Mennonite
September 28, 2011
Ex-Amish author in Goshen on Tuesday
Saloma Miller Furlong will be on campus on Tuesday on part of a tour to promote her book, “Two Lives in One: Inside and Outside the Amish.” The event will take place in Newcomer 19 at 7 p.m., this event will be open to the public. Furlong’s visit is being sponsored by the Goshen College English and History Departments and the Mennonite Historical Library. Furlong’s book deals with her life both inside and outside the Amish community. Furlong grew up in the Amish community for the first 20 years of her life before deciding to leave. She gives a few...
September 21, 2011
Institute explores world of Anabaptists
In the last 40 years, the number of Anabaptists in the world has nearly tripled, with much of that growth happening outside of North America and Europe. The Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, a new initiative at Goshen College, aims to document and explore these dramatic changes. According to its website, the institute “will help nurture a new generation of scholarship and fraternal exchange explicitly oriented to the global Anabaptist church.” Anabaptists belong to a faith tradition that grew out of the Radical Reformation of 16th century Europe. Goshen College is a member of Mennonite Church USA, which...
September 21, 2011
Mennonite Relief Sale to begin Friday
The 44th annual Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale is an event to be excited about. This year marks the return of the sausage and onion sandwich, a favorite of the sale's co-chair, Kent Miller. “The sandwiches took a one-year hiatus,” said Miller. “I am excited they're back.” There is, however, plenty more to find at the relief sale apart from a good sandwich. Miller has helped put together the event with co-chair John Martes and thousands of local volunteers. “The Relief Sale is a potpourri of Mennonite ethnicity,” said Miller. “There is international flavor, food and crafts, quilts and auction items.”...
September 21, 2011
Poet speaks on writing, Mennonites, and beauty
Julia Spicher Kasdorf, poet and Goshen College alumnus, grinned as she faced dozens of students and several English department professors in a science classroom. She had just been asked what makes a professional writer. “Well,” she said after a slight pause, “you practice it, and you get paid for it.” Spicher Kasdorf, who visited Goshen on Friday as a stop on her book tour for her latest collection, "Poetry in America," is simultaneously lyrical and blunt, much like her poetry. Prior to her Friday night performance in Reith Hall, the poet spoke to a group of students from several classes,...
September 14, 2011
Award-winning Mennonite poet performing on Friday
Julia Spicher Kasdorf will present a poetry reading from her new collection on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Rieth Recital Hall. Her book, "Poetry in America," is about poetry in the ordinary aspects of our lives and how people interact with it. Kasdorf transforms the mundane into beautiful phrases. According to Goshen English professors Beth Martin Birky and Ann Hostetler, Kasdorf's talents go beyond poetry and stretch into her performances, to which she brings energy and dynamism. "She has a magnetic personality and is a great speaker," said Hostetler. "She writes poetry that inspires others to write." Much of Kasdorf's poetry...
April 21, 2011
Goshen students to report at 2011 Mennonite convention
This July, eighteen Goshen students will step into the role of full-pledged journalists as they don press badges, notepads, and cameras. As part of Religious Journalism, a half-semester course completed in February, students will travel to Pittsburgh, Pa. to form the staff of mPress, a daily newspaper distributed throughout Mennonite Church USA conventions. Mennonite convention is a biennial event that allows Mennonites from across the country to gather in community and vote on delegate issues throughout a week’s worth of events. Mennonite Convention 2011 will take place July 4 to 9 in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center located in...
March 31, 2011
Goshen launches three institutes
The first three institutes at Goshen College—with potentially many more to come in the future—were launched at a faculty meeting this past Friday, March 25. These institutes will conduct research in ecological regeneration, Latino educational achievement and global Anabaptism. Goshen College has begun these institutes to develop new academic programs and to conduct research that the institutes will then share with the community. President Jim Brenneman, who introduced the institutes to faculty on Friday, said that he hopes that designating them as “institutes” will raise their quality and profile. The three initial institutes were established this past week, but different...
March 17, 2011
Passing on a living tradition between generations
In today’s society, there seems to exist a push to look forward. We are urged to march onward in the name of progress, looking for the next discovery, the next adventure and to never look back at our past—at the things that have enabled us to get to where we are and who we are. Sometimes, despite that urge to move forward and ignore the past, individuals recognize the importance of the past, and work to ensure that traditions are maintained. As a result, cultural heritage is transpired, and people do something we don’t always do well: remember and carry...
