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Soft Suicide
No full textiv, 25 p.An original collection of six short stories. In the introduction, the author writes “Emotions, to me, sometimes feel as though they are little claws clamming down on my lungs. When I write, it seems as though one of them lets go, and I can breath in a way that’s still labored, but a little lighter, and little more painful. It feels as though mu lungs taste freedom then ache with the rawness of its absence. Then, slowly, it dulls and heals. Writing offers me the chance to weave my thoughts into a blanket instead of a net, to make meaning from what feels like madness and if not meaning, then hopefully beauty, or at least peace. My hope is that through reading this collection of short stories, a greater ability to understand and empathize with those who are struggling with mental health can be gained. Something that made surviving the most intense waves of depression even harder for me was the estrangement of those close to me. They wanted to understand what I was going through and why, but that desire required me to learn about what I was going through, understand it, figure out how it applied to me, and determine how to communicate it in a way that would be easy for others to understand. This required energy that I didn’t have. So I grew distant, and others grew concerned. This project synthesizes significant, formative experiences in my time at Kalamazoo College. Through this work, I have gained a better understanding of how I have personally been impacted by mental health challenges and I aim to carry this knowledge into my pursuit of higher education post graduation. As an aspiring chemist, mental health challenges are at the forefront of my future education and career. STEM fields are historically and currently male-dominated and lacking in diversity. This, along with “publish or perish” mentalities, veneration of self-sacrificial behaviors, and low pay and long hours have contributed to what some scientists have dubbed the modern-day “mental health crisis” in STEM. Rates of diagnosable mood disorders amongst STEM graduate and post-doctoral students are on the rise and open conversation about mental health is lacking. Increased understanding of and empathy for mental health challenges is crucial. My ability to articulate my own experiences has grown during this project and will help me contribute to this essential conversation in the future
Transgender People in Healthcare Between Argentina and the United States
No full textiv, 36p.Lack of research within the LGBTQ+ community, more specifically the transgender community, has allowed for the growth of ignorance, hate, and harm. My project attempts to counter this problem through ethnographic and qualitative research and knowledge. Ethnographic research allows me to enter communities and observe people in their environments in order to document the interactions between the transgender community and the societies that impact it. It is relevant to have conversations with doctors and patients alike to understand the injustice within the system in receiving medical, gender-affirming care. Furthermore, it is important to understand how different countries handle these injustices and to analyze the common narratives the global north continuously places on countries in the global south
The Story of Medical Knowledge and Shadowing Values
No full text33 p.This paper is a story about my life, about how I developed and grew over time, and how my mentality changed and improved regarding the medical field. Throughout life, people will change and discover their preferences and interests, which will help shape and mold their decisions toward work and higher education. Despite many interests and possible jobs, I have felt drawn to medical work, even while I was incredibly young. Many influences have shaped my beliefs and interests in this professional direction, from my family to fields of interest in school and more
The Foundations of Business
No full textii, 18 p.This past Summer, I had the opportunity to complete classes that dived deeper into the foundations of Sales and Marketing for my SIP. I learned the analytics on how businesses are run. These classes taught me the importance of knowing how every single piece of a business works. It also taught me the importance of how you need good relationships with your marketing, accounting, and financial teams. During my SIP, I acquired 56 certificates in different aspects of the business world. This well-rounded educational experience allowed me to expand on the foundation I built during my junior year internship at Mitten Distribution & Containers and the classes that I have taken here at K
The California Center for Climate Change Education: Approaching Climate Change from an Economics Perspective Senior Individualized Project
No full textii, 14 p.Over the 2024 summer months, I worked as an unclassified paid intern (UPI) at The California Center for Climate Change Education at West Los Angeles College (WLAC) in Culver City, California. During my time there, I helped organize events for the Climate Change Center, including outreach and presenting. I also attended conferences for the center to expand my knowledge on the varying impacts and approaches to solving the climate crisis. Additionally, my role was to focus on climate change and its relationship with the economy. I was exposed to economic concepts I had yet to learn, including circle economy, the degrowth movement and the loss and damage fund. The loss and damage fund reminded me of work I completed in my Economic Growth and Development class I took at Kalamazoo College in the fall of 2023, which motivated me to look for an internship related to climate
