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College Celebrates Honors Day

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Honors Day soloist Lauren Landman and President Jorge Gonzalez
Honors Day soloist Lauren Landman and President Jorge Gonzalez

Kalamazoo College Family Weekend served as backdrop for the College’s annual Honors Day convocation. More than 250 students were recognized for excellence in academics and leadership in six divisions: Fine Arts, Foreign Languages, 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 recognition awards. In addition, student athletes and teams who have won Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association awards were feted. The students who received awards or recognition are listed below.

 

 

FINE ARTS DIVISION

THE BRIAN GOUGEON PRIZE IN ART, awarded to a sophomore student who, during his or her first year, exhibited outstanding achievement and potential in art.
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Qynce Chumley

LILLIAN PRINGLE BALDAUF PRIZE IN MUSIC, awarded to an outstanding music student.
John Bowman
Christopher Coburn
Matthew Peters
Madeline Lauver

COOPER AWARD for a junior or senior showing excellence in a piece of creative work in a theatre arts class: film, acting, design, stagecraft, puppetry, speech.
Quincy Crosby

THEATRE ARTS FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AWARD, given to a sophomore for outstanding departmental efforts during the first year.
Kate Kreiss
Robert Davis
Maren Prophit
Louise Thomas

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DIVISION

LeGRAND COPLEY PRIZE IN FRENCH, awarded to a sophomore who, as a first-year student, demonstrated the greatest achievement in French.
Lauren Arquette
Danny Horwitz

HARDY FUCHS AWARD, given for excellence in first-year German.
Emma Eisenbeis

MARGO LIGHT AWARD, given for excellence in second- or third-year German.
Eric Thornburg

ROMANCE LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN SPANISH, awarded for excellence in the first year in Spanish.
Kate Kreiss
Daniel Cho

CLARA H. BUCKLEY PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN LATIN, awarded to an outstanding student of the language of the ancient Romans.
Emma Peters

CLASSICS DEPARTMENT PRIZE IN GREEK, awarded to an outstanding student in the language of the ancient Greeks.
Brittany Jones

PROVOST’S PRIZE IN CLASSICS, awarded to that student who writes the best essay on a classical subject.
Danielle Gin

HUMANITIES DIVISION

O.M. ALLEN PRIZE IN ENGLISH, given for the best essay written by a member of the first-year class.
Kate Kreiss

JOHN B. WICKSTROM PRIZE IN HISTORY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in history.
Mackenzie Callahan

L.J. AND EVA (“GIBBIE”) HEMMES MEMORIAL PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY, awarded to that sophomore who, in the first year, showed the greatest promise for continuing studies in philosophy.
Katherine Bennett
Garrett Sander

NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS DIVISION

WINIFRED PEAKE JONES PRIZE IN BIOLOGY, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in biology.
Min Soo Kim
Cydney Martell
Maggie Smith

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in chemistry.
Meghan Horal

FIRST-YEAR CHEMISTRY AWARD, awarded to a sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated great achievement in chemistry.
Anthony Diep
Nicholas Ludka

LEMUEL F. SMITH AWARD, given to a student majoring in chemistry, pursuing the American Chemical Society approved curriculum, and having at the end of the junior year the highest average standing in courses taken in chemistry, physics and mathematics.
Collin Steen

COMPUTER SCIENCE PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in computer science.
Hans Wieland

FIRST-YEAR MATHEMATICS AWARD, given annually to the sophomore student who, during the first year, demonstrated the greatest achievement in mathematics.
Dahwi Kim
Allegra Allgeier

THOMAS O. WALTON PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS, awarded to a member of the junior class for excellence in the work of the first two years in mathematics.
Abhay Goel

COOPER PRIZE IN PHYSICS, given for excellence in the first year’s work in physics.
Kayla Park
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado

SOCIAL SCIENCES DIVISION

DEPARTMENTAL PRIZE IN ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY, awarded for excellence during the first and/or second year’s work.
Paige Tobin
Meghan Horal
Hannah Muscara
Adam Edery
Benjamin Smith

C. WALLACE LAWRENCE PRIZE IN ECONOMICS, awarded annually to a economics student who has done outstanding work in the Department of Economics and Business during the sophomore year.
Maria Franco
Hannah Kline
Logan Smith

