Territories of the Breast 6 PM, Connable Recital Hall, Light Fine Arts
Film screening with filmmaker Sonia Baez-Hernandez
Visiting Fellow, Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership The film traces Sonia Baez-Hernandez’s experiences after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001. She interviews four other Latina and African American breast cancer survivors. The film interweaves their journeys and discloses the complexities of medical access and choices, and the process and meaning of becoming women. Honest, heartfelt, hopeful. Ms Baez-Hernandez will be present and take questions from the audience.
How Did Civil Rights Happen In Kalamazoo? 7 PM, Olmsted Room, Mandelle Hall
Oral history interviews and discussion with Phyllis Seabolt, Cal Street, Charles Warfield and James Washington, Sr. Sponsored by students in the Kalamazoo College Senior Seminar “Building the Archive: James Baldwin and His Legacy” in partnership with Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society.
What better way to fend off winter blues than to celebrate the ethnic diversity of Kalamazoo College’s student body? In February a number of ethnic student organizations joined the Office of Student Involvement to host and organize the 4th annual La Fiesta Desi Soul (LFDS) event. Student organizations–including the Black Student Organization (BSO), the Caribbean society, Kalama-Africa, K-Desi, the Asian Pacific Islander Student Association (APISA), the Latino Student Organization (LSO), and the Young Persian Society–have helped turn this into the biggest Zoo After Dark event.
The event’s origins trace back to Fall of 2008, according to the Assistant Director of Student Involvement Kate Elizabeth-Leishman Yancho. It was sponsored at that time by BSO, LSO, and K-Desi. “Compared to the first time when the event took place in the Welles Dining Hall with a relatively smaller crowd, the event has become one of the most highly attended events on campus”, says Yancho. Furthermore, LFDS won the award for the 2011 Outstanding Campus Collaboration by the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA).
Participating student organizations put up visuals, serve different dishes (catered by Sodexo) and sponsor interactive games for everybody. Sashae Mitchell ‘14, the president of the Caribbean Society, said the purpose of this event is to “share aspects of the culture of the ethnic student groups through music, food, dance, and fun activities.” Mitchell added that she would like to see “more students attend the event so that it outgrows Hicks!” When asked about the future goals for LFDS, Brittany King-Pleas ‘13, president of BSO, said she hopes “the educational component continues to expand and the members of the committee work together to create a bit of cohesion amongst themselves.”
On Wednesday, April 10, more than 200 signs will dot Kalamazoo College’s pathways as part of the second annual Tuition Freedom Day.
Tuition Freedom Day marks the point in the school year when tuition stops paying for the cost of a K education and support from donors takes over. Students are encouraged to visit the Hicks Student Center between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to sign thank-you cards.
Tuition Freedom Day is about showing appreciation for the alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends who make a K education possible. Generous gifts through the Kalamazoo College Fund support scholarships, faculty excellence, and K’s greatest needs.
Alumni and others can also take part in Tuition Freedom Day. Let everyone know why you support K by donating your Facebook status on Wednesday, April 10. You can also make the Tuition Freedom Day Hornet (above) your profile picture for the day.
David Landskroener ’14, Marianne Stine ’12, and Oscar ’13 getting the red carpet treatment.
David Landskroener ’14 is a self-described “movie junkie.” So when he won two coveted tickets to sit on bleachers alongside the famed red carpet at this year’s Oscar extravaganza in Los Angeles…well, it was a Hollywood ending.
“It was cool to see Anne Hathaway and George Clooney in person,” said David, a double major in Theatre Arts and English who also has a concentration in Media Studies where he’s learning about film.
Even cooler, he said, was when the interviewer in front of him pulled up K alumnus David France ’81 to talk about ‘How to Survive a Plague,’ his Oscar-nominated documentary.”
“He gave an insightful interview and seemed really at ease. It was so awesome to have that K connection on the red carpet, with me, a current student, only thirty feet away. K people are everywhere!”
