June 16, 2008

The DigestWhat’s Happening at KVCC

What’s below in this edition Grant deadlines (Page 1) Steel My Summer (Pages 10/11) Refining oil (Pages 1-3) Fitness challenge (Pages 11/12)

Our All-American (Page 3) KAFI camps (Pages 12/13)

Guiding vets (Pages 3/4) NanoMed (Pages 13-15) ‘Bridges’ to science (Pages 4/5) Swiss film (Page 15) Jefferson exhibit (Pages 5/6) Fitness activities (Pages 15/16) $cholar$hip$ (Pages 6-8) Looking for Hickories (P-16/17) ‘Castle’ opening (Pages 8/9) Calling all callers (Pages 17/18) Bachelor No. 1 (Pages 9/10) And Finally (Pages 18/19)

☻☻☻☻☻☻KVCC Foundation sets grant-proposal schedule

For the 2008-09 academic year, the KVCC Foundation has established funding-application deadlines for internal grant requests.

Faculty and administrators interested in seeking funding for programs and projects have three application dates beginning in September.

Here’s the scheduled: ● Proposal deadline – Sept. 30; decision by the KVCC Foundation Board of

Trustees, Oct. 30.● Deadline – Jan. 19; decision, Feb. 19.● Deadline May 8; decision, May 21.For more information, contact Steve Doherty, KVCC’s director of development,

at extension 4442 or sdoherty@kvcc.edu.

From the deep fryer into the fuel tankWhat’s cookin’ in the automotive-technology lab?It’s bio-diesel fuel that – through the magic of chemistry – is coming from

vegetable oils that had been used to cook chicken strips, perch, turkeys, mushrooms, French fries, and jalapeno peppers.

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Larry Taylor, the coordinator of the automotive program, launched the initiative to convert cooking oil into bio-diesel fuel for two major reasons.

“The No. 1 reason,” he said, “is to take a re-usable source of energy that is normally thrown away and make a fuel that can power some of the college’s fleet of vehicles and machinery, which is a money-saving venture.

“The second big reason is to use what is called the ‘Freedom Fueler’ as an educational resource,” Taylor said, “and that is already become a reality for those who are enrolled in the program in chemical technology.”

The unit, with all of its bells and whistles, filtration system, fittings, nozzles, and pumps, costs $4,400.

So what’s the payback?The used vegetable oils – from soybeans, peanuts, seeds, etc. – have been donated

by KVCC staff members and by restaurants, such as Zeb’s Trading Co. at Texas Corners.The automotive program has to buy methanol and sodium hydroxide – which is

basically lye – to catalyze the concoction.“Let’s say we have 50 gallons of vegetable oil,” said lab manager Ted Forester.

“To that, we’ll add eight to nine gallons of methanol, which costs $3.60 per gallon. A bag of sodium hydroxide is about $25, and we’ll use about 100 grams of that in the mixture.”

The result is an 80-percent conversion, or about 40 gallons of bio-diesel. The Western Michigan University bio-diesel program sells a gallon for $3.50,”

Taylor said, “while the cost is about $5 at the pump. When it’s all said and done, we come out about $150 to the good with each batch.”

“The amount of lye that we use in a batch,” Forester said, “depends on what the oil was used to cook and how often it was used, because that affects the acidity. The sodium hydroxide tempers the acid content.”

KVCC chemistry instructor Rick Margelis is among those providing the knowledge to get the batches “just right.”

“If you use too much lye (sodium hydroxide), you get soap,” Forester said. “If you don’t use enough, you end up with a worthless jelly. Rick has been providing the knowhow to help us determine the oil’s acid content by titration and thus use the right amount.”

Forester explained that the lye is compounded with the methanol prior to the two substances being added to the oil in the processing vat.

The next step in the process is equally interesting.The chemistry produces biodiesel fuel and glycerin. Those two are allowed to

settle and be separated. However, the bio-diesel still needs to be “cleaned” of suspended glycerin and other “nasties,” and that cleaning is done by water out of the tap.

“You add the water and shake it up,” Forester said. “The water cleans the fuel and takes the suspended solids down to the bottom of the container. You let it set for a day or two, and the liquid is crystal-clear bio-diesel. The congealed stuff at the bottom is basically soap, and can be flushed down the drain.”

The converter is obviously a teaching tool for students in the automotive-technology program who want to become familiar with alternative fuels.

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“But the bonus is coming from students in chemical technology,” Taylor said. “This is very effective cross-discipline instruction. The chemistry students are able to see how the theory is proven out in practice and reality.”

"We are very excited to work on the biodiesel project with the auto lab,” said Jessica Lerette, a coordinator in the chemistry lab, “because it allows us to apply our knowledge of chemistry to a practical application in this time where alternative fuel sources are becoming more prevalent." Lab assistants Danielle Michalek and Phillip Pearson are also involved in the bio-diesel venture.

Forester said the glycerin residue doesn’t have to go down the drain either, because it can play a very effective role in back-yard composting.

Those who donate used cooking oil to the KVCC program can get some of that in return if they want.

Another milestone for KVCC athleticsFirst there was Shannon Dumond; now there is Dave Brelinski.Brelinski, who played shortstop for the 2008 KVCC Cougars, made the National

Junior College Athletic Association All-American Team.He earned first-team honors for hitting .479 for the 2008 season. Earlier this year, a Cougar was named as a “national player of the week” for the

first time in the 40-year history of athletics at KVCC.That honor went to Dumond, a 5-8 guard from Wayland Union High School, as

the National Junior College Athletic Association’s “Player of the Week” for Division II women’s basketball.

