Students and faculty may view Java Junction as the campus’s successful, student-run coffee shop, but internally it has a reputation of barely breaking even.  This year, the management team is determined to change that. Micah Shenk and Connor Daniel are business majors at Goshen College and have been a part of Java’s management team since the start of the 2022-23 school year, with Shenk overseeing inventory and Daniel marketing. Shenk and Daniel moved up from their original roles as assistant managers and are using their increased responsibilities to make major positive changes to Java’s internal operations, profit margins and customer...

By Lukas Bontrager-Waite • February 2, 2023 • Features

Take a second and close your eyes. You are sitting on a plush cushion, completely relaxed as you are hugged by the well-worn couch. The lights are dim, and you feel safe. Beyond the windows roams the frightening cold of the night. The air is warm as you hold a hot mug of coffee in your hand.  However, we should pause there, noting that we do not discriminate against our cold coffee drinkers — yet, for the purpose of this dramatic, overtly drawn-out and rather magnified narration, a cold coffee just doesn’t quite fit the vibe. We must also account...

By Hannah Kurtz • November 4, 2021 • Arts

Java Junction is bringing part of the broader Goshen food experience to campus this semester with The Chief ice cream. “In addition to opening food requirements for COVID-19, we talked about new and different opportunities that are going on with the pandemic,” said Michelle Horning, professor of accounting, business department chair and advisor to Java Junction. The Java Junction team discussed changes in the student body, and “what opportunities exist that we wouldn’t pick up in a normal semester?” At the beginning of each semester, the team, which consists of students from a Java Junction operations class, brainstorms new product...

By Patrick Webb • November 12, 2020 • Features

The 2019-20 academic school year marks Java Junction’s 16th year of operation, and the new year began with the creation of a new managerial position, as well as the introduction of a second coffee shop on campus. Jonah Yoder, a Goshen College graduate of 2019, has begun the new role as operations manager of Java Junction.  Yoder’s role is an “experimentary” one, according to Michelle Horning, professor of accounting and Java Junction program director. The position came about after Horning was scheduled to take on Andrew Hartzler’s classes following his departure to Ecuador as the Study-Service Term leader.  While Horning...

By Megan Bower • September 12, 2019 • News

“Did you know they’re selling smoothies at Java Junction?!” Even after my interview with them is over, Sue Burkholder, a Greencroft resident, along with her husband, J.R. Burkholder, continue to pore over the contents of The Record with a level of engagement I rarely see from students. Sitting on a wooden shelf near the doorway of Sue and J.R.’s home are a multitude of editions of The Record going back several weeks. Each of the four Greencroft residents interviewed have connections to the college that go back decades. “I was very involved for 15 years in serving on a planning...

By Carter Mckay-Epp • February 22, 2018 • Features

It’s hard to imagine Goshen College without being able to make a late night trip to Java Junction for a its best selling product: milkshakes. “Even on a day of six degrees students still want to drink milkshakes,” said Michelle Horning, who has been teaching the Java Junction Management class since it first began. But it was only three years ago when milkshakes weren’t even on the menu, and fourteen years ago when the coffee shop didn’t even exist. Back in 2004, when The Connector and apartments were first built, Java Junction was just a student lounge. Coffee shops were...

By Megan Bower • February 15, 2018 • Features

Last Friday night, Java Junction became Goshen’s Hogsmeade, bringing a favorite literary beverage to students straight from the pages of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” novels. One of the Harry Potter movies was shown, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” a favorite fourth installment of the eight-movie series. The Java Junction management team, which includes seniors Brian Sutter, Bryan Palmer, Alaina Weldy, and juniors Chris Moon and Preston Carr initiated and planned this event. The main feature of the Harry Potter night, besides the movie, was the Butterbeer. As the series gained popularity a recipe was created to imitate what...

By Elsa Lantz • October 15, 2015 • Features

From the mountains of the Chanchamayo province in Peru, fair-trade coffee beans made their way to Java Junction to be sold by Mennonite youth groups around the United States. The cost of attending conventions can be burdensome, so this past year, a Goshen College sponsored fundraiser, Menno’s Best Coffee, helped cover partial costs for 55 youth groups to attend Mennonite Church USA’s national convention. The fundraiser also collected money for the global ministries of Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Central Committee. According to the Menno’s Best Coffee webpage, the money received by Mennonite Mission Network went to Top of the...