David made the trip to LA from his home near Minneapolis where he’s been since returning from study abroad in Aberdeen, Scotland. K friend Marianne Stine ’12 joined him in a long security check-in process and a seven-hour wait in the bleachers before the stars came out.
“Luckily we had food and drink provided the entire day, and we got to watch the actual awards ceremonies from the nearby El Capitan Theatre. We both held an actual Oscar, and are those things heavy!”
Prior to his view from the bleachers, David’s most meaningful glimpse into a possible future career came during summer 2012 when he served an externship through the College’s Center for Career and Professional Development at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, a nonprofit institute that develops new plays and nurtures playwrights. He stayed with Bethany (Kestner) Whitehead ’98 who works at The Playwrights’ Center.
“It was a great opportunity for me to see that a career in that field is possible and how to work towards it. Staying with Bethany and learning about her career was just as rewarding and instructive as working at the Center itself.”
Although he looks forward to being back on campus this spring to continue his classroom and extracurricular studies, David said he also looks forward to returning to the Oscars one day, not for a seat in the bleachers, but for the full red carpet treatment.
“Studying English, theatre, and film myself, I dream of someday walking down that same carpet.”
Winter Quarter 2013 is in the history books. Classes have ended, finals are over, and most students have bugged out. Grades are due from Faculty March 26. Spring Quarter classes begin April 1. No foolin’! Residence Halls re-open Saturday, March 30, at 9 A.M. And the first meal served in the cafeteria will be Saturday’s (March 30) brunch. For some alumni reminiscences of Spring Break adventures, check out the College’s Facebook page.
The 18th Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest, sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit, was held at the Novi Civic Center this winter. Two Kalamazoo College students, senior Pavan Policherla and sophomore Vageesha Liyana-Gunawardana, presented their speeches. Policherla’s talk was based on his study abroad experience in China and explored a challenging and important issue of China-Japan relations. Liyana-Gunawardana’s speech was an eye-witness account of the large tsunami that struck Sri Lanka in 2004.
K students will log more than 35,000 hours of civic engagement during the 2012-13 academic year.
Kalamazoo College has been named a Presidential Award Finalist in the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Honor Roll recognizes higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.
K is one of only 14 institutions (and the only one from Michigan) receiving the Presidential Award Finalist honor out of nearly 700 nationwide that were considered. K has been recognized every year since the Honor Roll was launched in 2006, and was also named a Finalist in 2011. Five institutions were named Presidential Awardees this year, the highest honor.
“Selection as a Presidential Award Finalist is recognition from the highest levels of the federal government of K’s commitment to service-learning and civic engagement on our campus and beyond,” said Alison Geist, director of the College’s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute of Service-Learning.
“This honors the commitment of K students and our community partners not only in Kalamazoo and throughout Southwest Michigan, but internationally, as well.”
According to Geist, about 74 percent of Kalamazoo College students will participate in civic engagement activities during their four years at the College. During the 2012-13 academic year alone, K students will contribute more than 35,000 hours to this effort. K offers about 30 service-learning courses that include community-based civic engagement activities, and students lead programs that take place every week throughout the year.
In the Greater Kalamazoo community, students work through approximately 40 different community partners including Kalamazoo Public Schools, Fair Food Matters, Goodwill Industries, Kalamazoo County Center for Healthy Equity, and Ministry with Community.
K students advocate for improved food access and health, and work in community gardens, serve as math tutors to elementary school children, employ theatre as empowerment with juvenile home residents, develop environmental justice programming with migrant workers for whom English is a second language, and many other roles to promote social justice.
“Our goal is to help K students gain hands-on, real world experiences that build their critical thinking, problem problem-solving, and communications skills, while fostering an interest in civic engagement and strengthening our community,” said Geist.
More and more K students are carrying this civic engagement interest to other countries, she added. About 85 percent of K students study abroad, mostly during their junior year, at more than 40 program sites on six continents. Many students now complete an Intercultural Research Project in their host country that includes a civic engagement component. Recent examples include a student who worked as a physiotherapy assistant at an aged care facility in Australia, another who taught English to students at a school for children of migrant workers in China, one who taught songs in Spanish to first-graders at a rural Mexican school, and one who raised funds to distribute portable solar-powered lanterns to elderly Kenyan residents.
