As a kid, I was raised on a generous dose of rebels. Between “Star Wars,” “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hunger Games,” one of the things that I wanted most when I was younger was the chance to be a part of making history. To be a hero that stood up to injustice and fought the good fight even when it was hard.  I felt this same type of longing as I got older and started learning local history, like the Kent State shooting that took place only about an hour from my house.   Some of this is the...

By Kate Bodiker • January 29, 2026 • Features

For the first time in Record history, three Latina women have held semester-long executive positions. Our leadership is a reflection of the Goshen College student body today.  Concluding our time as editors, we wanted to share our reflections with you all — our triumphs, our hardships and mistakes. We only hope that you read carefully, with an open heart and mind.  Eliza Alemán:  Growing up with a mother who worked in the nonprofit sector, I learned how to engage with the public at a young age. My mother knew this was a slippery slope. While I learned to listen and...

By Eliza Alemán • December 4, 2025 • Features Aaliah Higareda • December 4, 2025 • Features Mafe Aguilar Vargas • December 4, 2025 • Features

Many Goshen College students, faculty and staff drive 50 minutes to Mishawaka to climb a wall. They are among the clients of the Apex Climbing Gym in Mishawaka, which is owned by Jeanne Liechty, the chair of the social work department at Goshen College, and her husband, Michael Dickens. The climbing gym, featuring multiple vertical climbing walls and over 7,000 feet of bouldering space, is available to anyone at any age. There’s also a strength training equipment area where people can endure a full workout or a small warmup for their next climb, along with merchandise and other accommodations. College...

By Andrew Jackson • December 4, 2025 • Features

Sitting on the third floor of Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library, the Mennonite Historical Library holds around 90,000 published resources covering Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite and other Anabaptist-related groups from the 16th century to the present.  Founded in 1906, the MHL is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections related to the Anabaptist tradition. Elizabeth Miller, director of the MHL and the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism and assistant professor of history, said, “A comprehensive collection means that we are not limiting our collecting to a certain time period or a certain branch of Anabaptism...

By Ana Alves Machado • December 4, 2025 • Features

The fall weather in Goshen has taken newcomers on a full spin with snowfall in early November, sunshine and low 60s by the end of the month and a return to the snowy weather. For many students who did not grow up with this type of weather, it has been shocking and exciting. Ines Villaseñor Rodríguez, a first-year molecular biology and biochemistry major from Spain, said the constant changes have been one of the biggest differences she has noticed since arriving on campus. “I prefer my weather in Spain, but the current temperature, 40 degrees, is good,” she said. “I...

By Yasmin Acosta • December 4, 2025 • Features

Alicia Maldonado-Zahra holds a position that isn’t familiar to many at Goshen College: scholar-activist, a role that fits her. “So my role is both faculty, so I work within the religion, justice and society department half-time,” she said. “And then the other half of my time is dedicated to student life: doing advocacy work, supporting students in their advocacy work, doing community building on campus, but also with the greater Goshen community.” She also works with The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, which is an Indigenous rights and advocacy network. Part of  Maldonado-Zahra’s vision for GC is making...

By Ana Alves Machado • November 20, 2025 • Features

Reporting by Liam Shaw and Eliza Alemán At Goshen College, the spirit of friendly competition has long been part of student life. “I loved intramural sports, especially indoor volleyball,” said Ana Yoder ’25. “It gave me a reason to hang out with friends and meet people I wouldn’t normally cross paths with on campus. We got so competitive — it was so much fun.” Even before the school’s athletic programs were a part of it, students found ways to come together through intercollegiate games. From early tennis matches and baseball games in the 1910s to the fast-paced indoor volleyball and...

By Ana Alves Machado • November 20, 2025 • Features

I have always felt the need to create.  I was always looking for something new to work on. Rummaging through piles of felt, construction paper, crayons, colored pencils, paints and pens. Pretty much any art medium you could think of, I had clutched in my small, already ink-stained hands. Plain surfaces were just a blank canvas for me, even the walls! Especially the walls. The familiar sage green plaster of my kitchen was no match for me and my trusty pencil. Covering the bumpy old farmhouse walls with scribbles, attempting to spell ‘Rosemary.’ Countless traces of backward R’s and B’s,...

