Like many people who attend Goshen College, Jen Shenk was unaware of the labyrinth on the northeast side of the Yoder Dorms. It wasn’t until she started working with the college last spring that she realized it existed.  “I didn’t even know that Goshen College had a labyrinth until I started working as a Campus Pastor and saw some old brochures in a drawer!” she said. “I was super excited to find out that we had a labyrinth right here on our campus property, since it’s been such a meaningful part of my own spiritual growth.”  When Shenk went out...

By Ana Yoder • September 8, 2023 • Features

Westlawn Dining Hall hadn’t felt quite the same the past few weeks. Its usual round tables were replaced by long, rectangular tables, shrouded in cheap, purple plastic tablecloths — the kind that are fun to make holes in at birthday parties. The juice machine was gone, replaced by large see-through coolers that had to be filled with ice to keep the juice cold. Just like its orange juice, Westlawn had become a bit watered down. Red tape labeled “danger” lined the street and Kulp entrances. A few electrical cords hung from the wall. The artwork hanging over the fireplace had...

By Tyson Miller • September 8, 2023 • Features

Dear editor, I left the men’s soccer match last Wednesday frustrated and embarrassed. Our team didn’t have its best showing, but that’s not what really bothered me. What really got under my skin was the heckling by our fans.  For starters, I don’t think it’s working. If anything, instead of getting in the other team’s head, our hecklers seem to fuel the other team’s determination. I’ve seen it happen at multiple men’s games — basketball, volleyball and soccer.  It’s reached the point that I don’t really want to go to men’s games anymore. It’s too painful and awkward.  What starts...

By Rob Brenneman • September 8, 2023 • Features

Master of Social Work (MSW) intern Cristina Reyes has worked on campus Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and students have already noted her impact. “Every week, I receive requests from students specifically asking to see Cristina because they have heard great things about her from friends and other GC students,” said Liz Andes, assistant dean of students and director of health and wellness. Reyes is currently enrolled in the MSW program at Indiana University South Bend which places students at a practicum site based on their preference. She is also set to graduate next month.  Reyes...

By Jakyra Green • April 13, 2023 • Features

A month ago, the president of Goshen College hugged U.S. Senator and preacher Raphael Warnock. That was before she realized she wasn’t supposed to. Every year, President Rebecca Stoltzfus takes a trip with her sisters, Tina and Melinda. This year, they went to Atlanta for a few days — and although there was “so much to do” in the city, Stoltzfus said one destination was a must. “The one thing that we wanted to do for sure was go to the Ebenezer Baptist Church,” she said. The church in downtown Atlanta — where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and...

By Daniel James • April 13, 2023 • Features

The campus is tranquil almost everywhere on Wednesday nights, with one exception being a small room in the west wing of Newcomer Center. Before going to print, the student staff carefully reads over articles, lays out text and graphics and examines photos collected for the week — all in time for a new issue of The Record to be released Thursday morning. Junior accounting major Caleb Shenk serves as digital editor, and on Wednesday nights he works on copy editing, page layout and the crossword. “With my internship, I’ve been unable to write as much as I would have liked...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • April 13, 2023 • Features

“I want to share my story. I want others to not struggle, and to have the support that I didn’t have” — that’s how Rocio Diaz describes her work at Goshen College.  Diaz is the director of community engagement and adult outreach, working for the school’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE).  Her job description is extensive and has evolved significantly over the past few years. After moving from Texas, Diaz began working for GC as an administrative assistant for the Center of Intercultural and International Education on Feb. 13, 2008 — an important date to Diaz. “I have it written...

By Daniel James • March 30, 2023 • Features

When they came to Goshen College, Arleth Martinez and Manny Villanueva were not expecting to be involved with advocacy. They have since created One Circle, a group of GC students invested in spreading awareness and developing action plans around injustices within Indigenous communities.  “The name ‘One Circle’ comes from an Apache prayer,” Villanueva said, “one drum, one prayer, one circle.” He said the name is “cohesive” and applies to everyone: “No matter our origin, we are all united and brought together.” Martinez and Villanueva’s inspiration to start the group came from their experience in Arizona last summer, where they visited...

