Arleth Martinez, a senior sociology major, runs cross country along with track and field. She didn’t even run in high school. Before moving to Goshen in 2017, Martinez was running in California. “But then when I moved to Goshen High School, I was like ‘new people, scary, I’m not doing this,’” she recounted.
With her time away from running, Martinez wasn’t sure how joining the team in college would go. “I did think it was gonna be, like, pretty stressful trying to manage my time and figure it out,” she said. “But I’ve actually found that to me, it’s sort of like a break in-between classes.”Finding comfort in her academic and athletic balance, she also found support in a wide range of Goshen faculty and community members. “Rustin has been very influential in making sure we succeed, and then he’s like one of our biggest cheerleaders.” Martinez continued, “I had Brianne Brenneman my freshman year, and so she was also really helpful in helping me balance that student athlete life.”
Martinez did cite some challenges, including the lack of BIPOC faculty here on campus. “I mean we know that … there’s not a lot of BIPOC faculty, and so, I guess in that sense, sometimes it’s hard to find your own identity within people you know.”
Frida Luna Gallegos, a first-year computer science and business double-major, runs on the women’s cross country team. She said that college was always viewed as really important in her family’s eyes. “Higher education has been something my mother has implemented since a young age,” she said. “But the problem is we didn’t really know how,” Gallegos continued. As a first-generation student, she had many barriers to overcome.
One challenge was Gallegos’s nerves about how she would be perceived, saying “I’m from Mexico, what are people going to think?” Despite her anxiety for her first-year, she found something she wasn’t expecting here: “Because of the diversity the campus has, and also a lot of Hispanic students, it’s so much easier than high school in a way.”
A big part of that support she found was with her teammates on the cross country team. Arleth Martinez played a role, with Gallegos actually crediting Martinez as to why she joined the team this year. “During my last high school year, she actually reached out to me for the cross country team. I wasn’t going to join, but then she told me about the team and everyone, and I was like ‘I’ll think about it.’” After more encouragement from both Martinez and Coach Rustin Nyce, Gallegos ended up choosing Goshen College.
Jessica Brito, a sophomore soccer player from Warsaw, Indiana, was prepared for her college experience to be much more independent than in high school. “Teachers make it sound like ‘Oh, college is so hard, and you need to take high school more seriously,’” Brito said. “I knew my parents didn’t go to college, so I … couldn’t go to them because they couldn’t even help me in high school, really,” she continued.
While being a first-generation student does have its challenges, Brito’s Hispanic identity has helped her to build close relationships with many of the other students of different cultures. “Coming here and identifying myself as Hispanic when there’s other people that are different races and ethnicities … I was able to be more proud of my heritage,” she said.
Part of that was her family’s love and commitment to soccer which eventually led to her attending Goshen College. “Soccer is a huge thing in my family and my dad always made it apparent that I had to play soccer.” Her dad’s insistence created a love for soccer within herself, and Brito eventually landed in Goshen because of it. “I knew that I wanted to play soccer, it just seemed whenever I came to Goshen it felt more welcoming,” she said.
Kevin Cota Juarez, a sophomore business major from Nogales Senora, Mexico, plays on the men’s basketball team.
“I grew up thinking about having a better future for me and my family. So when I had the opportunity to study in the US [for] college, it was yes, I never had any doubts,” said Cota.
Although the decision felt right, it came with unexpected challenges.
Cota explained that being an international student from Mexico and learning English at the same time “had a lot of impact on me … it’s hard especially because you’re always nervous how people are going to receive you, how they’re going to treat you.”
Despite these challenges, he has found school and basketball to be rewarding.
“I’ve grown up a lot as a person … I’ve grown up as part of this community and it just makes me see how life is in general because a lot of things we see in sports, we are gonna see in real life too.”
With support from Kyle Capps, the head men’s basketball coach, and Kellam Venosky, senior admissions counselor, Cota feels like Goshen College is the right place for him.
“The attention the coaches, the administrators gave to me, it was special. They made me feel like I was coming to a place where I’m going to feel at home.”
