peace
November 13, 2019
Panel features PJCS and sustainability experts
Conversation sparked last Wednesday, Nov. 13, as four panelists gathered for a discussion entitled, “Where sustainability and social justice meet.” Senior Lydia Dyck brought the panel together in order to carry out discussion between professionals and students on the topics of peace, justice and conflict studies (PJCS) and sustainability. The panel consisted of associate professor of sustainability and environmental education, Jonathon Schramm; sustainable food systems educator and Merry Lea farm manager, Jon Zirkle; professor and department chair of PJCS, Regina Shands Stoltzfus; and sustainable peace and development practitioner from Zimbabwe, Sibonokuhle Ncube. All panelists came to the event with varied...
November 1, 2019
From Goshen College to the military and back
After 21 months of service in the South Korean Military, Chris Moon is back at Goshen College for his senior year. Moon first came to Goshen in the fall of 2013. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, but at the age of 11 moved with his family to Vancouver and attended middle school and high school in Canada. It was there that he first learned of Goshen College. Moon had an interest in attending college in the US, but didn’t seriously consider it a possibility until a close family friend and GC student, Dona Park, told him about the...
February 21, 2019
GC students testify for hate crimes legislation
A note from Siana Emery, executive editor: Following completion of this article, the Indiana Senate amended Senate Bill 12, removing all of the protected classes, such as race and sexual orientation, from the bill. The amendment, authored by Sen. Aaron Freeman, passed 33-16. Gov. Holcomb said Tuesday night that, “The version of the bill approved today by the Senate does not get Indiana off the list of states without a bias crime law.” He said he will continue to fight for an alternate outcome. The bill will have a third reading later this week. It is unclear whether it will...
February 14, 2019
Stoltzfus wins annual peace oratorical contest
Emily Stoltzfus, a senior social work major from Goshen, Indiana, won the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical contest on Tuesday night with her speech, “Getting the Words Right: Rethinking our Measures of Education.” Junior Mandira Panta, a sustainability major from Bhaktapur, Nepal, won second place with her speech, “Why Climate Change?” Last year, Panta won second place in the 2018 oratorical contest for her speech titled, “Shades of Injustice.” Students Ronit Goswami and Deborah Kankolongo Tshidimu also presented with their speeches, “Interfaith Exploration and Learning” and “The Human in Me: Remembering How MJ Shaped the Heart of a...
January 26, 2019
Senior social work students attend third annual People’s Inauguration
Goshen College social work students who are enrolled in senior seminar traveled to South Bend on Sunday Jan. 20 as the Michiana Social Justice Coalition presented “The People’s Inauguration II: No Hate IN Our State.” The event was held at the Islamic Society of Michiana. The purpose of this event was to educate and gather support from the community to influence policy on hate crimes in Indiana. 17 local social justice organizations were present at the event, including La Casa de Amistad, Moms Demand Action, The LGBTQ Center and the Jewish Federation of St Joseph Valley. The event...
October 10, 2018
More than just a “History Lesson”: the GC Peace Play
With a crack of thunder, sudden darkness descends. There is disarray, confusion and a search for a flashlight until from the blackout a British woman’s voice crows, “Hang on, love. I’ve got one,” and a spot of light flashes across the stumbling visitors of the Audubon Store. The stage is set for the climax of “History Lesson,” the one-act play by Frankie Little Hardin that made its global premiere on the John S. Umble Center stage last weekend as the 17th winner of the biennial Goshen College Peace Play contest. Hundreds of submissions for the contest come from all across...
March 29, 2018
Student-led marches for gun reform attract GC participants
Millions of people marched together to advocate for tighter gun regulation this past Saturday. These marches came as a response to the recent school shootings in the United States, spurred particularly by the shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida, which took the lives of 17 people. A variety of marches took place on March 24. The main march took place in Washington D.C. with featured speakers such as singer Miley Cyrus, Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez, and Martin Luther King’s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King. Sister marches took place in Chicago and Goshen. Jace Longenecker, Student Senate treasurer, was approached...
