life-with-k Archives

Life with K Winter 2024

Dear K Alumni:

Homecoming and Reunion Weekend 2023 was another exciting time on campus with events for everyone to enjoy while reconnecting with one another and the College. Along with President Gonzalez and his wife, Suzie Martin Gonzalez ’83, we were thrilled to welcome so many alumni back to campus in early October!

I had the privilege of visiting all of the reunion classes with Jorge and Suzie. During these visits, Jorge reminded alumni that returning to campus is one of the many ways to help foster lifelong connections with each other and current students. He spoke about the five points of engagement and how these opportunities offer ways for K alums to stay connected with K and help move the College to even higher levels of excellence.

Jorge emphasized how volunteerism, engagement and philanthropy make such a difference in the lives of our students and prospective students. Here are a few highlights of alumni engagement during the past year:

Nearly 700 alumni participated in the Alumni Admission Volunteer program, doing everything from writing notes to prospective students to participating in admission events.
More than 50 alumni participated in career and professional development events in the previous academic year, and many more offered to network with students or posted jobs and internship opportunities through the Center for Career and Professional Development.
Along with volunteering for Admission and the CCPD, nearly 350 alumni volunteered in some capacity for alumni events, serving as class agents, hosting regional events or serving on reunion committees.
Over 3,000 alumni contributed $9.5 million dollars to the College last year, through gifts large, small, and everywhere in between. As it has always been, philanthropy from our alumni and friends is vital to the present and future of the College.

Whether you were on campus for homecoming or are waiting for an upcoming reunion year to “come home,” I hope you will continue to remember what K has meant to you and consider how you might participate in one of the five points of engagement in the year ahead. The College values you and thanks you for all the ways you connect with the College to keep K shining bright for future generations of students.

Sincerely,

Kim Sullivan Aldrich ’80
Director of Alumni Engagement

Engaged alumni help move Kalamazoo College to higher levels of excellence. You can advance K’s mission and help build its reputation as one of the country’s exceptional liberal arts colleges.

Give Back to K

Identify and recruit prospective students.
Develop students through mentoring and career preparedness opportunities.
Participate in alumni lifelong learning opportunities.
Serve as a volunteer.
Make a charitable contribution.

Life with K a Resource and a Joy

A Resource and a Joy

Milo Madole ’12, president of the Kalamazoo College Alumni Association Engagement Board (AAEB), offered some sage advice to the Class of 2023 at commencement.

Addressing the uncertainties and insecurities that many new graduates face when finding a job or moving to a new town, Madole said, “When fear and self-doubt start to creep in—and if you’re like me, they will—I want you to remember that you’re not alone now, and you never will be, because there are over 20,000 other wicked smart, wacky, weird and wonderful Kalamazoo College alumni who have walked this stage before you.”

Nurturing these connections among alumni is something that Madole, a history major at K and a current real estate attorney, is incredibly passionate about, and it’s central to the mission of the AAEB.

The board—whose mission is “to foster and maintain lifelong active relationships between Kalamazoo College and its alumni, and to promote the general welfare of the College and the engagement of its alumni with the College and each other”—focuses on enhancing connections in three key areas: alumni to alumni, alumni to faculty and staff, and alumni to both current and prospective students. But in particular, this current board is focused on enhancing the bonds among alumni.

Whether you’re a newer alum or one whose retirement is in the rearview mirror, there is much to be gained by joining or hosting alumni events in your area, reaching out to someone for coffee via the alumni directory, attending homecoming, or tuning in to a virtual K Talk with a current or emeriti professor. You never know who you may meet, what you may learn, or who you may help.

For Madole, his service on AAEB is due in part to the way that K changed his life and his desire to pay it forward. But more than that, he said, “I also get so much joy out of getting to know other alumni who are not in my class, who were not in my major, who didn’t go on the same study abroad program as I did, and maybe had a very different K experience in the 1960s or ’70s. And yet, we can identify on a fundamental level because we have this shared mindset.”

These relationships can be a significant benefit for alumni who connect and reconnect through alumni events and volunteering. “These friendships have become such an important part of my life. I almost feel selfish, like I don’t feel as if I’m serving. I feel like the College is serving me still.”

And for those alumni who are facing the future with a bit of trepidation, or want to talk about their careers, or just meet kindred spirits?

As Madole noted to the Class of 2023, just reach out: “As a graduate of the College, you are a member of the Kalamazoo College Alumni Association. If you want it to be, K—and your fellow alumni—will be a resource and an ally and a source of joy for the rest of your life.”

Engaged alumni help move Kalamazoo College to higher levels of excellence. You can advance K’s mission and help build its reputation as one of the country’s exceptional liberal arts colleges.

Give Back to K

Identify and recruit prospective students.
Develop students through mentoring and career preparedness opportunities.
Participate in alumni lifelong learning opportunities.
Serve as a volunteer.
Make a charitable contribution.

Life with K: Sharing the K Experience

Robyn and Mike Woods-DeWitt with their son

When Robyn (Page) Woods-DeWitt ’06 came to Kalamazoo College, she was interested in both French and teaching. She ultimately ended up marrying her two interests into plans to teach French.

