convocation
November 20, 2025
Choosing community and connection
The theme of this week’s Goshen College convocation was “US Immigration.” The convo was hosted by Gilberto Pérez, vice president of Student Life, Philipp Gollner, professor of U.S. history, and Saulo Padilla, a Mennonite Central Committee migration education coordinator. They shared their stories of immigration to the United States. Gollner, who grew up in Austria, took the stand first. He started by talking about his experiences with immigration while going through Chicago O’Hare airport this year. Gollner explained that he has been through immigration twice this year and how in April, he was called into secondary questioning with his family...
September 18, 2025
Servicio de Adoración marks first Spanish chapel
Goshen College hosted a bilingual chapel entitled “Servicio de Adoración” on Wednesday. This chapel, meant to resemble a Spanish worship service, included worship songs sung entirely in Spanish and a message from Cristian Alemán, the outreach coordinator and bilingual music director at College Mennonite Church. The chapel opened with a song, followed by a welcome from Natalie Pineda Vasquez, a senior music major. Pineda Vasquez shared her passion for the event and invited all present to “praise” and participate, no matter their reason for attending. The idea for the chapel originated with Pineda Vasquez last school year. “It started out...
January 23, 2025
Campus leaders celebrate MLK Day
On Monday, Jan. 20, Goshen College hosted a student-led convocation in the Church-Chapel to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event was followed by a short march to the Recreation-Fitness Center, where participants engaged in activities such as interactive stations and raffles while enjoying snacks and drinks. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader who fought for racial equality and justice through nonviolent activism in the United States. On the campus of GC, his achievements and history are annually celebrated. This year, students in the Black Student Union, Advocates (LGBTQIA+ advocacy),...
September 19, 2024
LSU looks toward upcoming year
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, and the Latino Student Union wants to share about the upcoming month and how to get involved in the club’s activities and goals. LSU, advised by Christobal Garza Gonzalez and Raquel Montanez Gonzalez, is an affinity group that centers around Hispanic experiences. It is available to any student who desires an opportunity to socialize, engage with the community and, most importantly, become comfortable with getting involved on campus. “We create events and celebrate the diversity of Latin American culture and countries,” said Angelica Garcia-Ponce, sophomore social work major a LSU...
September 8, 2023
Convocation gives the year a sweet start
Sweet Synergy, the title of the opening convocation last Wednesday, marked the start of the school year. In it, Rebecca Stoltzfus, president of Goshen College, reflected on those words and unveiled the winners of the annual Global Citizen awards recognizing three GC seniors. “Synergy is sweet,” President Stoltzfus remarked in her opening speech. “And synergy is all around us — in flavors, in music, on teams, in relationships and business and biology.” President Stoltzfus highlighted synergistic relationships found in the College Kindergarten Lab, a curious condiment and GC alumni who created synergy in their workplaces. GC alum Orie J. Eigsti...
March 23, 2023
Ervick speaks on the importance of Title IX
On Tuesday, Goshen students had the opportunity to attend a convocation to hear from Kelcey Ervick about the history of Title IX and its importance to the history of women’s sports. Title IX states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Ervick, the writer of “The Keeper” and director of creative writing at Indiana University South Bend, said that she and Title IX “grew up together.” She began her speech...
January 20, 2022
King Convocation features Voices of the Earth
“Ain’t gonna let nobody… isolation… denigration… injustice, turn me around. I’m gonna keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, marchin’ up to freedom land!” sang the Voices of the Earth choir as they performed the iconic civil rights movement song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” during the King Convocation on Monday. In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, the choir also sang two other selections: “Ndandihleli” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” According to H. Roz Woll, assistant professor of music and director of Voices of the Earth, “Ndandihleli” is “an anti-apartheid song that was...
January 28, 2021
Student storytellers featured at in-person convocation
A group of first-year students experienced their first in-person convocation in the church-chapel on Wednesday, when five of their peers spoke as a part of the annual ICC StoryCorps project. Goshen Core Director Suzanne Ehst began by introducing the project and the storytellers. “This year during a pandemic, when it’s been harder for new students to develop connections to this community,” Ehst said, “it strikes me as especially important to hear and receive the stories of a few members of our first-year class.” The students selected to share their stories were Cassi Cwiertnia, ASL interpreting major from Lake Zurich, Illinois;...