Brelinski is a 2006 graduate of Clarkston High School, which is located about halfway between Pontiac and Flint. He is pursuing a degree in secondary education and will enroll at Western Michigan University next fall on a baseball scholarship.

His All-American performance also earned him first-team status in the Michigan Community College Athletic Association and first-team honors at the regional level.

“He has great instincts as an infielder and a great arm,” said Coach Bernie Vallier who led the Cougars to a 33-18 record. “He led off for us this year and scored 57 runs.”

He called the 5-11, 184-pound shortstop “a solid player and a great example of the character we strive for in young people.”

Dumond, a resident of Dorr in Allegan County, earned her distinction by leading the Cougars to a 2-0 record that week, including a 69-67 win over Lansing and a 61-54 win over Lake Michigan. Enrolled at KVCC since the fall of 2006, she is majoring in dental hygiene. Dumond netted18 points, passed the ball for eight assists, and made two steals. She followed that with 25 points, six assists and four steals in the win over Lake Michigan.

Commons hosts Veterans Resources DayVeterans of military service who are ready to start the next chapter in their lives

are invited to an overview of the training and educational opportunities available to them.The Veterans Resource Day, co-sponsored by the Michigan Department of Labor

and Economic Development and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, is set for 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday (June 18) in the Student Commons on the Texas Township Campus.

It is free and open to the public.

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On hand to make presentations will be representatives of veterans organization, officials from KVCC and Western Michigan University, and job-placement and job-training administrators from the state of Michigan.

The WMU Advocacy Office for Transfer Students and Military Affairs will be joined by KVCC representatives who will talk about admission requirements, the prospects of financial aid, employment opportunities in technical fields, career paths, academic counseling, and college credits that can be earned through prior learning and work experiences.

Scheduled to offer information to veterans from throughout Southwest Michigan are the Veterans Administration, the U. S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship, Michigan Works!, and Ralph McKay, a veterans resource specialist for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

The college’s classrooms and labs used for automotive technology, welding, electrical technology, machine tool technology, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning will be open for tours.

For more information, contact Colleen Olson, director of prior learning assessment at KVCC, at (269) 488-4744 or colson@kvcc.edu.

5 students in ‘Bridges’ program at WMUFive KVCC minority students are taking advantage of an opportunity to sample

careers in science this summer. They are among a larger student contingent taking part in the 2008-09 National

Institutes of Health’s “Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program” through the Western Michigan University Department of Biological Sciences.

The KVCC students are Allen Foulkes, Michelle Gonzalez, Cordell Lucas, DeLight Brown, and Ayodele Jubril

In addition to the 30 hours of experience that will pay $10 per hour this coming summer, students can also be assigned up to 15 hours per week during the 2008-09 academic year.

The mission of “Bridges” is to offer minorities enrolled in community colleges the opportunity to relevantly explore scientific fields, enhance their academic accomplishments in science courses, and smooth the path toward a degree in a science field at a four-year university.

Taking part in this kind of endeavor teaches higher-order thinking skills, which is an important component of anyone’s education.

“Bridges,” which promotes institutional collaborations between community colleges and four-year universities, is a function of the National Institute of General Medical Studies, one of the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to KVCC, taking part in the NIH Michigan Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program at WMU are Grand Rapids Community College, Henry Ford Community College, Kellogg Community College, and Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor.

The WMU experience focuses on careers as biomedical and behavioral scientists who would spend their working years seeking the causes of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and other biologically impacted maladies.

“Bridges” seeks to nurture minority students to consider careers in these fields because of the growing need for trained scientists in one of the fastest-growing industries

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in the U. S. economy. Similar programs in Michigan are based at Wayne State University and the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids.

The program liaisons at KVCC are chemistry instructors Robert Sutton and Charissa Oliphant.

Last summer, the KVCC participants included Alex Jubril, Bettina Smith, Erica Moore, Arianna Rhan, Talline Martins, Leslie Adebeyo, Ruben Galvan, Jealyn Foston, Matt Watson, Robin Satkey, Martin and Carmen Kuchta, Bridgette Chiomba, Dominique Ousley, Delicia Powell, and Jerbor Nelson.

According to Sutton, Nelson landed a job at MPI Research based on his research experience in the Bridges program.

KVCC’ers invited to Jefferson opening SundayThomas Jefferson’s far-reaching interest in the sciences is the theme of an

exhibition that will fill the first-floor gallery of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum from Sunday (June 14) through Sept. 1.

Featuring scientific instruments, furniture, maps, and Native American objects from the period of Jefferson’s life, all are from the private collection of Paul Millikan, retired professor of history at KVCC.

Millikan will be on hand to meet visitors and talk about the artifacts from 3 to 5 p.m. on that opening day. The college community is invited to the opening reception.

“I have always had an abiding interest in the genius that was Thomas Jefferson,” said Millikan, who taught history at KVCC for 32 years. “A true Renaissance man, he was statesman, architect, political philosopher, author, diplomat, designer, musician, collector, inventor, and always the keen observer, analyst and recorder of the things around him.”

Born in 1743, Jefferson grew to adulthood during the Age of Enlightenment, and lived to see the beginnings of America’s Industrial Revolution before his death on the Fourth of July in 1826. In one of U. S. history’s most remarkable coincidences, fellow American Founding Father John Adams died that same day – the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson had a passionate interest in learning, from political philosophy to the latest invention or scientific discovery.

