Goshen College’s cross-country and track and field teams have had the presence of Kenyan athletes for the past three decades, since the team was unter the tutelage of Rick Clark.  Now, under the current leadership of Rustin Nyce, the director of track and field and cross country, this tradition remains. Currently, there are five Kenyan student-athletes between the men’s and the women’s teams.  Nyce mentions how communication plays a crucial role in order for this legacy to endure. “It’s all about their word of mouth. When you come to another country you want to come to a place that you...

By Igor Sapucaia • February 13, 2025 • Sports

This summer, Goshen College will begin a new program in partnership with a Kenyan research station, studying carbon sequestration in soil. Four Goshen College students will team up with four Kenyan students to study grassland conservation and restoration. The eight-week program involves studying at Merry Lea for four weeks in June and then at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya for four more in July. The program “seeks to understand the role fire and grazing play in sequestering carbon in grassland soils.” Carbon sequestration — simply put, capturing carbon in soil — has two major benefits: not only does a...

By Daniel James • December 8, 2022 • Features

Vincent Kibunja is a junior from Nakuru, Kenya. He was the 2017-18 Maple Leaf Male Athlete of the Year, and currently holds the second-fastest 8k time in school history (24:54.6). How long have you lived in the U.S.? More than two years. Have you been able to go back home at all? I haven’t gone back to Kenya. But I’m going to be going next summer with my fiancé and her family. You were at Monroe College in New York City before coming to Goshen. How did you find out about Monroe? It was on Mar. 1 of 2016. I...

By Siana Emery • January 17, 2019 • Features

Students from the May term class PR in East Africa will be presenting two documentaries. In this cultural exchange, Goshen College students will have the opportunity to learn about the Maasai, eat East African food and listen to traditional drumming. Led by communication professors Pat Lehman and Kyle Hufford, the May term filmed two separate documentaries of the Ngong and Ndeiya regions, both near Nairobi, Kenya. Jake Smucker, the lead editor in the Ngong film group, shared about his experience and the stories he captured through the lens. “Originally, the plan was to develop a story about the women who...

By Dona Park • December 3, 2014 • News

Two years ago, Ryan Sensenig, biology and environmental science professor and department chair, took a group of four students on a research trip to the Kenyan savannah that, he said, was strictly scientific. Although their research on the effects of fire on the environment led to significant developments, Sensenig realized after the trip that there was more to take note of than data. A dynamic component of the experience was missing: the human aspect, he said. So, for the group of six students who travelled to Kenya for a class with Sensenig last summer, the intention was not only to...

By Liz Core • September 18, 2013 • Features

Imagine a summer spent flying over the tops of trees in a savannah, watching elephants, zebras, giraffes and hyenas pad the grasses below. For four Goshen College students and one professor, this past June provided an opportunity to do just that. Ryan Sensenig, an associate professor of biology and field research, led a six-week trip to Africa, with Luke Zehr, a junior, David Stoesz, a senior and recent graduates Tori Yoder and Laura Schlabach. The trip was a follow-up visit for Sensenig, who had done previous research in Kenya and had been planning to take students along with him for...

By Kate Stoltzfus • November 2, 2011 • Features

Biology professor and Tanzania SST leader Ryan Sensenig’s stay in Africa will extend this summer as he continues research in Kenya. In 2004 and 2005, Sensenig traveled to Kenya for the first time to conduct research on the effects of burning grasslands on large grazing animals. His results from this research were published last year in the journal Ecology. “The goal of the project is to understand how large grazers of varying body size make use of burned areas through time,” said Sensenig. “I varied the sizes of the burns and we’ll be examining whether the spatial scale of the burns...

By Kristina Mast • February 17, 2011 • Features

As part of the Leaf Relief program sponsored by the Goshen College athletic department, the men’s and women’s cross country teams are collecting shoes to send overseas. All donations will go to children and young adults in Kenya who are in need of shoes. Doug Yoder, head coach of both cross country teams, thought of the idea. “I went with a friend to Huntsville, Alabama to run the Rocket City Marathon in December,” Yoder said. “[My friend] took some old pairs of shoes with him because he said they usually collect them to send overseas. They didn’t collect them this...

By Brandon Long • January 28, 2009 • Sports