Oct. 19, 2009

The DigestWhat’s Happening at KVCC

What’s below in this edition

She’s tops (Pages 1-3) Corrections V (Pages 12/13) Chinese show (Pages 3/4) PTK induction (Page 13) Globalization (Page 4) SSC events (Pages 13/14) Chemistry Day (Pages 4/5) ‘Sunday Series’ (Pages 14/15) Deaf’s culture (Pages 5/6) Auto Academy III (Pages 15/16) Wind Academy (Page 6) Intro-to-tech course (P-16/17) Wellness screens (Pages 6/7) Best costumes (Page 17) Managing weight (Pages 7/8) String Cheese tunes (P- 17/19) A big deal (Pages 8/9) Wind-turbine tool (Pages 19/20) Author Wade Rouse (Pages 9/10) Drumming galore (Page 20) ‘About Writing’ (Pages 10/11) Prison writings (Pages 20/21) Mask collector (Pages 11/12) Museum on TV (Pages 21/22) Yule trimmings (Page 12) ‘Visit’ Peru, Germany (P-22-23)

And Finally (Page 23)

☻☻☻☻☻☻DeKam WMU’s No. 1 philosophy alum

Instructor Kristin DeKam is the 2009 recipient of the Western Michigan University Department of Philosophy’s “Alumni of the Year Award.”

The 1999 master’s recipient who joined the KVCC faculty the following year will be saluted as part of the WMU College of Arts and Sciences’ reception to celebrate distinguished graduates on Friday (Oct. 23) from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the South Ballroom of the Bernhard Center.

Earlier at 3 p.m., DeKam will make a presentation titled “The Socratic Methods in the Community College” to an audience of WMU philosophy instructors and College of Arts and Sciences’ administrators and department chairs, followed by a question-and-answer dialogue.

“I’ll talk about pedagogy,” said the former Bloomingdale resident who earned her first degree in psychology and social work at Michigan State University in 1991, “but basically I want to brag about KVCC, dispel myths about who we are, and talk about how

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I use analytical philosophy (the Socratic Method) to teach my specific classes. I really want them to ask about KVCC and what I do out here.”

DeKam was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Bloomingdale High School where she also earned National Merit Scholar status. While at MSU where she also served as a graduation speaker, she interned as a social worker at a shelter for homeless adults and children. The summer of her graduation, she ran a day camp for Indian children and teens in British Columbia, which led to a one-year stint as a medical social worker at a nursing home in South Haven.

All of which drove home the point that being a social worker was no longer her No. 1 goal. With solid skills in the English language, she cast about for a teaching opportunity. The cast landed a long, long, long way from her roots in central Van Buren County.

“I chose China,” she said, “probably because it was the farthest away from my home town and it offered a world view totally different from mine. It was a big enough place to get lost and start over. And that is exactly what happened. The result was the most intellectual and personal transformation I have ever had.”

The language was not totally foreign to her when she arrived in the fall of 1992 under the auspices of a nonprofit educational/cultural-exchange organization based in Los Angeles. During her social-work gig, she was tutored in Mandarin Chinese at Kalamazoo College.

Over the next three years, she taught both Chinese students and faculty at the Chongqing Communications College, the Shanghai International Trade College, and the Guangzhou Business College.

“I would come back to the United States each summer for six weeks,” she said. “I came home for good when I tired of living in rough condition. It wasn’t possible to live comfortably on my salary, but I would have stayed because I loved the culture and the people.”

DeKam returned to the Kalamazoo area in the mid-1990s, enrolled in English and philosophy classes at Western, and supported herself as a substitute teacher for the Van Buren Intermediate School District and a Head Start instructor.

“Discovered” in a 300-level philosophy class, DeKam said she was advised to study the discipline at WMU, which led to a fellowship in the WMU Graduate College and her master’s. She was a full-time instructor in the philosophy department when hired by KVCC to teach her specialty, mythology, and arts in the community.

“I was completely shocked when I was told about the award,” DeKam said. “Most of the people I graduated with went on to get doctorates. But I did very well while at Western – presented at the World Congress of Philosophy and received both a research and a graduate-teaching award. I think I had to be nominated by the professors in the department.”

The award also carries the responsibility of a second presentation – this one at noon on Jan. 29 and more intellectual in nature to her philosophy peers. “It will be on the semiotics of Julia Kristeva in the context of controversial contemporary art with feminist themes,” she said.

Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, sociologist and feminist. Kristeva became influential in international critical analysis, cultural theory and

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feminism after publishing her first book “Semeiotikè,” in 1969. She travelled to China in the 1970s and wrote “About Chinese Women.”

In her leisure time, DeKam rides her war pony and thoroughbred mare. “I used to jump horses,” she said, “but now I feed them organic carrots.” She takes classes at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, visits contemporary art museums, and digs the sounds of early blues musicians.

The Alumni Achievement Awards program began in 1997 as a way of reconnecting WMU students and faculty with alumni, as well as the alumni with the College of Arts and Sciences.

The awards are given in recognition of the recipients’ achievements in their fields and for their service to their former departments. Not every department will make a recommendation every year. While each of the departments in the college provides different opportunities for the recipients, most spend a day or two on campus talking with students and faculty about their careers and experiences at WMU.

Vintage Chinese opera booked for Lake performanceA free performance of a traditional form of Chinese opera featuring artists from

the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing will be hosted by KVCC on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Co-sponsored by the newly formed Confucius Institute and the Diether H. Haenicke Institute for Global Education at Western Michigan University, the 7 p.m. staging in the Dale Lake Auditorium is open to the public as well as students and staff.

Six vignettes from classical Chinese operas will offer the audience an opportunity to learn about this type of musical creativity best known for its usage of elaborate costumes, intricately painted face masks and a unique singing style.

Performances include acrobatics, dance and martial arts. The stories on which the vignettes are based date as far back as 200 A. D.

Based in Ellsworth Hall, the Confucius Institute was established last July via a five-year, renewable agreement in collaboration with China's Office of Chinese Language Council International, known more commonly as the Hanban. The partnership will provide new Chinese-language and cultural-studies options for WMU students and faculty. It also has the potential to dramatically expand international opportunities for area schools and local businesses.

"The Confucius Institute program represents the commitment on the part of the Chinese government to extend and expand knowledge about China and its language and culture with people all over the world," said Donald McCloud, dean of the Haenicke Institute. "The program represents one of the largest intercultural education programs ever established. Although differing in format in the area of international education, the Confucius Institute program holds many goals similar to our Fulbright Scholar and student-exchange programs." One of the institute’s goals is a commitment to extend the teaching of the Chinese language and culture to students and to community residents. It seeks to strengthen collaborations with local schools and community businesses, train teachers and offer language and culture workshops, summer camps, fine-arts events and travel opportunities.

