Maria Petit Arias is a second year psychology major here at Goshen College, but across the street she works at Goshen Hospital and around the city at various Goshen Health affiliated locations interpreting for healthcare workers and patients. “I help Spanish-speakers at their medical appointments, ranging from something simple as bloodwork to something threatening such as chemotherapy treatments. You could say that the only thing I do at work is talk, but it really is more than that,” said Petit Arias.  The job comes with celebrations and struggles alike.  “In order to perform this duty to its full potential,” she...

By Sarah Miller • January 26, 2023 • Features

Walking into Cyneatha Millsaps’ room in Newcomer 10, there is a sense of comfort – plants in different corners of the room, marble-like rugs and soft chairs, all in the color green. Millsaps’ story begins with a choice made outside the walls of Goshen College: she applied to Indiana University of South Bend (IUSB) and a seminary at the same time.  In the mid-1990s, Millsaps started her career running a nonprofit agency, Family Services of Elkhart County, as well as the Elkhart County Women’s Shelter. “My plan was to go to get my Master’s in Public Administration and keep doing...

By Jakyra Green • January 19, 2023 • Features

This past Saturday, “Goshen: A Sundown Town’s Transformation” premiered at Umble Center. The project has been months in the making. As a Maple Scholar this past summer, Silas Immanuel, an accounting and film double major, researched and began work on a documentary about Goshen’s history as a “sundown town.” In James Loewen’s book, “Sundown Towns,” a sundown town is defined as an organized jurisdiction – a city, for example – that for decades kept African-Americans or other groups from living there or even staying overnight. This piece of history has already been made public and officially acknowledged. In 2015, the...

By Phil Witmer-Rich • January 19, 2023 • Features

Absolutely ballistic. That was the state of the entire country of Argentina one month ago, when they won the World Cup in December of 2022. Goshen College student Pedro Scattolon was in the Argentinian city of Rosalio at the time, surrounded by his friends as they gathered to watch the final match.  “We were winning 2-0,” said Scattolon, “and when [France] scored the second goal to tie, we started looking at each other. We couldn’t believe it. Some of [our friends] left and got in the car, turned up the music and didn’t know what happened after.”The match was tied,...

By Ana Yoder • January 19, 2023 • Features

Scroll to the bottom for links to individual articles In this special report, members of the Writing for Media class consider the breadth and depth of original research produced by students, faculty, administrators and alumni at Goshen College. The research is presented with an important qualification. The reporters in class were free to select subjects to cover from a long and even then partial list of research worthy of coverage. In that sense, this package is at best suggestive of the scope of research linked to Goshen College that is under way or has been done in recent years. Though...

By Record • December 8, 2022 • Features

Last May I found myself pacing the length of my living room while my younger sister, Sarah, sat on the sofa, music video queued on the TV, her patience wearing thin. After more than 15 minutes of arguing, it was becoming clear that my protests were in vain. In hindsight, I should have caught on sooner. Sarah and I had been arguing over this for six months. My stance remained the same: “K-Pop is so robotic and manufactured. How can you enjoy something so contrived?” Sarah’s eyebrows raised at “robotic.” In that moment, I knew I had gone too far....

By Alyssa Lerner-McDonald • December 8, 2022 • Features

The Goshen College physics room is home to some of the most unique sounds on campus, all made on a computer. In 2009, John Buschert, a professor of physics, and a group of students engaged in a project that improvised music on a system of connected instruments. Although this project was a success, it was limited. Buschert and his students are seeking to refine and advance the past model. Buschert, in effect, is a physicist who has a sideline career as a music mixer. His work combines the Bela computing platform and other elements to create new sounds. “The idea...

By Jayden Gerbus • December 8, 2022 • Features

The J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station, a Goshen College research compound located in Layton, Florida, is undergoing a $400,000 renovation that, when finished, will serve as a home base for students contributing to the study of climate change and marine environments. The marine facility is a single building surrounded by residential homes on one side and a channel leading out to the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. The ground floor hosts a rudimentary laboratory while the upstairs has a living room and kitchen, with two rooms filled with bunks. Since the 1980s, Goshen students have traveled there to research...