That curiosity was not only a personal thirst for knowledge, but was aimed at applying that knowledge to better the lives of humankind.

In Jefferson’s time, scientists were often referred to as “practical philosophers” who were trying to learn as much as possible about the natural world and scientific phenomena.

Jefferson, who came to be recognized as a pioneer in numerous branches of science, said: “No inquisitive mind will be content to be ignorant of the sciences of astronomy, natural history, natural philosophy, chemistry, and anatomy.”

Following his two presidential terms, Jefferson in retirement at his home in Monticello said: “Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.”

The exhibition provides a glimpse of the range and breadth of his scholarship and pursuits.

“Upon my first visit to Monticello in 1962, I was very much taken with Mr. Jefferson’s interest in natural history and his collections of specimens,” said Millikan,

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who is also a prolific collector of Civil War artifacts. “I began to read about all of Mr. Jefferson’s scientific interests.

“When I purchased part of the petrified tusk of a mammoth,” he said, “the collector bug had bitten and I determined to collect duplicates of as many of the scientific instruments, specimens, and objects in Mr. Jefferson’s inventory at Monticello as I could. The results of that collecting interest are presented in this exhibit.”

In the exhibition are an 18th-century electric-generating machine, surveyor’s equipment, telescopes, maps, and a replica of a painted buffalo robe given by the Mandan Indians to Lewis and Clark, who sent it to Jefferson.

Specially featured is a pair of Country Chippendale chairs that were made to Jefferson’s order for him at the joinery at Monticello.

All other pieces are duplicates of items that Jefferson owned. The originals are found at Monticello, the University of Virginia, and the Peabody

Museum at Harvard University. “It is my hope that the exhibit will add to the education, inspiration, and

enrichment of this community and the surrounding area,” Millikan said. “I believe it to be a unique look at an often overlooked facet of one of our most diverse

and complex founding fathers,” he said. Foundation fund-raiser builds scholarship kitty

An audience of nearly 300 heard Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page plea that it should be the mission of every citizen to make certain that America’s young people are challenged and steered to the right educational path, and their participation at the May 19 KVCC Foundation’s Opportunities for Education (OFE) fund-raiser brought in $44,325 for that cause.

A member of the National Football League Hall of Fame for his 15 seasons mostly with the Minnesota Vikings, Page said this nation, while it has made significant strides, must continue to strive for racial equality and justice.

He paraphrased words that Robert Kennedy spoke during the height of apartheid in South Africa – Each time a man stands up for the rights of other, down come the walls of oppression and resistance.

“That can be our calling card in dealing with the future of race relations and the education of kids,” Page told the banquet that was underwritten by National City Bank. The 2007 event garnered $30,915.

The 62-year-old former All-American at Notre Dame said that major doses of “future and hope” must be infused in too many young people “who engage in anti-social behavior because they have no moral compass. With no hope for what they can be, they have no stake in society. They have nothing to loose. People who have no stake in a society usually try to destroy it.”

That stake, that hope, that future can become theirs through the power and enhancement of education, Page said.

He flashed back to his classroom days as a political science major and a particular professor who believed in the Socratian method and was not afraid to intimidate his students, even some to tears.

Page, a dominating force on the football field as a defensive tackle, admitted that the instructor injected a bit of the fear of God in him as well. “I decided to prepare

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myself as best I could in the event he called on me in class,” Page recalled. “I was not used to being afraid. He seemed to only call on students whom he sensed were afraid.”

Afraid or not, D-Day came and Page was called upon. “My mind went blank to his question,” he said, “but I knew I had to say something. It turned out that what I responded was OK because I was prepared.”

The strategy allows people to “size up a situation and respond appropriately,” said the 1978 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. “Sometimes, our own fears create the greatest personal obstacles. Even if fears cause us to stumble, good preparation allows us to recover.

“The most important thing we can all do,” said Page, who was elected in 1992, as an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court, “is to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn and that they are challenged to learn it.”

Page called the educational strategies of the past and present “inconsistent. More has been said than done. We are talking about the future of our country, our way of life. We must – must – prepare our children to be our next bankers, our next community leaders, our next educators, not our next crooks.”

Page said he was lucky in his upbringing. “My parents and my family were my role models. If I was to be better than they, I needed to be educated and to be a good citizen. Our challenge is to help our young people see these opportunities for themselves and to get prepared.”

While Page had the parental guidance and spirit of preparation to achieve both academically and athletically, if he had his druthers, he would want the young people of today to emphasize their scholarship more than their jump shots, fast balls, golf swings or times in 400-yard run.

Page urged his listeners to become engaged, to nurture the education of children “one child, one school at a time. I have seen so many examples of the positive impact that education has had on young people. It motivates them to move forward, to accept challenges, to succeed and “to give back to their communities.

“Education,” he said, “is the path, the tool to make a difference.” To that end, he urged his listeners to become involved with young people, to stress that they take their academics even more seriously than they do a hook shot or cross-over dribble.

“What if we honored students and teachers the same way this country honors athletic accomplishments?” he asked rhetorically. “It is so important to help students of all ages see the connections between what they learn in the classroom and what they can be in the future.

“We can create hope in them, we can give them a vision of their future and their country’s future,” Page said. “Our role should also be to demonstrate the characteristics of integrity and honesty, to give them working examples. They should see us make the right choices, not the easy ones.”

