peace
September 5, 2024
GC students join 11-day-long march for peace
Over the summer, 50 Mennonites embarked on a 135-mile walk, determined to make their voices heard amidst the heat of mid-July. Carrying signs and banners adorned with messages of peace and calls to action, the participants made up the initial group of the “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire,” an endeavor organized and supported by social justice organization Mennonite Action. The march from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Washington, D.C. served to call attention to the “suffering, death, and destruction unfolding in Gaza,” while urging the United States government to support a peaceful and timely end to the occupation of Palestine...
February 22, 2024
The winning speech: A breakdown
Annika Alderfer Fisher began her speech by painting a vivid picture of her grandparents, who possessed a unique talent for fixing things. Instead of succumbing to the throwaway culture of their time, they were dedicated to repairing items that others had discarded. From clocks to furniture, they breathed new life into forgotten treasures, demonstrating a profound respect for craftsmanship and a disdain for mindless consumption. Alderfer Fisher urged the audience to pause and reconsider their choices, then took the audience on her journey to Tanzania, where the stark realities of overconsumption were laid bare. Against the backdrop of a history...
February 22, 2024
Alderfer Fisher wins oratorical contest
Annika Alderfer Fisher, a senior sociology and art double major, won the 2024 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Tuesday. Her speech was titled “The Inequity of Overconsumption.” The contest, held annually, features five Goshen College students, each of whom has the opportunity to give a 10-minute speech on any topic as it relates to peace. Mariela Esparza, a senior English major, finished second with her speech, “Overseen yet Overlooked: Children as an Oppressed Class.” Speaking last, Esparza focused on the imbalance of power between adults and children that causes many issues with our children, the next generation. She...
February 15, 2024
Choirs sing for peace
The Goshen College choirs gathered in Sauder Concert Hall to put on the Winter Choral Concert last Saturday. The evening began with selections from the low voice choir, Vox Profundi, under the direction of Scott Hochstetler. They began with “Pacem,” which is Latin for peace, moved into an a cappella version of “Fix You” by Coldplay, and ended with a comical piece called “Lambscapes” which includes renditions of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” with influences from Gregorian Chant, Handel, Schubert and Verdi. Jocsan Barahona Rosales, a junior musical theater major and soloist in “Lambscapes” and “Fix You” talked about how...
February 23, 2023
Green wins Peace Oratorical Contest
Jakyra Green won first place in the C. Henry Smith Oratorical Contest on Tuesday evening with her speech, “The Privilege of Peace.” Her speech focused on the illusion or privilege surrounding peace for Black people and their realities in America. The culmination of several months’ work was showcased as competitors gave their speeches. Speakers were able to offer new perspectives on their chosen themes, give the audience space for consideration, relate through laughter and audience engagement and hear words of affirmation as they spoke. After all of the presentations, judges Gilberto Perez Jr., vice president for student life, Elizabeth M....
March 17, 2022
Ukraine crisis affects GC community
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has intensified in the last couple of weeks; while thousands of miles away, the conflict is not as far removed from Goshen College as it may appear. Solomia Soroka, GC professor of music and a world-renowned violinist, grew up in Ukraine and has family currently living there. Her sister, Ustyna, is a professor of ceramics at a Ukrainian college and lives in Lviv, Ukraine, where they grew up. Ustyna now volunteers to make nutritional bars for soldiers and help protect the city’s art in case of bombings. Ustyna’s children — Solomia’s niece and nephew —...
February 25, 2022
Lapp Klassen wins Peace Oratorical Contest
Greta Lapp Klassen won first place in the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Tuesday with her speech “Humanizing Our World, One Walkway at a Time.” Her speech focused on the car-centric nature of American society and the struggles of people who do not own a vehicle. One of the three judges, Janna Hunter-Bowman, an associate professor of peace studies and Christian social ethics at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, highlighted a line from Lapp Klassen’s speech: “If you aren’t driving a car in 2022, you are not a fully participatory member of our capitalist society.” Hunter-Bowman said she and...
February 17, 2022
Four finalists to take the stage in peace oratorical contest
Four students will speak on themes of peace and justice at the 2022 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest on Tuesday, Feb. 22. The C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest is an opportunity for Goshen College students to deliver an 8-10 minute speech exploring a policy or issue related to the topic of peace. The contest is funded by the trust of C. Henry Smith, a 20th century Mennonite historian and GC professor. The speakers applied for the competition at the end of last semester and completed an initial round of auditions in January. The four finalists in this year’s...
