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Community Gardeners : A Series Inspired by Natural Communities at Delano Farm
No full textiii, 25 p.During the summer of 2023, I was given the opportunity to intern at Delano Farm, a regenerative agriculture CSA in Kalamazoo Michigan owned by the Kalamazoo Nature Center. The farm is named after the Delano family who once owned the property. The house where the Delano family lived is on the property and maintained by the Nature Center. Delano Farm serves as a community supported agriculture (CSA) enterprise during the summer and fall. This means that local shareholders buy into the farm at the beginning of the growing season. Throughout the season, as crops become available, shareholders come to collect and harvest the produce. In the summer season of 2023, Delano Farm served 84 families with their CSA. During my time at the farm, the CSA members and their families came weekly to collect what we had grown. Many of these CSA members brought their children with them to the farm. The farm provides these families with opportunities to educate their children about where their food comes from, which encourages them to eat, not just more, but a larger variety of vegetables. As farm director Kirsten Clemente likes to say, “The farm grows everything from A to Z, from asparagus to zucchini.” Furthermore, the farm also maintains a flower and herb garden so that CSA members are able to take home fresh flowers each week. The CSA system is the building blocks for which Delano has created a large community of people. From members, employees, volunteers, and interns like myself the farm serves as a site for community engagement. My Senior Integrated Project highlights these community members in a series of paintings. Six paintings – each showing different interactions within a large and diverse community – provide a window into my summer and the creatures with whom I had the pleasure of spending it. These paintings demonstrate the overlap of the ecological community at Delano and the community of people who benefit from the relationships. They are portraits of one large community of cooperators, consumers, producers, parasites, and students. Understanding this farm as a complex community caused me to understand my relationship to nature in a different way. At the farm I was directly participating in an ecological community. I was not just interacting with nature: I was a part of it. My project aims to display humans as equal participants and members of ecological communities. I accomplish this through a series of paintings that show humans interacting with nature in a position of partnership, not domination. The subjects of my paintings are the ecological communities that I found and participated in at Delano farm. By displaying humans within the context of natural environments, my paintings act as a statement acknowledging humans as nature and emphasizing the importance of strengthening and acknowledging the inherent bond we share with the natural communities around us. Art can demonstrate ideas and values through evoking emotion. But more importantly painting is something that I love to do, and I see no better way for me to share my thoughts and love for Delano communitie
Administrative Work and Observations at Healing Moments Counseling
No full textiii, 27 p.The purpose of this project was to complete about 10 weeks of work at a private counselling clinic called Healing Moments Counseling, located in Monticello, MN. My work consisted of virtual administrative work, and I was fortunate to observe and take notes on two in-person counseling sessions. I served a vital role scheduling appointments, archiving, and logging sensitive client information with confidentiality. Although I originally intended to spend more time observing a variety of counselling techniques and therapies, I was able to dive deeper into my role as an administrative intern and reflect on both my observations and day-to-day work. I achieved over 100 hours working for the clinic and found myself growing in numerous valuable skills that will serve me in my future as a psychology student and aspiring Speech Pathologist, including communication, teamwork, patience, compassion, technological competence (through familiarity with software), information management, and creativity. Additionally, through the information I managed and my observations during counseling sessions, I made various connections to my Psychology coursework at Kalamazoo College
Synthesis and Characterization of Mn(II) Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands
No full textiv, 24 p.Coordination complexes of second and third-row transition metals such as Ru(II), Ir(III), Os(II), and Re(I) have been used extensively for photochemical applications which include use in photovoltaic cells and photoredox catalysis due to their photophysical properties. These metals are precious, however, which has engendered the recent search to find more sustainable alternatives: complexes of more abundant transition metals which exhibit similar photophysical properties as suitable replacements. The relative abundance and low toxicity of manganese make it a suitable metal for investigation, as well as its ability to access several oxidation states. Our work focuses on Mn(II) complexes synthesized using a series of Schiff base ligands of the (Phenyl)-pyridine-2-methyleneamine (ppa) family. The ligands have been synthesized from commercially available anilines and pyridine carboxaldehydes, in which the electronics of the ligand have been varied through the substituents on the aniline ring. These substituents include: -CF3, -NO2, and -CN. These Mn(II) complexes are synthesized alongside their Zn(II) counterpart complexes and these complexes are then analyzed via x-ray diffraction and their photophysical properties characterized via UV-vis spectroscopy and electrochemistry to further understand the effect of their electronic structures
Faculty Committee List, 2023-2024
No full textIncludes standing and ad hoc faculty committees and their members
Power, Purity, & Precarity : The Social Position of Ancient Priestesses