By Seth Smith Kauffman • December 8, 2022 • Features

As the director of institutional research and assessment at Goshen College, Justin Heinzekehr knows Goshen College as well as anyone – perhaps better than anyone. Heinzekehr said, “My work falls into three main categories: data analysis/maintenance, assessment and accreditation. The first part of my job has to do with connecting all the different pieces of data that we collect as a college and using that data to create meaningful information that we can use to make decisions on campus.” Another main part of his responsibilities is making sure that students are meeting the learning outcomes the Goshen College has set...

By Elias Ramirez • December 8, 2022 • Features

Parts of this article have been edited for clarity. Daniel Shank Cruz’s Twitter biography is lengthy. First, there is the flag of Puerto Rico, in emoji form. Afterwards, the entry reads, “queer disabled Mennonite lit Phd MFAing@Hunter_College. Author of Queering Mennonite Literature (Penn State UP, 2019). he/they.” Shank Cruz, 42, a former associate English professor who is now completing a MFA in Creative nonfiction at Hunter College, City University of New York, wears quite a few hats. Growing up in Mennonite communities in Lancaster and eventually Goshen, Shank Cruz had difficulty finding a space to internalize and accept his identity...

By Phil Witmer-Rich • December 8, 2022 • Features

Dale Kempf first put on his white lab coat as a chemistry student at Hesston College in the 1970s. It fit well. He transferred to Goshen College where he completed a chemistry major. He then went on to graduate school to study organic chemistry at the University of Illinois, where he got his Ph.D. He did post-doctoral research at Columbia University, and then took a job at a pharmaceutical company, Abbott Laboratories, as a medicinal chemist, in 1984. “I basically used my chemistry ability to make new compounds,” he said. “I would work closely with biologists and other scientists to...

By Amelia Lee • December 8, 2022 • Features

Regina Shands Stoltzfus, professor of peace, justice and conflict studies at Goshen College, believes that spiritual connection is important in the daily practice of antiracism. In the book “Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Antiracist Spirituality” (Herald Press, 2021), which Shands Stoltzfus wrote with Tobin Miller Shearer, spirituality emerges as a key focal point of antiracist tactics. “We practice,” Shands Stoltzfus said, “Just like musicians and athletes do. I think that’s true for something like antiracism. We have been socialized in a very racist setting, living in America. We are expected to embody racism and practice those beliefs; that there...

By Faith Fegley • December 8, 2022 • Features

For Yudiria Garcia, studying virtually at Harvard University last summer was “overwhelming at first.” “Imposter syndrome was real,” Garcia said. “At the beginning, I really felt like I didn’t belong at Harvard.” Garcia was one of nine participants from across the country who were accepted into Fostering Advancement Camp; Careers through Enrichment Training in Science (FACETS), a six-week program focused on research, professional development and networking. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion within Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted the program. After hearing about the opportunity from Brianne Brenneman, public health program director and assistant professor of public...

By Caleb Shenk • December 8, 2022 • Features

As I pulled into the parking lot of the Child and Parent Services building in Elkhart, there was only a single car in the parking lot. It was early. 7:22. When I punched in the address earlier, my GPS reminded me that Child and Parent Services, better known as CAPS, didn’t open until 9. The clock in my Subaru advanced to 7:23 as I pulled next to the lone vehicle. I was seven minutes early, but she was earlier than I was. As I a sat for a moment, I realized something. I was nervous. Why was I nervous? I...

By Mike Murrell • December 8, 2022 • Features

Small college presidents are not typically involved in conducting original, on-the- ground research with students and faculty. President Rebecca Stoltzfus is an exception. The research of President Stoltzfus focuses on the causes and effects of malnutrition in low-income women and children, particularly the integration of direct nutrition interventions with intersectoral initiatives such as infectious disease prevention, food safety and reproductive health. She has approximately 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles to her credit. In 2017, when she came to Goshen College from Cornell University, where she was the vice provost for undergraduate education and a professor of nutritional studies, she had two...

By Mariela Esparza • December 8, 2022 • Features