Robyn also ended up marrying Mike Woods-DeWitt ’06, whom she met in the cafeteria during their first year at K and started dating in their second year.

Today, the couple lives in Des Moines, Iowa. Mike works in analytics and supply chain for CommonSpirit Healthcare, and Robyn works part-time as a shift lead at a bowling center and is primary caregiver for their 7-year-old son.

As a student at K, Robyn studied abroad for nine months in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and completed her Senior Integrated Project (SIP) translating a novel from French into English for Professor Emerita Kathy Smith. Other influential professors in the French department included Jan Solberg and Henry Cohen. Robyn also had a work-study job that involved working with students at a nearby elementary school.

Like many students, Mike started at K with no clear direction. After a study abroad experience in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was exposed to agricultural economics, and a SIP in the religion department with the late Professor Emeritus Waldemar Schmeichel, he graduated with a dual major in economics and religion.

Mike was a founding member of the short-lived Kalamazoo College Mud & Mayhem Society as well as a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. In addition to Schmeichel, Mike found mentors in Religion Professor Emerita Carol Anderson and Economics Professor Emeritus Ahmed Hussen.

They both remember sledding down the quad on lunch trays, watching senior streak day, and the surprise elation of the Day of Gracious Living. These days, they honor their experiences by giving to K on the Day of Gracious Giving.

The two have established a scholarship in Mike’s mother’s name, and in addition to making regular contributions to that scholarship, they have long been generous donors to their respective departments as well as to the Kalamazoo College Fund.

“K has meant a lot to both of us, and the College Fund is the easiest way to support the College,” Mike said. “I hope our giving allows more people, and people from a more diverse background, to experience K. I think so highly of my time at K that I really want it to be available to anyone who wants that experience.”

For Robyn, the scholarships she received at K motivate her desire to give back.

“I like knowing that if we give the College money, then they’ll have more money to give to scholarships,” Robyn said. “For me, that’s a big deal. We also want to support the College as a whole, whatever the College needs, and we know that need changes.”

“The general fund is a great way to give back and share that K experience with others,” Mike said. “K is a really special place to me, to us, and giving to the Kalamazoo College Fund is a way to ensure that it can be a special place for others and for many years to come.”

Engaged alumni help move Kalamazoo College to higher levels of excellence. You can advance K’s mission and help build its reputation as one of the country’s exceptional liberal arts colleges.

Give Back to K

Identify and recruit prospective students.
Develop students through mentoring and career preparedness opportunities.
Participate in alumni lifelong learning opportunities.
Serve as a volunteer.
Make a charitable contribution.

Life with K: Paying it Forward

Connecting Kalamazoo College students with alumni has always been a key strategy for the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD).

As part of the center’s new strategic plan, which gives focus to uplifting historically underserved students, the mentoring approach has a new twist. Recognizing that these students face unique challenges in preparing for and entering the workforce, the CCPD aims to facilitate more mentoring based on shared identities and affinities.

The strength of that type of connection is clear to Michelle Fanroy ’88, vice president of the Alumni Association Engagement Board, member of the Kalamazoo College Board of Trustees, and founder and president of Access One Consulting, which provides leadership development, mentoring program design and diversity planning and training to corporations.

As a female, Black, middle-class, first-generation (her mother attended college but did not graduate) college student, Fanroy relied on mentors in the CCPD and on her own determination to find her way through academic, financial and workplace struggles. Now she delights in sharing her experiences and hard-won lessons with students who face similar challenges.

“I love coming back to campus,” Fanroy said. “I love talking to students, especially first-generation students, students of color and women. It’s so rewarding to help them find their way. I want them to feel they have someone who understands their experience.”

Fanroy has spoken on panels, visited with students at the Intercultural Center, participated in Amy MacMillan’s marketing class “Shark Tank” and more. She is quick to hand students her card, and promises that if they reach out to her, she will help in any way she can.

She recalls a time when a student called her because she needed a new computer to complete her schoolwork.

“She was African American, she was first generation, she was on financial aid, and she was struggling,” Fanroy said. “I said, ‘I was in a similar situation. They do short-term loans on campus; go to financial aid, tell them the situation.’ She called me a few days later; she’d gotten the loan, she’d gotten the computer, and she said, ‘I can’t thank you enough. I didn’t know what I was going to do.’ It’s little things like that, the struggles you had that might help somebody else. I was able to give her a resource when she felt like she was all by herself.”

Identity-based mentoring is one of many strategies the CCPD is employing to improve career mobility for underserved populations of students. To that end, the CCPD will be sending out interest forms to alumni to find out what identities and affinities they are willing to share in mentoring and advising relationships with students.

As someone who values what K brought to her life, Fanroy prioritizes paying it forward.

“If there’s ever a legacy that I want to have, it’s that I want to have made someone else’s experience a bit easier than mine,” Fanroy said. “I feel that I’m helping to do that and that gives me great joy.”

Engaged alumni help move Kalamazoo College to higher levels of excellence. You can advance K’s mission and help build its reputation as one of the country’s exceptional liberal arts colleges.

Give Back to K

Identify and recruit prospective students.
Develop students through mentoring and career preparedness opportunities.
Participate in alumni lifelong learning opportunities.
Serve as a volunteer.
Make a charitable contribution.