By Rosemary Baer • November 20, 2025 • Features

The Local Indigenous Cultures and Perspectives SST course hosted its first cohort this year. This was due to several misfortunes with Goshen College partners in Arizona, which meant that SSTers were not able to immerse themselves in the culture of the Navajo and Hopi people. With the number of changes that had been undertaken before the group was supposed to depart, Jerrell Richer, co-director of global engagement, and his colleague Kendra Yoder quickly changed direction and were able to find connections locally. “[The group] started the program by living at Camp Friedenswald across the state line in Michigan,” Richer said....

By Atty Montague • November 20, 2025 • Features

In the mid 2010s, college campuses across the country were reckoning with how to respond to sexual violence and improve Title IX systems. National movements like “Know Your IX” and the “It’s On Us” campaign were pushing institutions to create clearer reporting procedures, survivor support and education around consent. At Goshen College, those same conversations were taking root. A group of passionate students, supported by faculty and administrators, recognized a gap in prevention and response efforts on campus. Out of that moment, the Prevention Intervention Network, or PIN, was born. “At that time, there was a really active group of...

By Ana Alves Machado • November 13, 2025 • Features

Dozens of student-athletes spend time in the training room at the Recreation Fitness Center each day, for icing, taping, stretching and other forms of treatment, but a few students are there to give more than they receive. They are trainers in the making. These student trainers, who often have majors in kinesiology or exercise science, work in the training room under the supervision of Jaelyn Rufenacht, the head athletic trainer. Rufenacht said, “The value of a student trainer is that they can gain hands-on experience and help with the day-to-day duties of the athletic training room.” She added, “They are...

By Junto Murata • November 13, 2025 • Features

When Aaliah and Eliza approached me about writing this editorial, I was excited by the chance to share my thoughts on an issue that I care about with the rest of campus, and wanted to make sure I did a good job with this piece. I had no shortage of ideas for topics, and spent several weeks mentally going over this list. But while I was weighing these options, I had to stay on top of school work, edit a page of this paper, serve as the stage manager for “Hansel and Gretel,” the theater department’s fall mainstage production, sing...

By Teo Kingsley • November 13, 2025 • Features

For more than 25 years, David Kendall has been immersed in art, film and education, whether teaching, creating or mentoring. From the classrooms of Parkside and Chandler Elementary, and Goshen High School, to earning an Master of Fine Arts from Savannah College of Art and Design, where he received their Educator’s Scholarship, and now as the Director of Career Networks in Goshen College. Kendall’s career has always evolved around creativity and storytelling. “Dave has always been a true Renaissance person — creative in everything he does,” said  Kendall’s wife, Carrie Lee Bland-Kendall. “He just naturally sees the world through the...

By Ana Alves Machado • November 13, 2025 • Features

After a scuffle in the woods followed by a mad dash to the church basement, the fourth annual game of Humans vs. Zombies concluded Tuesday night, crowning Egypt Boyd, a sophomore film production and writing major, as the winning human and Levi Moser, a sophomore environmental science major, as the winning zombie. “Humans vs. Zombies is definitely one of the most exciting games we have here,” Boyd said. “It’s a unique college experience,” Levi Moser said. “You get an excuse to talk to people you don’t normally talk to.” The game started on Thursday, Oct. 23, with the two initial...

By Adam Sherrill • October 30, 2025 • Features

Steve Shantz, the systems supervisor and emergency medical services coordinator for Goshen College, wanted to see the stars on his own terms. So, Shantz built a telescope from scratch. “As a kid, I always sort of wanted a telescope and money was tight. It wasn’t really important so I never had one.” Shantz said.  30 years ago, a man Shantz worked with told him that he made his own telescope mirror. “He grounded it and polished it into a spherical mirror, and the last step is transforming the spherical surface to a paraboloid,” he said. Hearing this, he thought that...

By Samuel Acosta • October 30, 2025 • Features