business
October 26, 2023
Business department tests 7-week condensed classes
This fall, the business department tested out an accelerated schedule for some of its courses, shifting them from a traditional 14-week calendar to a seven-week intensive. For the first half of the semester, International Economics, a three-credit class taught by Jerrell Ross Richer, met for 50 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and for 75 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday. The class of 17 students met for five hours a week but finished at the midterm break on Oct. 12. Michelle Horning, chair of the business department, explained that the reasoning is twofold: to help students have more flexibility in...
January 20, 2022
Counting eggs and logging hours at Miller Poultry
Spanning from Dec. 13 to Jan. 7, the Miller Poultry internship provided five Goshen students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the day-to-day operations of a large, family-owned poultry company. “I was in the room where they cut off the heads,” said Caleb Shenk, a sophomore accounting major who took part in the internship. “There were the chickens coming down the line, and they had their heads. Then they went through this machine, and they did not have their heads. It was very bloody.” Miller Poultry’s four-week internship was not for the faint of heart. Following the submission of...
October 28, 2021
Soap, ceramics and sisterhood
Emma Zuercher, a junior ASL interpreting major, has kept her hands busy this semester creating products for the soap business she co-owns with her sister. Zuercher and her sister Rowena started the business HomeSaponified last year after discovering a passion for soapmaking. Rowena Zuercher got interested in soapmaking about four years ago, and Emma joined her in 2019. “She did a lot of research on recipes and developing our formula for soapmaking,” said Zuercher, “and then in early 2020, we finally opened an Etsy shop after selling soap to friends and family.” HomeSaponified makes cold process soap with plant-based fragrances...
September 12, 2019
New managerial changes for Java Junction
The 2019-20 academic school year marks Java Junction’s 16th year of operation, and the new year began with the creation of a new managerial position, as well as the introduction of a second coffee shop on campus. Jonah Yoder, a Goshen College graduate of 2019, has begun the new role as operations manager of Java Junction. Yoder’s role is an “experimentary” one, according to Michelle Horning, professor of accounting and Java Junction program director. The position came about after Horning was scheduled to take on Andrew Hartzler’s classes following his departure to Ecuador as the Study-Service Term leader. While Horning...
February 8, 2019
A lil’ twist on photography
It all began with a cooking video. We’ve all seen those videos cross our Facebook feeds. A pair of well-manicured hands dances across the screen, combining ingredients that culminate in a fancy-looking meal that you too can make in your own kitchen! This video was different. These hands prepared a full day’s breakfast, lunch and dinner. In many ways, this video was similar to all the others: the camera angles and subject matter were familiar. That being said, in this video, the hands were the size of a toy doll’s. I first saw this video in August of 2017. In...
March 23, 2017
Great idea grant to inspire student creativity
Next fall, Goshen College students are invited to participate in the Idea Development class, a seven-week long course offered in the second half of the semester. Students enrolled in the course will have the chance to come up with a great idea (some may come into the class with a great idea already in mind), and then they will spend the seven weeks developing those ideas. The goal for the course is to have students develop a plan to implement their great idea, and by the end, each student can make a pitch for a possible grant of up to...
January 26, 2017
enFocus provides fellowship opportunity
For seniors graduating in the spring without any plans for next year, enFocus is offering a number of fellowship positions. Located in South Bend, enFocus is a product of the University of Notre Dame and the Lilly Endowment, the same funds that the Pathways to Career Program uses. Fellows with enFocus would be assigned a one-year consulting role within the non-profit, for-profit or public sectors. The fellowship is a paid position. On Jan. 23, representatives of enFocus shared with students on campus about the fellowship opportunities, including business analysis, process improvement and technology implementation. Fellows with enFocus would use 70...
January 19, 2017
Gerig grows an art business based on relationships
People process life in different ways. Maddie Gerig choses art. Or rather, art choses her. “I couldn’t really imagine my life without making art,” says Gerig, a senior art major and writing minor. “People make art for different reasons… I make art to process what has happened in my day.” Through her multi-media artwork, using primarily clay and steel, Gerig reflects on relationships and daily interactions. “I enjoy watching interactions: the weird stuff that people do because of a random thing that happened in their childhood.” The term Gerig uses for this idea is “gesture.” In art, a gesture is...
