Volunteer
September 28, 2016
First-Years engage the community
First-year students of Goshen College continued the tradition of taking a day to go out into the community and serve on Wednesday, Sept. 21. This event has occurred for several consecutive years, allowing Goshen to build stronger connections to organizations in the community by returning to the sites year after year. Some of the groups Goshen students aided were La Casa, The Boys and Girls Club, Soup of Success, Habitat for Humanity, Greencroft, Pathways Retreat Center, Mennonite Central Committee, as well as cleaning parts of the Elkhart River. This year, Student Life handed over the coordination of the service day...
January 14, 2016
Goshen College students work to help refugees
Several Goshen College students are in the process of working with MCC to provide relief kits for refugees, specifically for people feeling fleeing the Syrian Civil War, ISIS, and complications stemming from this regional instability. The committee on the relief kits consists of Meredith Satchwell, a first-year; Deeksha Pagar, a sophomore; juniors Naomi Gross, Gabby Williams, Brianne Brenneman and Laura Miller; Jessica Davila, a senior; and faculty member Corie Steinke, all representing varying clubs and organizations on campus. These kits include necessary hygienic items for those who are starting over and are items that any Goshen College student can contribute,...
October 29, 2015
Latino Student Union food and clothing drive
Along with the stress and heavy workload that follow fall break, members of Latino Student Union (LSU) as well as members of Goshen College Nursing Student Association (GCNSA) are organizing a food and clothing drive to help families in need throughout Elkhart County. The food drive, which began on Monday, will run until Thanksgiving, whereas the clothing drive will run until the end of the semester. Donation boxes are located in almost every building on campus and all donations will be given to both the Salvation Army and the Elkhart County Women’s Shelter. “Our goal is to help as many...
September 3, 2015
Give, and it will be given to you: anonymous individual leaves $1 bills
About one week ago, The Goshen News reported that an anonymous individual has begun leaving envelopes containing $1 bills around downtown. Over 20 envelopes were left in locations such as outside of Olympia Candy Kitchen, Goshen’s hand-dipped chocolate store, and The Window, a local food pantry. The envelopes contain not only money, but also a message reading, “THIS IS FOR YOU! If you need the money, keep it. If somebody needs it more than you, add $1 and pass it on!” This is followed by a quote from Luke 6:38: “Give and it will be given to you” as well...
February 19, 2015
A spring break service opportunity
Students staying in the Goshen area over spring break will have the opportunity to help at a local Habitat for Humanity location. Historically, Goshen has maintained a close relationship with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. The admission fees from the last two spring Kick-Offs have been given to Habitat for Humanity, and the Service Club has spent several Saturdays this semester renovating one of their donation centers named ReStore. Over spring break, students will get the chance to help build a house. Senior Timothy Bixler is organizing the effort. “The idea for this project was originally a part of...
January 22, 2015
Service Club partners with local Habitat for Humanity
An overwhelming amount of compassion and giving sparked the collaboration of Goshen College’s service club with Habitat for Humanity this past Saturday. Habitat for Humanity, which provides homes for people in need, recently developed a need for more space at their ReStore, a donation center that sells new and gently used furniture, home accessories, building materials and appliances at a lower than retail price. “They were [finding that they needed] to turn away large donations, because their building wasn’t large enough, which is really bad for an organization like that,” said Brianne Brenneman, sophomore president of Service Club at Goshen...
October 22, 2014
Goshen Students Build House In New Orleans
Over fall break, a group of Goshen College students journeyed to New Orleans to assist the College Mennonite Church with construction on a house. The students spent Oct. 13-17 placing flooring in the house, which will also double as a church for the community. The house was being built for a pastor’s sister and family—the pastor preaches at the church that would share the living space. Eleven students attended this trip: Hannah Yoder, a first-year; Brianna Brubaker, a senior; Tasha Friesen, a senior; Leah Amstutz, a junior; Annie Agutu, a first-year; Etienne Davis, a first-year; Yari Coronado, a first-year; Deeksha Pagar,...
