Building on 139 years: Alma College inspires excellence in the arts and beyond

A lot of legacy-building was happening in 1885.

It’s the year that the Washington Monument was dedicated in Washington, D.C., and the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City’s harbor. Niagara Falls became a state park. And the Presbyterian Synod of Michigan formed a committee to explore the idea of creating a brand-new college in the community of Alma, Michigan.

Alma College may have started out with just 95 students and 9 faculty, but the first Board of Trustees had a definitive vision for the future, stating, “We want a college of high literary and scientific character, furnishing excellent educational advantages in all departments.”

Today, the college is nationally recognized for excellence in teaching and scholarship. There are over 1,200 students attending, and over 45 different areas of study students can engage in. 

And when you chat with the people who make up the Alma College community, it’s clear that the founders’ legacy lives on.

“Everything that we do is designed to inspire academic excellence, personal growth, and community engagement,” says Tim Rath, director of college communications. “We seek to instill a love of learning, to celebrate the joy of discovery, to reflect on what it means to be a person to engage hands-on with your craft. We mean that. It's in our DNA.”
 
Courtesy Alma CollegeKelli Crump
That same DNA is instilled in newer members of the Alma College community as well. Kelli Crump, assistant professor of theater and the director of theater, joined the faculty this academic year.

“As a teaching artist, I still work in the industry. I'm an actor and director. I'm still out doing the work as an artist. But I also teach. I'm a professor. I'm a coach,” Crump says. “In my classrooms, in my rehearsal halls, I'm like, ‘Okay, well, let's just try something, and either it'll work or it won't. And if it doesn't, cool, that's more information.’”

Theatre students at Alma College can choose from a variety of courses, including voice and diction, directing, sound design, stage management, costume construction, and of course, acting.

“Because we're a Liberal Arts college, we want them to nibble and try everything,” she adds. “We want them to explore and experience life like it's Old Country Buffet, and you're getting at least one scoop of everything on your plate.”

Courtesy Alma CollegeDr. Nicole Mattfeld
Dr. Nicole Mattfeld is also in her first year as Alma College’s director of choirs and assistant professor of music. Students enrolled in music courses can learn anything from instrumental performance and songwriting to vocal performance and technology used in recording industry careers. But Mattfeld explains that student experiences in the classroom are just the beginning. 

“I say to people, ‘I don't teach choir. I teach life,’” Mattfeld says. “I teach life lessons through music. I teach emotion. The music is just the catalyst through which we teach all these skills.”

Mattfeld brings years of musical training and experience to the classroom, including her research into the physical and communal impact music can have in settings like the choirs she conducts.

“You can't really have a good choir—a connected choir—without that sense of community, that sense of belonging,” she says. “It can't just be 'Okay, we're all in the same room, and we're all singing this great music.’ We really have to be understanding of one another. A choir is about coming together as something greater than oneself, and so nobody is more important than anyone else. And it takes everybody on the same page, breathing together, singing every rhythm exactly together to achieve great music.”

Courtesy Alma CollegeDress rehearsal for Alma College Theatre’s fall 2024 production, “The Wolves,” a one-act play written by Sarah DeLappe.
The same could be said for the training Crump’s students receive in theater classes and productions. 

“That's what we need in our society,” Crump says. “We need people who think outside the box, who feel, who are empathetic, and you only get that when you have the freedom to be vulnerable and explore and try on different hats and different shoes.”
 
Crump says that ‘trying on different hats and shoes’ is what makes the theater work she and her students do so crucial—not just for the students, but for audience members as well.

Courtesy Alma CollegeCurrent student Audrey Merrifield“As theater artists—as actors—we are the historians of a society, and so we help document what's happening in a moment,” she explains. “And the audience gets to absorb it. They get to kind of be the fly on the wall, observing and experiencing it in a different way than if they were going through something in their own real lives. They get to kind of be one step removed.”

Mattfeld agrees.

“Let's make this as emotive as possible to move the audience,” she says. “It’s really about that character development, working as a team, creating something that's bigger than the self, right? So we're creating something together. Connecting with an audience, connecting to your emotions.”

Audiences can experience a variety of performances from Mattfeld’s and Crump’s students at the Oscar E. Remick Heritage Center for the Performing Arts on campus this Spring.

Courtesy Alma CollegeOscar E. Remick Heritage Center for the Performing Arts
Upcoming events include a showcase of Mattfeld’s choirs in February. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the “Love Embodied” Choir Concert will feature music centered on various types of love, including friendship, family, and romance.

Audiences can also enjoy immersive theater with Crump’s students in March.

“We're doing a piece that I'm calling Storytime Scots,” Crump explains. “The entire company of student performers and the writers, they've all been reading and researching Scottish folk tales, fairy tales and bedtime stories. I want people to come to the theater, ready to hear a collection of bedtime stories and fairy tales, and let's see how we can put it up on stage and utilize shadow dance and shadow theater and puppetry and tap into that imagination that we don't often get to tap into, and bring the community in into our home.”

At the end of the day, Mattfeld and Crump agree that for students and audiences alike, the legacy they want to leave is through the experiences they help to create.
“My job isn't to create professional musicians. My job is to create lifelong musicians and lifelong singers and good humans.” Mattfeld says with a smile. “Most of my students are actually non- majors, and so they're choosing to be there every single day because they love the music. I like providing a space where students feel like they can sort of have a reprieve from technology, from the stressors of the day, and show what we can do as a group of individuals, through music.”

Courtesy Alma CollegeVisiting Assistant Professor of Music Takeshi Abo
Crump says the skills learned in the performing arts will also ultimately benefit students in their careers—regardless of their chosen profession.

“At a certain age, someone said, ‘No.’ Someone smacked our hands. Someone said, ‘Sit still.’ And then we take that on and become these little boxes,” Crump says. “But when we do that, we lose the joy and the fun of imagination. Because we're no longer allowed to play, which then stifles us in the rest of our career. Then you get other business folks who want to get into marketing, who want to be entrepreneurs, but then they don't know how their imagination works, right? They don't know how to think outside the box, and it's like, that's the fun! Y'all, let's get out of these constraints!”

So, would the founders of Alma College in the 1800s approve of the legacy that lives on today? 

The answer is clear.

“There's a sense of family and community, not just in the choral program, but on the campus in general,” Mattfeld says. “I think that's a testament to the student population, but also the town of Alma and all of the activities that the students are a part of.” 

Courtesy Alma CollegeSeptember 2024 Homecoming Alumni Concert, during which alumni are invited to perform with the current choir.
“​​it is a little hidden gem,” Crump says. “But we're changing that because we want people to know about us and know that we're here.” 

“You can come here and build a home,” she adds. “There's community, there's a sense of belonging. And I think that's what makes Alma so unique, is that we have the best of the best. We're small, but mighty, and we have people who honestly care about the students and each other.”

“We’ve been a part of this community for 139 years,” Rath concludes. “We're not going anywhere anytime soon.”

You can learn more about Alma College, along with updates about upcoming music and theater performances, by visiting their website.