C. WALLACE LAWRENCE PRIZE IN BUSINESS, awarded annually to a business student who has done outstanding work in the Department of Economics and Business during the sophomore year.
Cody Colvin
Jacob Wasko
Alex White

IRENE AND S. KYLE MORRIS PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s courses in the Department of Economics and Business.
Christopher Coburn
Rachel Frank
Evelyn Wagner

WILLIAM G. HOWARD MEMORIAL PRIZE, awarded for excellence in any year’s work in political science.
Lauren Arquette

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY FIRST-YEAR STUDENT PRIZE, awarded for excellence in the first year’s work in psychology.
Michelle Alba

MARSHALL HALLOCK BRENNER PRIZE, given by the family and friends in memory of Marshall Hallock Brenner, class of 1955, to be awarded to an outstanding junior for excellence in the study of psychology.
Kyle Hernandez

PHYSICAL EDUCATION DIVISION

DIVISION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION PRIZE, awarded to those students who, as first-year students, best combined leadership and scholarship in promoting athletics, physical education and recreation.
Jordan Wiley
Amanda Moss
Cheyenne Allyn-White

MAGGIE WARDLE PRIZE, awarded to that sophomore woman whose activities at the College reflect the values that Maggie Wardle demonstrated in her own life. The recipient will show a breadth of involvement in the College through her commitment to athletics and to the social sciences and/or community service.
Malak Ghazal

COLLEGE AWARDS

GORDON BEAUMONT MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to the student who displays qualities of selflessness, humanitarian concern and a willingness to help others, as exemplified in the life of Gordon Beaumont.
Sarah Bragg
Mireya Guzman-Ortiz

HENRY AND INEZ BROWN PRIZE, awarded in recognition of outstanding participation in the College community.
Sidney Wall

VIRGINIA HINKELMAN MEMORIAL AWARD, awarded to a student who displays a deep concern for the well-being of children, as demonstrated through career goals in the field of child welfare.
Moises Hernandez

HEYL SCHOLARS – CLASS OF 2020

Taylor Ashby
Kento Hirakawa
Matthew Krinock
Samuel Maddox
Shukrani Nsenga
Michael Orwin
Marjorie Wolfe
Julie Zabik

POSSE SCHOLARS – CLASS OF 2020

Iffat Chowdhury
Fabien Debies
Neelam Lal
Madisyn mahoney
Israel Mazas
Joseph Ney-Jun
Melissa Pasillas
Cesar Soria
Gabriel Ugarte
Raphaela Varella

NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR – CLASS OF 2020

John Patton

ALPHA LAMBDA DELTA – CLASS OF 2019

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.

Lauren Arquette
Meredith Ashton
Max Aulbach
Katherine Bennett
Kevin Bhimani
Emily Boyle
Moly Brueger
Mackenzie Callahan
Tapiwa Chikungwa
Heeseong Cho
Jennifer Cho
Christopher Coburn
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Anthony Diep
Emma Eisenbeis
McKinzie Ervin
Alex Fairhall
Rachel Frank
Ian Freshwater
Sarah George
Natalie Gratsch
Claire Greening
Meghan Horal
Sadie Jackson
Min Soo Kim
Mackenzie Landman
Madeline Lauver
Hyunyn Lim
Sara Lonsberry
Nicholas Ludka
Cydney Martell
Abigail McDonough
Jacob Mooradian
Emma Mullenax
Kayla Park
Andrew Parsons
Cecilia Ringo
Skylar Rizzolo
Scott Roberts
Timothy Rutledge
Austin Smith
Benjamin Smith
Margaret Smith
Natalie Thompson
Evenly Wagner
Ailih Weeldreyer

ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP AWARDS

ARCUS CENTER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERSHIP
Donovan Williams

CREATIVE EXPRESSION IN JOURNALISM
Emiliana Renuart
Maia Taylor

CREATIVE EXPRESSION IN MUSIC
Anna Christinidis
Liam Fries
Joshua Gibson
Kathryn Martin
Boemin Park
Orly Rubinfeld

CREATIVE EXPRESSION IN VISUAL ARTS
Georgie Andrews
Brianna Burnell
Lizi Chinchilakashvili
Nutsa Chinchilakashvili

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Lakshya Choudhary
Shiva Sah

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM AND SUSTAINABILITY
Aiden Voss
Madeline Ward

MICHIGAN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION (MIAA) AWARDS

The following Hornet teams earned the 2015-2016 MIAA Team GPA Award. Team members achieved a 3.3 or better grade point average for the entire academic year.

