CAMPUS NEWS

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Grants support community engaged learning and partnerships in Elkhart County

Goshen College has received more than $4 million in grants from Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Community Foundation of Elkhart County to support a five-year plan for expanding inclusive education in Elkhart County through community-engaged learning and partnerships. “As a nationally-ranked baccalaureate college, we are ready to claim that local community engagement will be a hallmark of a Goshen College education,” said President Rebecca Stoltzfus ’83. With these grants, the Goshen College will develop a new Office for Community Engaged Learning, which will build programs that are educationally rigorous for students, create belonging and inclusion for students historically underserved, and are mutually rewarding for the college’s partners in the local community. This includes outreach to low-income, school-age students and adult learners, particularly in the predominantly Black and Latino communities of southcentral Elkhart and north Goshen. This network of partnerships will include educational partnerships such as Elkhart Community Schools and Goshen Community Schools,

BRIAN YODER SCHLABACH ’07

$4 MILLION

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Ivy Tech, Bluffton (Ohio) University, as well as facilitating partnerships with Community Foundation of Elkhart County, Horizon Educational Alliance and South BendElkhart Regional Partnership.

Stoltzfus appointed to second presidential term

The Board of Directors unanimously appointed President Rebecca Stoltzfus ’83 to a second term of five years beginning July 1, 2021. Stoltzfus, who began her first term as the college’s 18th president in November 2017, responded to the invitation to reappointment without hesitation. “I am grateful and enthusiastic to continue the vital work we have begun and are doing together,” she said. “We have heard overwhelming affirmation from all for her calm, positive, challenging, insightful, joyful, confident and authentic leadership and spirit,” said Dr. Bruce Stahly ‘67, the chair of the board of directors. “The board strongly believes that Rebecca is the right leader for Goshen College at this time and that we are very fortunate to have her in this role.”

Students get hands-on experience vaccinating peers in clinics

Students gained valuable real-world experience and helped slow the spread of COVID-19 by administering vaccines to students and employees during vaccination clinics the college held on campus April 1-2 and April 2223 (pictured below). About 15 undergraduate nursing students administered vaccines, while about a dozen public health students organized, registered and scheduled follow-up appointments for those getting vaccinated. Nursing faculty members drew up the vaccines and oversaw the process along with an emergency observer from Goshen Health to make sure everything ran smoothly as the future nurses administered the Pfizer vaccine to about 300 people. “Our purpose is to promote the health of people and our community,” said Jewel Yoder ’99, ’21 (DNP), associate professor and chair of the department of nursing. “This was an experience where nursing students could practice some clinical skills and feel that they were contributing to the greater good of our community.”

NICK YUTZY ’21

Seniors become published authors

Four seniors are now published authors following the release of their Pinchpenny Press books (pictured above, in order left to right). Patrick Webb, a writing major from Goshen, released “Lady Luck and the Monorail Conspiracy,” a superhero origin story featuring noir elements and focusing on American comic-strip character Lady Luck, who appeared in comics throughout the ‘40s. Laura Miller, a writing and Spanish major from Arlington, Kansas, released a collection of poetry titled “Growing Up a Sunflower” about her experience growing up in Kansas. Emmy Rupp, a social work major from Wooster, Ohio, released a book of poems titled “These Sacred Fractures,” in which she processes her own experiences, beliefs and observations. Mackenzie Miller, a English and journalism major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, released “ : In Search of Presence,” written in both English and Mandarin and drawing from a gap year she lived and studied in Nanjing, China. To order a copy of any of these books, email pinchpennypress@goshen.edu.

PHOTO BY KIPROP KIPROTICH ’22

Virtuosos go virtual in Orfeo ed Euridice

Bek Zehr (center), a senior music major from Carthage, New York, plays Orfeo in the virtual performance of Christoph Willibald Glück’s Orfeo ed Euridice. The spring mainstage opera was streamed March 26-28.