January 21, 2021
Senior Administrators Speak at Virtual King Convocation
“Because of these immoral and persistent inequalities, Goshen College joins in saying Black lives matter. Not more than other lives, but in the face of such injustice, Black lives must draw our concerted attention,” said President Rebbecca Stoltzfus during the first virtual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Monday. Stoltzfus said she wanted to honor King and “to draw connections from his life and legacy to us and where we are today and where we go from here.” To describe King, Stoltzfus quoted Vincent Harding, a Mennonite minister and colleague of King who spoke at Goshen several times. Harding described...
September 3, 2020
Local health workers share COVID-19 experiences
According to USAFacts, a non-profit civic initiative, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elkhart County have been declining since cases last peaked in the middle of June. Most recent numbers indicate there are currently 5,702 known cases. Speaking about the healthcare experience in Goshen, Dr. Dan Nafziger, an infectious disease specialist and Goshen Hospital Chief Medical Officer joined Dr. Rose Gillin, a Goshen Family Medicine Specialist, President Rebecca Stoltzfus, and senior nursing student Katja Norton in convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 2. The reason for decline, Nafziger expressed, has to do with a combination of procedures put in place from different...
January 17, 2019
Convo updates campus community on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force
President Rebecca Stoltzfus addressed the college at this Wednesday’s convocation with updates from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. In January 2018, President Stoltzfus issued a mandate for the creation of the Task Force. Two months later, students, staff and faculty were called to nominate themselves to become a part of the group. The nominees were affirmed by the campus community and then selected by the Task Force’s co-chairs, Beth Martin Birky and Dominique Burgunder-Johnson, in collaboration with President Stoltzfus and a selection process overseer. The last update of the Task Force came in May 2018 when the...
October 24, 2018
Convocation shares highlights of ‘A Summer in Senegal’
For just over half an hour Wednesday morning, the Umble Center was packed for a convocation detailing the 2018 Senegal SST unit. Goshen College sends groups to Senegal every other summer. This past summer’s Senegal unit was one of the smallest in SST’s history, consisting of only eight students: junior Ethan Lapp, seniors Naomi Peters, Lukas Thompson, Zach Ganger, Spencer Aeschliman, Ben Meyer Reimer and Alex Steiner and 2018 graduate Morgan Yordy. The unit was led by Tom Meyers, director of international education, and his wife, Julie. “The group was a delight to work with,” said Meyers. “Small groups can...
October 10, 2018
Indigenous People’s Day convocation honors heritage of native peoples
As faculty, staff, and students walked into the Church-Chapel sanctuary for the Indigenous People’s Day convocation, Deb Detwiler, director of the Women’s World Choir, stood at the center of a chanting group of women, guiding them in traditional music gathered from Alaskan Inuit peoples. The convocation was led by four members of the Goshen College community: Jonathon Schramm, associate professor of sustainability and environmental education; Emily Hayne and Terri Habig, both graduate students in environmental education at Merry Lea; and Erica Ewing, a junior interdisciplinary major. After the opening by the Women’s World Choir, Schramm took the audience on a...
October 10, 2018
Alumni recognized in annual awards convocation
This past Friday served host to the 2018 Alumni Awards convocation during Homecoming Weekend. The event began with Harold Watson, the athletic director, introducing the history of the Champions of Character Award to a primarily alumni audience. The Dr. Roman Gingerich and Dr. Ruth Gunden Champion of Character Awards are presented each year to a male and female alumni athlete who exemplify the college’s core values in their lives, work and community service. This year’s awardees were Byron Shenk ’63 and Penina Acayo Laker ’11. Over the last 67 years, Shenk has spent time in the roles of professor, coach...
August 29, 2018
Opening convocation encourages students to be global citizens
It's that time of the year again. Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus kicked off the 2018-2019 academic year by introducing this year's theme of global citizenship at the yearly presidential convocation on Wednesday. The theme of global citizenship was chosen in correlation with the 50-year anniversary of GC's Study-Service Term, which began in 1968. "What does [global citizenship] mean? And what would it look like to embody it more fully at Goshen College?" Stoltzfus asked at the beginning of her speech. Stoltzfus stated that global citizenship does not have anything to do with citizenship status in a country or another or...