Men’s Golf
Men’s Soccer
Men’s Tennis
Women’s Basketball
Women’s Golf
Women’s Lacrosse
Women’s Soccer
Women’s Volleyball

MIAA ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

The MIAA each year honors students at member colleges who achieve distinction on the classroom and in athletic competition. Students need to be a letter winner in a varsity sport and maintain at minimum 3.5 grade point average for the entire school year.

Michael Allen
Kelsey Adamski
Ryan Andrusz
Elizabeth Arellano
Lauren Arquette
Alberto Ayala
Sonal Bahl
Victoria Beehler
Kennedy Boulton
Riley Boyd
Allie Brodsky
Molly Brueger
Thomas Bryant
Hayley Buckhout
Matthew Burczyk
Janice Burnett
Alex Cadigan
Kathryn Callaghan
Olivia Cares
Charlie Carson
Katherine Cebelak
Madeleine  Chilcote
Cody Colvin
Anthony Convertino
Anna Dairaghi
Christina Dandar
Elan Dantus
Sabrina Dass
Eric De Witt
Ricardo DelOlmo-Parrado
Dana DeVito
Cecilia DiFranco
Mikayla Doepker
Guillermo Dominguez Garcia
Alivia DuQuet
Erin DuRoss
John Dynes
Charles Edick
Emma Eisenbeis
Rachel Epstein
Angelia Evangelista
Kevin Ewing
Andrew Feeley
George Fishback
Matthew Fitz
Chris Francis
Maria Franco
Ian Freshwater
Brett Garwood
Sarah George
Camille Giacobone
Emily Good
Evan  Gorgas
Monica Gorgas
Kyle Hahn
Griffin Hamel
Jordan Henning
Kaiya Herman-Hilker
Kyle Hernandez
Samantha Hicks
Megan Hoinville
Shelby Hopper
Allia Howard
Robert Hudson
Nicole Huff
Julia Hulbert
Jordan Jabara
Clare Jensen
Claire Kalina
Spencer Kennedy
Kelsey Kerbawy
Benjamin Kileen
Dahwi Kim
William Kirchen
Hannah Kline
Emily  Kozal
Stefan Leclerc
Da Bin Lee
Jacob Lindquist
Jordan Loredo
Nick Ludka
Megan Malish
Sarah Manski
Nicholas Marsh
Cydney Martell
Mallory McClure
Alexander McDonnell
Thomas McLravy
Madison Moote
Christopher Muir
Victoria Najacht
Jonathan Nord
Skyler Norgaard
Mackenzie Norman
Andrew Novetsky
Michael Oravetz
Alexandria Oswalt
Dylan Padget
Dana Page
James Paprocki
Bradley Popiel
Nicole Prentice
Megan Riley
Phillip Ritchie
Scott Roberts
Sophie Roberts
William Roberts
Rebecca Rogers
Anna Roodbergen
Keigan Ryckman
Matthew Ryder
Mason Sarosi
Ashley Schiffer
Grady Schneider
Eleanor Schodowski
Aaron Schwark
Cameron Schwartz
Jacob Scott
Lauren Seroka
Sharif Shaker
Claire Slaughter
Grace Smith
Kathleen Sorenson
Sophia Spencer
Vethania Stavropoulos
Mira Swearer
Lily Talmers
Alexander Townsend
Lydia Turke
Elizabeth Tyburski
Kaela Van Til
David  Vanderkloot
Jacob Waier
Kyra Walenga
Jacob Wasko
John Wehr
Alex White
Joshua Whitney
Hans Wieland
Jordan Wiley
Madeline Woods
Sarah Woods
Brent Yelton
Matthew Zhiss

 

“Without Borders” Conference Imagines World Where All Life May Thrive

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Without Borders ConferenceThe tension between what is politically possible under the world’s current political and economic systems and what is ecologically necessary exposes an urgent need for change, said journalist and activist Naomi Klein, keynote speaker for the conference, “Without Borders, Post-Oppression Imaginaries and Decolonized Futures.” The conference was sponsored by the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College and attracted several hundred activists and social justice experts from across the country.

