intercultural
October 8, 2020
GC alumnus talks decolonizing service work
The Goshen College Alumni Council and Yoder Public Affairs Committee hosted Shashi Buluswar ‘91, last Thursday, Oct. 1 during Homecoming, as a part of the new series: GC Talks. Buluswar, CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies and a 2020 Culture for Service awardee, presented on the history of international service work and how it came to exist in the form most widely recognized today, which he says has included a shift away from reliance on foreign aid agencies. When Buluswar first arrived at Goshen College as a business and computer science major, the idea of culture for service was...
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...
November 7, 2018
ICGC has first meeting, seeks to make change on campus
On the morning of Friday, Nov. 2, students gathered in Wyse 108B to attend the first Intercultural Coalition of Goshen College (ICGC) meeting of the year. ICGC began last spring as a group seeking to address the gaps on campus regarding diversity policies and to develop resolutions to reform campus. The leaders this year are sophomores Mariane Grace and Katija Norton and junior Elijah Lora. According to Norton, ICGC wants to be the “bridge between students and administration by relaying information to both sides.” Last year, ICGC highlighted the issues brought to the coalition by the students and then worked...
April 12, 2018
Intercultural Coalition of Goshen College hold town hall meeting
The Intercultural Coalition of Goshen College (ICGC) organized a town hall meeting on Wednesday, April 11. The event took place at the Fellowship Hall in College Mennonite Church in front of students, faculty, staff and community members. The meeting was held following a student lead walk out on March 21, that saw students head to President Stoltzfus’s office and present her with the stories of racism on campus, the coalition's mission statement and a summary of resolutions. The panel consisted of President Stoltzfus, Ken Newbold, Jo-Ann Brant, Linda VandenBosch, Dr Mitch Mitchell, Gilberto Perez, and Duane Stoltzfus. Along with ICGC...
March 22, 2018
#StandWithUsGC walkout a success
Students got the Goshen College administration’s attention when they marched out of chapel to demand changes regarding racism on campus on Wednesday, March 21. As students left the chapel, a tunnel formed to guide people toward the Adelphian Fountain. There, members of the Intercultural Coalition of Goshen College (ICGC) read anonymously submitted stories of racism on campus. The mission statement of the coalition and a summary of the resolutions being presented to the president were also read. Four leaders from ICGC walked up to President Stoltzfus’s office to give her the resolutions as well as a T-shirt and button that...
March 15, 2018
Potawatomi meal creates community
The Goshen College community welcomed Gary Morseau, citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi to campus on Friday, March 9. Morseau engaged a group of students, faculty and community members in a conversation about food sovereignty and a meal he prepared himself. “Food sovereignty, to our nation, is being able to produce our own foods and not be so dependent on dominant society,” said Morseau. Morseau and his wife grow their own Potawatomi corn, watermelon, beans and squash. The meal he prepared featured corn from their garden. The menu included grilled white hominy, lightly seasoned with garden herb, sweet meat,...
February 8, 2018
Interfaith dialogue empowers Goshen students
Dialogue. This was the main purpose of the “Building an Interreligious Student Community” regional conference in interfaith leadership that Goshen College students, senior Cheyenne Petty, junior Annika Detweiler, sophomores Nasim Rasoulipour, Lydia Dyck and Mandira Panta attended Feb. 2 and 3. A group of 50, all interested and passionate about interfaith gathered at Saint Mary’s College, South Bend, Ind. for a series of workshops beginning with the foundations of interfaith leadership, storytelling and asset mapping and social action. For Panta, attending this conference was about wanting to hear stories from people of other faiths and their interfaith journeys. And that’s...
November 16, 2017
Nouri Marrakchi: A “hodgepodge” of cultures
Nouri Marrakchi is a cheerful, easy-going teacher at Elkhart Memorial High School with Moroccan roots and a background in professional theater. He also happens to be deaf. Marrackchi is currently assisting the GC theater program in its portrayal of a deaf character for the show “Mother Hicks.” He grew up in Denver in an all-hearing family. “I’m lucky. Not everyone has parents that learn how to sign,” he said. “There’s a program to teach parents of deaf children, so that’s how they learned.” Even though Marrackchi signs fluently, he doesn’t necessarily have to rely on ASL to communicate. “I can...
