In the past decade, private institutions have gone bankrupt due to the lack of interest in the humanities and a liberal arts education. English departments across the country are currently dealing with low enrollment rates At Goshen College, the incoming class of 2022 has 9 declared English majors and 5 writing majors. There are 109 declared nursing majors and 65 business majors. This distribution is similar nationally, even among Ivy League institutions.  The rise of anti-intellectualism is to blame for this. By that, I am referring to the general sentiment of anger, mockery and dismissal against people who read and...

By Mariela Esparza • February 2, 2023 • Features

Students and faculty may view Java Junction as the campus’s successful, student-run coffee shop, but internally it has a reputation of barely breaking even.  This year, the management team is determined to change that. Micah Shenk and Connor Daniel are business majors at Goshen College and have been a part of Java’s management team since the start of the 2022-23 school year, with Shenk overseeing inventory and Daniel marketing. Shenk and Daniel moved up from their original roles as assistant managers and are using their increased responsibilities to make major positive changes to Java’s internal operations, profit margins and customer...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • February 2, 2023 • Features

Todd Yoder is Goshen College’s vice president of institutional advancement. Yoder wears a suit and tie to the office, but outside of work there’s another outfit he puts on: a kilt, a jacket and a special hat. This outfit is also accompanied by a set of bagpipes.  Yoder has been mastering the craft of the bagpipes for 11 years. After graduating from GC, Yoder moved back to the east coast, where he was raised. He decided to learn the bagpipes while living in Pennsylvania, just one year before moving with his wife, Kathleen, back to Goshen in 2013. Kathleen also...

By Michael Murrell • February 2, 2023 • Features

Andy Ammons starts his class by taking students to the prairie behind the Newcomer Building at Goshen College. As they walk through the tall grass, students see bees flying around. This unorthodox classroom may make some students uncomfortable, but both bees and Ammons are in their natural habitat. Ammons gets stung a lot — sometimes even on purpose. During his course, Pollinators in Peril, Ammons makes a point of stinging himself. He catches a bee and puts it directly on his arm, encouraging the bee to release the stinger. He says he does so to show the class what happens...

By Amelia Lee • February 2, 2023 • Features

For students from Elkhart County all the way to Puerto Rico, Adriana Ortiz, assistant director of admissions at Goshen College, is usually part of the initial stages of a student’s experience. Although many see the smaller parts of Ortiz’s job, like an email letting someone know the next step in their admissions process, she is not a traditional admissions counselor. In fact, she does much more than that, especially for Latino students at GC.  Ortiz mentors, advises and most importantly, listens to prospective and current students. While listening, she learns more about the students to understand their “why,” their potential...

By Sadie Brenneman • January 26, 2023 • Features

When the clock hits 1:15 p.m., the Leaf Raker cafe descends into chaos with a queue of students rushing to get their “meal replacement” of a cheeseburger or a quesadilla.  Through all the hubbub, a voice rings out from behind the counter, calling students’ names as their food is ready. That voice is often the one of Candace Sheley — or, as she’s known to many on campus, Candy. “I started working here three years ago,” Sheley says. “I was a stay-at-home mom, and then … I got bored! So I started here.” Seniors may remember when Sheley worked at...

By Daniel James • January 26, 2023 • Features

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