Serving as a window and bridge to China for the region, the collaboration will bring six or seven Chinese-language faculty members, financially sponsored by the

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Chinese partners, to the WMU campus each year to help the university expand language arts and cultural offerings on campus. In addition, WMU's library holdings will be enhanced, and the Beijing Language and Culture University will designate WMU as one of its major study-abroad sites, sending as many as 30 students to study in Kalamazoo each year.

The WMU Confucius Institute will be supported over its first five years with funding from the Hanban, which will be matched by WMU largely with support for such things as office space and personnel needs, assistance to visiting professors, faculty time in several colleges for institute work, travel, curriculum development and designation of an institute director. In addition to faculty salaries, funding from Hanban will provide operating funds on an annual basis.

In all, the Confucius Institute has formal partnerships in the United States with 61 universities – four of which are now in Michigan at WMU, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. Michigan is the only state with four.

For more information, contact Jaime LeBlanc-Hadley, WMU Confucius Institute, at (269) 387-3951.Trio of speakers examines local impact of globalization

How globalization is shaping today’s world and what this means for the future of Kalamazoo is the topic of a Wednesday (Oct. 21) forum at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

Three speakers will address the topic from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Student Commons Theater on the Texas Township Campus. It is free and open to the public.

The presenters will be: Kalamazoo City Commissioner Don Cooney, who is a professor of social work at

Western Michigan University KVCC political science instructor Theo Sypris, who is head of the Kalamazoo-

based Midwest Institute for International/Intercultural Education Maran Subramain, a WMU graduate student from Malaysia.Cooney will speak about economic justice in an age of globalization. Sypris will give

an academic perspective on globalization’s implication for higher education and the challenges and opportunities for community colleges. Subramain will offer his perspective as an international student.

Sponsoring the dialogue is KVCC’s Student Success Center.

For Chemistry Day, it’s elemental, my dear watchersThe periodic table of elements is the focus of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s

23nd annual Chemistry Day on Saturday (Oct. 17).From noon to 4 p.m., families can observe the mysteries, miracles and marvels of

this branch of science through more than 20 hands-on experiments, demonstrations and speakers.

Co-sponsored by the Kalamazoo Section of the American Chemical Society to celebrate National Chemistry Week, the free yearly event is staged with the assistance of chemists from industry and education.

In addition to the favorites from past observances of Chemistry Day, some of the activities will complement the nationally touring exhibit on the third floor -- “GENOME:

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The Secret of How Life Works” – that is booked for the downtown-Kalamazoo museum through Jan. 10.

Safe Halloween on Oct. 31 is also being themed to complement the intent of the exhibit.

The smorgasbord of hands-on science activities for learners of all ages to sample also offers teachers the opportunity to collect free information and materials for their classrooms.

For more information about Chemistry Day at the museum, call Annette Hoppenworth at extension 7995.

A chance to share the ‘Culture of the Deaf’People who are deaf have their own jokes, their own folklore and their own

approaches to artistic creativity in addition to their own special ways of communicating. All of that “word of mouth” and “story sharing” will come to life when Simon

Carmel presents “Deaf Folklore: Deaf People, Culture and Identity” on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in the Student Commons Theater at 7:30 p.m.

Open to the public with tickets ranging in cost from $5 to $8 if purchased before Carmel’s appearance, the program is sponsored by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Kalamazoo Rotary Club.

Since the late 1970s, the 71-year-old Carmel, who was born deaf, has been collecting anecdotes and material reflecting on the hearing impaired and the communities in which they live, how they cope in a world of sound, their forms of humor, and their modes of communication.

Raised in Baltimore, Carmel can recount a childhood in which “oralism” or lip reading was the favored way to “speak.” He remembers having his hands slapped if he resorted to signing, which he credits for his early failures at the high school level because he equated reading lips with “guessing.”

Deciding to enroll at Gallaudet University, a school no longer exclusively for the deaf in Washington, Carmel recalled experiencing for the first time an environment in which he was not handicapped, in which he was “perfectly normal.”

With his academic bearings firmly in place, Carmel went on to earn both a master’s and doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University in Washington.

Skills as a swimmer matched those he had in the social sciences, and earned him a spot on the U. S. team that competed in the International Summer Games for the Deaf in Helsinki, Finland. That experience led him to learn how to sign in foreign languages, a talent that served Carmel well when he was an interpreter for Russian athletes who competed in the 1965 olympics for the deaf.

Yet, his best sport was skiing and Carmel was instrumental in convincing the American Athletic Association for the Deaf to begin sponsoring a team for the winter games.

When Carmel joined the National Bureau of Standards, the job took him to Israel where he met deaf people from a variety of cultures. That planted the seeds of a new interest that delved into the “invisible” cultures of the deaf, to which much of the hearing world seemed blind.

“Deaf Israelis helped me understand deaf Americans better,” said Carmel, who is now based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Israeli Sign Language helped me understand

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American Sign Language. I now knew for the first time that deaf people in America have a culture.

“Deaf culture - with its stories, jokes, games, arts and crafts, legends, cartoons, beliefs, riddles and anecdotes -- is inside American culture,” he said. “It is part of American culture, but it is separate from hearing culture. And it is beautiful.”

His time in the Middle East forged a new career path - in-depth studies of the culture of the deaf.

Along the way, Carmel coordinated the first Deaf Folklife Section at the American Folklife Festival sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. He is also regarded as an expert on the Society of World Deaf Magicians.

Hosting Carmel’s presentation is the KVCC chapter of the American Sign Language Honors Society, a student club. For more information, contact the chapter adviser and full-time ASL instructor Su Cutler at extension 4862 or scutler@kvcc.edu. She is one of 11 instructors who teach ASL courses at KVCC.

Wind academy blows into town Oct. 26Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s first-of-its-kind-in-the-nation training

academy for technicians who will work on utility-sized turbines clustered on wind farms around the world is scheduled to be launched Oct. 26 at the M-TEC.

The 26-week training academy, based on skill standards established in Germany, will produce technicians for entry-level employment working on the giants of the wind-energy industry. They will complete training on May 9.

A second academy is booked to start May 17 and applications are still being accepted. Those applicants not accepted into the first session will be carried over to a waiting list for the second. The fee is $12,000.

The first step to gain access into the next academy is to complete the written application, which can be downloaded at this web site – www.kvcc.edu/training. Applications can be mailed or faxed to the M-TEC, or dropped off personally.

An algebra test is also part of the screening process, along with the results of a medical examination and documented work experience in technical fields.

The KVCC Wind Turbine Technician Academy is certified by Bildungszentrum fur Erneuerebare Energien (BZEE). Its English equivalent is “Renewable Energy Education Center.”

Located in Husum, Germany, and founded in 2000, BZEE was created and supported by major wind-turbine manufacturers, component makers, and enterprises that provide operation and maintenance services.

As wind-energy production increased throughout Europe, the need for high-quality, industry-driven standards emerged. BZEE has become the leading trainer for wind-turbine technicians across Europe.

Wellness screenings continue throughout OctoberFree wellness screenings and counseling on the Texas Township Campus are

available through Oct. 30 for full-time KVCC employees and their spouses who are both either new to the college’s program or continuing participants.

