serbians wrapped the wound in a cast and refused to let surgeons remove the shrapnel. He was taken to a concentration camp where Bosnian prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment. Emma said he played sports growing up with some of the Serbians, who ended up beating him and denying him food for long periods of time.

At one point, a twist of fate briefly freed Ruzmir. A relative of his girlfriend, who held a high-ranking position in the Serbian military, arrived at the camp and escorted him out under the pretense of questioning. For a few days, Ruzmir stayed with family members who were packed into a tiny studio apartment. Fifteen people shared the cramped space, but he described it as heavenly, Emma said.

The freedom didn’t last. Serbian officers soon discovered he was missing and recaptured him, sending him back to the camp for an additional two and a half months. In all, Ruzmir spent about nine months in captivity. By then, many prisoners had died or disappeared. When Ruzmir first arrived, more than 50 men were held in the camp. By the end of his imprisonment, only about a dozen remained.

The prisoners were rescued almost by accident. After hearing reports that Bosnians were being held in the old prison facility, the German Red Cross scheduled an inspection. To hide the evidence, guards forced the remaining prisoners into a conference room and cleaned the cells. The prisoners heard the inspection happening and began screaming for help.

After recording their names, the Red Cross inspectors warned Serbian authorities they would return in two weeks. If conditions had not improved, the prisoners would be taken out of the country as refugees. Two weeks later, the Red Cross inspectors kept their promise.

Bosnian War memorial images — This gallery is a permanent memorial dedicated to the Srebrenica genocide that occurred on July 11, 1995, during the Bosnian War. Gallery 11/07/95 aims to educate visitors and preserve the memory of the genocide through photography and personal artifacts.

Free at Last

Ruzmir boarded a bus to Germany and spent a few years there with his younger brother and father. He later arrived alone in Grand Rapids, where a significant Bosnian refugee community had already taken root. Ruzmir had been a year and a half away from finishing his sports medicine degree at the University of Sarajevo when the war interrupted his education. The credits didn’t transfer to the U.S., but he became a massage therapist. Emma said he loves his career and wouldn’t trade it for anything, though. He also helps resettle other refugees arriving in Michigan from all over the world.

Ruzmir’s father survived the war but died in 2001 when he had a heart attack and stroke simultaneously caused by PTSD. However, he met a Bosnian woman, Amra, who had also fled. They had two daughters, including Emma. He built a life with his family.

“I’ve had a really supportive family, and as my parents are two immigrants, they have always wanted the best for my sister and me,” Emma said. “They’ve always wanted for us to have the education that they didn’t really have access to. They made a lot of sacrifices to support my sister and I in growing up to have access to the things that were taken away from them. I chose K because I just love it. I love what it stands for, the liberal arts education and the relationships I can have with my professors.”

55 Minutes

Emma and her father had talked for years about writing a book together. It was a “someday project”—something to tackle after a master’s degree or maybe a Ph.D. There was time.

But in 2023, Ruzmir went into cardiac arrest. He was technically dead for 55 minutes.

“I saw the strongest person I know die for that long,” Emma said.

He recovered. The nurses called him their Christmas miracle despite 13 broken ribs from the CPR, so Emma started thinking about the book differently, and yet was still hesitant. It was big material. Heavy material.

Then, three days before the spring term of her junior year, her father went into cardiac arrest again. She realized she needed to make her dad the subject of her SIP.

“I thought, ‘OK. It’s time. I can’t wait any longer,’” Emma said.

He has since turned 56 and the SIP is finished.

“He has a pacemaker and defibrillator,” Emma said. “They’ve saved him twice now, so I’m just grateful that I’ve been able to do this with him and talk to him about it, even though I could see how hard it was for him. He continuously says that he is so grateful for this opportunity. I hoped that I’d be able to do it later in my life, post-K, but with the inclusion of the SIP in the K-Plan, I’m just grateful that it gave me that push to start sooner.”

Her advisor, Professor of English Marin Heinritz ’99, has guided her through the entire process. Emma first took Introduction to Journalism with Heinritz in her sophomore year, and the two have been close since.

“I know that’s not true at other universities,” Emma said. “My sister goes to Michigan State, and her professors just don’t connect with her as an individual.”

The view of Sarajevo looking down from Trebević Mountain.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Emma said Ruzmir wanted the story to be told because the Bosnian War is not something that gets taught much in the U.S., because it happened recently enough that people are still grappling with it, and because it happened distantly enough that many Americans don’t know it happened at all.

