As the semester draws to a close, Goshen College prepares to say goodbye to a few longtime employees. Two will be retiring, one is moving on to another college, and another will shift to part-time in advance of retirement. Lois Martin has served for ten and a half years in the Academic Resource Center. Providing academic support for students, Martin has done a number of things, including helping students with their writing, sharing tips for time management and setting up tutoring. “I will treasure the opportunities I had to work with outstanding students and colleagues,” said Martin. “My work was...

By Jordan Waidelich • December 3, 2015 • News

Every Tuesday evening, 53-year-old Todd Yoder, Goshen College’s major gifts officer, packs up his belongings and heads to the Fireman’s Union Hall in South Bend to play the bagpipe. Yes, bagpipe. “To make life interesting you have to be willing to try new things,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to sit around on Saturdays and watch football, but I’d rather be challenged and learn something new.” Yoder has quickly learned that this hobby has become a passion. “I love it,” he said. “I absolutely love the challenge of learning something new every single day. That’s what life is all...

By Chandler Ingle • December 3, 2015 • Features

Tony Miller—my brother—was born to Lyle and Bonnie Miller on May 2, 1993. Now 22 years old, he spent the first month of his life in Memorial Hospital of South Bend. It was determined within a year of his birth that he had cerebral palsy, a condition that, in his case, affects fine motor skills and his ability to walk. While Tony was in the hospital, our parents would spend as much time with him as they possibly could. Due mostly to jobs, they were not able to spend every minute of every day with him, so they recorded cassette...

By Ryan Miller • November 19, 2015 • Features

Kimber Beachy lives in Goshen, but her office is about 9,000 miles away—at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. And that’s where she is now. “I heard about the program in the late 90s from a magazine that no longer exists called Transitions Abroad,” Beachy said. “The more exotic a place sounds, the more I want to go there, so of course Antarctica called to me.” Generally, Beachy works on the Ice—a nickname for the continent—during the austral summer (October to February) and then returns to the States for a second summer. During her time in Goshen she travels, volunteers, visits friends and...

By Grace Weaver • November 19, 2015 • Features

Goshen College released a nine-point plan to increase the diversity of faculty and staff during the all-employee meeting on Monday. During his welcome to the meeting, President James Brenneman noted that while GC has has made marked improvements in diversifying the student population, there is still a long way to go for the employee population. “I believe that students… continue to be hurt by systemic racism,” he said. “We are little by little becoming reflective of the diversity of our surrounding community. [But] all of this is still not enough as long as our students—particularly those of color—have the feeling...

By Grace Weaver • November 19, 2015 • News

Allison Montaie, the former head of the office for multicultural affairs and current head of the women’s center at Grand Valley State University, hosted a storytelling workshop for Goshen College faculty on Monday. A similar workshop was then offered for students the next day, October 27. Each workshop was offered twice, once in the mid-morning and once in early afternoon. An average of 15 people attended each workshop. “I know this year [Goshen College has] the theme of servant leadership. The goal [of the workshop] was to develop servant leadership skills through storytelling with faculty and then with students,” Montaie...

By Christi Sessa • October 29, 2015 • News

Linda Kaminskis, the head athletic trainer at Goshen College, and a member of the Indiana Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, will retire at the end of the 2016 spring sports season. Kaminskis, also known as K, reflected on her time at Goshen. “This is my 11th year at Goshen College, but  it only seems like two or three [years],” Kaminskis said. “It has gone by very quickly.” Kaminskis, who has spent 34 years in the field of sports medicine and athletic training, ended up on the career path as if by chance. “After college, I was coaching women’s basketball...

By Danielle Kerschhackl • October 29, 2015 • News

Marcia Yost, Goshen High School choir director, executive director of Goshen College’s Music Center and current director of the Women’s World Music Choir, talks about her love of music and family. I know that you’re very busy—tell me about an average day in your life.  I’m at the high school sometimes as early as 6:30 a.m. Part of my role there is I have 30 teachers that I work with in their classrooms and do observations, and I also teach two classes. I’m generally over here [at the college] for a couple of hours most evenings—but not all of them....

