News

The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation is providing $500,000 toward the renovation and reconfiguration of two adjacent vacant sites, at 117 and 119 S. Superior St., into a dynamic performance space that will serve Albion College students, faculty and staff in addition to the community as a local youth and adult community theatre.

Cristen Casey began in July as Albion College’s new director of the Center for International Education and Off-Campus Programs with a goal of solidifying Albion’s reach internationally and, perhaps more important, emphasizing for students the benefit of studying abroad.

PBS scion Alexander Heffner filled Bobbitt Auditorium on November 15 for a distinctly 21st-century conversation on civil discourse for the 2017 David Aldrich Memorial Speaker Forum in Law, Justice, and Society.

Austin Baidas, ’92, recently shared his experience and background in business and politics with Albion students as a visiting scholar. He is the first alumnus to participate in a budding College initiative known as the Visting Scholars Program, and it seemed to resonate with the students. “Two decades or so ago, I was sitting in their position,” he said.

Since 1967, The Philadelphia Center has provided thousands of college students with a compelling semester of off-campus study—highlighted by a significant and meaningful internship experience with a top-flight employer—in one of the country’s largest, most diverse and most historic cities. Launched by the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the Center remains firmly rooted with the GLCA and its member colleges. This semester, a new chapter of that partnership has begun, as Albion College is now the official administrator of the program.

The theme was “Meaning” but the keyword was “opportunity” for Albion’s first BRITx Talks event, held October 20 as part of Homecoming 2017 festivities. A rebellious student, a failed partnership, a lucrative-but-unfulfilling job, and a career-changing discovery made on an exercise bike—each gave the alumni presenters an unlikely opportunity to clarify the values and passions that have led to success.

When Harim “Sunny” Kim prepared for a ministry mission trip to Mexico just weeks before starting her first year at Albion, she packed her violin, not wanting to miss a week of practice. Three trips and some 40 instruments later, Kim has left a musical mark in Mexico.

It’s a long way from the Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville to the pastoral equestrian setting of Albion College. But for Alicia Espinoza, ’20, it was a trip worth making. Intrigued though unfamiliar with the sport, the Noble Charter Network graduate is now a member of Albion’s equestrian team, and it has become a valuable part of her college experience.

For the Michigan natives and longtime New Englanders, the intention is broad yet straightforward: The Murray and Jean Penzotti Swindell Student Impact Scholarship will support bright students with financial need, support President Mauri Ditzler’s vision of growth for both the College and the Albion community, and help make Albion College well known nationally as a top-notch liberal arts school.

Professor emeritus of religious studies William Gillham, age 84, died unexpectedly in Albion on Saturday, October 14. Gillham was hired by the College in 1961 as a combination philosophy and religion professor; his arrival doubled the size of both departments and he held that joint appointment for many years. He was an ardent champion of the liberal arts tradition focused in the Western classical canon.