December 2, 2021
Yoder Public Affairs Lecture features Endah Setyowati
Endah Setyowati, a visiting global scholar from Indonesia, spoke Tuesday about living out Goshen College’s core value of compassionate peacemaking in Indonesia as part of the Yoder Public Affairs Lecture series. At the well-attended event held at College Mennonite Church, Setyowati conversed with Study-Service Term director Jan Bender Shetler, about working on conflict resolution in Indonesia. Shetler guided the conversation with Setyowati before the event was opened up to audience questions. Setyowati grew up in Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia with a unique family background that proved useful for her peacemaking work later in life. Learning from a Christian mother...
October 7, 2021
Heavenly Light debuts in Umble
Last weekend, Goshen College’s theater department presented their first fall performance of the year with Barbara Lindsay’s play Heavenly Light. Lindsay’s play takes place in a dystopian-like world and follows freedom fighter Lucinda Celeste, who goes on a journey toward self-discovery and reclaiming one’s voice. “Even when things are hard … and she is broken … she is still finding good in the world,” said Abigail Greaser, the director of the play. This is Lindsay’s second time winning the Goshen Peace Play award, a contest surrounding peace. The winning play is performed each year, but due to COVID-19, Heavenly Light...
September 9, 2021
Abigail Greaser directs peace play
The theater department will be kicking off their 2021-22 season with in-person performances of the winner of the 2020 Goshen College Peace Play Contest: Barbara Lindsay’s Heavenly Light directed by Abigail Greaser. The Goshen College Peace Play Contest is the only annual contest dedicated exclusively to plays concerning peace and peace-associated topics in the United States. Typically, the winning play is performed each year, but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production of Heavenly Light was postponed for one year. This fall is the first time the script will premiere on the stage. Adapted from a different body of her...
February 11, 2021
Students take on “Lion and Lamb” theme in art exhibit
Ten years ago, Randy Horst, professor of art, worked with art club members to propose the addition of a student exhibition to the Good Library basement gallery. This year, the tradition continues with Goshen College’s latest art exhibition, titled Lion and Lamb. The gallery features ceramics, paintings, sculptures, photography and more – all created by Goshen College students. “We wanted more opportunit[ies] for students to get their work out there and for people to see it,” Horst said. The next step in the process of creating an annual student exhibition was for the art department to choose several themes upon...
September 3, 2020
Peace Play contest announces first two-time winner
Almost 20 years ago, Seattle playwright Barbara Lindsay had an idea: a former freedom fighter summoned back into action. Many years and several iterations of the story later, Lindsay is now the 2020 winner—and the only second-time honoree—of the Goshen College Peace Play Contest. Lindsay is an award-winning playwright and actor from Santa Monica, California, currently settled in Seattle with her husband. Her plays and monologues have been performed worldwide and in over 30 states, though Lindsay says she never intended to become a professional playwright. She wanted to become a theatrical actress and only began writing while studying as...
February 21, 2020
Goswami wins Oratorical Contest
Ronit Goswami, a sophomore exercise science major from Goshen, won the 2020 C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest and $300 in prize money on Tuesday Feb. 18. The transcript of his speech, “Finding Peace in the Trenches: The War on Homlessness,” and a video of his performance will now be submitted to the bi-national C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest hosted by Mennonite Central Committee. Nasim Rasoulipour, a senior interdisciplinary major, received second place and a cash prize of $150 for her speech titled, “Two Paths Converged in 2016: My Life with Donald Trump.” Three other Goshen College students shared...
January 31, 2020
Community vigil offers prayer and education to promote peace with Iran
A group of almost 40 protesters, including Goshen College students and faculty, gathered in front of the Elkhart County Courthouse on Saturday to hold a vigil for peace amongst rising tensions between the governments of Iran and the U.S. “We wanted to do some sort of action that gave people hope that there was something they could do about the situation to increase the chances of peace between the two countries,” Said Bruce Bishop, a local activist and Goshen College graduate of the class of 1980, who organized the vigil along with Susan Mark Landis, a former Mennonite minister. Keith...