According to Klein, even though the recent Paris climate change agreement looked like the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era, the treaty is neither legally binding nor sufficient in its goals to avert ecological disaster.

“Fossil fuel frontiers have to be closed if we have any hope of a future,” said Klein. “Politicians have absolutely no plan to do this.”

Adequately addressing climate change has failed since the late 1980s, emasculated by a neoliberalist interpretation of capitalism that promotes privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade and reductions in government spending to enhance the public sector. Such policies have created in people a profound sense of hopelessness about climate change, said Klein.

“We are told that selfishness and short-sightedness is part of human nature, which prevents us acting,” said Klein. “This is not true and it steers us away from an analysis of our system. In fact, the fight for survival is human nature.”

Many local, grassroots groups are advocating steps to address climate change because they see the issue’s connection to an unjust economic system that is failing for a vast majority of people all over the planet, she added.

Klein challenged the audience to work for “climate justice” by reversing the “extractivist” point of view of the Earth and promoting the “caretaking” of one another, an ethos that indigenous people advocate.

“It’s not just ‘energy democracy’ but ‘energy justice’ that we need,” said Klein. “This leads to clean energy projects and jobs.”

She also emphasized that service work like nursing, child care, public interest media should be redefined as climate work that sets out to create a “caring and repairing economy.”

“We need to embed justice in every aspect of our lives,” said Klein. “The people are hungry for transformational change, and we have to go for it on all fronts.”

The conference focused on four related themes: Afrofuturism, Decolonized Knowledge, Sustainable Futures, and Next Systems.

Text by Olga Bonfiglio; conference photo by Susan Andress

K Student Earns Boren Scholarship to Study in China

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Junior A.J. Convertino – a Canton, Mich., native and a son of Val and Rick Convertino – has received a $20,000 David L. Boren Scholarship to study Chinese for six months in Beijing during Kalamazoo College’s winter/spring quarters.

A.J. Convertino in the quad at K College
A.J. Convertino will study for six months in China, where he will be immersed in Mandarin Chinese and work in an internship.

Boren Scholarships are funded by the federal government through the National Security Education Program, which focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to United States national security. About 170 students nationwide earned the scholarship last year.

The prestigious scholarship is named for former U.S. Sen. David L. Boren, the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program. Boren Scholars (undergrads) and Fellows (graduate students) will live in 40 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East, and study 37 languages.

A.J., an East Asian studies major and a political science and Chinese minor, said he chose K for its academic and athletic opportunities as well as the study abroad program. He is a wide receiver on the K College football team and a member of the a capella group Kalamadudes, which he feels gave him an advantage in the rigorous Boren application process that required two essays and three letters of recommendation.

A.J. said he started taking Chinese when he attended Plymouth High School.

“At first I think taking Chinese was about me wanting to be different from everybody else,” he said. “We had more than 20 Spanish teachers and only one Chinese teacher. But it’s rare for a native English speaker to be fluent in Chinese.”

The scholarship will be a life-changing opportunity for A.J. When it’s done he will fulfill a two-year service obligation with the federal government in a department with national security responsibilities. A.J. hopes his service eventually leads to work as a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Department of State.

Most football players at K need to miss their junior season if they decide to study abroad in a program like A.J.’s given when most of the programs are available. However, A.J. worked with Center for International Programs Acting Director Margaret Wiedenhoeft to find a six-month opportunity with enough credits that begins Dec. 28. He will depart Dec. 26 for Beijing’s Capital Normal University.

A.J. credits Wiedenhoeft, football coach Jamie Zorbo, Associate Professor of Political Science John Dugas, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature Madeline Chu, and Assistant Professor of Chinese Yue Hong for a combination of hard work, letters of recommendation, essay assistance, teaching styles and dedication for his upcoming opportunity.

