CIVIC ENGAGEMENT SCHOLARS
LaPlante Student Scholarships
Trustee Ronda Stryker and her husband Bill Johnston established the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning in 2001 and at the same time created the LaPlante endowment to honor Dean Marilyn LaPlante, the College's first Vice-President for Experiential Education and its Dean of Students for over 20 years. This endowment supports students, faculty and staff who are committed to civic engagement.
The LaPlante Scholarships reward and encourage students who have demonstrated exceptional ability, leadership, and promise in collaborative community projects, and who wish to develop their skills more fully as part of their Kalamazoo College education. LaPlante Scholars with the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning at Kalamazoo College, community partners, and with other Scholars on programs or projects to promote civic engagement & social equality.
LaPlante Scholars accept significant responsibilities. They recruit, train, schedule, and evaluate their peers who work in our on-going civic engagement programs. They conduct structured reflection to assure that service is linked with learning so that each enhances the other, and that students who work in our programs become advocates for change. They also make public appearances and presentations to promote civic engagement and the work of the Institute for Service-Learning.
Vibbert Student Scholarships
The Vibbert Scholarships honor and enact the spirit of K student Stephanie Vibbert -- activist, poet, feminist, and artist – who died in 2003 as she traveled home from a Washington, DC peace march. As recipients of an endowed scholarship created by Stephanie’s parents, Robert and Dianne, the Vibbert Scholars develop activities that help students move from mere familiarity with contemporary social issues to grappling with them personally and intellectually. The Vibbert Scholars develop programming that raises awareness of injustice in Kalamazoo and around the world and helps students link their lived community experiences with an examination of theory and contemporary public policy.
The Vibbert Scholars work with the Institute for Service-Learning and with other departments and organizations to develop events that inform and engage K students. The Vibbert Scholars connect student groups with one another through development of shared programming that reflects their common concerns and results in increased civic engagement among students while maximizing the impact of each event through communication and cooperation. Vibbert Scholars actively engage community members as teachers for our students through these events and other avenues, to help students recognize the value of community knowledge.
DeMoore Fellowships
The DeMoore Service-Learning Fellowship, established by Thomas Vonk in 2005, funds students who want to carry on the work of Tony Vonk and Howard DeMoore with organizations and individuals that turn lives around: whether helping offenders successfully transition from the criminal justice system to their communities, preventing juvenile violence, informing advances in state, local, federal, or foreign correctional systems, enhancing opportunities for incarcerated youth and adults, working for restorative justice, promoting understanding of crime deterrence, or otherwise shifting the trajectories of lives in more positive directions. DeMoore Fellows have worked with the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home and to raise awareness on campus of the crises of incarceration the US faces.