Meet Our Current Scholars
Donovan Williams ’20 | Kalamazoo, MI
Donovan Williams spent most of his younger years in Kalamazoo, but the other half was spent in his birth town of St. Louis Missouri. After moving to Kalamazoo, he and his family remained connected to the friends and family they left behind. Donovan’s social justice awakening didn’t come until he felt the pain of his city struck by the events of the Michael Brown grand jury decision. He was a sophomore in high school at the time, it was partly because he was coming into maturity that the CNN live feed of the looting, burning, and display of raw emotions in his hometown moved him to take action.
Through his formal and informal studies, Donovan came to a greater understanding of the many social and political issues that helped to create Ferguson’s perfect storm. For some time, Donovan worked to be a catalyst for conversations between his peers, until one of his friends introduced Donovan to the similar injustices that minorities across the globe were combating as well, mainly those in Africa. This experienced expanded his perspective of social justice even more so. He plans to use what he knows to expand conversations and connectivity of social injustices to also include injustices fostered by colonialism during that scramble for Africa and the scars that remain because of its existence. This lifetime commitment has pressed Donovan to uses his time at Kalamazoo College to double major in International and Area Studies with a Concentration in African Studies, and Anthropology and Sociology.
Lucy Liu ’21 | Wuhan, China
Lucy Liu is a complete newcomer in the Kalamazoo area, having spent most of her life in Wuhan, China. She was attracted to Michigan because of its similarity to Wuhan, which is called the City of Lakes. Her father, who is an enthusiastic environmental protector, sparked her interest in social justice at a young age. After graduating from middle school, Lucy took a bike trip with her father to Qinghai Lake where they collected data on air pollution, which contributed to research on urban and rural air quality in China. During her high school years, Lucy was a volunteer in various environmental projects held by the Wuhan team Friend of Nature, one of the leading environmental NGOs in China. Lucy also worked an internship in Beijing at The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, an influential environmental research organization in China, where she served on the Green Supply Chain Project team.
Lucy has used her knowledge to help publish air pollution data, and she has also protested industrial expansion. Lucy advocates for environmental protection and ultimately wants to restore China’s natural beauty.
In 2016, Lucy lived and attended school in Plattsmouth, Nebraska as an exchange student, where she began to learn about racial justice. She is excited to continue her learning and is honored to become a member of the Kalamazoo community.