KVCC’ers and spouses can book their own 30-minute appointments through their own computer instead of making a telephone call. This can be done by going to the Holtyn and Associates website: www.holtynhpc.com and following the directions. Sue

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Avery, a registered nurse who is the wellness coach and coordinator for Holtyn and Associates, is conducting the screenings.

Here is the schedule: Monday (Oct. 19) – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 21) – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 22) – 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday (Oct. 23) – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26 – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 27 – 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 – 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30 – 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

While payoffs in the past have focused on one’s personal and individual health, it is now starting to pay off in the pay checks of employees.

The one-on-one appointments include a glucose analysis, an HDL and cholesterol evaluation, a blood-pressure check, a body-composition reading, an assessment of cardio-respiratory fitness, an overall health survey, an individual fitness assessment, and a personal consultation.

The 30-minute screenings can be done on work time. For more information, contact Blake Glass, manager of the college’s Employee Wellness Program, at extension 4177 or bglass@kvcc.edu or Avery at (269) 267-3712 or savery@holtynpc.com. She can be contacted for assistance in enrolling in the wellness program for the first time and in registering spouses.

All full-time staff, faculty and administrators – and their spouses -- are encouraged to sign up for this college-sponsored program, even if previous screenings had not identified any health risks.

Participants should wear comfortable, loosely fitting clothing. Short-sleeve tops are recommended. Fasting is not required, but it is advised not to consume caffeinated beverages two hours prior to the assessment and to refrain from smoking.

The testing is paid for by the college.“Our employee-wellness program has been successful in helping to control

health-care costs for the college and in assisting staff members achieve their personal goals,” Glass said. “We are hoping for a record number of fulltime employees to take advantage of this service. Hopefully, more participation will mean dollar savings in the

long run.” Weight-management class planned for KVCC’ers

The college’s employee-wellness program will launch a 12-week weight-management class on Oct. 27.

Through Jan. 28, participants can take advantage of weekly “confidential” weigh-ins to complement classroom presentation on all facets of healthy eating.

“Since this class does not conclude until after the holiday period,” says program director Blake Glass, “it may be just what you need to get through that difficult time of indulgences. An added feature is the exercise component one day a week that will supplement the educational aspect.”

The sessions under the auspices of Holtyn and Associates will address such topics as food labels, portion control, the value of fiber in a diet, organic foods, good versus bad

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fats, effective grocery shopping, packing a healthy pantry, and exercise modes. Among the presenters will be a registered dietitian, exercise physiologists, certified personal trainers and health coaches.

While employees will be charged for the cost of class -- $120 -- there is a 50-percent rebate for those who attend at least 20 of the 24 sessions -- 10 of 12 in the classroom and 10 of 12 exercise sessions. The class is limited to 20 people. They will write a pair of $60 checks to Holtyn & Associates, but one will be returned if attendance requirements are met. Call Glass at extension 4177 for more information. If this class fills, a waiting list will be created for another session during the winter semester.

The classes will meet on Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 4370. The exercise content will be delivered on Thursdays from noon to 1 p.m. in either the Wellness and Fitness Center or one of the gymnasiums.

The center’s line-up of free activities to promote vitality and good health among KVCC employees is under way.

Now that you’ve pared off a few pounds so that you looked good in your bermudas and swimming togs, you can stay that way into the fall and winter because of this full regimen of drop-in exercise opportunities that runs through Dec. 23.

Here is the lineup for faculty, staff and enrolled students: Monday – morning workout from 6:15 to 7:15 a.m.; swimming from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; and total body conditioning, 1 to 1:55 p.m.

Tuesday – swimming from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and yoga from noon to 12:55.Wednesday – morning workout from 6:15 to 7:15 a.m.; swimming from 11 a.m.

to 1:30 p.m.; and total body conditioning from 1 to 1:55 p.m.Thursday – swimming from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.. and yoga from noon to 12:55

p.m.Friday – morning workout from 6:15 to 7:15 a.m.; swimming from 11 a.m. to

1:30 p.m.; fitness cycling from 11:30 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.; and total body conditioning from 1 to 1:55 p.m.

Saturday -- swimming from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Except for the obvious site for swimming, these exercise opportunities will be

based in Room 6040 in the Student Commons.

Such a deal, and KVCC in line for ‘Deals’ awardKVCC’s activities in promoting wind energy and the training of technicians in

this emerging alternative source of power has been nominated by Business Review West Michigan magazine as a finalist in its 2009 “Deals of the Year” awards.

In all, the weekly magazine had designated 26 finalists in eight categories for its 2009 “Deals” salutes that honor the most significant business transactions in West Michigan that took place between Sept. 1, 2009, and Aug. 31, 2009.

Winners in the eight industry categories will be named during a black-tie gala on Friday (Oct. 23) at the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids. Finalists will be featured in a special print edition Thursday (Oct. 22) as well.

Also nominated in the education category was Michigan State University for securing a nuclear-research facility and the Battle Creek Food Training Institute. Other categories are health care, the life sciences and biotechnology, construction and development projects, real estate, business services, manufacturing, and alternative-energy initiatives.

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Other Kalamazoo-area nominees are the city of Battle Creek for its downtown revitalization, the terminal expansion at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport, the coming of the Gun Lake Casino, the purchase of Pfizer’s office complex in Portage, and Mann & Hummel adding jobs at its Portage plant.

Last July, KVCC’s foray into the arena of alternative-energy production via its Wind Energy Center based at the M-TEC received one of the publication’s annual Innovation Michigan awards for 2009.

As reported by the magazine, KVCC “is leading the way for wind-energy research and education in Michigan” as illustrated by its M-TEC becoming the national training headquarters for Entegrity Wind Systems Inc., a leading manufacturer of wind turbines that erected a 145-foot, 50-kilowatt unit on the Texas Township Campus.

Stated Jim DeHaven, vice president for economic and business development: “The Wind Energy Center improves the image of KVCC in the state and nation. It also helps improve Kalamazoo’s reputation with manufacturers.”

He also told the magazine that in October, KVCC will become the first school in the nation to host a 26-week academy to train wind-turbine technicians in the installation, maintenance and repair of the giant turbines that are clustered on wind farm.

To produce the next generation of wind-energy technicians, KVCC has also established a one-year certificate program. It began with the fall semester as has a multi-discipline eight-credit course in which students will be designing a wind turbine, fabricating its components, assembling the power-generating unit, and making certain it produces electricity.

Rural, big city and back again – author’s routeWith his latest work described as something like “David Sedaris meets Dave

Berry,” Saugatuck-based writer Wade Rouse will be at KVCC on Monday (Oct. 19).He’ll be talking about “At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream”

and reading some passages from his third book at 3 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum. His presentation is free and open to the public.