By Grace Weaver • October 1, 2015 • Features

Vickie Miller, who has served Goshen College in Human Resources and ITS, will retire this week after 21 years of service. Miller finished her college degree in 1995, even while raising six-year-old twins, and wanted to go into the Information and Technology field. After seeing an ad for a help desk coordinator position at GC in that same year, she made a phone call, got an interview, and landed the job. Despite a 40 percent pay-cut, Miller took the risk and came to work for Goshen College. “I can say, almost 21 years later, I made the right decision,” Miller...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 1, 2015 • Features

More Goshen College students and faculty than ever are enrolling their children in GC’s Campus Center for Young Children. While several college students and employees send their children to preschool on campus in a typical year, the number spiked this fall. Janet Couch, CCYC director, said that of 62 enrolled children, 13 of them have parents who are college students and 18 have parents who are faculty or staff, which means that 50 percent of CCYC’s enrollment is linked to the college. “A majority of [the college students] are nontraditional students…childcare is important to them,” she said. Yessica Hernandez Ponce,...

By Grace Weaver • September 17, 2015 • News

A new school year means an influx of new faces at Goshen College. Many of these new faces are first year or transfer students, however, people fail to realize an influx of new faculty as well. This year, Goshen College welcomes many new faculty members; many of whom come from a variety of places, and include previous Goshen graduates from years as far back as 1982 to as recent as 2003. Most prominent in the new hires has been Dr. Kenneth Newbold, who has assumed the title of provost here at Goshen College. As provost, Dr. Newbold’s duties include serving...

By Elsa Lantz • September 10, 2015 • News

In April, Campus Pastor Bob Yoder published the book “Helping Youth Grieve: The Good News of Biblical Lament.” This past week during Goshen’s First Friday, he held a book signing at Better World Books. The following interview explores his book, inspiration and process. Q: How was the book signing last Friday? A: It was good! It was fun to be able to see people, talk to people, make people aware. Q: How long did it take you to write the book? A: A long time. There’s phases. This is like 8 years. However, the bulk of the book is the...

By Christi Sessa • September 10, 2015 • Features

Before beginning his interview with the Record, newly-inaugurated Associate Professor of Music Jose Rocha took the opportunity to clarify a recent misconception. “This is the first year the instrumentalists have won the Kick-A-Dilly competition,” said Rocha proudly, referring to the annual kickball tournament between the orchestra and choir members. “It was due to a tiny technicality, but we still won. Scott still thinks the choir won, but the trophy is in the orchestra room.” A full week has passed since classes began on the GC campus, but it seems that Rocha is already beginning to feel at home. Following the...

By Christina Hofer • September 3, 2015 • Arts

He arrives to meetings early, answers emails, looks for ways to address different issues in the Kratz and Yoder dorms and has to somehow balance the complicated puzzle that is created when a whole community lives together, most of them right out of high school. Fire drills, dealing with misconduct and social interactions with students are Friesen’s bread and butter. Despite being such an important part of the lives of GC students that people seem to assume he sprang full-grown into Java Junction at the beginning of time, Friesen spent many years acquiring the credentials to qualify for the job....

By Ramona Whittaker • April 16, 2015 • Features

There are 17 orange Gatorade containers in the training room in the Recreation-Fitness Center, as well as six padded blue tables with backrests, three orange ice coolers and a shiny metal bathtub.   This is the place where Linda K Kaminskis, known as K, spends most of her time. Her office, which is attached to the training room, is comfortable and homey, with books on anatomy overflowing from the shelves, a cabinet full of granola bars and Campbell’s soup, a display of mementos from students and a microwave stacked high with mugs for coffee and hot chocolate for any athletes...

By Ramona Whittaker • April 2, 2015 • Features