The first part of A.J.’s experience will involve a language pledge, meaning he must speak Mandarin inside and outside the classroom. After the January term, he will have a two-week break for Chinese New Year before spring semester when he will have an intensive language course with a Chinese politics or history course in English. On top of that, he will work in an internship for eight hours a week, but he won’t know what his internship will involve until he gets to China.

“I’m really excited (for the internship) because I made it clear on my questionnaire that I’m interested in government and politics. Learning the vocabulary of that setting would really help me in my career,” A.J. said.

A.J. will return to the U.S. on June 24. Luke Winship (China/Mandarin), Erin Eagan (Senegal/Wolof) and Amanda Johnson (China/Mandarin) are previous Boren Scholars from K.

K Professor and Students Use Grant to Breathe Life Into Oral History

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Oral History Researchers Noriko Sugimori (left) and senior Christa Scheck
Noriko Sugimori (left) and senior Christa Scheck, who is majoring in studio art and earning a minor in Japanese

Assistant Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori will use a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to contribute her research to the Oral History in the Liberal Arts (OHLA), a project of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA). In a collaboration that also involves the Japanese department at Albion College, Sugimori and her K students are producing the world’s first bilingual (Japanese and English) synchronizations of interviews Sugimori conducted that focus on the World War II memories of various Japanese individuals.

The origins of those interviews trace back to Sugimori’s doctoral work. She researched the relationship between imperial honorifics and the concept of lèse-majesté (the crime of violating the dignity of a reigning sovereign or state) in Japan prior and during World War II. For that work she talked with several score of Japanese civilians born before 1932. The interviews were powerful, and the people with whom she spoke often deeply wanted to share their stories.

After completing her doctorate Sugimori began an oral history project that focused on war memories. Audiotaping was the cutting edge technology when Sugimori first starting interviewing subjects. Later she adopted digital videotaping. And in 2010 she became aware of Oral History Metadata Synchronizer technology, which provides a platform to show simultaneous English translation of video recordings in Japanese.

“That changed everything,” said Sugimori. “I am videotaping people who were teenagers during the war who are giving untold accounts of their experiences. These tapes can convey a whole different message to future generations about the war, and this is considered a unique contribution to the linguistics field.”

The videos and simultaneous translations have pedagogical implications for K students of Japanese. “They get to see the interviewee’s facial expressions,” said Sugimori, “which provide much more information about what is being said in a cultural context. This goes way beyond trying to learn the language from only grammar exercises.”

Because simultaneous translation allows for a more flesh-and-blood and nuanced entry into a recorded interview, students gain a more comprehensive understanding of history. “Students learn much more than political history,” said Sugimori. “They also see, as well as hear, how people were affected by the political actors.”

Today, digital technologies are making oral histories very popular among the general public. Sugimori and K students are among the pioneers helping to make that happen.

Text and photo by Olga Bonfiglio

Duo Completes Prestigious Internship

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Shawn Fair and Sara McKinney
Shawn Fair and Sara McKinney

Kalamazoo College senior Sara McKinney and junior Shawn Fair secured and completed Monroe-Brown internships this summer. Monroe-Brown internships are local opportunities that include at least 400 paid hours of work with a Kalamazoo area company, valuable networking, and scholarship funding upon completion.

The Monroe-Brown family (and, subsequently, The Monroe-Brown Foundation) has a long history of supporting Michigan students in higher education. McKinney’s internship focused on research into this legacy.

She compiled a family tree; cataloged birth, death, and marriage certificates; interviewed family members; read biographies and news articles; and much more. Much of the work was conducted independently.
The end goal is a book for the Monroe-Brown grandchildren. “I’ve really enjoyed the research aspect of it,” McKinney says. “The project has really helped me develop self-accountability and has helped me learn how to seek out information and contacts in the Kalamazoo community.”

McKinney is majoring in English (with an emphasis in creative writing) and earning a minor in psychology. This fall she will complete a collection of short stories for her Senior Individualized Project.

For his internship Fair worked in the marketing internship at Fabri-Kal, an industry leader in product packaging. He analyzed the branding, marketing and advertising of the company’s environmentally friendly Greenware line.

