Coming to the United States is not an easy decision, nor is it an easy process. My parents sacrificed many things in their lives to give my brother and me everything we needed — a home, food, clothes to wear and just enough to send us to school. I never knew how our family was doing financially before we moved to the U.S. I thought we were doing just fine, so the idea of moving to another country seemed like a luxury. As I grew up and learned that many people across the world come here for a better life,...

By Mafe Aguilar Vargas • October 9, 2025 • Features

This past week, I was assigned to read a chapter from John D. Roth’s, “A Mennonite College for Everyone (?)” for junior seminar. Our discussion focused predominantly around the role of love in historical analysis: Is this Christ-like love — the kind that prompts empathy, and is void of quick judgment — a helpful tool in academic research? Though after class, I found myself juggling a rather different question: at what point is an unwavering allegiance to a particular cause … necessary? In the chapter, “Redefining Community: The Long  Struggle for LGBTQ+ Inclusion, 1990-2010”, Roth covered Goshen College’s internal and...

By Eliza Alemán • September 18, 2025 • Features

As I get to the end of my college career, I am, like every senior before me, incredibly daunted by the fact that I am going to have to go do something with my life. Like, very soon.  All the seniors are at different places with our future plans, and some of us have better ideas about what we want to do than others. I am one of those with nothing concrete, with no goals.  It sounds scary, but the more reflection I’ve done over the past few months, I’ve realized that I really just don’t have any big goals....

By Tyson Miller • March 27, 2025 • Features

Throughout my grade-school years, I thought of college as a big deal because of the extreme academic rigor I was sure was about to ensue. I imagined spending endless hours in the library grinding away at the research paper that would determine my future. And yes, I did end up spending hours at the library, but I’d say about half of that time was spent talking with people, or playing some obscure game from the reserves with a group of friends. I have learned a great deal academically throughout my time at GC, but academic improvement was simply not what...

By Phil Witmer-Rich • March 13, 2025 • Features

This November I received an email with the subject line “Make your year-end gift to Goshen College on Giving Tuesday.” Over the next few days, as “Giving Tuesday” approached, I received more emails, asking me to donate money to GC. One of them even urged me to increase my annual giving to $1,000. I would argue, however, that over the course of my time here I’ve already been giving thousands of dollars annually to the college, albeit in the form of tuition rather than a gift, and that it is inappropriate to ask me, as a college student, to give...

By Tyson Miller • January 16, 2025 • Features

There are a few things I keep in my everyday tote bag: my Mac, some lip balm, a notepad and pen, my phone and a magazine. Always a magazine.  The ways that I can rip it, cut it, collage it, paste in, pin it and tape it are the best; I can fold over the corners for later reading. It is permanent and can’t be altered with a refresh button, just like The Record.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved a good magazine. Whether it’s a home tour in Architectural Digest, a recipe in Better Homes and...

By Sadie Brenneman • November 21, 2024 • Features

I was nervous before leaving for college. I remember asking my wise older cousin Caroline, a recent college graduate, for advice. “Before you know it,” she explained, “you’ll feel like you have two homes. When you’re back at home with your family, you’ll recognize the familiarity of your house and community. But college — your friends, your dorm, campus — will feel like home too. You’ll never feel homesick because two places feel like home.”  As a senior, I can affirm that her words are true. I sincerely feel at home at GC. The train, which used to be jarring,...

By Amelia Witmer-Rich • October 24, 2024 • Features

Since my late years in high school there has been a question that continues to leave me stumped: How do I create deeper relationships?  As someone who grew up with few words and little space to speak them, I found it hard to talk to new people or start conversations. It has been an ongoing journey learning to step out of my comfort zone and express myself easier. Whether it was with my family, on learning tours, during SST in Indonesia, or meeting new people, I struggled to ask my own questions and was fascinated with people who came up...

By Camila Pérez-Diener • October 10, 2024 • Features

In my time at Goshen College, I believe I experienced a prominent shift within the GC student body: party culture.  We do not congregate on the weekends like we used to, for better or worse. Currently, most on-campus students spend weekends together in their same friend groups, huddled in dorm rooms and apartments. It’s cliquey and exclusive, but not intentionally. I think we just don’t know how else to gather. Some will invite a larger group to their spaces, but that risks noise complaints and violations. It hasn’t always been this way, though. For much of GC’s history, students, especially...

By Sadie Brenneman • October 3, 2024 • Features

As I enter senior year and put into perspective the memories I have made here, the word nostalgia comes to mind. Nostalgia allows us to put on rose-colored glasses as we re-experience events from our past, especially those that we associate with meaningful times and places in our lives.  In my work with marketing and design, I’ve realized that this wistful affection for the past encourages brands to reimagine designs from old releases. This new focus has been very prominent in sports marketing and can also be seen in the latest fashion trends. Brands doing this acknowledges our, the consumers’,...

By Isaac Sawatzky • September 19, 2024 • Features

“The grass isn’t greener on the other side,”  That’s what I heard from my former coach after I told him I was transferring to Goshen College.   Now, before we dive into that lovely, totally optimistic quote, I’d like to give some context. To start, school sucks. At least for me it does. For as long as I can remember I’ve always struggled. Everything from the ‘simple’ concepts of algebra to the early mornings scrambling to the bus. As hard as that was, though, the hardest part was working with teachers or any sort of authoritative figures. Words such as...

By Charlie Aldrich • September 5, 2024 • Features

What a ride it’s been. There’s so much I have yet to say, and so much I want to say. So much gratitude: to the friends that have kept me going through endless late-night study sessions and Taco Bell runs; to my professors, the advisers and mentors that they are; and especially to the student-athletes that have given me a space to act like a child again, and jump, dance and sing my way through four years in the student section. I don’t have space for everything I want to say, though, and you all don’t need to read my...

By Daniel James • April 11, 2024 • Features

From age 6 to age 11, before trends had entered my mind, before I was aware of what was cool or uncool, in style or out of style, I wore outrageous things: psychedelic print shorts with a neon tank top, long striped rainbow socks and a white faux fur vest, to share a glimpse. One day on a hike in the woods with my family, I even wore a strapless tank top, bell-bottom jeans and a skinny but long shimmery scarf… On a hike… Now, far from the days of clueless bliss, we are constantly bombarded with opinions on what...

By Sadie Brenneman • March 21, 2024 • Features

For three afternoons a week, for an hour and a half (and two hours on Mondays), I forget about everything else going on in my life and walk into the Music Center, pull out my black folder, and start my vocal warmups. I’ve sung in GC’s low voice choir, Vox Profundi, every year of my college career. Now, over my time at this school, I’ve been a part of a good number of clubs, groups and extracurriculars. Don’t get me wrong: I love, love, love my work with The Record; I talk constantly about how much joy I get from...

By Daniel James • February 15, 2024 • Features

For most of us, grief means reminiscing on the memory of a grandmother, a sibling or a pet, longing to bring something to life that cannot be brought back. We yearn for their presence to return to our lives. But how do you grieve for yourself — your very own essence? In my first years at Goshen College, I began to explore who I was, and I wanted to blossom into my new role as an adult.  During that time, I was secure in who I was and what I wanted for my life. Isis was certain she was destined...

By Isis Espinoza • February 1, 2024 • Features