She knows he’s proud of her. He has been sending the PDF of her SIP to his friends and massage therapy clients. One of them printed it out and put it in a folder to share with others.

Emma has been accepted to a master’s program in teaching at the University of Michigan. She wants to be a high school English teacher. She also wants to keep writing, and eventually, when her father is ready, to turn the SIP into the book they always planned.

“He just needs a little break first,” she said. “I would hope that it will help people understand that even if they think their life is over with any horrible thing that happens, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”

A pedestrian area in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Sarajevo, near the Gallery 11/07/95 memorial site.

Baščaršija bazaar and Sebilj fountain in Sarajevo.

Student’s Book Reviews Show Human Costs of Court Rulings

Posted on March 12, 2026

While some pre-law students focus on statutes and precedents, Ella Miller ’26 has spent her senior year exploring the emotional truths and human lives that exist in the gaps between court rulings.

As an English major at Kalamazoo College, Miller’s Senior Integrated Project (SIP) began as an ambitious challenge to bridge the plain reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court with the realities of immigrant experiences. Her Race, Law and Politics class, along with her Advanced Nonfiction course, inspired her to pair four major Supreme Court cases on immigration with four books written by authors deeply connected to the decisions’ impacts. Through the combination of case briefs and literary analysis, Miller examined how legal reasoning resonates beyond the courtroom.

“It was stylistically interesting to insert a Supreme Court opinion while also providing facts, and the organization intrigued me,” she said. “I thought it would be interesting to write reviews about books that were influenced by these major Supreme Court decisions, some of which I was learning about in class.”

Connecting Law and Literature

Miller organized her SIP around four immigration-related groups and eras: Chinese immigrants during the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese Americans during World War II, Latin American immigrants affected by contemporary policies, and refugees impacted by the 2018 Trump v. Hawaii ruling.

She selected landmark cases associated with each topic, then sought books across genres that offered lived perspectives on the decisions’ consequences. Her final author list included:

John Okada, No-No Boy, paired with Korematsu v. United States.
Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America, tied to the era of Chinese exclusion.
Sandra Uwiringiyimana and Abigail Pesta, How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child, connected to modern refugee issues.
Areli Morales, Areli Is a Dreamer, linked to DHS v. Regents of the University of California, related to the recent Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) case.

By examining fiction, nonfiction, a memoir, and even a children’s book, Miller highlighted the diverse ways personal stories illuminate historical and legal realities.

“What makes them all special is the different ways a story can be told,” she said. “A historical nonfiction book offers documented evidence, while a novel can convey emotional truths through fictional characters. And the children’s book, which was my favorite, brings hope and understanding.”

Bringing Clarity to Complex Cases

Drawing on skills from her constitutional law coursework, Miller began each book review with a one-page case brief, which is a concise summary designed to make a legal case accessible to any reader.

“Case briefs can be eight pages long, so I wanted to take the most prominent parts and briefly summarize them with background, the main issue, and the court’s ultimate decision,” she said. “I talk about the author, how we can see some of the big issues in society reflected in how the decision was reached, and how that decision was then felt by the people impacted by the decision.”

Ella MIller in Salamanca, Spain, before studying court rulings — Ella MIller ’26 stands in the historic inner courtyard of the Colegio Arzobispo Fonseca in Salamanca, Spain, during her study abroad experience.

Miller with a group in León, Spain, before studying court rulings — Miller with a group at the joined cathedrals of Salamanca in Castile and León, Spain.

With that foundation in place, she used each book to explore how the court’s rulings were experienced by real people. For Miller, the contrasts revealed what legal texts alone seldom show.

“I think each of these books is valuable, and you can take away a lot on your own,” she said. “But having a real understanding of how the court was reasoning through these decisions adds another layer to how people are affected. In Korematsu v. the United States, for example, the decision allowed for Japanese internment to be held constitutional for domestic safety. But when you read No-No Boy, you can see that Japanese Americans on the West Coast were not a threat in any way.”

Ichiro, the protagonist of No-No Boy, returns home from years in an internment camp and has to come to terms with his dual heritage and how to build a future in the country that imprisoned him.

A Project That Shaped a Future Career

Although the SIP more than satisfied academic requirements, it also reshaped Miller’s confidence and confirmed her path toward law school.