Fair used the opportunity to evaluate what he’d learned in the classroom about leadership. He observed the leadership styles of his coworkers, managers and company executives, and determined that, to be a relational leader, “You have to be trustworthy, dependable, supportive, and willing to devote time to getting to know each of your team members.”

Fair is majoring in business and earning a minor in Chinese. He is already applying the practical lessons of his internship by launching his own mobile application production company, Simple Fix, LLC.

K students like Fair and McKinney have been well represented in the Monroe-Brown Internship Program for the last several years. Since 2012, 13 students have interned with local companies including Eaton, BASIC, AVB, Parker Hannifin, LKF Marketing, Imperial Beverage, Abraxas, and Schupan & Sons, Inc.

Text and Photo by McKenna Bramble ’16, Post Baccalaureate Summer Intern, Center for Career and Professional Development

Summer Science Shared

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Summer ScienceScientific inquiry takes no summer break at Kalamazoo College, and a culmination of the summer’s work occurred at the Dow Science Center Mini Poster Session (August 26). In the chemistry department alone some 17 students worked in the laboratories of five chemistry faculty–Professors Bartz, Furge, Smith, Stevens-Truss and Williams. Those students include first-years, sophomores, juniors and seniors, many of the latter working on their Senior Individualized Projects. The mini poster session included 12 presenters explaining the science they had conducted during the summer. Quinton Colwell ’17 (in the red tie) is pictured discussing his poster, titled “Molecular Dynamics and Real-Life Drug Metabolism.” Molecular dynamics is the study of real life systems using computer models and simulations. Colwell’s work involved a relatively novel technique,biased molecular dynamics, which, he wrote, “brings an additional layer to computer simulations relevant to bench-top experiments. It has the potential to be a game-changer.” In addition to Colwell, other presenters included Sarah Glass ’17, Myles Truss ’17, Shreya Bahl ’17, Suma Alzouhayli ’17, and Blake Beauchamp ’17.

Convocation 2016

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Kalamazoo College Convocation 2016Kalamazoo College kicks off the 2016-17 academic year on Wednesday September 7 at 3 p.m. with its annual opening convocation ceremony for new students ready to begin their liberal arts adventure.

The ceremony will take place on the campus Quad and be available via live streaming. In case of rain, the ceremony will move into Stetson Chapel.

President Jorge Gonzalez, Provost Michael McDonald, Dean of Students Sarah Westfall, Chaplain Elizabeth Candido ’00, faculty, staff, and student leaders will welcome new students and their families. Jeffrey D. Hsi ’83, Ph.D., J.D., will deliver the keynote address. Jeff is a shareholder at the intellectual property law firm of Wolf Greenfield, and his career both at the bench and at the bar testifies to the power and versatility of the K-Plan.

K will welcome 354 first-year students (including 27 matriculating international students), 11 transfer students, and 24 visiting international students. New students come from 24 states within the U.S., including Alaska, Maine, Florida and California, and from 22 countries including, Japan, Ecuador, Greece, Vietnam, Nepal and Senegal. Students of color from the U.S. make up more than 30 percent of the incoming class. Fifteen percent of the incoming class will be the first in their families to attend college.

The class of 2020 is outstanding in many ways. About 11 percent achieved state honors in academics, athletics or both. Forty-two percent participated in one or more sports in high school, and 28 percent of those served as team captains. Fifteen percent of the class served in student government, and 10 students were their class presidents. Thirty-two percent participated in music (seven of them garnering state honors). Ninety-one percent took college course work during high school, and 84 percent of the class did volunteer work in civic organizations and social justice causes. Welcome, Kalamazoo College class of 2020!

A Hands-On (Doors, Literally) Poli-Sci Internship

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Ian McKnight
Ian McKnight

Ian McKnight ’19 came to Kalamazoo College with aspirations of working in politics. After talking to alumnus Darrin Camilleri ’14 about careers relating to political science, Ian was offered an internship on Darrin’s campaign for State Representative this summer.