No full text69 p.This Senior Integrated Project (SIP) analyzes the powerful and precarious social positions of the Vestal Virgins of Rome and the Oracle of Delphi in Greece in relation to ordinary ancient women’s religious position, represented by the Cult of Artemis at Brauron. While modern scholarship focuses on identifying the social categorization of the priestesses in their respective social contexts, there is a lack of literature using a cross-cultural analysis to identify their social positions. By examining the similarities and differences in the position of the Vestal Virgins, the Oracle of Delphi, and the Cult of Artemis at Brauron, this paper rejects the strict categorization of the priestesses and explores a different way of thinking about their role-- as one that consistently crosses different social boundaries
Examining the Neuroprotective Effects of 7-hydroxy-2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone in Glutamate Excitotoxicity model of C. Elegans
No full textvii, 22 p.There are 600 neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that are affecting about 50 million Americans each year. Glutamate excitotoxicity is a pathway that plays a role in neuronal death and degeneration across several neurodegenerative diseases. In the Williams’ lab, 5-HPEC has proven to have neuroprotective activity. Because 5-HPEC and 7-HPEC are a subclass of 2-(phenylethyl)chromone, this study examines if 7-Hydroxy-2- (2-phenylethyl)chromone (7-HPEC) will have the same properties and neuroprotective effects in C. elegans as their family compounds. Developed in the Driscoll lab, a glutamate excitotoxicity model of C. elegans was used to prove the effects of 7-HPEC. The results indicated that although 7-HPEC does not have a significant impact on neuroprotective effects in a C. elegans glutamate excitotoxicity model, there is a decrease due to its effects but is not comparable to its 5-HPEC. 7-HPEC had limited effects when quantifying the number of necrotic neurons
Residual Biomarkers in Medical Device Cleaning Validation : A Review of Current Methods and Biological Justification
No full textiii, 17p.Modern reusable medical devices require extensive biochemical analysis to ensure devices are not only compliant with regulatory bodies and industry standards, but also that devices pose minimal risk to patients— especially when reusable medical devices come into contact with sterile tissues. Current industry standards identify five residual analytes to be tested when medical devices undergo simulated use cleaning tests. The specific residual analytes that can be measured are protein, hemoglobin, carbohydrates, total organic carbon, and adenosine triphosphate. The residual presence of any of these analytes is often indicative of microorganismal contamination or ineffective cleaning procedures on medical devices and can indicate the presence of bioactive molecules, such as pyrogens, and endotoxins. For each analyte being tested, it is necessary to examine the reason for its testing, the various ways in which the analytes can be quantitively analyzed in vitro, and whether evidence exists to justify the industry standard’s allowable tolerances of the various analytes. To the best of our knowledge, substantial research into the cytotoxic and immune-reactivity characteristics of each residual analyte in the future is necessary to ensure patient and provider safety, and ultimately reducing the incidence of iatrogenic infections as a result of contaminated medical devices
Reciprocal and Collaborative Work in Oaxaca: The Story of Los Mecos, the Traditional Dance of San Juan Bautista Coixtlahuaca
No full textxii, 42 p.This text seeks to critically examine different forms of cross-cultural investigation through an anti-colonial lens, beginning to hopefully undo often extractive relationships between academics and indigenous communities. The work will emphasize a reciprocal approach in which this project will be conducted as a collaborative effort between myself and the community of Coixtlahuaca in contribution to the indigenous culture revitalization work and activism that is already being done. This is accomplished by applying a mixed-method approach in which I utilize group interviews, participant observation, and photography to archive, record, and preserve a traditional dance in Coixtlahuaca, La Danza de Los Mecos
The Abortion and Mental Health Debate
No full text1 broadside. 36"W x 24"HThe purpose of this essay is to review the literature on the most common factors that predict adverse psychological reactions after an abortion procedure and the agreements and disagreements regarding how the data should be interpreted. By reviewing varying arguments and suggestions in the literature, this essay argues for pre-abortion risk-factor screening to identify the women most vulnerable to the adverse mental health effects of abortion.Kalamazoo College. Department of Psychology. VanLiere Symposium, 202
Expanding Role of Medical Assistants & Patient Care Navigators
No full textiv, 14p.Primary care physicians must use their time efficiently to complete all the required tasks expected of them while seeing patients daily. Primary care physicians are applying a more team-based approach to maintain a constant workflow to stay ahead of their numerous tasks. Medical assistants are essential to achieving patient care goals that the physician has previously set, allowing the physician to review the chart with updated information at the time of the visit, which may involve different concerns than what the visit was first scheduled to address. Patient care navigators, another addition to the primary care team, guide the patients through the ever-evolving healthcare system and communicate diagnoses with each physician on the patient's care team. Primary care physicians can spend more time with each patient with the assistance of medical assistants and patient care navigators. The increased patient-physician time is achieved by medical assistants' completion of redundant tasks and patient care navigator updating the physician about each patient's specific needs following visits with other specialists. Medical assistants also help primary care physicians’ efficiency by helping the physician shape their approach to diagnosing and treating the patient as the physician has a general understanding of the nature of the visit from the procedures completed by the medical assistant during the rooming process. The medical assistants and patient care navigators help communicate and follow the medical treatment plans, enabling patients to recover faster from illnesses and help maintain health, limiting complications and minimizing follow-up visits