On Feb. 6, Maple Scholar projects were announced — 10 projects in total from a range of departments.  Andy Ammons, professor of biology and Maple Scholars director, said, “We have had more student applicants than ever before this year and at least as many mentor applications if not more than the last four or five years.”  This year, 30 applications were narrowed down to 10 students who will be part of the research program. The selected students were announced on March 20.  One of the projects is being run by Cristóbal Garza González, associate professor of Spanish. He explained, “The...

By Annabelle Bartz • March 27, 2025 • News

This past summer, two Goshen College film students, Isabel Massud and Silas Immanuel, dedicated their time to producing a documentary as a Maple Scholars project. Their time has been spent discovering and telling the story of Cora Dale, a talented artist from Goshen who died in a state mental hospital. Their summer term has since ended, but Massud and Immanuel continue developing the documentary. Dale’s roots in Goshen can be traced to 1889, when her parents built a house downtown when she was 21. As a young adult, Dale traveled to Chicago and found opportunities as a teacher and  musician,...

By Igor Sapucaia • October 10, 2024 • Arts

“I think a lot more people struggle in college than those who don’t,” said Peace Muhagachi, a senior sociology major.  This summer, Muhagachi worked on a project aimed at addressing these struggles and meeting the needs of students at Goshen College. Also collaborating on the project was Gabe Martinez ‘24 and supervising was Emily Hahn, program director for interpersonal violence prevention, education and advocacy.  The project, completed over the course of GC’s eight-week Maple Scholars program, sought to combine outside research and aspects of internal review in order to determine how GC can become a health-promoting campus.     “We...

By Lindsey Graber • September 12, 2024 • Features

This past Saturday, “Goshen: A Sundown Town’s Transformation” premiered at Umble Center. The project has been months in the making. As a Maple Scholar this past summer, Silas Immanuel, an accounting and film double major, researched and began work on a documentary about Goshen’s history as a “sundown town.” In James Loewen’s book, “Sundown Towns,” a sundown town is defined as an organized jurisdiction – a city, for example – that for decades kept African-Americans or other groups from living there or even staying overnight. This piece of history has already been made public and officially acknowledged. In 2015, the...

By Phil Witmer-Rich • January 19, 2023 • Features

Today, the small island in the middle of the Goshen Dam Pond may not look like much ‒ three and a half acres of trees, bushes and birds’ nests ‒ but in the early 1900s, it was a bustling hub of activity, home to a skating rink, theater and shooting gallery. The history of this island, known as Blosser’s Island, is the subject of two Goshen College film students’ new mini-documentary: “Blosser’s Park: The Social Gathering Place of Goshen.”  Courtney Templeton, a junior film production major, and Jackson Steinmetz, a junior film production and communication major, began working on the...

By Augusta Nafziger • October 28, 2021 • Features

Fifteen Goshen College students participated in research projects this summer through the Maple and Hickory Scholars programs.    The Maple Scholars program is run by GC as an eight-week, hands-on, interdisciplinary research opportunity that encourages students of any discipline to participate. Hickory Scholars is Merry Lea’s equivalent to Maple Scholars.    This summer, junior physics major Samuel Stoner-Eby and junior environmental science major Lisa Nalliah worked with Paul Meyer Reimer, professor of physics, to research contributing factors to the growth of aflatoxin.    “Aflatoxin is a toxin produced by fungus that grows on food such as maize,” Stoner-Eby said. “When...

By Caleb Gingerich • September 9, 2021 • Features

With projects in disciplines ranging from theater to history to science, Maple Scholars is an opportunity for students to conduct research they’re interested in. This year’s applications are currently under review and scholars will be announced in late February or early March. Students who join the program are paired with a faculty member who serves as a colleague and supervisor for the eight week summer program. The students live together in Coffman Hall and share their research during Friday meetings. The program is open to all students, with opportunities to do research in several fields. This year, Jan Bender Shetler,...