During his internship, Ian spent most of his mornings collating and analyzing voter data, making phone calls and researching competitors’ tactics. In the afternoons and evenings, Ian and his fellow colleagues knocked on thousands of doors in Metro Detroit to talk to voters and to provide them with candidate and campaign information. “I do not enjoy knocking on doors,” Ian admits. “[But] knocking on doors and making phone calls really does improve results on Election Day.”

On the evening of August 2, 2016, six weeks after beginning his internship with the Camilleri Campaign, Ian stood with a spreadsheet keeping count of the votes released by each precinct. “When the last precinct came in, I got to stare [in] disbelief [at] the razor thin margin, turn to our candidate, and say, ‘Congratulations, Mr. Camilleri.’” Ian says. “At that moment, the 173 votes that won the election for us seemed totally worth every 95-degree day, every awkward phone call, and every blister.”

“It was great to see someone so freshly out of [a political science] major make a career out of it,” Ian says.  “[This internship] has given me the roadmap that I didn’t have before. In campaign work you really work your way up, and this was a phenomenal place to start.”

Ian is a rising sophomore and plans on declaring a political science major with an American Studies concentration and a public policy and urban affairs concentration. He is also the president of the College Democrats student organization.

Text and Photo by McKenna Bramble ’16, Post Baccalaureate Summer Intern, Center for Career and Professional Development

Dining Green

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Food Recovery Network members prepare unused food for donation
Food Recovery Network members prepare unused food for donation.

Fulfilling the food needs of an entire campus can be a pretty resource-heavy task. This is why dining services has been especially active in their efforts to create an environmentally-friendly operation. Those efforts include using locally sourced food, donating what food isn’t used, and composting what can’t be given away.

There are numerous benefits to eating locally. On top of tastier and more nutritious food, less travel time means significantly fewer carbon emissions by trucks and fewer preservatives used to keep the food fresh. Moreover, eating local foods supports local jobs and businesses. Food is considered local if it is grown or manufactured within a 150-mile radius of a given location. For K, this means much of southwestern Michigan, as well as parts of northern Indiana and Illinois. Some of these local products include apples from Crisp Country Acres, dairy products from Prairie Farms, bread from Aunt Millie’s, sushi from Hunan Gardens, and coffee from Simpatico and Kalamazoo Coffee Company. Most recently, free range eggs from Old Town Farm were added to this list, and it will continue to grow as the weather warms different fruits, and vegetables become in season in Michigan. Not limited to the dining hall, these foods can be found at the Richardson Room, the Book Cub and catered events. Look for the Michigan sticker that says “Local Flavor!”

A major part of creating a more sustainable dining operation is the reduction of food waste. Kitchen staff keep track of how much food they make in order to avoid excess waste. Still, many pounds of food go unused at every meal and ordinarily would simply be thrown away. This is where the Food Recovery Network comes in. This student group, founded last winter by Calli Brannan ’19, comes to the dining hall kitchen every Tuesday and Thursday to “recover” unused food and provide it to food insecure families in the area. In the weeks it has been active at K, the group of 16 volunteers has recovered more than 1,500 pounds of food. That translates to more than 1,000 meals to people in need. This food goes to Eleanor House, a shelter for families in Kalamazoo where more than 60 percent of the residents are children. The FRN seeks more volunteers so that it can expand its efforts and save even more food.

Composted food supports landscaping
Composted food supports landscaping at new buildings like the social justice center.

Not all food that’s uneaten is fit for donation. That food is composted. Every week a group of student compost interns collects between 600 and 1,100 pounds of pre- and post-consumer waste from the cafeteria and bring it to Facilities Management for composting. There, large earth tubs use augers and the natural heat from the composting process to accelerate the process. About six weeks later, the final product is used all around campus on landscape beds, notably at the Arcus Center and the new Fitness and Wellness Center. The use of compost on these areas will count toward LEED Gold certification – a trademark of sustainable buildings across the country. This symbiotic relationship enables both Dining Services and Facilities Management to run more sustainable operations, and students to live on a more beautiful campus. Moreover, compost is open to all members of the College community for use both on and off campus.

These are just a few of the growing list of efforts made by Dining Services to run more sustainably. The move toward a totally green operation is an ongoing process that continues to produce extraordinarily valuable benefits.
Text and photos by Jeff Palmer ’76