“K is great with giving you lots of creative control in your work, and I’ve never felt stifled,” she said. “But to be given a blank slate where I could choose the topic and my sources while exploring what’s interesting to me gave me a lot of confidence as a writer. It made me feel more prepared for the next steps in my life because I plan to go to law school, and writing is super important. I need to think argumentatively and critically, so I feel my SIP was valuable in giving me the confidence to know that I can produce something like this.”

Faculty mentors played a key role. Miller credits Associate Professor of English Shanna Salinas for ongoing guidance, Associate Professor of Political Science Justin Berry for deepening her interest in law, and Professor of English Amelia Katanski ’92, her advisor, for helping her explore connections between law and literature.

Outside the classroom, Miller holds leadership roles in K’s student organizations related to law. She’s the president of the Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity chapter and the secretary for the Aspiring Law Students Organization. She said the experiences strengthened her sense of purpose.

Next Steps: Spain, Service and Law School

After graduating this spring, Miller hopes to spend a year teaching English in Spain through a Fulbright grant. If she’s not selected, she will teach through the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP), which is also based in Spain. She studied abroad in Madrid and hopes to return to deepen her language skills and global perspective.

“International relationships are really relevant to law,” she said. “The experience would help shape the kind of legal career I want.”

Law school applications will follow next year. But if there’s one lesson Miller hopes readers take from her SIP, it’s that Supreme Court decisions are not abstract.

“The law impacts people in enormous ways,” she said. “If you’re not directly affected, it can be hard to understand that. Literature gives us a way to see what those impacts look like in real life.”

36 Jars, 45 Poems and 4,800 Miles for Mom

Posted on March 10, 2026March 10, 2026

Monica Berlin holds baby Eliza Karlin - 45 poems — Eliza Karlin ’26 and her mother, the poet Monica Berlin. Berlin was the Richard P. and Sophia D. Henke Distinguished Professor of English at Knox College. Her poems and essays were published in several journals over the years including *Bennington Review*, *The Cincinnati Review*, *Colorado Review* and *Midwestern Gothic*.

Monica Berlin and Eliza Karlin - 45 poems — Berlin authored two chapbooks—*“Your Small Towns of Adult Sorrow and Melancholy”* and “*Maybe to Region”*—along with two volumes of poetry in addition to “No Shape Bends the River So Long”: “*Elsewhere, That Small”* (2020) and *“Nostalgia for a World Where We Can Live”* (2018), which won the Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize.

On an August morning last year, Kalamazoo College student Eliza Karlin ’26 pulled onto the highway outside Galesburg, Illinois, driving a silver Mini Cooper—just like the one her mom once had—and began a 4,800-mile journey along the Mississippi River.

For her mom, poet Monica Berlin, the same trip over a decade earlier—routed spontaneously with paper maps—provided inspiration and collaboration with her longtime colleague Beth Marzoni. Together, they coauthored Berlin’s first book, a volume of poetry titled No Shape Bends the River So Long, which won the 2013 New Measure Poetry Prize.

No Shape followed Berlin’s 2013 journey in a collaborative “we,” a voice that felt expansive and fluid, Karlin said. She would travel the same route carrying something heavier: Berlin died unexpectedly in November 2022, during Karlin’s first term at K—making hers a journey of grief, memory, self-discovery and enduring connection.

“I obviously didn’t know what to do when she died,” she said. “I took a leave of absence shortly thereafter. I remember thinking, ‘How would I ever be able to manage my grief?’ I thought that following in her footsteps would be one of the best ways to do that.”

Karlin’s trip became the foundation of her Senior Integrated Project (SIP), a poetry collection titled Bend the River Out of Shape No More, molded by travel, memory and a search for healing.

Mapping What Came Next

Karlin began planning the trip as a junior. Logistics required careful mapping, estimating mileage and costs, choosing stops and deciding whether to travel alone. Ultimately, she realized solitude mattered.

“While it may have been safer to do it with someone else, it was more impactful to do it by myself,” she said.

She woke up early, sought out unfamiliar food, and wandered through large cities such as Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans and Minneapolis, and smaller towns including Cairo, Illinois; Natchez, Mississippi; and La Crosse, Wisconsin. The rhythm became steady: drive, listen, observe, write. She also created a soundtrack of albums she had never heard before.

“Memphis was Daft Punk,” she said. “The bottom of the river was Cat Stevens. The headwaters were Big Thief.”

Those sounds fused with place. Now, she said, the emotional contours of each region are linked to distinct sonic landscapes in her mom’s memory.