Student-produced documentary tells story of Goshen Jewish family who saved lives during Holocaust

A feature-length documentary titled “Vital Passage,” filmed and edited by Goshen College students and faculty, premiered on April 9 at the Goshen Theater to a select audience. The film chronicles the amazing story of David Plaut and his son, Sidney, Jewish merchants in Goshen, who risked their business and livelihood to provide a passage for 28 Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust. Starting in 2017, it took 20 Goshen College students working more than 1,000 hours to outline, research and produce this hour-long film, under the direction of Kyle Hufford, associate professor of communication and FiveCore Media’s executive director (pictured below). David Plaut and his son Sidney owned Plaut’s Dry Goods Store in Goshen, Indiana, which operated for 85 years, from 1906 through 1991. The recent discovery of a lockbox hidden in the basement of the former Plaut’s Dry Goods Store by Sidney’s grandson, Steve Gruber, would unlock their seventy year old secret. The official documents found inside revealed the scope of the Plaut’s story of rescue, sacrifice and courage. Learn more at: fivecoremedia.com/vitalpassage

Sophomore wins 2021 peace oratorical contest

Sophomore Denisse Aguilar, a psychology and sociology major from Goshen, won the 2021 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Feb. 16 with her speech titled “Living the American Dream on Borrowed Time.” Taking second place was Mackenzie Miller, a senior journalism and English major from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her speech titled “Making Peace with Death: Transforming a Language of Violence and Inequality in America.” The other contestants included Gabriella Klopfenstein, a junior public relations major from Goshen, whose speech was titled “Share the Road: My Dad’s Story;” Olivia Krall, a sophomore history major from Carmel, Indiana, whose speech was titled “The Rope that Ties Peace and Pain Together;” and Lisa Nalliah, a sophomore environmental and marine science major from Huntington, Indiana, whose speech was titled “Change is Purple.”

Numbers: GC & COVID-19 in 2020-21 7,628

rapid tests of students and employees administered on campus during the spring semester (required weekly) 28

positive cases during the spring semester compared to 159 positive cases during the fall semester

33,771

views of goshen.edu/livestream, compared to 8,911 in 2019-20 2%

of students studied remotely for the whole year

For more information about the college’s response to the pandemic, visit goshen.edu/coronavirus

The Record wins Indiana Newspaper of the Year for fourth year running

The Indiana Collegiate Press Association (ICPA) named Goshen College’s student newspaper, The Record, “Newspaper of the Year” for the fourth consecutive time in the college division, and more than 20 Goshen College students collected 42 awards.

Survey shows students positive about in-person learning during pandemic

Students expressed higher satisfaction than their peers at other similar colleges regarding their experience in the fall semester during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent national survey. The survey of 28 small, mostly liberal arts colleges, developed by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS), sought to measure student experiences in the classroom and on campus in an unusual semester. “Despite the challenges this year, our student survey results show that students found it easy to follow the public health guidelines put at place at GC, and also were especially satisfied with campus life services,” said Justin Heinzekehr ’06, director of institutional research and assessment. “These results are encouraging and reflect the great effort that everyone at GC has made to create a vibrant and safe campus environment in the middle of a pandemic. Compared with similar schools across the country, GC students expressed much more satisfaction with their ability to participate on campus.”

GC again named Indiana Radio School of the Year

Goshen College’s student-run radio station, 91.1 FM The Globe (WGCS) received the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters (IASB) “Radio School of the Year” award for the third consecutive time, along with a flurry of awards in ten of 13 categories. The Globe also received 29 award nominations and five first-place awards at the 81st annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System’s (IBS) Multimedia Conference, more than any other school in the competition. Fifteen students also shared six awards from the Broadcast Education Association (BEA).

College improves on STARS silver sustainability rating

Goshen College has improved this past year on its STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) silver rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) — bringing GC closer to a gold rating. This is Goshen’s third STARS report, following submissions in 2011 and 2014. With more than 900 participants in 40 countries, AASHE’s STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to a college or university’s sustainability performance. Participants report achievements in five overall areas: academics, engagement, operations, planning and administration, and innovation and leadership.