February 16, 2017
Barbershop Talk meets for the first time
The Barbershop Talk Series (BTS) met for the first time last week on Feb. 8 in the Union Building foyer. The goal of this talk series was to open up a space for safe discussion for minority males of the student body to voice opinions, experiences and concerns. Local men from the community were present, as well as several local barbers who offered haircuts and shape-ups for students. The BTS was concocted by Mitch Mitchell, associate director of community life. “The Barbershop Talk Series was prompted from my numerous observations, conversations and interactions I had with minority male students on...
November 19, 2015
Bonus convo for missing Mexican students
A bonus convocation will take place next week concerning the disappearance of 43 students in Iguala, Mexico in September 2014 and the progress that has been made in finding out more about what happened to them. Alma Carrillo Flores, Maddie Birky, Malcolm Stovall and Noemi Salvador, all juniors, are working to organize the convocation. The organizers of the event are hoping to inform the student body about “the lack of action of the Mexican government in trying to find them, what has the US done so far, possible theories about their disappearance and how the 43 have changed each of...
November 12, 2015
Diversity talks with Regina Shands Stoltzfus
Regina Shands Stoltzfus, assistant professor of peace, justice and conflict studies at Goshen College, explores the meaning of diversity on campus. What does diversity mean to you? I would say that diversity is a fact, like the world is diverse in a lot of ways. And for the work that I do, I usually say both outside and inside the classroom, that I do “anti-oppression work.” I used to call it diversity work, but it became such a buzz word and such a word that escaped the vision that I have become a little suspicious of it. Sometimes I think...
March 5, 2015
Global citizenship: Isaac Fast
“Global citizen” is a phrase loosely used to describe a person who is becoming a part of the speedily developing world community, someone whose actions contribute greatly to the structure of the community’s values and practices. However, it is more than just being a community server or contributing to the greater society. Being a global citizen depends mostly on the person. There needs to be some degree to which you are personally practicing these values so as to fully engage with a true understanding of global citizenship. One such person is Isaac Fast, a 2013 GC graduate currently living in...
February 5, 2015
Students travel to Florida, attend conference
Two weekends ago, Goshen College’s Center for Intercultural and International Education (CIIE) arranged for several staff and students to fly out to Fort Myers, Florida in order to attend the Hope for the Future Conference organized by the Mennonite Education Agency (MEA). The conference lasted from January 23 to 25, and three students affiliated with CIIE were selected to attend: Malcolm Aquinini, sophomore vice-president of the Black Student Union, Dona Park, sophomore representative of the International Student Club, and Samantha Peña, junior representative of the Latino Student Union. Accompanying them were Gilberto Perez, senior director of intercultural development & educational partnerships;...
January 22, 2015
Q & A With Ramona Whittaker
This week we take a sneak peek at Ramona Whitaker, a first year Communications and Music major from Santa Cruise, Bolivia. She talks to us about her cross-cultural experiences and her appreciation for how they have shaped her. Q. Where did you attend school in Bolivia? A. I attended a public school in the town that I lived in and an American private Christian school in Santa Cruise. Q. How did you find out about Goshen College? A. I was taught by choir directors from Goshen College such as Carlos Santiago, who came here before and told me...
January 15, 2015
Be Brave, Show Grace: Martin Luther King Jr. Study Day
Every year a committee of staff, faculty and administration meet in order to find ways to integrate the local Goshen community with the college campus to facilitate intercultural communication. The committee has decided that the best way to do so has been the Martin Luther King Jr. Study Day. The theme for this year’s MLK Study day is “Be Brave, Show Grace: Advancing Intercultural Action.” The board, headed by Jessica Baldanzi, associate professor of English, DaVonne Kramer, diverse student programs coordinator, Gilberto Perez, Jr., senior director of intercultural development and educational partnerships, Hannah Sauder, a senior, Regina Shands-Stoltzfus, assistant professor...