Her Mom as a Passenger

In a way, Karlin’s mom was by her side the whole time. The Mini Cooper’s passenger seat held 36 small jars, each containing some of Berlin’s ashes. During the 25-day trip, Karlin scattered them at different points along the river and wrote a poem after each stop.

“It wasn’t perfect, but it was really something to follow in her footsteps—to travel that distance by myself with her in my passenger seat, with her ashes,” Karlin said. “The whole experience helped so much. I feel like a completely different person after the trip. I feel stronger, braver, more … cool.”

Berlin had drafted much of No Shape while riding in a passenger seat. Karlin cherished the parallel.

“It was a two-person adventure for them,” she said. “The dominant pronoun became ‘we’ or ‘us’ during their trip. Mine was just ‘me’ or ‘I,’ but I was writing all the poems on the road. It felt like I was writing with her.”

Karlin wrote 42 of the 45 poems included in her SIP during the trip itself, often pulling over to walk, reflect and write. Her SIP opens with three deeply personal poems she wrote beforehand. These earlier poems, she said, served as grounding context for the ones that followed.

The rest unfolds as reflections on space, meditations on grief, portraits, odes and moments of clarity. Half share the title Ashen—a sequence of sonnets written after each ash-scattering ritual and modeled after Berlin’s final book, also a sonnet collection.

Across states and landscapes, Karlin found her internal landscape shifting, too. Some days she wrote five poems; other days, she wrote none. At one point early on, she noticed her tone becoming cynical.

“I realized I didn’t want to be cynical on this trip,” she said. “This was a beautiful opportunity to grieve my mother, find joy in the world, and move on.”

‘There Was So Much Love’

The trip held joy, sadness, anger, confusion and love. But as the miles passed, something in her softened. There were practical challenges as well. As a trans woman driving alone through parts of the American South, she expected to feel afraid. Instead, she found compassion.

“Even strangers had so much care,” she said. “There was so much love in the people I interacted with day to day. I thought that was beautiful.”

Together, the poems trace a young writer’s emotional landscape as she moves toward acceptance—not by leaving grief behind but by carrying it differently.

For Karlin, the project’s success is measured in feelings first: relief, transformation and gratitude. She also points to the stories she carries now and the ones she is still learning to tell.

“Storytelling is huge for me,” she said. “It can be anything. It can be poetry, improv theatre, even Dungeons and Dragons. And this trip helped further my storytelling ability.”

The ambitious trek was supported by a Hearst Foundation Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a grant administered through the Provost’s Office. Over the past three years, these fellowships have provided a total of $125,000 to assist 10 students annually in support of their research.

“I would like to say I’m grateful to all the people who supported me as a student, at K and elsewhere,” Karlin said. “It would have been impossible without them.”

Her SIP, she said, was fun, but also sacred, transformative, life-altering, irreplaceable and unattainable through anything but her educational journey at K.

“I have a more profound outlook on life because of it,” she said. “Going forward, I think it will guide me emotionally and personally. I grew up around a lot of poets, but I’ve liked interacting with the poets here even better. I saw a lot of pretentiousness when I was younger. Here, the experience has only felt real. I think that authenticity is a lot more about what poetry means and I love that.”

Lake Itasca, Minnesota, features the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee. - 45 poems — Chickasaw Heritage Park in Memphis, Tennessee.

Abraham's Oak at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. — Abraham’s Oak is a concrete sculpture at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

45 poems — A sunset in Natchez, Mississippi.

Scenic overlook of the Mississippi River valley - 45 poems — An overlook of the Mississippi River valley in Iowa.

An Excerpt From Eliza’s SIP: Ashen (Final)

Friends of yours tell me stories of how you came to
the Headwaters of the Old Man. You drove, solo, like me,
through the night only to see the state government shut
down & with it, the state park. Barricades couldn’t stop you. Your small self
pushed them away, & drove through to the welcome center. A year later, you would go
again with a friend & ask her, “Why are there so many people here?”
I follow you, as I always will, & walk the same
path & I have the same thought &, in addition “Why are there so many
naked babies?” A man asks me to take his picture & I watch the others,
working up courage to drop you off. & I realize, this place, this River
is not my own. It belongs to the millions who have followed it,
up & down, up & down, up & down. I release
you one last time & I think “she’s gone” but know
you never are.

Shell Yes! Student’s Technology Helps Nature Center Track Turtles

Posted on October 22, 2025November 5, 2025

Kalamazoo College student Joe Caton ’26 has turned his lifelong interest in radio technology into an innovative conservation project at Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan. For his Senior Integrated Project (SIP), Caton built a low-cost telecommunications system to help the center monitor its population of Eastern box turtles.

