Goshen College students are often driven by a desire to improve the world. The Ecotiva Collective is the most recent example of this. Ecotiva, according to José Chiquito Galvan, a third year sustainability studies major and the founder of Ecotiva, is “a group of people who care about ecojustice and making sure that minorities or marginalized communities have a priority in the environmental movement and in emerging green economy.” Ecotiva is not an official nonprofit as of the date of writing, because the members are still deciding what kind of organization they wish Ecotiva to be. The project was officially...

By Patrick Webb • March 21, 2019 • Features

“Please, please, water these seeds,” the EcoPAX Club urges the community. Seeds of resistance towards ecological injustice, seeds of social tolerance, seeds of knowledge, seeds of opposition towards a system that denies climate change, seeds of growth and healing. EcoPAX is a club that promotes ecological awareness, action and education to hopefully transform the way people live. EcoPAX forms connections between national and international ecological issues on the Goshen College campus and in the larger community, by providing education, event planning, community networking and campaigning for GC Divest. “It is really tempting to think that college is only about academic...

By Hayley Mann • October 6, 2016 • Features

“I feel like I can communicate through my art better than I can communicate through language,” said Anya Slabaugh, a junior art major from Kalona, Iowa. While Slabaugh came into Goshen as a PJCS major, she quickly realized that wasn’t the path she wanted to take. “As passionate as I am about [peace and justice issues], I can’t face them and write papers,” she said. “When I’m dealing with them, it needs to be in a tangible way that my whole body is experiencing, not just my brain.” So, instead of taking PJCS classes, Slabaugh decided to take a jewelry...

By Jenae Longenecker • March 10, 2016 • Arts

“Transformative” is sometimes an over-used term that is thrown about as a buzzword or marketing ploy. At its core, to be transformative something has to identifiably change a perspective, opinion or state of being. Some classes at Goshen College can truly be defined this way. Some classes at Goshen College change the students who participate in them. Some classes at Goshen College change the non-students that participate in them. Even more important, some classes at Goshen College change the community as a whole. Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, several students had such an opportunity to be transformed by the...

By Elsa Lantz • February 4, 2016 • Features

On Sunday, over 50 members of the Goshen College community crammed into the Prude House living room for the “Prude House Prison Symposium,” an event designed to educate and advocate for prison reform. Packed tightly into every nook and cranny, munching on homemade cookies and chili, students listened to presentations on a variety of topics relating to prisons and pertinent to Goshen students. Andrea Moya, a senior, shared about the work being done by Goshen’s Social Reform Club and student volunteers in the local jail. Martin Hofkamp, senior and primary initiator of the event, told the story of an incarcerated...

By Maddie Ruth • February 19, 2014 • Features

Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, male volunteers from GC’s campus Social Reform Club (SRC) visit the Elkhart County Jail to help incarcerated male minors work toward their GED. They tutor, laugh, and simply enjoy each other’s company. Every other Saturday, the women of the SRC visit the smaller female section of the jail to push around carts of books from the jail library, make small talk with the women there, and brighten up their days. “It’s a very humanizing experience,” said Andrea Moya, a leader of the SRC. In the summer of 2012, the SRC took root; they wanted to...

By Kolton Nay • January 15, 2014 • Features

The Michiana Monologues, a collection of stories written and performed by local women as anonymous monologues, will be performed Thursday in Rieth Recital Hall. The program is hosted by the Goshen College social work department and women’s studies program. A guest performance by The Bergamot, a South Bend Americana duo with a soulful, modern pop sound, will open the show. The Michiana Monologues are organized each year by a student-led club at Indiana University South Bend. They were initially inspired by Eve Ensler’s award winning production, “The Vagina Monologues,” which has been performed around the world since 1996 as a...

By Nikita Zook • February 21, 2013 • Arts

On Friday, four busy bees gathered in an Umble Center classroom to show off a year’s worth of hard work; but instead of honey, the fruit of their labors was a massive black and white poster, and instead of flowers, their intended audience was an eager crowd of Goshen students and faculty. These “bees” are members of The Beehive Design Collective, a 100% volunteer-driven, non-profit organization formed in 2000. The organization’s mission is to produce collaborative artwork that features images symbolic to current social and political issues. Since the artwork is non-copyrighted, it can be quickly distributed to schools and...

By Becca Kraybill • October 28, 2009 • Arts

Showcasing a wide spectrum of theater, Gina Stutzman and Grace Eidmann will present their senior theater recitals as the spring semester comes to a close. Stutzman will perform “Vera or the Nihilists” by Oscar Wilde, under the direction of Angie Noah, a junior. Since the piece was originally a five-part play, a lot of material had to be cut. Stutzman wrote monologues to summarize the removed portions to convey the entire story. “Vera or the Nihilists” is a melodramatic play about a group of conspirators in Russia who attempt to kill the czar. To complicate matters, the leader ends up...

By Alysha Landis • April 15, 2009 • Arts