As a mentor, he said, “We should say what we mean, and mean what we say. Tell the truth. Treat all people with respect, and certainly, we should respect ourselves.”

Reflecting on the perspectives of Martin Luther King Jr., one’s judgment of others should not be based on religious belief or skin color. The No. 1 factor should be that person’s character.

For this country to be true to its democratic essence, he said, “we must never play the race card again. We must eradicate all of that from the American scene. No more

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sitting in the back of the bus and having separate drinking fountains. We are still a long way from racial equality. Take a look at the prison population, for example. We are not a color-blind society yet.”

Page believes that is the result of a nation of “indifference” as opposed to prejudice. The country can move to being “color blind” by “looking inward” and by removing biases for “people who look different than us.” He believes that “9-11” has thwarted that kind of perspective in recent years.

“We must learn to live with one another,” Page said. “We can get all of these problems under control. The solutions are here, are inside all of us. It all starts with each and every one of us. All of us have the opportunity to make things better, and that starts with making certain are children are educated and prepared.”

‘Enchanted’ to open ‘The Amazing Castle’Those who attend a pair of special showings of Disney’s “Enchanted” the evening

of Friday (June 20) will get a preview of the “The Amazing Castle” exhibition that opens to the public the following day at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.

“Enchanted,” which was the first feature-length Disney live-action/traditional animation hybrid since “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1988, will be shown in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater at 6 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 and seating is limited. Attendees are invited to dress in medieval castle garb for the evening's festivities.

The museum’s latest nationally touring exhibition is a fantasy medieval castle and village from days of yore that serve as the venues for defining what “community” is all about in contemporary times. The free bilingual attraction will have a three-month stay in downtown Kalamazoo until Sept. 14.

“The Amazing Castle” is targeted to entertain youngsters from toddlers to pre-teens, while at the same time delivering messages about the collaborating roles people play in the success of a community.

“Enchanted,” released in late 2007, is described as both paying homage to and being a self-parody of conventional Disney animated features. It makes numerous references to Disney's past and future works, and blends live-action filmmaking, traditional animation and computer-generated imagery.

The plot focuses on an archetypal Disney princess who is forced from her 2D-animated world, with its playful and talkative animal companions and musical interludes, into real-life New York City that is not exactly like “The Magic Kingdom.” Among its performers are Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey and Susan Sarandon as the wicked hag who wrenches her from fantasy to reality.

“Enchanted” was well-received critically and garnered two nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards and three nominations at the 80th Academy Awards. The film also proved to be a commercial success, earning more than $300 million worldwide at the box office.

So, what’s in “The Amazing Castle” for adults?Conceived and created by the Minnesota Children’s Museum in St. Paul, the eight

themes of “The Amazing Castle” and their hands-on activities allow plenty of opportunities for family and friends to be entertained by watching children use their creative energies and imaginations. The youngsters are actually experiencing village life through the perspectives of characters working together to throw a castle party.

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“The Amazing Castle” and its magical role-playing as lords and ladies, carpenters, cooks, gardeners, tailors and seamstresses, entertainers, blacksmiths, and builders will be welcoming visitors in downtown Kalamazoo into mid-September. While no moat is involved, the slowly meandering Arcadia Creek flanks the exhibition’s home for those three months.

The special duties and roles of the characters will be explored and experienced as visitors make their way through a variety of workshops in the castle village.

Instead of individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the activities make the points that a community consists of different kinds of people, and for that community to succeed, people must help each other solve problems and work toward achieving common goals.

An important role in “The Amazing Castle” is that of the town crier. But this newscaster comes in the form of “Herald the Dragon,” a creature feature that has a tendency to fall asleep on the job.

However, the child participants and their families can get “Herald” to deliver the latest news and make castle-wide announcements by solving an electronic matching puzzle that sends the dragon a wake-up call. “Herald” will rise from the top of a tower and tell the world what he knows.

According to the Minnesota Children’s Museum, “The Amazing Castle” can launch children into “a world of dramatic play and imagination” as they and their families become inhabitants “of a fanciful castle village and playfully explore ideas related to community life.”

Donning costumes as they assume roles, they can: ● Harvest fresh ingredients from the castle’s garden and become a cook mixing a

mouth-watering stew in the Great Hall’s cauldron.● Capture the creativity of a carpenter in constructing a small chair.● Build a small fortress out of lightweight “stone.:● Try their “hands” as purveyors of entertainment as puppeteers and court jesters.The exhibit’s design creates the impression of stepping into a time machine and

dialing up the Middle Ages in a playful way. Arches, towers, split-beam construction, hand-cut stone walls, and heraldic symbols abound.

“The impression of a small, bustling village within castle walls,” a promotional brochure states, “is attained by assembling a group of structures related to the basic functions of a community – working, eating, playing – and making them quickly identifiable. Life-sized images of rather comical castle residents stationed in the doorways and at work further the perception of being in a village or community,” and that it is time for a little fun.

Joining with the museum in St. Paul in supporting the creation of “The Amazing Castle” was the Curtis and Marjorie Nelson and The Curtis L. Carlson Family

Foundation, along with the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) Foundation Inc. He’s the most eligible bachelor ‘Barr’ none

As part of a fund-raising venture for the Southwest Michigan affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, KVCC’s Ken Barr Jr. has been selected as one of the finalists in the Kalamazoo Most Eligible Bachelor Contest slated for Saturday (June 14) at 7 p.m. at the Wayside West “watering hole” on Stadium Drive.