Rouse’s journey is that of a small-town boy raised in the Ozarks who dreams of the vigor and energy of big-city life. He takes that trip, first to Chicago and then to St. Louis, tires of life in public relations and designer fashions by the age of 40, and yearns for a return to his roots of a simpler life, which took him to Saugatuck where the Kalamazoo River empties into Lake Michigan as the Midwest’s version of Cape Cod.

As urban life ground into Rouse’s spirit and emotions, he began to have “a growing appreciation for what I had run from.” He recalled his grandmother quoting passages from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” instilling a deep reverence for nature.He soon realized he was no longer “an arch urbanite, sneering at those stuck in the sticks, doomed to doing the same thing day in and day out.”

After purchasing a log cabin on a five-acre wooded parcel, Rouse decided to embark on his own version of Thoreau on Walden Pond. He went cold turkey, quite his big-city job three years ago and sampled the rustic life. His experiences are chronicled in the book he will discuss on Monday.

“I cannot imagine being anywhere else and being this happy,” he told The Holland Sentinel. “These places have heartbeats you don’t find that much anymore.”

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Rouse’s other books are "Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler” and "America's Boy," both critically-acclaimed memoirs. He was also a contributing writer to the humorous-essay collection on working in retail, “The Customer Is Always Wrong.”

Rouse’s Kalamazoo visit is being sponsored by the KVCC Department of English.

‘About Writing’ bringing in Thoreau expertA wordsmith who has crafted such essays as “The Tough Life of Ants, “Thoreau

in the Burbs,” and “The Art of Dying” is the next attraction in KVCC’s “About Writing” series for the 2009-10 academic year.

Tom Montgomery-Fate, who pondered life in the ministry before opting to string words together for a living, will be on the Texas Township Campus on Thursday, Nov. 5.

All of the “About Writing” presentations in the Student Commons are free and open to the public. Each will feature a 10 a.m. session about the craft of writing and a 2:15 p.m. reading.        

Montgomery-Fate is now a professor of English at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. He has taught with his wife in the Philippine and written a collection of essays about the Nicaraguan revolution and the split in the Catholic Church.

Here is the rest of the line-up of “About Writing” presenters: Tom Springer, author of “Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness

of the Rural Midwest” and a senior editor/program officer for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation . Springer holds a master's degree in environmental journalism from Michigan State University after beginning his writing career at KVCC. He lives near Three Rivers. He’ll return to KVCC on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Poet Thomas Lynch, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Times of London, teaches creative writing program at the University of Michigan, lives in Milford, and has been a funeral director for a quarter of a century.

Lynch’s collection of essays, “Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality” has been selected to be the common reader for winter-semester English classes at KVCC where he will be making presentations on March 22-23.

In “The Passionate Religion of Barack Obama” that he wrote in February of 2008 for the Chicago Theological Seminary, Montgomery-Fate explored the origins of the words “passion” and “religion.” The latter was defined as “to bind together again.”

“A religion, then, I presumed, could both unite and enslave a community,” he wrote, “both liberate and indoctrinate, depending on how one read history and tradition and doctrine, on how one was religious, on what kind of passion one drew on.”

Deeply familiar with the writings, thoughts and philosophies of Henry David Thoreau, Montgomery-Fate frequently comes to Michigan and spends time on his farm. “The Herons Return” is about the return of the great blue herons to his idyllic abode.

In his writings, he focuses on science, religion and nature. A current project is titled “Cabin Fever: A Modern Conversation with Henry David Thoreau.” One of his pet research topics is the evolving role of courses in creative writing in two-year colleges.

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Montgomery-Fate earned a bachelor’s degree in English education from the University of Iowa where he also received a master’s in writing. He also has a master’s in religion from the Chicago Theological Seminary.

KVCC English instructor Rob Haight is the coordinator and organizer of the series. He can be contacted at extension 4452 or rhaight@kvcc.edu.

‘Spirit of the Mask’ collector to speak at museumYou could learn a lot by ignoring the advice in Jim Croce’s lyrics and pulling “the

mask off the old Lone Ranger,” but so much more insight is possible by experiencing a mask and the culture it represents than seeing who is behind it.

That’s the idea behind “Spirit of the Mask,” a 95-item collection that will be viewable in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s first-floor gallery from Saturday (Oct. 17) through Feb. 14.

It is the work of Carla Hanson who realized that masks and “masking” were special the first time she dressed for Halloween in her hometown of Waterville, Kan. After taking anthropology classes at Kansas State University and meeting people from other cultures, she purchased her first ethnic mask, soon to be followed by many more.

Her collection now numbers in the hundreds, representing more than 40 countries and many Native American nations. She will speak about her collection and travels at a free presentation set for 1:30 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 18) in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater.

Even before that, Hanson will kick off the Arcadia Commons Cultural Understanding group’s 2009-10 series of presentations on Friday (Oct. 16) with a discussion for faculty, students and staff from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the museum. Refreshments will be served.

Masks have been used in diverse cultures on every continent except for Australia. They are composed of natural and man-made materials mask-makers usually find locally. While some are intricately decorated and some are very rudimentary or abstract, others can be lifelike as evidenced in Hanson’s collection.

Masks are ceremonial or theatrical, with functions ranging from entreaties for worldly interventions on the part of a deity or ancestral spirit, to assertions of social control to advance a particular culture’s mores.

Masks can serve a singular purpose in a specific celebration, but often they are used for multiple functions. Healing, fertility, and good fortune are a few examples of masking themes. Mask wearers traditionally are nearly exclusively men, even when female characters are depicted.

“The masking traditions can teach us how these cultures deal with their lives and their environment,” Hanson says. “While masks traditionally have specific purposes, they are so beautiful and powerful that they can be appreciated as works of art as well.”

Among the masks that are part of the Kalamazoo exhibit are those originating on five continents from indigenous people in more than 50 countries, including Bali, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Nigeria, India, Brazil, Bolivia, Germany, the Ivory Coast, New Guinea, Mexico, Mali, New Guinea, Zaire, Russia, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland. Masks from a dozen Native American tribes are also included.

They range in age from 10 to 60 years old, and are made from such materials as palm froth, root dye, stains, wood, papier-mâché, polychrome, cloth, leather, natural pigments, and white clay.

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“Masks tell stories,” said Elspeth Inglis, the museum’s assistant director. “They don’t hide them.”

To help tell those stories, the museum is working with the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (K-RESA) and will host workshops for teachers of social studies in the sixth and seventh grades. Both “Spirit of the Mask” and the upstairs exhibit -- the nationally touring “GENOME: The Secret of How Life Works”— will be used as instructional resources that assist in the study of human migration.

Leading the workshops will be a pair of assistant professors of anthropology at Western Michigan University, Kristina Wirtz and Jacqueline Eng.

