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Annual college guides geared toward prospective students and their families continue to recognize the Albion experience. Washington Monthly counted Albion College as among the top 100 national liberal arts institutions—No. 92, to be exact—that contribute to the public good in what the magazine describes as “three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).”

Katie Zinkel, ’17, gave a lot of cookies to a lot of kids this summer, but one instance really stood out. “Once I gave kids their cookies and their mom told them, ‘You need to thank the lady. It’s not every day you come to a children’s museum and get to participate in a psychological experiment.'”

“I knew pretty much nothing about farming,” says biology major and Center for Sustainability and the Environment member Tom Martin, ’17, who became quite attached to the work through his full-time summer job at the Student Farm, adjacent to the Whitehouse Nature Center. “Now we have pounds and pounds of produce we sell twice a week. I can grow food.”

“In teaching history at Albion College, one of my goals is to bring national and international historical issues home to Albion: to the community and the campus,” writes history professor Wes Dick, who this fall is teaching a First-Year Seminar titled Sense of Place: Albion and the American Dream. “In exploring Albion College during the Vietnam War … I have discovered only one Albion College alumnus who died in Vietnam. That individual is Donald Bruce Adamson (pictured at left) and 2016 marks the 50th anniversary year of his death.”

Overall enrollment and student diversity continue to trend upward with the arrival of Albion College’s Class of 2020. As of the first day of classes August 22, the matriculation of more than 400 first-year students and 35 transfers—coupled with a higher returning sophomore retention rate—has driven the student body above 1,400 for the first time since 2011.

Class of 2016 member Audrey DeGroot will soon begin a two-year adventure in the West African country of Guinea as Albion’s first Peace Corps volunteer since Christin Spoolstra, ’11. “I don’t want a 9-to-5 job and an apartment, I want an adventure,” she says, listing some of the “million and one” reasons she decided to apply for the position

“What I loved most about President Vulgamore was his unmitigated joy at being surrounded by and involved with students.” Those were the words of one Albion alumna this week following the August 12 passing of Dr. Melvin L. Vulgamore, the College’s 13th president whose 14-year administration ran from 1983 to 1997.

The history of New Orleans has long fascinated Albion College French professor Dianne Guenin-Lelle. After all, she was born and raised there, and lived there for the better part of 30 years. Her recent book, The Story of French New Orleans: History of a Creole City, describes the fractious, diverse, unusual history of the city and how, in many ways, it is so different from most other American cities. And during her research, she came across an unexpected connection.

“When I first heard that there was a 16-year-old autistic race car driver, I was amazed,” says Queana Langston, ’18, whose recent Ford Institute internship was inspired by the story of driver Armani Williams. Langston first learned about Williams and the Race4Autism Foundation through her uncle, who was hired to shoot a documentary about the nonprofit. “I wanted to work there out of the goodness of my heart,” Langston says, realizing later that an internship would both benefit her Albion studies and allow her to apply certain skills on behalf of the foundation’s goals.

Students from six different high schools in southern Michigan got a day off from school in May to compete in Albion College’s first W. Keith Moore Math Competition. The students competed both as individuals and teams, with pencil-and-paper quizzes and even a math scavenger hunt that took them across campus.