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The finalists hail from eight counties in Southwest Michigan. Tickets at the door for the fund-raiser in the fight against breast cancer are $15.

Fashionable dress is encouraged for this event. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges who will take into account audience reaction to each contestant.

A Muskegon native, Barr is a success advocate and career adviser for the Arcadia Commons Campus unit of KVCC’s Student Success Center. The University of Michigan graduate with a degree in psychology has worked in hotel management in Grand Rapids and in advertising sales for The South Bend Tribune.

As a manager, he mentored employees to seek job promotions while encouraging others to go back to school.

He eventually reached an important signpost: “What I really loved was developing people. Since I had a strong belief in education, why don’t I try to develop people in an educational setting?” Barr says. Researching career ideas and talking to people in higher education – a preview of what he now advises KVCC students to do -- led him to leave his job and enter a full-time graduate program at Western Michigan University.

While there, Barr acquired a position as a graduate assistant in WMU’s career services office, which immediately seemed like a good fit. “Within two weeks I knew it was for me. It was a home run,” he says.

Barr landed an internship in KVCC’s Career and Assessment Services Office in mid-2006, before graduating that December with a master’s in counselor education and counseling psychology.

When KVCC’s new Student Success Center opened in 2007, Barr was on the job as one of its first employees.

Youths will build a car at ‘Steel My Summer Because an overwhelming majority of the 23 participants called a one-week

summer camp in manufacturing in 2007 “awesome” and “pretty cool,” KVCC is planning a second edition.

Once again, designing a radio-controlled, scale-model car, fabricating its components, and assembling them into a finished product to be test-driven and raced will be the capstone activities of “Steel My Summer II,” a summer camp for youths interested in careers in manufacturing.

Funded by a $5,000 grant from the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Foundation, “Steel My Summer” will convene the week of June 23-27 on the Texas Township Campus.

While designed for a maximum of 24 campers, 27 applications were received and all will be accepted if the payment deadline is reached. There is also a waiting list for those who missed the application deadline.

Over the five-day period, students ages 12 to 16 will engage in hands-on, interactive pursuits that expose them to the advanced technologies required in today’s manufacturing. In addition to the cars they build, campers will take home a “Steel My Summer” T-shirt.

Manufacturers will add to the experience by hosting field trips and by providing speakers who will discuss employment opportunities that are on the horizon as the current generation of high-tech machinists nears retirement.

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The prime message will be the excitement of conceiving and crafting valuable products through the optimum use of technical and human resources.

Partnering with KVCC’s technical programs in sponsoring “Steel My Summer” are the Education for Employment (EFE) consortium and the Kalamazoo YWCA’s TechGYRLS and mentoring programs.

The camp fee for each participant is $60. Some scholarships are available through the grant. Eligible are youths who attend the 10 K-12 school systems that are in KVCC’s in-district boundaries, who attend parochial and private schools located in Kalamazoo County, or who reside in Kalamazoo County.

Attendees will be introduced to computer basics, learn about computer-assisted design, drafting and manufacturing, be schooled in fabrication, metal-shearing and assembly processes, and have the opportunity to talk with manufacturing practitioners. The campers will be machining many of the key parts they will use in making their cars.

They will receive up-close looks and demonstrations of the college’s instructional programs in welding, machining, drafting, material science, automotive technology, electrical technology, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The camp director will be Howard Carpenter, a KVCC instructor in materials science and machine-tool technology.

“Steel My Summer” will provide “real-life exposure to clean, bright and productive manufacturing facilities,” Carpenter said. “Guides and speakers will represent the industry and deliver the message that these are no longer dark, dank and highly dangerous jobs. They are high-tech and challenging.”

In addition to the challenge of actually creating a product – in this case a 2-foot, scale-model car that can be equipped to run by remote control – the campers will learn about the skills they need for this kind of a career, the type of training they should acquire, and salary expectations.

For more information about the camp, contact Deborah Dawson, KVCC’s dean of business and advanced technology at extension 4219 or ddawson@kvcc.edu.

Fitness challenge nets $800 for studentsA bettering-yourself initiative that sprang from a fitness presentation offered

during Faculty Seminar Days last fall will be paying dividends to students who encounter unanticipated financial and personal hardships.

A post-presentation conversation among instructors and staff ended in a consensus to “doing something, to challenging ourselves.”

The perfect time to start would be the first day of a semester and the end of that semester would be equally perfect for measuring the results.

Ten picked up the challenge during the fall semester of 2007, while six went to the post for the winter-semester “competition.” They put their money where their workout togs were, and each anteed up $100 in prize money.

The participants – faculty, staff and even students -- decided on a win-win ending. Half of the kitty would go to the winners of categories of “competition” and the other half – some $800 – was deposited in Marilyn Schlack’s presidential-discretion fund that serves as a “cookie jar” for students encountering emergency needs.

“We thought that would be good for us, and good for the students as well,” said one of the challengers who all agreed that anonymity would be the code.

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Instead of seeing how fast they could run 100 yards or how much weight they could put over their heads, the challengers adopted a format that allowed any of them to win.

The measuring sticks would be sit-ups, body-fat/mass index, how far one could cover in 12 minutes on a treadmill, a stretching and flexibility reading, and pushups.

“So you don’t have to be built like a linebacker to take part,” he said. “What we do is like what happens in a golf or bowling league. It’s handicapped. Age is also factored in.”

The participants were across the board, from those who were somewhat fit to those who were not so somewhat fit.