Sarett is home to several types of turtles, and some, including the Eastern box turtle, are listed as threatened species in the state thanks to humans changing their habitats and predators threatening their safety.

Eastern box turtles play subtle but significant roles in their ecosystems. As omnivores, they help control insect populations and disperse seeds from berries and other wild plants. Their presence affects the food web as both consumers and prey, and their nesting habits intersect with larger environmental issues. At Sarett, turtles have contributed to booming raccoon populations, which can overconsume eggs and disrupt long-term turtle survival.

Sarett staff and volunteers have long tracked the reptiles using older analog equipment that emits radio pings, requiring searchers to walk toward the sound to locate individuals.

Caton, who is a computer science major with a telecommunications background, saw an opportunity to modernize the process and make it more accessible for conservation groups with limited resources.

“Once I found out Sarett was still tracking these turtles, I reached out to see if I could help,” he said. “The receiver technology was the area with the least work being done, so that’s where I focused.”

Caton sourced a software-defined radio device called a Hack RF, which can detect signals across a wide frequency range. He paired it with a screen for visualizing the turtle transmitters’ radio signals and built a homemade antenna using PVC pipe and a metal tape measure. When he and Sarett staff tested the system in the field, they were able to match pings to specific turtles based on recorded frequencies.

The equipment offers Sarett a flexible, open-source alternative to commercial radio trackers, which are costly and difficult to replace or replicate. Caton’s prototype can be produced at a fraction of the cost by printing circuit boards from existing online plans, making the approach scalable for other nature centers, research projects or youth-education programs.

Although Caton’s role focused on technology, he says his work has changed how he thinks about conservation.

“I hadn’t given a lot of thought to how computer science could be used this way,” he said. “Now I realize you don’t just have to use tools that already exist, you can make them yourself and tailor them to the work.”

Caton grew up in Three Rivers, Michigan, and first attended Glen Oaks Community College in nearby Centreville. He originally planned to pursue another degree path, but when Glen Oaks launched a computer science and cybersecurity program in 2020, he became one of its first computer science students. After completing his associate degree, Caton worked for a few years before deciding he wanted to finish a bachelor’s degree.

He had always been intrigued by K.

“When I was younger, I just wanted to go to K because everyone I knew was going to Western (Michigan University) and I wanted to be different,” Caton said with a laugh. “But as I got older and actually started reading about it and hearing graduates’ stories, it sounded like a place I would actually want to go.”

On a whim, he applied to K, assuming it would be too expensive. But the opposite proved to be true.

“I got this financial aid package in the mail that made it not only an option, but the cheapest option,” he said. “That pretty much answered the question for me.”

As a non-traditional transfer student at age 40, Caton expected to feel out of place at K. Instead, he again was surprised.

“The only person who ever brought up my age was me,” he said. “Once I stopped mentioning it, nobody else did either. Nobody looked at me funny or treated me differently. That made it a lot easier to just be a student.”

He quickly connected with computer science faculty including Professor Pam Cutter and Associate Professor Sandino Vargas-Pérez. Their accessibility and encouragement built his confidence to take on projects like the one at Sarett. Caton has also worked on campus in Media Services while balancing coursework and his home life.

Eventually, his SIP provided opportunities that Caton didn’t expect. He has been networking with professionals at the intersection of ecology and technology, and he plans to continue refining his prototype with Sarett. Using a Raspberry Pi—which is a low-cost, credit-card-sized computer—he hopes to combine radio tracking with image-recognition software being developed by WMU students to identify turtles by their unique shell patterns.

Caton’s SIP is complete, but the project continues and so does his enthusiasm.

“If you assume something like the conservation of Eastern box turtles doesn’t matter just because you don’t see the connection right away, you’re going to miss something important,” he said. “We don’t always know what role a species plays until it’s gone. That’s why this work matters.”

Q&A with Sarett Nature Center
Executive Director Nate Fuller

Sarett Nature Center—less than an hour from Kalamazoo College between Benton Harbor and Coloma—is a nonprofit conservation organization dedicated to providing quality environmental education to the community. It has more than 1,000 acres along the Paw Paw River and is home to several state and federally endangered animals in addition to a rich variety of flora and fauna, representing much of what can be found in southwest Michigan. Children are free and admission is $3 for adults who want to hike the trails and visit the welcome center, which has animal displays and feeding stations that are enjoyable for all ages.

