More Than Just Stories, a five-year storytelling initiative that received a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment in November, is beginning to take shape with early steps that include the design of logos, the development of websites, the hiring of staff and the renovation of offices.
More Than Just Stories consists of five projects: Just Stories, a podcast dedicated to understanding the criminal justice system from lived experiences; The Gratitude Letters, a project highlighting written thank-you letters to mentors and mentees; Peace Talks, a regional and national speech competition; The Inheritance, a documentary film; and Climate Action, a storytelling festival for researchers, students and others. All these projects share a common goal of spreading the importance of Christian faith and life through the form of storytelling.There are five lead faculty members who have been working together to get this five-year storytelling initiative off the ground. Just Stories is being directed by Robert Brenneman, professor of criminal justice and sociology along with Regina Shands Stoltzfus, professor of peace, justice and conflict studies who will be a co-host of the podcast. The other podcast, The Gratitude Letters, is being directed by Duane Stoltzfus, project director for the grant and a professor of communication, with Jen Shenk as the host. Anna Groff, associate professor of communication and contest director for the C. Henry Smith Oratorical Contest, is directing the Peace Talks project. Kyle Hufford, professor of communication, is directing a documentary, The Inheritance. Lastly, Luke Beck Kreider, associate professor of religion and sustainability, is directing the Climate Action project.
Stoltzfus said, “This is a quiet but important phase in which we’re laying the foundation for all the storytelling programs and events that will make up More Than Just Stories. … For the first part of the year, all may seem quiet, but by summer, More Than Just Stories will be humming.”
Recently, a date has been set for the first of the Peace Talk contests, which will take place on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Umble Center later this year. Groff relates that she is in the process of inviting ten other colleges who also participated in the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest to gather together in the Umble Center this Fall. She hopes to allocate the weekend of the contest as a time for the students who won the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest at their respective schools, along with their faculty representatives, to connect through workshops, panels, speech coaching and shared meals. The weekend will also allow the 11 contestants to practice and get to know each other, and for the faculty representatives to attend a workshop on how best to support the students throughout the competition.
Brenneman, director of the Just Stories Podcasts, relates that they are getting close to hiring a producer for the podcast who would be in charge of editing, taping and making sure the goals are met. Brenneman hopes to start releasing episodes every other week by June 1, with the goal of producing about 25 episodes each year. Currently three episodes have been recorded: two were recorded by him and one by Shands Stoltzfus. Brenneman shares that two guests are lined up for the following podcasts, a judge from Elkhart County and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes for The Atlantic.
“Although I am a professor rather than a journalist, I am both excited and nervous about this new venture. Anything I do, I want to do well, especially since it can impact the state of justice in our country,” Brenneman said.
The Gratitude Letters have been taking shape as well. With their first experimental podcast episode recorded a few months ago, many ideas are falling into place. They have decided on the lengths of future episodes, on some marketing strategies for their website, and where the stories would be recorded and available for listening. They hope to release the first episodes by this summer. Stoltzfus noted that many faculty members have been asking their students to write a letter of gratitude to an individual who they would like to thank with the hope that several of those letters could serve as future episodes for The Gratitude Letters project.
This student involvement is one of the core aspects of this project as a whole. Students such as Alaina Wolfe, a junior criminal justice major, who has been working with Brenneman on researching potential guests for the Just Stories podcast. Wolfe is also on the search committee for a senior producer, along with Mafe Aguilar Vargas, a junior graphic design and marketing major, who were looking for a marketing manager. Students Kate Bodiker, a senior writing and communication major, and Mackenzie Miller, a junior communication major, are also very involved with The Gratitude Letters and the Peace Talks. Stoltzfus said, “Both contributed to the planning meetings with OddBird [the website developer] in thinking about the goals, scope and requirements of the projects and respective websites.”
Stoltzfus emphasized the central role of students in More Than Just Stories: “The greatest and most natural resource for our storytelling initiatives are students at Goshen College. We want students to be deeply involved in each of the programs and events that we’re launching. We hope that they will think about which projects they have an affinity for — whether a speech competition or a podcast on criminal justice or a conference on climate change or a documentary on young people — and let us know about their interest.”