They all began at ground zero with pre-start measurements of all of the categories. Progress was periodically measured, charted and logged by Fitness Challenge Commissioner Joe Brady, who is also sworn to secrecy.

The measured success and progress earned points, again awarded by “The Commish.” A specific number of pushups or sit-ups didn’t matter, for example. The key was improvement from where the person started.

Other than Brady’s trackings, there was no paperwork, no organization, no structure – just the individual person and the individual challenge to tone the body and mind in the realm of physical exercise.

“Sure, there was some money on the line,” said one of the participants, “but what was important was the challenge you laid on yourself to improve yourself. At the end, the questions you asked yourself: Are you better for it? Did you learn anything? My answers are yes.

“It’s all about trying to be the best we can be by challenging each other,” he said, “and in the process helping some students be and do the best they can in the classroom.”

Those who would like to join in this anonymity in the 2008 fall semester can contact Brady at extension 4877 or jbrady@kvcc.edu.

The pre-test phase will be held during Faculty Seminar Days and the results will be gauged just before fall-semester exams.

KAFI animation camps getting under wayElementary, middle-school and high-school students who are energized by the

creative medium of animation and by the lure of video games can sign up for “do-it-yourself” workshops this summer.

Designed for interests and skills of children as young as 9 and through the upper teens, the 13 Kalamazoo Animation Festival International (KAFI) Academy workshops – from three to five days each, and one that spans nine days -- will all be held in the KVCC Center for New Media in downtown Kalamazoo beginning June 16.

Costs for the multi-day series of instructions and hands-on activities range from $150 to $300.

Here’s the summer-camp schedule: ● Aspiring Animator: Characters and Players – June 16-19, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,

ages 9 and up.● Guerilla Filmmaking – June 16-20, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., ages 11 and up.● Game Design – June 23-June 27 and June 30-July 3, 1 to 5 p.m., ages 15 and

up.

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● Filmmaking: The Cutting-Room Floor – June 23-27, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., ages 11 and up.

● Aspiring Animator: The Magic of the Bouncing Ball – June 30-July 3, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., ages 9 and up.

● Aspiring Animator: Claymation Creation – July 7-10, 1 to 5 p.m., 9 and up.● Aspiring Animator: Experimental Animation – July 14-17, 1 to 5 p.m., ages

9 and up.● Animation I: Fundamentals – July 14-18, 1 to 5 p.m., ages 15 and up.● Animation II: Production – July 21-25, 1 to 5 p.m., ages 15 and up.● Animation III: Putting It Together – July 28-Aug. 1, 1 to 5 p.m., ages 15 and

up.● Art of the Comic Strip – July 28-31, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., ages 9 and up.● Graphic Novel and Comic Art Foundations I – July 7-8 and July 10-11, 9

a.m. to 1 p.m., ages 13 and up.● Graphic Novel and Comic Art Production II – July 14-15 and July 17-18, 9

a.m. to 1 p.m., ages 13 and up.“These are one-of-a-kind opportunities,” said Valerie Eisenberg, who coordinates

special projects at KVCC’s Center for New Media. “All of the workshops are project-based, and each participant will leave with a finished product to take home.

“The quality of the 2007 KAFI workshops was terrific,” she said, “and was demonstrated at one of the Art Hop exhibits the center hosted. We plan to do that again at the September 2008 Art Hop. We expect even better results because the workshops are greater in number this year.”

She said family members and friends will be able to view the results themselves because, built into each of the workshops, will be a two-hour block of time at the end to allow for exhibitions of comic-art drawings or screenings of the individual animation projects that will vary in length up to one minute.

The week-long workshops will be structured to allow participants to continue their efforts at home if they have the required computer software. For example, the graphic-novel workshops will convene for the first two days and the last two days, with the Wednesday set aside for massaging ideas and concepts at home.

“Our programs for those who are just beginning in the art form – the kids 9 to 12, and even younger,” Eisenberg said, “are designed for them to take their drawings and artwork to the next level, which is animation as they see on television. They have a chance to learn animation from soup to nuts, from the basics through each step, each component of an animated product.”

With the acquired step-by-step skills sets, the youngsters will be able to take what they learn and continue to create animation on their own because they will understand the process.

“None of this is taught in a school nor at any other arts-enriching organization in this part of the state,” Eisenberg said.

The “Game Design” workshop runs for nine days this time around. “We learned from last year,” Eisenberg said, “that five days was not long enough to create a finished product to the satisfaction of the participants.

For more information and details about each workshop, or to register, call (269) 373-7920 or go to the KAFI Academy website at http://kafi.kvcc.edu/academy.

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Life-science firm based at M-TECThe business and laboratory headquarters of NanoMed Pharmaceuticals are now

based in the M-TEC of KVCC.Chief Executive Officer and President Steve Benoit describes it as a specialty

pharmaceutical company that uses nanotechnology to develop therapeutic and diagnostic products that can treat or detect cancer and other serious diseases.

The native Californian was recruited to the Midwest by The Kellogg Co. to head its $250-million natural-foods division in the late 1990s. It was a homecoming of sorts because Benoit’s grandmother hailed from Jackson.

Prior to that, the business and finance major at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles had developed an interest in the life-science arena by working for an agricultural, food and biotechnology company in northern California.

“Four years into my stay at Kellogg,” said the Kalamazoo resident, “I realized that I wanted to shift my career path back to the life sciences.”