These sessions will be held on two consecutive Mondays – Nov. 2 and Nov. 9. Contact K-RESA to register. Additional details are available by calling the museum at

(269) 373-7965 and on the K-RESA web site. PTK selling holiday decorations

The Phi Theta Kappa chapter is taking orders for holiday greens through Nov. 13.The 24-inch Christmas wreaths, complete with mixed greens, cones and a bow,

are selling for $22. Ten-inch swags, decorated with cones and berries, are $12. Also up for sale are two-foot Christmas trees, decorated with a bow and berries,

and planted in a pot, for $18. Sections of 20-foot evergreen roping have an $18 price tag. Orders may be placed with any Phi Theta Kappa student or by emailing

ptk@kvcc.edu.Delivery is scheduled for Nov. 23.

Corrections Academy V a go for FebruaryKVCC will offer a fifth Corrections Academy from Feb. 1 through Feb. 26 at the

M-TEC of KVCC on The Groves Campus.Under the auspices of the Kalamazoo Law Enforcement Training Center at the

Texas Township Campus, the Corrections Academy prepares people for jobs in county jails and other lockup facilities operated by municipalities.

The fee for 160 hours worth of training in14 modules is $1,100. Rick Ives, who heads the center that includes the Kalamazoo Police Academy,

reports that the application procedure for the Corrections Academy produces a “healthy” waiting list, which set the stages to conduct another. Those interested should contact him.

Past enrollees hailed from sheriff’s departments in Kalamazoo, Van Buren, Cass, Barry, Branch and Allegan counties. About half are in an in-service mode because they already were in the profession while the others have been using the academy to launch a career.

The concept of an academy, he said, sprang from state legislation that now requires certification for professionals in the corrections field.

“Most of the enrollees come from those already in the profession who now need the required state certification,” Ives said, “but there are people who are interested in establishing careers in the corrections field.”

Those who successfully complete the 160 hours of training will also receive 10 credit hours that they can apply to a degree in criminal justice at KVCC.

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The college’s center is offering the academy in conjunction with the Michigan Sheriffs Coordinating and Training Council.

“The academy was created,” Ives said, “to not only meet the need for corrections certification, but also to offer a different kind of career opportunity to KVCC students. Pre-certified candidates would set themselves up with an edge in the employment market.”

All of the instructors are certified and approved by the council. Completion of the 160 hours of training becomes one of the requirements needed to become certified as a corrections officer. Each enrollee must have a high school diploma or its equivalent.

The 14 training modules are: booking and intake, correctional law, cultural diversity, custody and security, defensive tactics, ethics in corrections, fire safety, interpersonal communications, prisoner behavior, report writing, workplace harassment, stress management, suicide prevention, and first aid, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and automated external defibrillator (AED) familiarity.

For information about the academy, contact Ives at (269) 488-4459 or rives@kvcc.edu. Another source of information is at the college’s web site –

www.kvcc.edu – under the keyword of “Corrections Academy.” College community invited to PTK chapter installation

The academic, professional and networking benefits of being a member of Phi Theta Kappa will start when the newest members are inducted into the KVCC chapter at 2 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 18) in the Dale Lake Auditorium.

The KVCC chapter of the national academic honorary for two-year colleges held open houses last week to attract potential members.

To be eligible, students must carry a 3.5 grade-point average, be enrolled in 12 credit hours of classes, and be seeking a two-year degree.

Among the benefits of PTK affiliation are the potential for receiving scholarships for transferring to a four-year university, the opportunity for community service, taking part in intellectual activities, developing leadership skills, and building a network of contacts.

In recent years, the local chapter has taken part in highway clean-up activities through the Michigan Department of Transportation and in a statewide competition to donate organs for transplants.

Biology instructor Cynthia Schauer is the chapter adviser. The installation ceremony is open to the public.

Career planning, job hunting are October topicsInstructors should alert their enrollees about the events planned by the Student

Success Center that are designed to energize academic accomplishments. Career adviser Diane Finch is continuing a month-long series of “Career and

Coffee Roundtable” discussions on consecutive Tuesdays in October from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.

With each session limited to 30 students, Finch is addressing two more topics during the coffee-chat series:

Oct. 20: “Develop a Plan.” Oct. 27: “Implement Your Pursuit.”

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To have students register or get more information, contact Finch at extension 4123.

Planned for this week in the Student Commons are:(1) a workshop on finding employment on Monday (Oct. 19) at 11 a.m. (2) How to overcome math and testing anxieties is slated for Wednesday

(Oct. 21) in the Student Commons from 2 to 4 p.m. – with a repeat session on Oct. 22.

(3) A panel discussion on globalization issues is booked for Wednesday (Oct. 21) from 4 to 6 p.m. at the same location.

Scheduled for later this month is an Oct. 26 presentation about nutrition and exercise at 12:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum and a third session on finding employment, booked for Oct. 28, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.

The third segment of “What It Takes to be Successful” is pegged for Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum. Earlier that day there will be a workshop on yogic breathing at 11 a.m.

‘Sunday Series’ digs into Kalamazoo’s cemeteries “Kalamazoo Cemeteries” is the Oct. 25 installment of the Kalamazoo Valley

Museum’s 2009-10 edition of “Sunday Series” presentations. Curator Tom Dietz will dig into the community’s past at 1:30 p.m. in the Mary

Jane Stryker Theater. All of the programs are free and open to the public. The community’s founder, Titus Bronson, in his efforts to secure the designation

of his town as the county seat, promised to set aside two acres for use as a public cemetery.

Bronson’s promised cemetery, near what today is the intersection of South and Henrietta streets, was never used, according to Dietz’s research.

Rather, in December 1833, Cyren and Mary Ann Burdick, the brother and sister-in-law of Justus Burdick who owned the town’s first hotel, the Kalamazoo House, donated three acres on land at the corner of Park Place and what is now South Westnedge Avenue “to be set apart and reserved as a common burying ground.”

The first person buried there was Joseph Wood whose son was Smith Wood for whom Woods Lake is named. Wood’s funeral was in December 1833. The final burial in the West Street Cemetery, as it was known, was that of Albert Evans in May 1862.

That same year, the Kalamazoo Board of Health ordered the cemetery closed. Some of those buried there were removed and re-interred at either the Mountain Home or Riverside cemeteries. For the next 20 years, it remained a cemetery but was neglected.

In 1884, the cemetery was converted into a public park. Graves that were not removed elsewhere were left alone but their stones were turned over and covered with a new layer of soil. Today, the cemetery is known as Pioneer Park.

In 1895, Cyren Burdick’s son, R. Carlisle Burdick, sued to recover the land, claiming the city no longer was using the land as specified in the original deed of gift. City attorneys introduced as evidence the “West Street Cemetery Record of Graves” that listed the names and burial sites of more than 100 pioneers still buried there. The court rejected Burdick’s claims, ruling that while the area was used as a park, beneath the surface it remained a cemetery.

The board of health was able to close West Cemetery in 1862 because two others had been established -- Mountain Home in 1850 and Riverside in 1861.

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Headstones at Mountain Home offer a look at Kalamazoo’s history over the decades, from ordinary citizens to the prominent. There are politicians: Gov. Epaphroditus Ransom; U. S. senators Charles Stuart, Julius C. Burrows, and Francis Stockbridge; and Allen Potter, the first mayor.

