The 2021 Goshen College women’s soccer team features a slew of international players, far more than years past.    Four upperclassmen from Brazil, a transfer from Hungary, a duo of first-years from Iceland and a pair from England account for nearly 43% of the 21-person roster.   “Our international players bring different life experiences, cultural diversity and a soccer background that is different to our U.S.-based players,” head coach Justin Crew said.   First-year psychology major Amy Drew is among those players. She brings experience all the way from London, where she began playing soccer at just six years old. ...

By Graysen Cockerham • September 9, 2021 • Sports

Goshen College is home to many international students, a large number of them athletes.  Sven Badstieber, a senior accounting major and soccer player from Stuttgart, Germany, was not always a soccer player.  But when the World Cup came to Germany in 2006, that changed everything.  “There was so much hype around the World Cup it made me and my friends want to play soccer,” he said. After that, Badstieber began his soccer career. Another inspiration to Badstieber’s soccer career was professional soccer player Bastian Schweinsteiger. Schweinsteiger’s team, Bayern Munich, was only two hours away from Badstieber’s hometown of Stuttgart, and...

By Colin Flowers • November 5, 2020 • Sports

The Goshen College men’s tennis team is made up of six individuals, three of which are new to campus. But only one of these student-athletes committed to GC just a few months ago, 8,000 miles away from campus, having never seen the campus before. Possawat (Insee) Akarapan grew up in Bangkok, Thailand, but he always knew that he wanted to continue his collegiate tennis career in the U.S., though he was unsure which institution would be the best fit. “To get to Goshen,” Akarapan said, “I was at the website called Universal Tennis Rating, where you put your skill level...

By Kadie Daye • September 17, 2020 • Sports

Twenty-nine students, spanning from Canada to China, are signing in for synchronous Zoom classes at Goshen College this semester – a remote learning option offered by the college in response to COVID-19. When classes are in session, a camera shows professors and classmates present in the room, while the rest of the instruction takes place on the learning platform, Moodle.  For Olivia Koop and Xudong Sun, this means a high level of flexibility is required in order to complete their assignments on their own schedule. Koop, a sophomore, does her remote learning from Ontario, Canada.  Though she planned to be...

By Janis Perez • August 27, 2020 • Features

On Friday, March 13, Dan Koop Liechty, director of alumni engagement and international student advisor, announced via email that international students would be able to make the transition to online courses without it affecting their visa status. According to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program’s (SEVP) website, international students are restricted to only one online or distance learning class a semester in order to maintain their status as an F-1 student in the U.S. This means that transitioning to online classes could impact the students legal ability to remain in the States.  Liechty’s email informed the students that during this...

By Megan Bower • March 13, 2020 • News

When Dr. Scott Trumble called Victor Kiprop Kiprotich into his office on Wednesday Feb. 5 and asked him how important running is to him, he said “very.”  Being born and raised in Kenya, Kiprop, a sophomore nursing major at Goshen College, grew up running.   Kenya is known as a breeding ground for many of the most successful distance runners in the world. “We all ran back and forth from school, to the stores and on errands around home,” Kiprop said.  Kiprop remembers running into elite athletes on the roads near his home on a daily basis. “It was so common...

By Sierra Ross Richer • February 16, 2020 • Features

Daniel Camargo’s Venezuelan-style passion for baseball brought him to Goshen College from a country fanatic about the sport. Camargo, an exercise science major, is one of 10 first-years on the Goshen College baseball team this season.     You’re from Venezuela.  Tell me about the baseball scene there.   Baseball is like a religion there, basically. People show up to baseball and not to church. My family used to get together and watch baseball all the time. Baseball is our lifestyle. In my city, either you play or you used to play. If you want to be somebody, then you should be...

By Sierra Ross Richer • February 7, 2020 • Sports

After 21 months of service in the South Korean Military, Chris Moon is back at Goshen College for his senior year.  Moon first came to Goshen in the fall of 2013. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, but at the age of 11 moved with his family to Vancouver and attended middle school and high school in Canada.  It was there that he first learned of Goshen College.  Moon had an interest in attending college in the US, but didn’t seriously consider it a possibility until a close family friend and GC student, Dona Park, told him about the...