Attending one of Southwest Michigan First’s “First Tuesday” sessions that were designed to link venture capitalists with fledgling entrepreneurs, Benoit’s path crossed in August of 2001 with the two University of Kentucky researchers, Russell Mumper and Michael Jap, who had formed NanoMed Pharmaceuticals the year earlier.

“We connected and formed a deal,” said Benoit, who assumed the CEO duties in 2001.

Did that mean a move for Benoit and his family to the home of The Kentucky Derby? Not exactly. He wanted to stay in Southwest Michigan, and the growing life-science cluster in this part of the state was part of the attraction. His partners agreed with Benoit, who started his career with Bank of America.

NanoMed Pharmaceuticals set up corporate shop on July 1, 2006, and began to lease laboratory space near the M-TEC’s Michigan High Throughput Screening Center in August of 2007. The staff is now at six full-timers, including several former Pfizer scientists and technicians.

In developing early stages of advanced drug-development technologies in conjunction with both medium-sized and major pharmaceutical companies, Benoit estimated that NanoMed is about 12 to 18 months from moving its lead product – a cancer drug used to treat adults diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia – into clinical trials.

In the summer of 2006, NanoMed became the first recipient of funding from the Southwest Michigan First Life Sciences Venture Fund. That financial support is helping NanoMed complete the development work and move toward the clinical-evaluation stage.

Benoit, who holds a master’s in finance, has been a guest lecturer for the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, for the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and for the Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University.

A member of the board of directors is Gabriel Leung, now president for oncology at OSI Pharmaceuticals. He spent four years as a group vice president for Pharmacia overseeing oncology research and development projects.

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Another board member is Douglas R. Morton. Jr., who joined The Upjohn Co. as a research scientist in 1973 and logged more than 30 years through the company’s transition to Pfizer Inc. in a variety of leadership positions. He has authored or co-authored 45 peer-reviewed scientific publications and holds 43 U.S. patents.

Nanotechnology refers to a field of applied science and technology that involves the control of matter at the atomic and molecular levels, and the fabrication of devices, materials and products that are within that size range. Chemistry and biology are only some of the fields of science now dealing with the so-called “nano scale.”

Swiss film reflects on Balkan women’s perspectivesWrapping up the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s Thursday-evening showings of

acclaimed foreign films on Thursday (June 19) will be the Swiss production of “Fraulein.”

It will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Tickets are $3.Born in Switzerland to parents from Bosnia and Croatia, writer-director Andrea

Štaka grew up with a fascination for her native country’s blend of multiculturalism and alienation. An exploration of displacement, her “Fraulein” raises questions about the meaning of nationality and the indelible effects of a lost homeland.

Set in Zurich, the film is an intimate portrait of three strong-willed women from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. One left Belgrade for Switzerland in the 1970s, hoping for a better life. Twenty-five years later, she owns a cafeteria that she runs with an iron fist. She works long hours, counts her daily earnings, and eats supper alone. She has no desire to return to Serbia or revisit the past.

Her longtime employee is different. Although she has lived in Switzerland for decades with her husband and sons, her dream is to build a house on the Croatian coast.

While they belong to the generation that left home to improve their economic prospects, the 22-year-old third character is from Sarajevo and has a globetrotting free spirit with a few secrets. When the young traveler enters the strictly ordered microcosm of the cafeteria, her zest for life and impulsive ways stir something within the older women and disrupt their routine.

Štaka’s film relies heavily on visual elements to portray the complexity of her characters, while allowing the political to be refracted through the prism of the personal.

“Fraülein” nabbed awards for Best Film at the Locarno International Film Festival, and for best film and best actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival..

More information about events and attractions is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling 373-7990 or (800) 772-3370.

Trim the grass. . .and your body this summerIf cutting the grass and having one-on-one combat with dandelions are not enough

to keep you fit and trim this spring, then the KVCC employee-wellness program has a full regimen for you.

Staff, faculty and enrolled students are eligible for five days of physical activities designed to exercise those extra calories off of the frame.

Through July 31, open swimming is available on all five days – 11 a.m. on Monday, 7 a.m. on Tuesday, 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 7 a.m. on Thursday, and 11 a.m. on Friday.

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A variety of classes will also convene through July 31 in Room 6040 of the Wellness and Fitness Center on the Texas Township Campus.

Here’s the schedule:♦ Core conditioning: Monday at 1:15 p.m. and Wednesday at the same time.♦ Yoga: Tuesday at 11 a.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m.♦ Pilates: on Tuesday at noon.Blake Glass, the manager of the employee-wellness program, also advocated that

staff, faculty and students available themselves of walking and jogging routes that are available both indoors and outdoors. Call him at extension 4177 for route details.

He reports that personal-training appointments are available with Shelia Rupert by contacting her at extension 4184.

KVCC grad authors nature tomeKVCC alumnus Tom Springer has penned a Midwest version of Henry David

Thoreau’s “Walden,” although it is much more a tome about the wisps and wisdom of southern Michigan nature as opposed to a philosophical treatise about contemporary times.

“Looking for Hickories” is described as Springer’s ode to the natural beauty and lore of southern Michigan, containing equal parts of Robert Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bill Bryson as well as a bit of Thoreau-ism. Springer’s southern Michigan is “a place where bustling communities sit alongside a mosaic of woods, fertile grassland and miles of farmland.”

