Over the years, many of you have contributed donations to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, which is a part of the college and is overseen by our Board of Trustees. I appreciate your gifts because the museum has a special place in my heart. Twenty years ago, I visited the museum with my two little boys for the first time while my husband interviewed for a job at the Kalamazoo Public Library. When I saw that we had such an amazing free museum in town, I was sold on moving here! We hope that you include the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in your summer activities. We have exhibits and events for all ages: STEAM story time and scavenger hunts for kids; a Juneteeth screening of the newly released film "Bob Marley: One Love;" a Kalamazoo State Hospital Exhibit; raingarden tours; planetarium shows; and so much more. See you there!

Alisha Siebers
Associate Vice President for College Advancement
and Executive Director for the KVCC Foundation
asiebers@kvcc.edu
269.488.4821     

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The Kalamazoo Elks #50 establishes new scholarship

Pictured: Paul De Haan, Elks Lodge #50 and Alisha Siebers
Executive Director of the KVCC Foundation

In May the Kalamazoo Elks Lodge #50 established the Kalamazoo Elks #50 Legacy Scholarship Honoring Carl Hagenbaugh Fund.  This scholarship honors former Elk's Club Chair, Carl Hagenbaugh, as a demonstration of the Elk's values of charity, justice, and brotherly love.  The scholarship will support books and tuition for students in the automotive technology field.
 

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Creating a Culture of Giving in the Classroom
Communications instructor Steve Ott has incorporated philanthropy into a persuasive speech assignment for his students. The final assignment for his Public Speaking (Com 101) class is to give a speech that convinces other students to support a particular charitable organization. After listening to their peers' speeches, students vote to select an organization to support. 

Ott heard about a similar classroom assignment at a conference he attended 18 years ago. When he started teaching full-time, he decided to make the idea a part of his curriculum. "Students vote on the wining organization and I donate $50 of my own money to support that charity," he explained. "I keep the money local." Several other Kalamazoo Valley instructors including Jenny Ott, Bruce Punches and retired communications faculty member Marion Boyer have also given the assignment in their classes. 

Students must attend each presentation so that they all learn about 24 different local organizations. "A byproduct is that they may think about these organizations 10 years from now when they're looking for resources or a place to donate to. It also gives visibility to the organizations, many of which are smaller," Ott said. 

Ott and his family take a similar approach to charitable giving at home. A tradition has involved spending part of New Year's Eve selecting which organizations to donate time and money to throughout the coming year. "Especially when the kids were younger, we would talk together about who wants to give what donations," Ott said. 

A charity called Help M.U.S.I.C. was selected as the winning organization in one of Ott's two COM 101 classes. The group was the topic of student Nolan Fisher's speech. The charity was started by 17-year-old Makala Latham, an Early/Middle College student at Kalamazoo Valley. "The basis of the non-profit
is to supply donation money or donated instruments to their band program to help smaller schools enjoy a band or marching band," Fisher explained. "Makala, coming
from Decatur, grew up around students not being able to play in the band because of a
lack of instruments or not being able to afford one." She has raised around $30,000 dollars
in the last year and a half. 

Student Stella Brink gave a speech about Bethany Christian Services. "Several years ago, my family adopted my brother through Bethany Christian Services. Because of this I have always known about Bethany and how they help kids and families like mine around the world, and that is why I chose Bethany and feel so strongly about their mission," she said.

She said she enjoyed doing the persuasive speech because Ott let students select the non-profits that they were passionate about. "He took a speech that could have ended in disagreements and turned it into a friendly competition and I really appreciated that," Brink said. "I also enjoyed this assignment because I learned about various local non-profits that I had never heard of before. I think that it is generous of Professor Ott to give a personal donation to the nonprofit that is chosen. For me personally, it was a motivation to do my best." 
Fisher said he also enjoyed the assignment. "It felt really good being picked as the winner, not for the competition but just the feeling of knowing I am helping out Makala and spreading her non-profit to a greater audience that might not have heard about it before and just giving her and her non-profit the recognition it deserves," he said.  
 

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Staff Support
If we can be of any assistance to you please give us a call.

Alisha Siebers                                             Annette Chapman
Executive Director                                        Foundation Officer
269.488.4821                                               269.488.4442
asiebers@kvcc.edu                                      achapman@kvcc.edu

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