By Simon Hertzler Gascho • March 30, 2023 • Features

Before the orchestra pulls out their sheet music and the actors start putting on their makeup, a very different kind of pre-show routine is taking place behind the curtain at Umble Center: the stage crew presets props and costumes, tests lighting and sound and otherwise prepares for a run of “Into the Woods.” Sarah Bailey, a junior theater major and stage manager for “Into the Woods,” said her job “is really to make sure the ship is running smoothly.” Specifically, Bailey takes notes on blocking, organizes schedules, oversees the other crew members and calls cues from the booth during the...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • March 30, 2023 • Features

In September of 2021, Alyssa H. McDonald visited Goshen College for the first time. While chatting with Duane Stoltzfus in the Newcomer Center, she met Alyssa M. McDonald.  Alyssa H. didn’t think much of it at the time, but now, a year and a half later, having two Alyssa McDonalds in the same school is causing more than a little confusion. Not only do they attend the same college, both of the McDonalds are in the communications department.  Alyssa H. McDonald is a freshman journalism major, mother and works independently for a nonprofit. To her, the best part of the...

By Lydia Stauffer • March 23, 2023 • Features

At Goshen College, Gilberto Pérez Jr. serves as the vice president for student life and the dean of students, but outside of the college, he seeks to make an impact in as many ways as he can. In the larger Goshen community, Pérez has served as a city council member for the city’s fifth district since 2020. “That work has really placed me in a lot of different settings across the community,” Pérez said. “It’s looking at ways that the city is helping residents who have issues with traffic, issues with trash pickup, issues with how well streets are [maintained],...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • March 23, 2023 • Features

Just over two years ago, Goshen College librarians Erin Milanese, Abby Nafziger and Tillie Yoder started their first podcast, “Just Plain Wrong.”  In it, the three discuss different areas of Amish culture and depictions of Amish and Mennonite life in the media.  Although they first began discussing strictly Amish romance novels, they have recently found more enriching areas including the presentation of Amish and Mennonites in movies, novels, comics and nonfiction stories, as well as research on Amish life.  One of their more recent episodes featured Dirk Eitzen, the author of “Fooling With the Amish: Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and...

By Sadie Brenneman • March 23, 2023 • Features

How hard is it to get five college students together in the same room at the same time for band practice? Extremely, according to the members of Potential Novelty.  Tonight, buried deep within the Orchestra room inside the Goshen College Music Center, all five members have managed to get together and rehearse. Potential Novelty is a band started at GC by juniors Meredith Blossom and Jocsan Barahona Rosales, sophomores Dontaye Albert and Fatima Rhana and freshman Matthew Dyck.  “If we say a time, we actually mean 20 minutes later,” Rhana says. “Unless it’s a performance that’s upcoming,” Albert adds, sitting...

By Dante Stanton • March 16, 2023 • Features

When Kyla Moffitt arrived at GC in the fall of 2022, she didn’t think that music would be so important to her college experience. Now, a couple months away from the end of the school year, it has become something people know her for across campus. Moffit is a freshman film production major who sings in the Queen Singers, a group of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) women. She has also performed individually at open mic nights and convocation — most recently at the Black Student Union convocation in February, where she sang “I Know Where I’ve Been” by...

By Sadie Brenneman • March 16, 2023 • Features

At Goshen College volleyball and basketball games, there is a man who sits at the scorers’ table, typing at light-speed and often muttering something along the lines of “assist 3, block 14, kill 7.” At baseball and softball games, he’s in the press box. And at soccer games, he’s at the pitch-side table. His name is Tony Miller, GC’s athletic department statistician, and it is part of his job to keep track of games’ stats. “I had a fifteen minute conversation several years ago with the mom of our catcher at the time,” Miller said. “She said, ‘wait, there’s somebody...

By Daniel James • March 16, 2023 • Features