March 15, 2018
Concord Rotary recruits future peace leaders for Rotary Peace Fellowship
While the world hopes for peace, Rotary International - a humanitarian service organization dedicated to world peace and understanding – works to make it a reality by training the next generation of peace leaders. The Rotary Club of Concord is now recruiting for the Rotary Peace Fellowship, a program that gives up to 100 fellows the opportunity to obtain professional development certificates or master’s degrees in Peace and Conflict Resolution. “Today, there are still far too few mediators who are experienced practitioners in conflict resolution. There is an urgent need to produce another generation of people who can play a...
March 15, 2018
Students participate in walkout
Goshen College students, faculty and staff showed their support for the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting and protested against the lack of gun control in the United States by participating in the national walkout on Wednesday morning. The walkout wasn’t necessarily a walkout, as it took place at 10 a.m. when no classes are scheduled on the GC campus. Instead, students gathered around the peace pole across from the Union building. Campus Pastor Gwen Gustafson-Zook began the walkout by reading Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life, that you...
February 15, 2018
Students present at C. Henry Smith Contest
Five students shared stories and words of hope at the C. Henry Smith Oratorical contest on Tuesday night. The students, seniors Achieng Agutu and Deeksha Pagar, juniors Sara Azzuni and Katie Yoder, and sophomore Mandira Panta, each presented an approximately 10-minute long speech about varying topics involving peace. Agutu won the contest and a $500 cash prize for her speech titled, “The Introduction: A Story of Inner Peace.” Along with the first place prize comes the opportunity to represent Goshen College in the C. Henry Smith Oratorical contest this coming spring. The speech focused on Agutu being introduced to herself...
November 16, 2017
Students attend MCC UN seminar
In the pursuit of peace, it is easy to become overwhelmed by turmoil. At the 2017 MCC-UN Office Student Seminar this past October, speakers and students alike worked to grapple with such problems in the context of Central American immigration. Taking place October 26-28 in New York City, the conference worked under the title “Migration, Faith, and Action: An Exploration of the Central American Experience.” Six Goshen College students--Jenae Longenecker, Rudi Mucaj, Vanessa Navarro, Bekah Schrag, Sijan Shrestha and Mandira Panta--made the trek to the UN headquarters for the annual seminar, along with Joe Liechty, professor of peace, justice and...
October 26, 2017
Collection honors work of Kathryn Aschliman
In the lower level of the Harold and Wilma Good Library is Kathryn Aschliman’s “sanctuary” - her office. Aschliman is a professor emerita of education after having taught in the Laboratory Kindergarten for 34 years, and her office sits across the hall from the Mary Royer Reading Room. “Can you imagine,” she said, “I have been retired 21 years, and to still have a place on this campus? I mean that’s very special.” But now, Aschliman has more than just an office on campus -- she also has a peace arts collection named after her. The college’s collection of peace...
September 28, 2017
Buller shares on planting seeds, peacemaking
On Wednesday morning, Jes Buller took the stage for a special convocation on her peacebuilding work in Colombia, where she lived for the past seven and a half years. Throughout her speech, Buller used the metaphor of a seed to reflect her spiritual growth; when she left college she had an idea of the kind of work she wanted to do, but no long-term structured plan. Her boss in Colombia had a saying: “Any individual seed has the knowledge to become a full tree.” Buller graduated from Goshen College in 2008, with a double-major in Bible/Religion/Philosophy and Sociology. She left...
April 6, 2017
Remembering Michael J. Sharp
Seventeen years later, the only persuasive speech that Suzanne Ehst remembers from teaching high school English was the one from a student holding a spoon in front of his face, trying to convince his audience he could bend it with his mind. That student was Michael J. Sharp, more commonly known as M.J. Sharp, 34, was a 2001 graduate of Bethany Christian High School and a 2005 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University. On March 27, Sharp’s body was found in a shallow grave in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and later identified through tests on March 28. Sharp was...
February 9, 2017
Peace oratorical contest finalists announced
Each year, students are invited to participate in the C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest. This year’s finalists have been announced and are preparing for their presentations. Participants deliver an eight to 10-minute speech on a topic of their choice relating to peace in some context, whether war and violence, peacemaking strategies or current events. The addresses are judged on originality as well as the integration of the topic and a peace position. Participants compete for a cash prize alongside the chance to enter the U.S. and Canada oratorical contest. Speech contests have been a part of Goshen College’s history...