Educators such as Lucinda H. Stone and her husband, James, can be found there as can social reformers like Mary Pengelly. Banker and industrialist Jeremiah P. Woodbury, casket manufacturer Oscar Allen, “The Mint King” Albert M. Todd, paper manufacturers George Bardeen and Samuel Gibson, and pharmaceutical pioneer Dr. W. E. Upjohn are among those whose final resting place is Mountain Home Cemetery.

Col. Frederick W. Curtenius returned from the Civil War in 1862, having served one year with the 6th Michigan Infantry at the age of 56. A widower, he married his second wife, Catherine Woodbury, and together they had six children. Five died in January 1881, victims of a diphtheria epidemic. Tombstones tell that tragic story.

Originally adjacent to Mountain Home, but now part of it, is the Jewish cemetery. Purchased by the Temple B’Nai Israel, such prominent members of the 19th century Jewish community as Mannes Israel and Meyer and Bernhard Desenberg are buried there.

A historic marker is located near the tomb of Edward Israel who died on an ill-fated Arctic expedition in 1872.

In 1861, a second cemetery opened in Kalamazoo Township just east of the village. Riverside Cemetery, as it was called, encompasses the land where Rix Robinson operated a fur-trading post in the mid-1820s.

In 1862, the board agreed to sell acreage to St. Augustine Church for use as a Catholic cemetery. Just north of that lies a small separate plot originally purchased by the early 20th century Orthodox Jewish Congregation of the House of Moses. In more recent decades, a Latvian section was developed.

Although it opened during the Civil War, the cemetery was not a response to the war. However, one section has become a burial site for veterans of that war. Their graves are grouped around a monument erected by the Grand Army of the Republic, depicting a Union soldier, looking south as he stands guard against any future rebellion. In a similar plot nearby, veterans of the Spanish American War can be found. Such familiar names from Kalamazoo’s history as Col. Joseph Westnedge, manufacturer William Shakespeare Jr., Charles A. Hatfield of the Kalamazoo Corset Co. and Chester Z. Bronson, first director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, are part of the Riverside inventory.

Here are the upcoming “Sunday Series” programs: “Newspaper Wars in Early Kalamazoo: The 19th Century Story” – Nov. 8 “Where the Streets Got Their Names: The Sequel” – Dec. 13 “The Making of the Paper City” – Jan. 10 “Welcome to the Hotel Kalamazoo: Kalamazoo’s Early Hospitality Industry”

– Jan. 24. For further information, contact Dietz at extension 7984.

Auto Academy III slated to start Nov. 2 Applications for the third edition of the KVCC Automotive Academy, which is scheduled to start on Nov. 2, are still being accepted.

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Just like the high-tech vehicles that it trains prospective mechanics to maintain, the academy format is being fine-tuned. It will be shorter in duration, smaller in size, and slightly redesigned in instructional delivery.

The application process has been altered and the brunt of the training will be staged in the M-TEC of KVCC, located on the college’s Groves Campus off 9th Street along I-94, instead of at the Texas Township Campus’ automotive facilities.

“There will be no textbook either,” said Cindy Buckley, director of training and development at the M-TEC. “Instead, each student will have access to a laptop computer that they can use to research on the Internet for the online maintenance services offered by automotive manufacturers and suppliers.”

Under lead instructor Hector Orlandi, there will also be a shift in instructional design. The first two academies, which ran for 42 weeks, featured a third segment that had enrollees, in effect, running their own repair shop under the guidance of their instructors.

“The new format,” Buckley said about the switch to a 33-week program, “will, instead of a separate auto clinic per se, have that kind of training integrated throughout the instructions. When the students are being trained in brake work, that’s the kind of repairs they will be making right then and there instead of waiting to the end.

“Hector believes that will be a more effective and hands-on way of learning and training,” she said, “because the students will be applying that knowledge quickly instead of waiting until later when there could be a tendency to forget.”

Instead of a peak enrollment of 17, the third academy will be limited to 12 enrollees on a first-come, first-interviewed, first-selected basis.

Among the selection criteria in the competitive process are the quality of the written applications, a “documented work ethic,” interest in and knowledge of automotive technology, and driving records.

Within five days of submitting an application, a prospective enrollee will be notified as to whether he/she has met the basic eligibility criteria and be scheduled for an interview. Notification of acceptance into the academy will also be within a five-day period.

The fee for the third academy, which will run through June 28, 2010, is $9,500. This includes uniforms valued at $300 and $7,000 in high-tech tools that automotive technicians need to function.

“The automotive academy is like a job,” said Orlandi, who has more than 25 years of global experience as an automotive-service technical engineer. “We look for students who can make a full-time commitment.”

Beginning on Nov. 2, the enrollees will be in class or in the lab from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Stressed will be the eight automotive-knowledge areas that are certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence and preparing students to reach those standards.

Financial aid is available, and scholarship funds awardable through the Kalamazoo Promise also qualify for the KVCC Automotive Academy.

A complete description and application can be downloaded at www.kvcc.edu/training. Then click on “Automotive Technician Academy.” Information is also available by calling (269) 353-1282.

‘Discovering Technology’ course planned for winter

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So you think you’d like a career in some kind of technical occupation?Enrollment willing, an overview course that stresses hands-on instructions in a

laboratory environment, “Discovering Technology,” is planned for the 2010 winter semester at Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Texas Township Campus.

Registration is under way for the semester that begins on Monday, Jan. 11. The three-credit class will meet once a week on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

through the end of April.“This is intended for students who are undecided about their career,” said

Deborah Dawson, dean of business and advanced technology, “but ‘think’ they may be interested in the technical fields.”

Enrollees will be introduced to the college’s programs in automotive technology, drafting and design, electrical technology, machine tool, welding, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Class sessions will feature presentations on such topics as machining, welding, robotic numerical control, computer-assisted design and manufacturing, fabrication methods, electrical applications, motor controls, alternative energy and fuels, and hybrid vehicles.

“They will spend a couple of weeks in each area,” Dawson said, “working mostly in our technical labs with hands-on lessons.”

Among the objectives will be learning how to:● identify major automotive systems and components● check key automotive-fluid levels● increase awareness about alternative fuels and evolving technologies that will

impact future modes of transportation ● create sketches of parts and interpret symbols used in technical drawings● identify commonly used building and manufacturing materials● understand common electrical terms● draw a schematic of an electrical circuit● understand the functioning of electrical motors and generators● safely use power tools● select the proper welding machines and equipment to perform various jobs. ● build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and develop a teamwork

approach to employment.The college’s full-time instructors in the technical fields will team-teach the new

course.For more information, contact Sue Hills at (269) 488-4371 or shills@kvcc.edu.

Frankenstein’s monster coming to KVCC?The college community is invited to come dressed for the occasion on Friday,

Oct. 30, according to an informed spooksmen.The occasion is the 2009 observance of Halloween.KVCC’ers can become whoever or whatever they want to be for a Best

Halloween Costume “competition” that will be staged in the Student Commons Forum from noon to 1 p.m.