A senior editor at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation who lives near Three Rivers with his wife and two daughters, Springer will talk about “Looking for Hickories” on Tuesday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m. in the main headquarters of the Kalamazoo Public Library in downtown Kalamazoo. He will be joined by his illustrator, Ladislav Hanka.

Springer’s anecdotes capture the essence of nature and highlights the unique character and spirit of the Upper Midwest. Themes include barn building, the preservation of land for the common good, and the fate of the sassafras tree, now considered a weed but once looked upon as having powerful healing capabilities for a variety of human illnesses.

Like Frost’s poetry, Springer’s essays often begin with delight and end in wisdom. They combine a generosity of spirit and child-like pleasure of first discovery with the grown-up sense of a time and a place – if not lost, then in danger of disappearing. They should be treasured and preserved for today and tomorrow.

Active in Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy, Springer has written about nature and outdoor travel for newspapers and magazines. His commentaries have been aired on National Public Radio.

Years ago, Springer thought his work days in Michigan would be spent keeping people hot in the winter and cold in the summer.

Already working in the trade, he was one course shy of receiving a two-year degree in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning at KVCC.

Then he walked into Raelyn Joyce’s writing course and a whole new world opened up, one that spans climates and continents these days in his duties for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

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Wordsmithing as a profession seemed about as far away as the moon when Springer “barely” graduated from Three Rivers High School in 1977 with an academic average on the wrong side of a “two-point.”

“No doubt about it,” he said, “I was a terrible student. I had no discipline and poor study habits. I loved to read, but only what I wanted to. I would read the novels assigned for a class and then not do the assignments related to them. If I wasn’t interested, I didn’t apply myself.”

His father, a factory worker who had shifted to barbering, advised he pursue some kind of a trade. Springer tried asphalt paving and other “menial jobs” before he settled on an apprenticeship in HVAC. But what really gave him some bearings to quit “muddling around” was a 1981 decision to join the Michigan Army National Guard.

By the mid-1980s, he was at KVCC pursuing that “trade.” In his path was a writing course, one of the requirements for his degree. “Yuk,” he thought, “here I go again. Another nuisance class.” Not quite.

“Raelyn’s course was an eye-opener,” said Springer, who, prior to his retirement from the National Guard, covered its military deployments as a journalist in Panama, Honduras, Italy, Germany, Latvia and Lithuania. “She had us writing personal expressions about personal experiences, which is something I still enjoy to this day. For the first time, school was relevant and interesting. I had some ownership in what I was doing.”

Springer was doing well in his HVAC program, but life in that profession had lost its zing. His heart was now in writing.

“I had no idea you could write for a living,” he said, “and that there were all kinds of careers for people who enjoyed writing.” Next came a technical writing class at KVCC from John Holmes, and he was hooked.

“I saw the power of writing,” said Springer, who has been with the Kellogg Foundation for almost 20 years. “The ability to describe and capture the world excited me. What Raelyn and John taught me, I still use on the job.”

Whether his pursued trade was a dead end to his creativity or the fact that his employer was planning a layoff, Springer snipped the HVAC umbilical cord. He enrolled at Western Michigan University as a communications major, graduating in 1988. That included an internship and later a temporary position at the Borgess Medical Center where he crafted a newsletter.

“Borgess was a great training ground,’ he said. “It is a little city packed with human-interest stories. If you can’t find one, you’re not looking hard enough.”

His military commitment took him to an intensive 10-week course in basic journalism from the U.S. Defense Department’s Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. He was drilled in the basics of grammar, the Associated Press style, “just-the-facts” reporting, and meeting deadlines.

All of which put him in great position when the Kellogg Foundation spread the word that it needed a “communications associate” in March of 1989. Since then, his passports has been stamped with destinations in South American, Latin American and southern Africa. Springer went on to earn a master’s in environmental journalism from Michigan State University.

That’s what one would call “a whole new world opening up.”

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Call students, build enrollmentKVCC's annual calling campaign to contact enrolled students who have not yet

paid for fall-semester classes is scheduled for the week of July 28-Aug. 1, and volunteers are needed.

It's a chance to help prospective students not lose their classes, and to help the college build a healthy, vital, ever-growing enrollment.

Those who have made the calls in past years report that students, their parents, and friends deeply appreciate the gentle reminder, and the college's caring environment.

And it works. A typical effort involves making around 5,000 calls with 80 percent resulting in

students making their payments prior to batch cancellation. Organizer Pat Pojeta says that if 100 volunteers step forward, the load will be

lightened on all those who make the calls. Contact her at extension 4018 or ppojeta@kvcc.edu.Volunteers may make their calls during the workday at their work stations. They will have the full week to complete their calls. Scripts will be provided with clear, easy-to-follow instructions on how to record information. These scripts will be delivered to each volunteer the morning of Monday, July 28.

“Many a volunteer has remarked how fun it is speaking with our students,” Pojeta said, “especially as they begin preparing for another exciting school year ahead at KVCC. They seem happy to hear from us.”

And finally. . . Can you cry under water?How important does a person have to be before they are considered

assassinated instead of just murdered?Why do you have to “put your two cents in,” but it's only a “penny for your

thoughts?” Who gets the extra penny?Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were

buried in for eternity? Why does a round pizza come in a square box? What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON television? Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in

binoculars to look at things on the ground? Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

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Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why

can't he fix a hole in a boat? Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're

both dogs!If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME stuff, why didn't

he just buy dinner?If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables,

what is baby oil made from?If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?Do the “Alphabet Song” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” have the same

tune? Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

☻☻☻☻☻☻

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