Geist also commended the growing number of international students at Kalamazoo College who participate in civic engagement activities in Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan.
The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees the President’s Honor Roll in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school’s commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service. The entire 2013 Honor Roll list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
Kalamazoo College (www.kzoo.edu) does more in four years so that students can do more in a lifetime. K offers rigorous academic explorations in the liberal arts and the flexibility to shape non-classroom experiences (study abroad, civic engagement, career internships, social justice leadership, and professional networking) into a résumé that gives students a leg-up for graduate school and employment. The K experience develops the ability to think and solve problems, and we measure those outcomes to continually improve.
English major Gabriella Donofrio ’13 completed what English professor Diane Seuss calls “a remarkable Senior Individualized Project!”
Donofrio wrote a book of documentary poetry about life in the military (before and after the repeal of the “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” policy) for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and queer soldiers serving their country. She was on study abroad when the policy was repealed in September, 2011, and didn’t give it too much thought until three months later.
She wanted her SIP to be a book of poetry, and based hers on Mark Nowak’s collection of documentary poetry titled Coal Mountain Elementary. “I first interviewed several military members about their experiences of being gay in the military,” wrote Donofrio. “I then transcribed the interviews and framed poems around the stories that seemed most poignant to me.
The result is a collection of pieces in the voices of seven members of the LGBTQ+ military movement.” Her SIP includes some 75 pieces, some of which were published with a story about Donofrio and her project in the monthly web publication Gay Military Signal.
K-Desi members performed a South Asian dance at “Mythbusters,” the 2013 Asiafest.
In 2012, “Redefining Asian” (aka Asiafest) received the “Program of the Year” award at the Black and Orange Awards Ceremony. In 2013 the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Association (APISA), formerly known as Asian Student Association (ASA), produced another spectacular Asiafest: “Mythbusters.” The show took place in a Dalton Theatre packed with by campus and community members. Performing student organizations included APISA, K-Desi, and Cirque du K, and many individual performers participated as well.
“Mythbusters” showcased different facets of the diverse Asian culture, and few forces break stereotypes as effectively as does an awareness of diversity. There were 15 lively performances divided into two acts that included traditional and modern dances, skits, instrumental performances, singing, and poetry reading. The opening piece was a video collection of campus interviews of students who described stereotypes they encounter and shared their opinions about appropriate versus culturally offensive questions. Audience favorites included the Matrix Ping Pong skit, a traditional South Asian dance by K-Desi, and Gangam Style, which received enthusiastic cheering from the audience.
APISA President Pavan Policherla ’13 says, “The purpose of Asia Fest is to aid the club in promoting Asian culture on campus in a fun and entertaining way, as well as try to educate the Kalamazoo community about some issues that the members of the club feel are important and need to be recognized.” Asian students and student organizations start working on the show at the beginning of winter quarter. Each year a new theme is selected by APISA members, one that pertains to issues they think need to be addressed. Asiafest has delighted the hearts of many every year and continues to uphold its tradition of depicting a realistic picture of Asia and its diverse population.
K recycling guru Rob Townsend with two recent student “Recyclemaniacs.”
Recycling an old tradition, Kalamazoo College is off to a good start in Recyclemania 2013, the friendly annual competition and benchmarking tool that allows college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities.
“We still maintain our dynasty and I am happy with it!” said longtime K Recycling Coordinator Rob Townsend. “I have a great crew of students who lead the campus recycling effort throughout the year. And they always step up their game during Recyclemania.”
According Rob, results after two weeks of competition show K is at or near the top of several categories, including “Bottles and Cans” (#1), Corrugated Cardboard” (#3), and “Per Capita Classic” (#2) in which schools try to collect the largest combined amount of paper, cardboard, and bottles and cans on a per person basis.
More than 600 colleges representing 49 states, four Canadian provinces, and 7.5 million students now participate in the eight-week competition.
