Student Profile: Ishmael Klein

Former Chicago resident Ish Klein is studying multimedia video at Kalamazoo Valley and was awarded the Miller-Davis Company Endowed Engineering Technology Scholarship. She has a 4.0 GPA and said receiving the scholarship was gratifying. "I'm grateful for it, absolutely," she said.

Klein has already attained a Master's of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop. In addition, the Long Beach, New York native earned her undergraduate degree from Columbia University in New York. She moved to Chicago in 2018 to begin working at Theatre Y. She and her partner Greg Purcell decided to leave Chicago for the more affordable and less hectic pace of Kalamazoo.

The move to Kalamazoo from Chicago has been a good one, Klein said. A neuro-diverse student, she has found Kalamazoo Valley staff and faculty to be extremely supportive and the community to be welcoming. "This is the first place I've lived where I actually feel welcome," Klein said. "It doesn't feel like a long hard, slog."

Klein said she has enjoyed all of the classes she's taken at Kalamazoo Valley. "All of my instructors have been absolutely fantastic," she said. "Photoshop with Amanda Byrd was great. It's cool to all be learning together." She also praised storyboarding instructor Aubrey Rodgers because she presents several ways to approach a project.

"At the two other institutions I attended, the attitude was 'you're lucky to be here,'" Klein said. "At Kalamazoo Valley, it seems like staff members are really calm and so available. They're with you in the encounter."

In addition to forming relationships with faculty and staff, Klein works hard to connect with her fellow classmates. "The thing that's so important is meeting the people in your classes and inspiring each other," she said. "This is a good place to figure things out."

Because she is autistic and receives disability income, Klein is on a tight budget. "It's almost impossible to be social with no money," she said, noting that receiving the scholarship has given her some financial relief. "The scholarship helps me in tangible ways - it defrays the cost of tuition and books. Most of all, though, it tells me that people care about my success and want to be a part of it. I won't ever forget this. It means the world to me."

Klein's goal is to start a neuro-diverse theatre company. "I'd really like to connect with exceptional actors," she said. She is planning her first theatrical production in March 2023.