City of Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe city\u2019s growing need for data to carry out its ambitious plans, and the College\u2019s push to provide students opportunities to apply their learning, are coming together at just the right time, says Geist. She says the CCE is dedicating nearly half of its upcoming internships to Kalamazoo city programs, working with City Planner Christina Anderson \u201898.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such an amazing opportunity,\u201d Geist says. \u201cIt\u2019s a real city with real city assets. It faces so many of the challenges faced by Rust Belt cities elsewhere but it has so many resources to address those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Cunningham\u2019s students in the winter term research class, Sharmeen Chauhdry ’20, says being part of Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo brought home lessons about how ground-level community research can pave the way for meaningful change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to see what the real experts, the people in these situations, say about what works and what doesn\u2019t, and what they need,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The anthropology-sociology major says she now sees government as a potential career choice, and will continue her work with the city this summer in one of the CCE internships.<\/p>\n
Even for those who don\u2019t choose such a career path, the benefits of experiential learning with the city government can have a lifelong effect, Geist says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt creates opportunities for our students so they can learn what it means to be a citizen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWin-win.\u201d That\u2019s the phrase Kalamazoo city government officials and Kalamazoo College faculty and staff frequently use to describe a burgeoning partnership in which K students are gaining invaluable hands-on experience conducting research that is providing the city much-needed data to focus unprecedented community improvement efforts. Though having students work with the city is not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":10733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233,235,231],"tags":[59,93,117,39,121],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-10732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-staff","category-institutional-announcements","category-students","tag-anthropology","tag-career-development","tag-civic-engagement","tag-faculty","tag-sociology"],"yoast_head":"\r\n
Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-20T13:21:42+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-22T16:15:28+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2100\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\",\"name\":\"Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-20T13:21:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-22T16:15:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg\",\"width\":2100,\"height\":1400,\"caption\":\"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 have gained experience conducting research for programs like Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo, an antipoverty initiative coordinated by Kevin Ford. Chauhdry, seen here with Ford at the city planning office, will continue her experiential education with a summer internship through the College\u2019s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News and Events\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K","description":"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K","og_description":"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/","og_site_name":"News and Events","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege","article_published_time":"2018-04-20T13:21:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-22T16:15:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2100,"height":1400,"url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@kcollege","twitter_site":"@kcollege","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/","name":"Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo: Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-20T13:21:42+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-22T16:15:28+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo.jpg","width":2100,"height":1400,"caption":"Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 have gained experience conducting research for programs like Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo, an antipoverty initiative coordinated by Kevin Ford. Chauhdry, seen here with Ford at the city planning office, will continue her experiential education with a summer internship through the College\u2019s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Experience, Opportunity Intersect for City, K"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/","name":"News and Events","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required 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aria-label=\"archive of category Faculty & Staff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/faculty-staff\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Faculty & Staff<\/a><a aria-label=\"archive of category Institutional Announcements\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/institutional-announcements\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Institutional Announcements<\/a><a aria-label=\"archive of category Students\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/students\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Students<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/anthropology\/\" rel=\"tag\">anthropology<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/career-development\/\" rel=\"tag\">career development<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/civic-engagement\/\" rel=\"tag\">civic engagement<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/faculty\/\" rel=\"tag\">faculty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/sociology\/\" rel=\"tag\">sociology<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/shared-prosperity-kalamazoo\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p>\u201cWin-win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the phrase Kalamazoo city government officials and Kalamazoo College faculty and staff frequently use to describe a burgeoning partnership in which K students are gaining invaluable hands-on experience conducting research that is providing the city much-needed data to focus unprecedented community improvement efforts.