String Cheese joins U2 as ‘Friday Night Highlights’

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The new "Friday Night Highlights" programming at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum is shifting back to live music.

The Oct. 16 attraction in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater is the Celtic and folk music of String Cheese. Tickets are $5 for the 6:30 p.m. concert.

The Ann Arbor-based duo, which performed at the recent Kalamazoo Irish Festival, features Ali Haraburda on cello and piano and fiddler/guitarist Diana Ladio. Their sound is described as the “fresh fusion of traditional Celtic sounds and young rock-influenced rhythms, putting a young, modern spin on one of music's oldest genres."

Commented one reviewer: “With their feel-good melodies and foot-stomping, rock-influenced rhythms, these girls have put a fresh, enticing spin on Celtic music.”

When not performing, the twosome can be found in classrooms throughout Michigan where they introduce alternative styles of music to string programs in high schools and middle schools and extolling the virtues of non-classical music in the music education of youth.

Each of the "Friday Night Highlights" billings is actually a doubleheader because also planned for each evening is a 8:30 p.m. showing of the planetarium show featuring the music of U2. That, too, has a $3 admission fee.

With a laser-light show in full color streaming across the planetarium's 50-foot dome, the 35-minute production will feature the classic hits of the Dublin, Ireland, combo that has earned 22 Grammys, sold 146 million albums, and warranted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year of eligibility.

The 2004 version of "The Phantom of the Opera” is the Oct. 23 attraction in the Stryker Theater. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. showing are $3.

“The Phantom of the Opera” features Gerard Butler (of “300” fame) as the Phantom and Emmy Rossum (who was only 16 at the time of filming) as Christine.

Derived from the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, the film begins in 1919, as the effects of a dilapidated Paris opera house are being sold off at auction. A chandelier once in pieces has been restored and newly electrically wired.

As the auctioneers display the restored chandelier, the opening crescendo of music wipes away the years of decay from the opera house as the black and white turns into color, and the audience is transported back in time to 1870, the beginning of the story, when the opera was in its prime. A disfigured musical genius called "The Phantom” lives within the deepest recess of the opera house. Tormented by his scarred face, the Phantom lives in the watery labyrinths beneath the structure. After nearly 10 years of quiet obsession with the delicate, ethereal voice of Christine and the beautiful young soprano herself, he plots to place his protégé at center stage. And thus, the love story and tragedy advance, and the plot unfolds.

Here is the rest of the “Friday Night Highlights” schedule that includes more movies and concerts by local combos:

Oct. 30: "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," a 1948 comedy as part of Halloween 2009.

Nov. 6: Hoot Owls and the group's style of bluegrass and country music.Nov. 13: The 2008 film "Twilight."Nov. 20: "Miracle on 34th Street," a 1948 flick to kick off the holiday season.

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Dec. 4: A free concert by the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.Dec. 11: Carmea, the trio that won the 2009 Fretboard Festival play-in

competition at the museum.Dec. 18: The 2002 movie "8 Crazy Nights."Jan. 8: Music by Belfast Gin.Jan. 15, 22 and 29: The movies "Cutting Edge,” "Miracle," and “Cool Runnings,”

respectively.

Students near completion of wind-turbine learning toolA grant awarded to instructor Bill Wangler is doing more than just make it easier

for future wind-energy technicians to work on residential-sized, electricity-producing turbines.

It is funding a multi-disciplinary project that is involving KVCC students enrolled in computer-aided design, welding, machine tool, manufacturing and electrical-technology classes.

The $1,500 grant from the MEEMIC Insurance Co.’s foundation is paying for the components and materials needed to build a mobile testing-and-measurement cart that can be used in the training of technicians who will be working on wind-turbine systems designed for residences.

A previous state grant was used by KVCC to purchase a 1.8-kilowatt wind turbine, said Wangler, who joined the college’s full-time faculty as an instructor in electrical technology in 2001. “The typical application is that it be mounted at the top of a mast – typically 33 feet in height – to expose the turbine to the prevailing winds.”

That’s great for producing electricity, but being 10 yards in the air makes it more than a bit difficult to be used as a “hands-on” instructional tool, says Wangler who has a degree in electrical engineering from Bradley University and a master’s in business administration from Northern Illinois University.

The grant from the MEEMIC Foundation for the Future of Education is handling that.

“To make our residential wind turbine employable as a classroom and laboratory instruction tool,” said Wangler, an engineer for the Bendix Corp., General Time Corp., and the Sundstrand Corp. in the 1970s, the unit – without its 12-foot blades, is being mounted on a holding fixture on the mobile cart, along with all of the required mechanical and electrical connections and equipment, and the necessary instrumentation.

“The entire system can then be used by students as a test bed with which to conduct lab projects such as measuring the turbine’s electrical output under simulated varying wind and weather conditions,” Wangler said. The mobile approach allows it to move to any location on the campus to fit the needs of any course.

That will be the end product of a multidisciplinary collaboration. To begin the process, the drafting students designed the cart and its components.

Machine-tool students fabricated the pieces and instrumental panels.Next welding students will do the assembly, and the electrical-tech students will

get it operational. The learning tool, he believes, will be ready for winter-semester classes.

“Students benefit,” Wangler said, “because they are working on a real-world project as a member of a multidisciplinary project team similar to what they experience in industry.”

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MEEMIC Insurance Co. is based in Auburn Hills, Mich. Founded in 1950 by seven teachers, it targets education employees for its variety of coverages.

Afro dancing, drumming to entertain familiesThe beat goes on – at least as it delivered in West Africa and other parts of the

world influenced by Afro cultures – will be the entertainment targeted for families at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Percussionist Carolyn Koebel, no stranger to musical performances at the museum, will be bringing in her Dunuya Drum and Dance troupe for a 1 p.m. performance in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Admission is $3.

The next family-oriented performance, featuring the music and comedy of Ron Moore, is set for Dec. 5

Dunuya Drum and Dance is described as a global drumming collective presenting music of West Africa, Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean, North Africa, and Brazil. The members strive for audience interaction via singing, dancing or playing instruments.

Koebel as a member of the Blue Dahlia combo and a percussion soloist has been booked into the museum on several occasions.

Koebel, who plays the drums, vibes, dulcimer and other percussion instruments for Blue Dahlia, has been exploring drumming and rhythm for more than 24 years. Her passion has taken her to some of the best instructors in the world. She is skilled in the techniques and style of West African, Afro-Cuban, American jazz, Brazilian, Middle Eastern, Japanese, Celtic, Italian and classic drumming.

She has served as principal percussionist with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, including the performance of a percussion concerto. She tours regionally and internationally with flutist Rhonda Larson, among others.