Executive Director Nate Fuller answered some questions for us about the nature center, the importance of eastern box turtles and Joe Caton’s contributions to their conservation efforts.

Question: Why are eastern box turtles important within their ecosystems?

Answer: Eastern box turtles are important because they act as seed dispersers, regulate prey populations, and serve as an indicator species for environmental health. Their role in dispersing seeds helps maintain plant diversity, while their omnivorous diet helps control insect and other small prey populations. Because they are so sensitive to changes in their environment, their presence or absence can signal the overall health of their woodland, wetland and field habitats.

Q: How threatened are these turtles?

A: Eastern box turtle populations are declining at all levels—nationally, regionally and locally. They can be found across much of the eastern United States, but they have some level of protected status in nearly half of the states where they’re found. In Michigan, the eastern box turtle was recently moved from “special concern” to “threatened” status due to their increased decline.

Eastern box turtles seem to be doing much better at Sarett Nature Center than anywhere else that they’re studied. By studying Sarett’s population, officials hope to better understand what the turtles need to thrive.

A homemade antenna that Kalamazoo College student Joe Caton designed to help Sarett Nature Center track turtles — Caton built a homemade antenna using PVC pipe and a metal tape measure.

Software equipment says Hack RF One, Great Scott Gadgets — Caton sourced a software-defined radio device called a Hack RF (above), which can detect signals across a wide frequency range, and paired it with a screen for visualizing the turtle transmitters’ radio signals (below).

Telecommunications device helps track turtles on a screen

Joe at Sarett — Fuller had this to say of Caton’s work: “Joe’s work has the potential not just to make the research being done on Sarett’s box turtle population more effective and efficient, but it could also be a game changer for conservation efforts for all projects using telemetry.”

Q: Why is it important for Sarett to protect them?

A: Box turtles seem to be doing much better at Sarett Nature Center than anywhere else that they’re studied. By studying Sarett’s population, we hope to better understand what they need to be successful. Also, Sarett’s population is large enough that we have an opportunity to study their behaviors in a way that just isn’t possible at sites with smaller populations.

Q: What hands-on work is being undertaken at Sarett to help these turtles?

A: Work started a few years ago when Sarett hired John Rutger and his turtle dogs to help us find turtles. The idea was to demonstrate how working dogs help with conservation. We had no idea how many turtles he would find! The dogs found more than 60 turtles in four days at the nature center, and we had an inkling we were onto something special. Over the years since, we’ve documented more with few repeats while drawing attention from conservation professionals and researchers.

Maarten Vonhof at Western Michigan University is overseeing multiple research projects that are looking at genetics, shell patterns, habitat use, range sizes, nest-site selection, scent communication, disease and social behaviors. Watervliet High School Robotics Club members are working on micro-GPS trackers to add to turtles that already have transmitter beacons on them to better understand their daily movements. Sarett staff and volunteers are working on invasive plant species control to improve nesting and foraging habitats. And we are making plans for students, staff and volunteers to help identify, mark and monitor box turtle nests this upcoming spring.

Visitors to the nature center have been helpful in documenting box turtles. We also worked with WMU to set up an app for anyone who finds a box turtle to add them to our project. They can use their phone to take its picture and upload it to our database so we can build up our image catalogue and track locations of individuals.

Q: Has Sarett reached any important milestones in protecting the turtles?

A: We have hit some impressive milestones regarding the numbers of individuals we’ve identified at Sarett Nature Center. After four years of one-week surveys, we identified more than 300 individuals. After four weeks of intensive surveys in 2025, we were able to add more than 250 individuals to our inventory! We are still working on the data, but it looks like we have 600 individuals catalogued, which is many times more than any other single location documented anywhere.

The bloodwork collected this summer marks the largest genetic assessment of a box turtle population ever. The scent data collected is also the largest ever and will be the most comprehensive study ever done looking at box turtle communication via scent.

Q: How would you rate Joe Caton’s work and the importance of it in Sarett’s efforts?

A: Joe’s work has the potential not just to make the research being done on Sarett’s box turtle population more effective and efficient, but it could also be a game changer for conservation efforts for all projects using telemetry.

The costs of tracking are not just in designing the equipment used. A bigger expense comes from the time it takes humans to use the equipment, everything from training on how to use it to time in the field spent tracking down the animals. With more than 70 transmitters, it’s easier and more efficient to find transmitters in the field, and it will save us thousands of dollars. If you project that out to others using this technology, it could be a huge benefit for wildlife conservation.