March 10, 2011
Students learn from women around the world in NYC
Forgoing the option of using this year’s spring break as a chance to seek warmer weather, Sarah Dieter, Sara Klassen, Becca Yoder and Beth Martin Birky instead traveled to New York City, seeking to learn how the United Nations is involved in women’s justice issues around the world. Dieter, a junior, Klassen, a freshman and Yoder, a sophomore, are all taking Global Women’s Movement, a women’s studies course taught by Martin Birky, professor of English. The course examines gender roles in different global contexts. “Part of the class focuses on women’s unique cultural experiences and activism around the world,” said...
February 24, 2011
Faculty meeting sparks discussions about institutional identity
President Jim Brenneman announced in an all-faculty/staff meeting last Wednesday that for the first time in Goshen College’s history, this year’s first-year class is made up of more non-Mennonites than Mennonites. This announcement has sparked discussion on campus about the future of Goshen College and its goals for enrollment. This “tipping point” in Mennonite enrollment comes at a critical time. The college is re-examining its identity through the lens of the national anthem debate, scrambling to maintain enrollment in tough economic times and marching forth with the “peace by peace” branding campaign, all while trying to retain current students. At the meeting...
February 5, 2011
New exhibit celebrates Mennonite worship through the centuries
A new exhibit has been opened in the Harold and Wilma Good Library Gallery. The exhibit is titled “Going to Church: Objects Representing Mennonite Congregations.” It was first revealed this past Sunday, January 23 with a public reception. On the wall of the entrance to “Going to Church,” a quote by the martyr Claes de Praet reads, “The earliest Anabaptists worshipped in boats, caves, behind hedges, in the woods, in the fields or mountains, on the seacoast, sometimes in houses.” When the political authorities began to allow for less secrecy, Anabaptists churches sprouted up around Europe. The new exhibit both...
February 5, 2011
Jan Emswiler’s journey to Goshen
Goshen College’s newest nursing professor might have a few words of advice for Ryan Sensenig and the Tanzania SST group. Jan Emswiler has only spent a year and a half in the United States since 1998—she spent the other 11 years in Tanzania. It all started between her sophomore and junior year of college, when she participated in Mennonite Central Committee’s SALT (Serving And Learning Together) program. SALT sent her to Tanzania for the first time. After graduating from Eastern Mennonite University in 1998, Emswiler heard that M.C.C. was looking for a nurse to go to Tanzania, so she volunteered....
November 10, 2010
Mennonite Church USA Archives offers wealth of resources to students
Many students know that Goshen College is home to the Mennonite Historical Library, but few know that the college is also the residence of the Mennonite Church USA Archives. The two are commonly confused as being the same thing, but the Historical Library contains published materials while the Archives hold unpublished materials. Located through a courtyard in the Newcomer building, the Archives are rarely used by students. However, if taken advantage of, the Archives have a lot to offer both independent researchers and students. An archive is generally described as a place for housing both official and private records. According...
October 14, 2010
Anabaptist communicators to gather at GC
The 2010 Anabaptist Communicators Conference will take place at Goshen College on Oct. 22 and 23, bringing those who work for Mennonite and Bretheren organizations together for workshops and lectures. This year’s topic is “Faithful listening = Creative Communication.” Although registration is officially closed, if students are interested in attending one or more individual sessions they should email Richard Aguirre, rraguirre@goshen.edu, immediately. As of Sept. 30, 58 people were registered to attend. The communication department paid the full conference fee of $60 for two students to attend. Chagan Sanathu, a sophomore, and Yolo Lopez-Perez, a senior, entered the essay competition...
October 6, 2010
Making Peace with Diversity: GC recieves cultural audit report
The last names Yoder, Friesen, and Klaasen are not prerequisites for being Mennonite at Goshen College. After a campus-wide cultural audit by Salter McNeil & Associates last fall, a final report was revealed last week which included a commitment from GC administration to prioritize ethnic and cultural diversity on campus. According to the report, “Living out this mandate in day-to-day personal interactions, however, remains an ongoing challenge.” Fifty-five percent of the GC student body claims Mennonite faith. According to the cultural audit report, cultural norms found in North American Mennonite circles often exclude and hurt others who don’t fit the...