Koebel was the music director of the Michigan State University Department of Theater’s production of “Waterworks: Tales of the Hydrasphere.” With a keen interest in rhythm-based healing, she works as a music therapist in schools for children with special needs. The recipient of a master’s degree in music therapy from MSU, she was one of the key presenters at the 2005 Michigan Music Therapists conference.

Other Dunuya members are Calvin Ruff, Tommy Mac, Jennifer Nowlen, Kama Mitchell, Love Burkett, Jaidyn Kynaston, and Dasan Mitchell. They have traveled to regions featured in their drumming and dancing.

More information about events, attractions and tickets is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by calling 373-7990.

Prisoners’ storytelling helps them adjustHow the literary arts can be used to aid in the rehabilitation of current prisoners

and ease the transition back into society for former inmates is the theme of a pair of public presentations on Friday (Oct. 16).

Poet/author Joseph Bathanti, professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, will conduct a reading of his written words at 4 p.m. in Anna Whitten Hall and follow that up as the leader of a “Community Conversation” at 6 p.m. in the Immanuel Christian Reformed Church located at 1301 N. Burdick St.

Earlier in the day, Bathanti, who has visited prisons for 33 years and engaged inmates in the importance of telling their stories, will be meeting with elected officials, criminal-justice professionals, college students and writing instructors, youth offenders,

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and the families of those who have spent time in jail. Part of the 4 p.m. program will be readings from the poems written earlier in the day by current and former prisoners.

Co-sponsors of Bathanti’s all-day visit to Kalamazoo are the church, Kalamazoo College, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative.

Bathanti has published several volumes of poetry and a novel about the prison environment, the “keepers,” and those who are kept. His involvement in criminal justice began in 1976 when he left his hometown of Pittsburgh and traveled to North Carolina as a VISTA volunteer.

Assigned to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, he taught and coached inmates, started chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous, coordinated work-release programs, forged parole plans for those on the verge of release, and conducted weekly workshops in creative writing.

That led to a teaching position at Central Piedmont Community College and additional inmate interactions at Huntersville Prison.

Over three decades, Bathanti has guided scores of workshops in prisons around the nation, in shelters for battered women, in homeless shelters, in soup kitchens, in day-care centers, and in nursing homes -- delivering the same message to all his listeners about “the transformational power of story.”

Many of those experiences and encounters shaped the content of his book, “Coventry,” and his poetry that has garnered major national awards.

Under the sponsorship of the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, Bathanti has spoken at Eastern Michigan University and at the Artist Village in Detroit. Earlier this year, he guest-edited the “Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing,” an anthology of the wordsmithing creations of those behind bars.

For more information about the public presentations, call the Rev. Milton Wells, community coordinator for the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, at (269) 598-7718.

Historic cemeteries profiled in museum’s TV show The history of two Kalamazoo cemeteries and the people buried there who made

community history constitutes the October installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s TV show.

Featuring Tom Dietz, the curator of research at the museum, the episode will be aired by the Public Media Network (formerly the Community Access Center) on Channel 22 on the Charter cable system at 7 p.m. on Sundays, 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. on Saturdays.

The stories of Kalamazoo’s cemeteries provide insight into the community’s social and cultural history, and Dietz focuses on two of them -- Mountain Home and Riverside.

The Kalamazoo Board of Health was able to close the village’s first cemetery at what is now known as Pioneer Park in 1862 because two others had opened – Mountain Home in 1850 and Riverside in 1861.

Headstones at Mountain Home offer a look at Kalamazoo’s history over the decades, from ordinary citizens to the prominent. There are politicians: Gov. Epaphroditus Ransom; U. S. senators Charles Stuart, Julius C. Burrows, and Francis Stockbridge; and Allen Potter, the first mayor.

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Educators such as Lucinda H. Stone and her husband, James, can be found there as can social reformers like Mary Pengelly. Banker and industrialist Jeremiah P. Woodbury, casket manufacturer Oscar Allen, “The Mint King” Albert M. Todd, paper manufacturers George Bardeen and Samuel Gibson, and pharmaceutical pioneer Dr. W. E. Upjohn are among those whose final resting place is Mountain Home Cemetery.

Col. Frederick W. Curtenius returned from the Civil War in 1862, having served one year with the 6th Michigan Infantry at the age of 56. A widower, he married his second wife, Catherine Woodbury, and together they had six children. Five died in January 1881, victims of a diphtheria epidemic. Tombstones tell that tragic story.

Originally adjacent to Mountain Home, but now part of it, is the Jewish cemetery. Purchased by the Temple B’Nai Israel, such prominent members of the 19th century Jewish community as Mannes Israel and Meyer and Bernhard Desenberg are buried there.

A historic marker is located near the tomb of Edward Israel who died on an ill-fated Arctic expedition in 1872.

In 1861, a second cemetery opened in Kalamazoo Township just east of the village. Riverside Cemetery, as it was called, encompasses the land where Rix Robinson operated a fur-trading post in the mid-1820s.

In 1862, the board agreed to sell acreage to St. Augustine Church for use as a Catholic cemetery. Just north of that lies a small separate plot originally purchased by the early 20th century Orthodox Jewish Congregation of the House of Moses. In more recent decades, a Latvian section was developed.

Although it opened during the Civil War, the cemetery was not a response to the war. However, one section has become a burial site for veterans of that war. Their graves are grouped around a monument erected by the Grand Army of the Republic, depicting a Union soldier, looking south as he stands guard against any future rebellion. In a similar plot nearby, veterans of the Spanish American War can be found. Such familiar names from Kalamazoo’s history as Col. Joseph Westnedge, manufacturer William Shakespeare Jr., Charles A. Hatfield of the Kalamazoo Corset Co. and Chester Z. Bronson, first director of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, are part of the Riverside inventory. Peru, Germany next stops on campus-based tours

The South American nation of Peru and a graduate’s perspectives of Germany will be in the spotlight in two upcoming presentations sponsored by the KVCC International Studies Program.

Jarek Marsh-Prelesnik will talk about Peru in Room 4380 on the Texas Township Campus on Monday (Oct. 19). His remarks at 3:30 p.m. are free and open to the public.

Next on the itinerary will be Germany on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. It, too, will take place in Room 4380.

Marsh-Prelesnik is an alumnus of the KVCC program in international studies and received a scholarship in 2003 to study the Spanish language in Ecuador for three months.

After graduating from Goddard College in Vermont in liberal arts with a focus on Latin American studies, he enrolled at Western Michigan University to seek a graduate degree in public administration and economics. His wife hails from Ecuador and he assists John Payne in the workings of the program in international studies.

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In charge of the tour of Germany will be Nick Goodman, who is also an alumnus of KVCC’s program. He’s lived in that nation and currently serves as a tutor in that language in the KVCC Learning Center.

And finally. . .During a recent password audit at a local business, it was

discovered that the password for an administrative assistant was the following:

MickeyminniedonaldgoofyplutohughiedewielouieWhen asked why the password was so long, the assistant said:“On the day I was hired, I was told that my password had to be at

least eight characters.”☻☻☻☻☻☻

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