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10733\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10733\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10733\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Sharmeen Chauhdry and Kevin Ford of Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo\" width=\"584\" height=\"389\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10733\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharmeen Chauhdry \u201920 has gained experience conducting research for programs such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo, an antipoverty initiative coordinated by Kevin Ford. Chauhdry, seen here with Ford at the city planning office, will continue her experiential education with a summer internship through the College\u2019s Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though having students work with the city is not a new idea, it\u2019s getting fresh attention because of a strategic confluence. The K <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/about\/board-of-trustees\/\">Board of Trustees<\/a> has adopted a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/strategic-plan\/\">strategic plan<\/a> for the College that calls for strengthening the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/k-plan\/\"><em>K-Plan<\/em><\/a> in part by finding more effective ways to link classroom learning to real-world experiences. And the city, with tens of millions of dollars in philanthropic support, is implementing its own strategic vision, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imaginekalamazoo.com\/\">Imagine Kalamazoo<\/a>, with new initiatives such as Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo that provide just those sorts of opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom its perspective as an institution and a brain trust and a shaper of young lives, the College benefits,\u201d says Kevin Ford, coordinator of the innovative antipoverty program. \u201cAnd from the city perspective, we have that relationship with an influential local institution and we can tap into that brain trust and the opportunity to do research\u2014things we don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s a real opportunity,\u201d says K <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/anso\/\">Anthropology<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/anso\/faculty\/kcunningham\/\">Kiran Cunningham<\/a> \u201983, long an advocate of such programs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just a win-win all around,\u201d says Laura Lam \u201999, Kalamazoo\u2019s assistant city manager in charge of Imagine Kalamazoo, who credits an early K-city learning partnership for launching her career.<\/p>\n<p>Alison Geist, director of K\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.kzoo.edu\/servicelearning\/\">Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement<\/a> (CCE), says the new partnership is far larger than anything that preceded it. A model for how it will work is Cunningham\u2019s winter term 2018 Social Research for Social Change class. Students not only read and discussed how to do research, they joined Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo to conduct it, interviewing residents about their needs.<\/p>\n<p>The student-researchers, advised by Cunningham and Ford, focused on the means low-income residents have devised on their own for dealing with barriers to employment, such as costly child care and limited public transportation. Among those strategies: pooling resources to look after one another\u2019s children during working hours and creating a sort of informal Uber to ensure jobs are accessible even when bus routes aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>As the culmination of their classwork, the students wrote a report and recommendations documenting those solutions and the residents\u2019 suggestions for how to make them more effective and broadly available. Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo is using the data in partnership with community members to devise new initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The city is in a position to carry out this work because of a burst of philanthropy intended to narrow the gap between what has been described as Kalamazoo\u2019s two divergent cultures\u2014one characterized by an uncommon cultural and educational resources, and the other plagued by persistent poverty and inequity. Underpinning the initiative, William D. Johnston, husband of former K Trustee Ronda Stryker, and William Parfet, brother of K Trustee Donald Parfet, joined forces to donate $70.3 million, creating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kalamazoocity.org\/ffe\">City of Kalamazoo Foundation for Excellence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s growing need for data to carry out its ambitious plans, and the College\u2019s push to provide students opportunities to apply their learning, are coming together at just the right time, says Geist. She says the CCE is dedicating nearly half of its upcoming internships to Kalamazoo city programs, working with City Planner Christina Anderson \u201898.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is such an amazing opportunity,\u201d Geist says. \u201cIt\u2019s a real city with real city assets. It faces so many of the challenges faced by Rust Belt cities elsewhere but it has so many resources to address those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of Cunningham\u2019s students in the winter term research class, Sharmeen Chauhdry ’20, says being part of Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo brought home lessons about how ground-level community research can pave the way for meaningful change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got to see what the real experts, the people in these situations, say about what works and what doesn\u2019t, and what they need,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The anthropology-sociology major says she now sees government as a potential career choice, and will continue her work with the city this summer in one of the CCE internships.<\/p>\n<p>Even for those who don\u2019t choose such a career path, the benefits of experiential learning with the city government can have a lifelong effect, Geist says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt creates opportunities for our students so they can learn what it means to be a citizen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10735,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10732\/revisions\/10735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10732"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=10732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sharmeen](\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/cMUMMA-0418HP-SPK-0302-lo-600x400.jpg\")