Mary Lu Light is a native of Southwest Michigan. When she was a young girl her family hosted foreign students who were studying at Kalamazoo College and needed housing when the dorms were closed. So, she became aware, at an early age, of the value of knowing and interacting with other cultures and the value of education.
As a high school student, Mary Lu was able to study in Mexico and continued to learn about cultures and languages other than her own. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Universidad de Las Americas in Puebla, Mexico in 1971, and after earning a Master’s degree from Indiana University in Applied Linguistics, Mary Lu returned to Kalamazoo to work in Western Michigan University’s newly founded Center for English and Language and Culture (CELCIS) in 1975.
During her tenure at CELCIS, she taught academic communication skills to students from many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In addition to her work at WMU, Mary Lu was involved with the Hispanic American Council of Kalamazoo where she coordinated English as a Second Language classes for Spanish-speaking adults from 2006-12. Since her retirement in 2012, she continues to work with non-native English speakers in Kalamazoo including recent refugee immigrants. Mary Lu’s life work has made her aware of the value of the interaction of people from different cultures and educational backgrounds.
Recently, Mary Lu established an endowment to provide scholarships for first generation, immigrant, or refugee students. With this scholarship, she seeks to provide funds for WMU students who have experienced the value of knowing cultures and languages other than that of their ancestry, and who are the first in their families to attend college.