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

Art can act as a gateway into the ideals of the culture that created it. Despite being constructed in the seventh century B.C.E., we can analyze Greek marble sculpture and get a glimpse into the values and principles that were deemed important. Themes of beauty, strength, storytelling, and power still resonate with modern viewers even when much of the context and people have long since been forgotten. So what is modern art saying about our culture now? As much as I enjoy perusing art museums and overthinking abstract pieces, I can’t help but feel that the purpose of art has...

By Ryan Snider • October 30, 2025 • Features

On a chilly Friday night, the quiet Miller residence halls at Goshen College were haunted once again. This year’s Haunted Halls event drew around 200 people, 50 up from the 150 last year.  The event took place on the first floor of Miller, which is currently unoccupied. Residence life transformed the space into a ‘haunted’ hall. Each room was decorated differently and staffed by student actors. A sign by the entrance warned visitors of the scares to come and listed safety rules. Students entered in small groups to explore the rooms.   Kevin Schultz, assistant director of residence life, said, “It’s...

By Ana Alves Machado • October 30, 2025 • Features

My Study-Service Term to Red Lake, Minnesota with Mennonite Disaster Service was my first prolonged interaction with Kendra Yoder, and the first time I reflected on the weight of the gossip culture at Goshen College. Yoder is a professor of sociology and co-director of global engagement here at GC, and she happened to be one of my SST leaders. One evening, after a crappy service day, she and I went on a walk outside the reservation’s casino hotel — home for our time in Red Lake due to some behind-schedule renovations. We ended our walk by the entryway lawn, where...

By Eliza Alemán • October 23, 2025 • Features

At Goshen College, a group of people work their way through every building on campus from Monday through Friday: sweeping, mopping, dusting, wiping, emptying and neatening. Custodians report for duty as early as 5 a.m. to clean and maintain every classroom, bathroom, housing area and other spaces in each building on campus. Christy Farley oversees a staff of 12 in the custodial department. Farley is responsible for ensuring all supplies are ordered and stocked, work orders are completed, cleaning duties are completed for each building and summer schedules are coordinated.  Careful scheduling is needed to clean for various events from...

By Mafe Aguilar Vargas • October 23, 2025 • Features

If you’ve ever stepped foot on Goshen College’s campus, chances are you’ve seen Kellam Venosky. Maybe it was at a Maple Leafs game, a concert  or on a walk to the cafeteria.  Wherever he is, Venosky is known to stop and say hello — because he probably already knows your name. Venosky, a senior admissions counselor, is a man of many titles and many friends. This month, he is celebrating his 10th anniversary as a GC employee. This year, he was also honored with the “Fan of the Year” award at the Leafys event. “It meant a lot to me...

By May Boudreau • October 23, 2025 • Features

Despite several years of short jail staffing requiring just one section, the Goshen College course of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program will be moved back to two concurrent classes this year as it had always been in the past. Held at the Elkhart County jail, the “outside” students, a cohort from GC, will join the “inside” students, those currently incarcerated in the jail, for two of the courses being offered.  Robert Brenneman, professor of criminal justice and sociology, will lead a section in the men’s ward entitled “Masculinity and Justice.” Regina Shands Stoltzfus, professor of peace, justice and conflict studies,...

By Kate Bodiker • October 23, 2025 • Features