Jesse Loewen ’17 and Isacc Hernandez ’13 departed the Goshen College Academic Success Center after 13 years of service between them. Loewen has joined Duquesne University’s School of Nursing as a student success coach and Hernandez has returned to his hometown of Nampa, Idaho.
Loewen, who attended Bethany Christian High School and played soccer at GC, was on campus for over a decade. He believes that now is the correct time for him to move on. “I’m just at a time of my life where, it’s like, do it now or just find yourself here for another year,” he said. “So I took a leap of faith. I’m just hoping it can go as well as it can.”Michelle Blank, the senior director of academic success center, recalled having to bid farewell to her two longest serving members of the ASC. “Isacc and Jesse separately came to me at different times saying it was time to move to the next stage,” Blank said. “They were both ready to go do the next thing and chase the next dream, and how do you not support that?”
Loewen is grateful for the time that he spent at GC. He said, “I feel like I can leave it better than I found it and now really focus on what is life for the next few years that I want to create for myself and explore.”
Blank believes that Loewen and Hernandez were exactly what GC needed during their tenures. Blank said, “The pieces they pulled together, I’m convinced no one else could have done in that same way.”
With the departure of Hernandez and Loewen, the ASC added Ian Fox ‘24 as a success coach for athletics and student engagement and Isel Herrera as a success coach for programming and belonging. Carolyn Rivero was also hired as an academic success specialist earlier this summer.
Herrera is a graduate of Saint Mary’s College, Indiana, where she earned a bachelor’s in global studies and Spanish before going on to earn her master’s degree in social work from Indiana University South Bend. Rivero graduated from Grinnell College this year with a bachelor’s degree with concentrations in economics, French and Latin American studies.
Herrera has inherited a similar role to Hernandez, where she is doing primarily success coaching. She was also working in a similar position at IUSB before joining GC. Blank sees Herrera as a great resource on campus, especially due to her Spanish-English bilinguality.
Rivero is taking over from Kelsey McClane, who served as the promotions and accessibility librarian during her time at GC. “She kind of lives at the front desk, but she does have an office that she hangs out at,” Blank said. “She does the ad assistant role along with assistive technology.”
Fox was a member of the GC men’s volleyball team during his time as a student. He is working mainly with student-athletes, a role similar to Loewen’s. “He understands the athletes and their experience and can speak into that,” Blank said.
After serving in athletics during his first year on GC staff, Fox is looking forward to a new challenge. “When this job popped up, I applied right away, and I felt like it’d be a good time to give back to a school that gave me so much,” Fox said.
Fox has primarily been working with first-year students so far, with a current caseload of 71. He also is teaching a section of the Identity, Culture and Community course that all first-year students are required to take.
Blank noted the intentionality that Fox, Rivero and Herrera have around the ASC. “The communication is outstanding — the flexibility for already covering each other. If I have to stop over somewhere, they’ll say ‘Okay, I’ve got it.’ We made good choices in who we brought in,” she said.
“We want this to be a tight-knit group or a family where we can just ask people questions whenever we want to ask them,” Fox said.
Another change in the ASC this year is that Upswing will no longer be in use for scheduling success coaching. Tutoring has changed to drop-in, where students can arrive and leave at their own accord.
“The note to students is tutoring schedules available, show up, and you don’t have to make an appointment. We’ve opened up a lot more that way,” Blank said.
