{"id":24890,"date":"2025-06-02T09:09:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=24890"},"modified":"2025-06-02T09:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:09:21","slug":"why-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/why-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Why College? Student Filmmaker Has the Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kalamazoo College international student Mphumelelo Khaba \u201925 wants to tell area high school students from global locales that college turned out to be so much more for him than he originally dreamed it would be. As a result, the possibilities for them can be endless, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaba is from Eswatini in southern Africa and serves the Kalamazoo Language and Intercultural Partners (KLIP) program as a teaching assistant guiding three K courses\u2014Language and Identity in Newcomer Classrooms, Language Acquisition, and Teaching for a Lifetime\u2014with Learning Support Specialist Candace Combs. These courses are community-based learning programs offered in cooperation with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Civic Engagement<\/a> (CCE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KLIP is a unique program in that it is facilitated through these courses and is also a student-led program<\/a> supported by the CCE. Community-based classes unite community members, faculty and students in work related to education, health equity and access, immigration and borders,\u202fcourts and criminal justice, sustainability and food justice,\u202furban planning, transportation, reproductive rights, voting, housing, public art and more. K students in Khaba\u2019s classes build connections\u202fbetween class content and work to welcome international newcomers to Kalamazoo and its public schools by applying knowledge and experience toward interactive activities, lesson plans, language learning games and structured reflection. Each course explores identity, shared experiences and community-based knowledge-building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khaba took his expertise in documentary filmmaking, picked up through courses led by Visiting Instructor Danny Kim, and decided to create What College Means to Me<\/em> on KLIP\u2019s behalf after proposing the project to Combs for his classes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the way Danny teaches his classes, filmmaking is about more than the skills and techniques behind documentaries,\u201d Khaba said. \u201cIt has life lessons embedded in it. For example, when I think about what it takes to create a documentary, you need to plan, schedule, make sure you have a lot figured out, and then contact people, trying to think about who could be a good fit for it. It\u2019s about initiating, being proactive, talking, asking and explaining what you\u2019re trying to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

International students Allan Martinez \u201925, Senchen Subba \u201925 and Akinyi Okero \u201925 are featured in What College Means to Me<\/em> along with alumna Julie Zabik \u201920 and men\u2019s tennis coach Mark Riley, who adds perspective on college athletics. The students featured in the film<\/a> were eager to share how they had a dream and made it happen through hard work, a bit of luck, and a lot of support from their families. In a tour of Kalamazoo Central, Loy Norrix and Phoenix high schools, Khaba and the three current students showed newcomers the film they created to communicate some of the benefits of college and its experiences, including friendships, athletics, confidence building, study abroad and research projects, while going over details such as affordability, personal growth and education as an investment. Their goal was to help high school students relate to the idea that college starts with a dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The documentary is not a personal assignment or Senior Integrated Project<\/a>, so \u201cI would call it a passion project,\u201d Khaba said. \u201cI do a lot of things to fulfill what is meaningful for me and this is one of them. I think I would have enjoyed seeing something like it before college, so I wanted to create it for other people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In coming up with the title, Khaba was thinking how K has changed his life. The film doesn\u2019t intend to recruit high school students specifically to K, but to show what college can help them do. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In a tour of Kalamazoo Central, Loy Norrix and Phoenix high schools, filmmaker Mphumelelo Khaba ’25 and three other current students showed newcomers “What College Means to Me”<\/em> to communicate some of the benefits of college and its experiences, including friendships, athletics, confidence building, study abroad and research projects, while going over details such as affordability, personal growth and education as an investment. The students are Allan Martinez \u201925 (from left), Khaba, Akinyi Okero \u201925 and Senchen Subba ’25.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Khaba works with students in a Kalamazoo Public Schools classroom.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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