Senior Integrated Project: Online Skills Building Reflection
No full text7 p.For my Senior Integrated Project here at Kalamazoo College, I chose to complete online courses related to business in order to complement coursework at K and contribute to my professional development. The courses I chose focused on topics including data analysis, data visualization, and Microsoft Excel. These subjects are complementary to each other, and relevant to business courses here at K and businesses in the professional world. I selected these courses because I have a general interest in data, and it has become increasingly utilized by companies to gain insight and thus make better informed decisions. In this reflection I will describe the courses and elaborate on their connections to the business major coursework at Kalamazoo
Lesbian representation in Pornography : Queer Women and the Push to Reclaim Representation
No full textxiv, 37 p.The question that I ended up producing was: how does lesbian pornography, which is made by men, that caters to the male gaze affect young queer women’s views on their sexuality, sexual empowerment and sexual exploration? The way that I intended on doing this by interviewing young queer women, older queer women, and sex workers. My plan was to work in these three categories of interviewees in three profiles, of multiple people that I would be able to work together in order to create a cohesive large SIP, which would have also worked as individual pieces. I wanted to be able to potentially publish each piece individually. My goal was to be able to interview three people from each group of people. I did successfully interview three younger queer women. The age range I wanted for older queer women was between forty-five and up. I joined a group on Facebook for lesbians and asked if people would be interested in participating in being interviewed for my SIP
Unraveling chimera DNA, implications for forensic investigations and legal outcomes
No full textiii, 13 p.Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) serves as a fundamental tool in forensic science for identifying individuals and establishing biological relationships. The biological phenomenon chimerism in which an individual possesses two or more genetically distinct cell populations, introduces complexity into forensic DNA profiling. Conventional forensic methods rely on the assumption that individuals have a single, consistent, genetic profile, which can lead to misinterpretation of evidence when dealing with chimeric individuals. This paper examines the different forms of chimerism – tetragametic, artificial, and microchimerism – and explores the potential challenges they pose to traditional analysis methods. Analyzing both documented and theoretical cases underscore the need for advancements in understanding and interpretation of chimeric DNA in the context of forensics
Environmental and outdoor education, aided by alternative education methods
No full text14 p.The impact humans are having on the planet is increasingly detrimental, both to nature and to the future inhabitants. To combat that, educators must turn to alternative educational methods, stepping outside of the traditional systems, and create more nature-based learning experiences. This is necessary for creating a good relationship between nature, especially traditionally disliked species, and humans, through environmental and outdoor education. Additionally, if these educational efforts focus on children, then the likelihood of the information spreading to the rest of the community increases. In educating the public, the door is opened for community scientists, who can further individual projects, along with assisting in widespread scientific experiments that need large swaths of data. This overall creates people better prepared to encounter and interact with nature in a positive manner, as opposed to the destructive manner seen in the past
Land Protection and our Global Future: An Imperative Nexus
No full textiv, 20 p.The ultimate survival of our planet relies on a wholistic approach to preserving and restoring nature’s most delicate and crucial biological systems. Earth’s health and humanity’s survival depend on the strategic protection and management of our land and natural resources. The protection of northern Michigan’s forest, grassland, and sand dune ecosystems is extremely interconnected with, and ultimately preserves, downstream ecosystems as well as human individual and community health and well-being. Efforts to protect and restore northern Michigan’s complex ecosystems, particularly the efforts of Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC), involve protection from development and human destruction, as well as sustainable methods of ecological restoration. The exponential downstream impact of these practices essentially safeguards entire watershed systems, wildlife habitats and corridors, sustainable development, individual access to nature, and individual and community health and well-being