By Jordan Waidelich • September 10, 2015 • Features

On Friday March 27, the first meeting of the C.O.F.F.E.E Club was held in the first floor connector. The acronym stands for Coffee On Fridays For Engaging Everyone. Club founders Luis Perez Lerchundi and Philip Longenecker arrived early and sat at a table by one of the middle windows as they waited for interested students to arrive. The table was covered with Java Junction’s signature stainless steel dispensers full of coffee, hot chocolate and water for tea, as well as a sheet of paper bearing the logo “Sign in, Cuties.” The newly-founded club, one of the newest on campus, had...

By Ramona Whittaker • April 2, 2015 • Features

The Java Junction management class, taught by Michelle Horning, a business professor, runs the coffee shop located in the Kratz, Miller and Yoder connector. Java Junction is an epicenter for student life—a space constantly filled with meetings, student homework, and the smell of freshly brewed espresso. Although Java is well used, most students are unaware that their fellow students run the entire business. The class meets three times a week, just like any other class, but these class times are used as management meetings and chances to resolve any issues. Essentially, these students are responsible for managing all conflicts that come...

By Maggie Weaver • September 10, 2014 • Features

Starting November 1, Java Junction made the change to accept credit cards as a way to pay for purchases. After discussions started almost a year ago, the student-run coffee shop made the move to add this new form of payment in hopes of expanding their customer base and improving satisfaction. “A lot of customers were asking to use [credit cards],” said Gretchen Geyer, Java Junction employee. “A lot of the people were community members who wanted to use it.” Josiah Simpson, general manager, worked with ITS Media and the Accounting office to get the new system set up. “They had...

By Brandi Brubaker • November 14, 2013 • News

About a dozen students ran through the snow during Java Junction's Half-Naked Half Mile charity event on Saturday, Feb. 2. The Java Junction management team helped coordinate the run. There were three checkpoints along the half-mile course. After starting out, participants took off as many articles of clothing as they needed at each checkpoint. The idea came from a show that highlighted Greek events on a state university campus. The event was designed to collect clothing for The Window, a local non-profit that provides basic needs for limited income families and the elderly. Three large trash bags full of clothing,...

By Bekah Kamp • February 7, 2013 • News

It was closing time at Java Junction last Wednesday night and barista Rachel Jantzi, a junior, was washing dishes in the back room.  When she returned to the coffee preparation area, she was surprised to find the espresso machine smoking as small flames rose behind the espresso spout. The fire was due to a small malfunction of an electrical piece within the machine that had become rusted and worn down, allowing water to drip through to the electrical wiring. The machine sparked and smoked on Wednesday evening, but by Thursday afternoon, it was back in working order. Michelle Horning, professor...

By Liz Core • January 24, 2013 • News

Relax and indulge in the sounds of music: Java Junction has officially started this semester’s live music performance series. Opening the series this Saturday night is Ana Loucks, a junior at Goshen College. Loucks started playing and composing music four years ago, when she taught herself how to play the guitar in a painful, year-long process. She recalls having blisters on her fingers from playing, but her passion for music kept her learning cord  after cord. “I love it so much,” Loucks said. “I always know I will have a guitar to go back to.” Loucks wrote her first song,...

By Bojana Jankova • September 14, 2011 • Arts

A minty smell wafted through the connector Saturday afternoon as Java Junction converted to a brewing and bottling hub for the new on-campus tea company, Menno Tea. The bottled tea production was directed by student entrepreneurs Hans Weaver, a sophomore, and Niles Graber-Miller, a freshman. They bottled 260 bottles of tea in 4 hours on Saturday afternoon and used the process as a way to stimulate interest in the product by inviting five art students to paint while Weaver and Graber-Miller bottled. “We wanted to encourage people to come watch,” said Weaver, “so we had art students watch the process...

By Sara Alvarez • March 31, 2011 • Features