December 8, 2016
Senior business majors present capstone projects to nonprofits
Seniors from the business department delivered the first set of Capstone presentations in the Koinonia Room at College Mennonite Church on Tuesday, Dec. 6. The students presented to a group of board members and the nonprofit organizations they worked with throughout the semester. In groups of three, business majors presented to the owners of these nonprofits to give suggestions as to what the organization could improve on in terms of marketing, business strategies and how to better connect to their consumer bases. This was the 10th anniversary of these capstone projects, and with word spreading about these projects occurring every...
February 4, 2016
Business Department awards grants for students
This year, the Goshen College business department granted students from a variety of disciplines entrepreneurship grants to further pursue their business ventures. The business department heard an assortment of different pitches, “Shark Tank” style, but eventually decided upon four businesses to award a total of $18,000. The grants were divided into two venture grants and two experimentation grants. Maddie Gerig, a junior art major, and Preston Carr, a junior business major, were the two recipients of the venture grants: grants given to those who have already started their own business. Gerig’s work is based in Goshen, under the name “Madeline...
January 28, 2016
From around the world and back to Goshen
After getting the itch on SST, Jonathan Geiser bought a one-way ticket to Barcelona, Spain and came back to Goshen 22 years later. Geiser is currently an associate professor of business and the business development director for the Center for Business and Entrepreneurial Education at Goshen College. When Geiser was a student, he traveled to Honduras for SST and found a love for learning in and about other cultures. At the time, a friend of Geiser’s was living in Barcelona and suggested that he move to Spain for a year after graduation. Geiser was eager to see the world and...
November 12, 2015
Rachel’s: Where ‘everything is good’
Rachel’s Bread opens at 8 o’clock on Saturday morning, but the line has formed long before. Customers wait to order pumpkin swoons, chocolate croissants, quiche and much more. “When I was a student at Goshen College, my friends would always talk about how there was no place to hang out downtown,” said Rachel Shenk, who opened her bakery business 21 years ago. “So in retrospect, it’s interesting that I decided to do this.” Since 1994, Rachel’s Bread has been a staple business in downtown Goshen. Originally born in Belgium, Shenk was never satisfied with the bread selection in the United...
September 24, 2015
Business venture proposals
For the last 10 years, the Goshen College business department has been providing funds for students to start businesses as a part of the Venture Planning course. The business department selects ventures to fund based on the student’s passion for the idea, their understanding of the venture, and how well this venture would do in the long-term. This year, there are five different ventures being proposed by seniors Mikhail Fernandes, Peter Schrock, Brian Sutter and Dean Nafziger along with juniors Maddie Gerig and Preston Carr. “My proposal is to build an online e-commerce platform for students,” Mikhail Fernandes said. He...
March 5, 2015
GC lunch and launch (your business)
Lunch and Launch (Your Business) hosted a luncheon on Friday, February 27 to inform young professionals on how to start their own businesses. Young professionals from Goshen College and the surrounding community were invited to Reith Recital Hall to eat lunch and video conference with J. Sider, a 2008 Goshen College graduate who was recently named to Magazine’s and Billboard’s “30 Under 30” and Forbes’ Music “30 Under 30” three years in a row. Sider continues to be awarded these distinctions due to his successful business BandPage, a place for musicians to network with other musicians and make them known...
January 22, 2015
From teaching to soap making
Gnomes are hardworking caretakers of the earth. The sustaining nature of these mythical creatures is the theme of The Soapy Gnome home goods store, which opened this past June. Owned by Jenny Frech, the company uses the wisdom of the gnomes to create soaps and body care products that are kind to skin and to nature. The Soapy Gnome opened last summer in downtown Goshen, but Frech had been ‘playing’ with soap making since January of 2013. “It started as a hobby,” Frech commented. “[But] the ingredients are pretty expensive, so to play with it the way I wanted...