March 2022 Maccolades: Stellar athletes, a forensics juggernaut, rising stars in business and more

Maccolades is a monthly round-up of the most recent accolades and accomplishments earned by members of the Macalester community. Below are highlights from March 2022. 

Student scientist on the rise

Juan Pineda ’24 (Oklahoma City) earned a spot in the competitive Amgen Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins University. An undergraduate summer research program in science and biotechnology, the Amgen Scholars Program is hosted by universities around the world. During the 10-week program, students undertake a research project under top faculty. The program provides free housing, round-trip travel, a generous stipend, and travel to the annual Amgen Scholars U.S. Symposium at University of California–Los Angeles. “As a first-generation, low-income student, I was ecstatic when I found out I got into the program,” said Pineda, who is majoring in neuroscience. “This will be my first research experience, my first step in getting an MD/PhD, and my first step in being able to support my family while doing research in an area I love.” 

Educating about the history of Black education

Dr. Brian Lozenski, associate professor and chair of Educational Studies, published a new book called “My Emancipation Don’t Fit Your Equation”: Critical Enactments of Black Education in the US. “The book is a primer for people who are new to the exploration of Black education in the US,” Prof. Lozenski said. Weaving through nearly 400 years of history beginning in pre-colonial West Africa to our current time, the book aims to help readers understand the multitude of educational experiences and perspectives of African Americans. 

“I weave in hip-hop theory and storytelling so that the book reads like a ‘sweet’ oral history as opposed to a dry list of events and facts,” Dr. Lozenski said. “The structure of the book comes directly from a course that I teach at Macalester called ‘Teaching Toward Freedom: The Black Intellectual Tradition in Education.’” 

Rising stars

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Business Journal named  Chad Kampe ’04 and Kate Agnew ’11 to its annual 40 Under 40 list. The founder of Flip Phone Events, Kampe produces and oversees events such as drag brunches, dance parties, and bar crawls. He has grown the company nationwide as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, helping to raise over $400,000 for local and national nonprofit organizations. “I am in the business of fun and making other people happy,” he told the journal.

The Journal called Agnew a “champion of women in technology.” The senior director of software engineering at Optum, Agnew served as managing director for the nonprofit Girls in Tech. Among her many leadership roles, Agnew is the communications director for the Macalester alumni board. Her fantasy job? “A talk show where I interview amazing women over glittery cocktails,” she told the journal. 

Ethically speaking, Mac students are good

In a spectacular year for Macalester’s forensics program, the Ethics Bowl team earned the national title in the annual Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition, defeating the University of Chicago in the final round. Ethics Bowl combines ​​elements of debate, discussion, and impromptu speaking. Students prepare arguments for real-world ethical dilemmas ranging from facial recognition technology to hate speech regulation. 

Adding to the triumph, Macalester’s debate team won the four-year college sweepstakes award at the Gaske Memorial Invitational. 

A slam dunk on the pool track

Macalester’s student-athletes are knocking it out of the park. The men’s basketball team advanced to the finals of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoffs. Coach Abe Woldeslassie was named a regional Division III coach of the year. Women’s basketball achieved the most MIAC wins since its 2012 season. The swim teams broke 11 school records at the MIAC championships. The women’s track team earned four All-MIAC honors, while the men performed their best team finish at the Indoor MIAC Championships since 2006. And in the classroom, Macalester’s scholar-athletes achieved an average GPA of 3.65 in their fall semester courses.

Classically trained

Henry Elsenpeter ’22 (Circle Pines, Minn.) earned honorable mention for the Anthony Fauci Award in STEM and Classics from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, an organization of classics teachers and students. The annual award recognizes undergraduate students who demonstrate outstanding work in both classics and a STEM discipline. “Receiving this honorable mention feels like acknowledgment of how valuable a liberal arts education is,” said Elsenpeter, a double major in classics and biology. “During my experience exploring biology, I have found that classics does more than enhance the discipline — it shaped it as a whole. From the innate curiosity that moves biology, to its historical and verbal underpinnings, it is an ageless science that becomes even more captivating with any study of classics.”

Dear stranger

Sally Franson, visiting assistant professor of English, published an essay in a new book titled Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us. The collection features the voices of 65 writers who all share one thing in common: an experience with a stranger that they just can’t shake. “Much of what I teach in ‘Crafts of Writing: Creative Nonfiction’ I used myself while writing this essay,” Franson said. A virtual event on April 13 will feature Franson and a panel of authors who contributed essays to the collection. On top of her literary success, Franson was recently announced as a winner of Allt för Sverige, a long-running Swedish reality show that connects Americans of Swedish heritage with their roots.

Conducting honors

Macalester Wind Symphony Director Shelley Hanson conducted an honor band of 117 high school students from four states at Luther College’s annual Dorian Band Festival. The program included one of Hanson’s own compositions, “Elegy for Albinoni,” which is published by Boosey & Hawkes, a major classical music publisher.

Human rights in a high-tech world

English Professor James Dawes co-edited a new book called Technologies of Human Rights Representation, which analyzes the effects of new technologies on human rights. According to the publisher, the book asks the crucial questions: How can we open the black box of technological advances so that we can more fully understand their effects upon our lives? What can we do to make sure that these effects align with the values of human rights? 

Shine bright, Fulbright

Macalester College is proud to appear on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2021-2022 Fulbright U.S. Scholars. Each year the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces the top producing institutions for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. 

“Macalester faculty’s sustained success in the Fulbright program has enriched our entire campus community,” said President Suzanne Rivera. “The opportunities the Fulbright provides for faculty to build meaningful connections with researchers and institutions in other parts of the world and import their knowledge into our classrooms have been invaluable.” 

How to be considered for future Maccolades

If you or someone you know recently earned an award, fellowship, or honor and would like it to be considered for inclusion in next month’s Maccolades, please let Communications & Marketing know by filling out this Maccolades form. For recent book publications, please use this book publication form.