By Elsa Lantz • February 10, 2019 • News

This Saturday, Mar. 11 at 7 p.m., the Goshen Theater will be premiering “Admit One: The Story of the Goshen Theater,” written and directed by Riley Mills, a junior communications student, along with production from Kyle Hufford, assistant professor of communication and Five Core Media general manager. The premiere will raise funds for the theater to be put towards future renovations. Guests are encouraged to wear formal attire. The documentary is the product of Goshen College’s Maple Scholars Program, which provides selected students with a $2,500 scholarship to stay on campus over the summer and focus intensively on a single...

By Marris Opsahl • March 9, 2017 • Features

This past summer, 18 Goshen College students participated in Maple Scholars, the college’s summer research program. Maple Scholars is an eight-week long research experience in which students work with faculty members on projects in a variety of disciplines. This year, students explored topics from honeybee genetics to early Anabaptist history. Elizabeth Franks-North, a senior English secondary-education double major, said she joined the program to gain experience in the research side of education and to prepare her for student teaching. “I was dreadfully naïve about what real research would be like and how to do it,” she said. “I also wanted...

By Jacob Penner • September 3, 2015 • Features

Fourteen students spent the summer doing research projects across multiple disciplines. Fourteen students made use of their summer break by staying on campus and researching alongside a faculty member with the Maple Scholars program. Maple Scholars began in 1998 as a summer research program for students to contribute to ongoing faculty projects in all areas of study. However, Current Director of the program, John Buschert, confessed, “in the early years, you would find a lot more hard science. Even in the humanities projects, you would see a more science focus.” Buschert continued that in recent years, all the projects, sciences...

By Kolton Nay • September 4, 2014 • Features

Goshen College offers many unique programs for students to excel. One of the most in-depth programs offered is the summer Maple Scholars Program. This program allows students to work on a summer project alongside a professor, who serves as both a colleague and a supervisor. During that time students perform intense studies and research for eight weeks. Each December, faculty proposals are posted for students to see descriptions of the projects that will be offered for the next summer, and students are then able to apply accordingly. Scholars are announced in late February or early March for the following summer’s...

By Lexi Kantz • December 6, 2013 • News

Four students–one SSTer, one Maple Scholar, one camp counselor and one Ministry Inquiry program participant–share their warm weather experiences. “This summer I had the pleasure of leaving the flat farmland of Indiana behind in favor of the much more dramatic Colorado Rockies as I worked at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. I was a counselor and was able to work with kids from third grade through high school. We went on three hikes every week, to valleys, waterfalls and mountains, including 14,110-foot-high Pikes Peak. We occasionally had to coax campers into making it all the way to the end, but I...

By sarahs29 • September 12, 2012 • Features

While most students don’t see Goshen during its most beautiful time of year, 16 students will get to experience a Goshen summer as they stay on campus to participate in the Maple Scholars program. This program is an opportunity for students to research and study an area of interest in-depth. Aside from researching, students participate in a weekly seminar, an opportunity to share their progress, and at the end of the eight-week program, each person prepares a final paper and display. This summer’s batch of scholars will be studying projects that vary from organizing and evaluating a children’s fitness and...

By Sara Alvarez • April 21, 2011 • Features

Physics Professor John Buschert, along with Ben Toews, Zach Yordy, both seniors, and John Miller, a freshman, spent their summer on a Maple Scholars project that makes music more accessible to those not naturally inclined. The Maple Scholars program pairs a Goshen College student or two with a GC professor for eight weeks to complete a research project over the summer. The “Musician Maker” is a computer program that allows people who don’t have any musical training to be able to play music. In addition to the computer program, the physics team created three different instruments. With the instruments, people...

By Anita Fonseca • September 30, 2010 • Features

Maple Scholars is an eight-week program that pairs up students with faculty members in order to research and study different topics. From June 6 to July 30, Goshen College sophomore Peter Martin and junior Greg Thiessen worked alongside Assistant Professor of Biology Andy Ammons to study and identify genes that influence ethanol tolerance in bees. They essentially observed certain genes and genomes that cause bees to become more or less tolerant of alcohol, depending on the species. One of the goals of the project was identifying genes in the human body that cause alcohol tolerance, leading to a better understanding...

By Anita Fonseca • September 23, 2010 • Features