By Sophia Martin • November 1, 2019 • Features

If you asked Dan Kipchumba to describe the beginning of his running career, which began in February 2017, he would label those early days as “absolutely terrible.”  Running purely for the satisfaction, Kipchumba began building a base for what would become an opportunity to participate in one of the most successful seasons Goshen College’s Cross Country team has seen, and a ticket out of his hometown of Eldoret, Kenya.  “My journey to Goshen College is a little mysterious,” Kipchumba said. “I was on my way to a university in West Virginia when I decided to stop and greet my long-time...

By Spencer Waterman • November 1, 2019 • Sports

On Saturday, students got the chance to witness a celebration of different countries and cultures at the International Student Coffeehouse. The evening began with a dinner held in the Church-Chapel. Dishes from 13 different countries were offered, including hummus from the Middle East, kachumbari salad from Kenya, stroganoff from Brazil and chana masala from India. The dishes were all prepared by students who used the church’s kitchen under the supervision of Jessica Whicker, the kitchen manager. Becca Choi, a junior, was involved in the dinner and the coffeehouse this year. She made kimchi from Korea for the dinner and participated...

By Elsa Lantz • March 29, 2019 • News

When asked why they continue to be friends, Sara Azzuni and Nimoy Vaidya, both seniors at Goshen College, responded with mock confusion. “We’re just stuck at this point,” said Azzuni. Vaidya agreed, addressing Azzuni, “I feel like the biggest question in our relationship is ‘Why the heck are you still friends with me?’” Despite their banter, Azzuni and Vaidya showed that their friendship means something more than coincidence to them. They built it through smooth and rough patches at Goshen College, as both have persevered through academic pursuits and experienced living in a foreign country. Both have been well-known leaders...

By Katie Yoder • November 28, 2018 • Features

Aleksander Rabadzhiev was studying in his house in Bulgaria, just like any other night, when he received an email from his agent about a school called Goshen College. Not knowing anything about the college, Rabadzhiev paused his homework and opened a new tab on his computer to do some research. “I went to the website, checked it out and turned in my application form,” Rabadzhiev said. “I started contacting the coach, and that was it.” 19-year-old Rabadzhiev dreamed of coming to the United States not only to further his educational interest in medicine but also to advance his already decorated...

By Nick Yutzy • November 28, 2018 • Sports

Alhassan Barrie speaks five languages: English, Dutch, French, German, and Creole English. He has lived in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gambia, the United States, and Belgium. As Neal Young, the men’s basketball coach, said, Barrie is “the definition of a global citizen” at a college that counts global citizenship as a core value. Barrie was born in Sierra Leone, but has lived most of his life in Antwerp, Belgium, paying little attention to basketball until he was introduced to a basketball program at his high school. “I really didn’t want to do it,” he said, “but my mom basically...

By Jesse Amstutz • December 8, 2016 • Sports

Ever since Nimoy Vaidya’s first week as a student at Goshen College, he has searched for others who share his biggest passion in life: b-boying. Vaidya, now a sophomore, grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he was first exposed to b-boying or break-boying, more widely known as breakdancing, in high school. Boys in his neighborhood practiced this style of dance after school. They had anger and frustration towards the government, explained Vaidya, and they wanted to find some release that was more satisfying and productive than harsh words or violence. Vaidya, too, learned to channel his frustrations through popping, locking,...

By Jesse Amstutz • October 27, 2016 • Features

All the way from Trinidad and Tobago, Ari Benjamin, Tevin Gilkes, Jimmelle Ramikissoon and Darius Rawlins have come to play for the Goshen College men’s soccer team and contribute to the school’s community. The four Caribbean natives were all recruited by Khavoir Graham, the assistant men’s soccer coach. Benjamin, a junior transfer student from Lassen College in Susanville, California, was contacted by Graham with the appealing opportunity to play for a new team. Meanwhile, Gilkes, a first-year at the time, helped Graham in recruiting Rawlins, a sophomore transfer from the University of the West Indies, and Ramikissoon, a first-year. The...

By Abby King • September 29, 2016 • Features