October 8, 2014
Alumni Receive Awards For Service, Leadership, Character
From Oct. 3 to Oct. 5, Goshen College’s campus was brimming with alumni, each one eager for the music, food, community and awards that accompany Homecoming Weekend. Homecoming Weekend is a chance for alumni from all classes to reunite. The college holds specific reunions for classes ten years out of college, twenty years out and then every five years following that. This year, the class of 1949 was celebrating their 70th year out of college. This year, Goshen College honored some of the most outstanding alumni. Three awards were given out to five alumni: the Culture for Service Award, the...
September 24, 2014
First-Years Engage in Annual Community Service Day
On Wednesday, the entire first year class participated in Community Engagement Day. This day, initiated by former Goshen College president Shirley Showalter, has been a tradition at Goshen College for 15 years. Originally, it was meant for the entire campus. Her aim was to encourage a sense of service on the campus and to engage students with the community. Launa Rohrer, dean of students, said, “Goshen College's commitment to service was part of the founding ethos,” Rohrer said. “The GC motto ‘culture for service’ and the core value of ‘servant leadership’ speak to the posture of offering gifts, talents and...
February 5, 2014
GC Students Donate 39 Pints of Blood
Dave Ostergren laid with a needle in his arm, casually reading a book while pumping blood from his veins to a medical pouch. Ostergren donated one of the 39 pints of blood at last Friday's blood drive. Ostergren, director of Graduate Programs in Environmental Education at Merry Lea, said his reason for giving blood stems from his son's car wreck on last year's Groundhog Day. Though his son didn't need any blood at the time, he said that being in that situation reminded him of the need to donate blood. Compared to previous blood drives, this year's operation in particular...
November 4, 2013
Radical Journey
This past April, Anya Kreider found herself packed in with two weeks of luggage and her friend, Abby Cable, in the trunk of an Opel Meriva traveling at 70 miles per hour down a highway in South Africa. The Opel Meriva, a hatchback built to hold five people, carried seven: Kreider, Cable and five others, who were wedged together for 18 hours as they traveled across South Africa, from Pietermaritzburg to Cape Town. Welcome to Radical Journey! Through Radical Journey, a Mennonite Missions Network program, Kreider and three others participated in a ten-month service term. After graduating from Lancaster Mennonite...
September 25, 2013
First-Years demonstrate a culture for service
Yesterday, all first-year students attended "Celebrate Service Day,” an event that is part of the GC Core curriculum. Nine sections of the Identity, Culture, and Community course went off-campus to local service agencies across the county. Some of the locations included La Casa and Habitat for Humanity, organizations that help build houses for people, nursing facility Greencroft Communities, and Feed the Children, an Elkhart non-profit that provides food, clothing, and other necessary items to needy children in the area. Celebrate Service Day is an opportunity to directly exercise the “culture for service” that Goshen College has to offer. “Service is...
September 25, 2013
Enactus club rolls with service
The Goshen College business club Enactus is stepping into their second year of activity and focusing on local community. “We focus on the local community because at first it seemed more simple and realistic,” said Corine Alvarez, a senior accounting major. “We had connection with the business, so it is easier to build trust than with some other companies from somewhere else.” Goshen College Enactus’s current project is helping with Meals on Wheels, a national organization that distributes hot meals to homebound individuals in local communities. Its branch in Goshen is based at The Window, a local non-profit homeless shelter....
February 21, 2013
Habitat for Humanity builds community in Elkhart
Goshen College volunteers will contribute time from their spring break to build two homes in Elkhart for Habitat for Humanity. One project is in conjunction with the Elkhart Beardsley Bulldog Crossing Project. One other will be constructed by Goshen College students, though it is purely funded by Habitat for Humanity. Aradhana Roberts, a junior Student Senate member, is coordinating volunteers for the project. She heard about Habitat for Humanity while attending high school in India, her home country. She remembers wanting to volunteer but never having the time. When Student Senate brought up the opportunity to assist the program, Roberts...
February 7, 2013
‘Half-naked Half Mile’ profits local charity
About a dozen students ran through the snow during Java Junction's Half-Naked Half Mile charity event on Saturday, Feb. 2. The Java Junction management team helped coordinate the run. There were three checkpoints along the half-mile course. After starting out, participants took off as many articles of clothing as they needed at each checkpoint. The idea came from a show that highlighted Greek events on a state university campus. The event was designed to collect clothing for The Window, a local non-profit that provides basic needs for limited income families and the elderly. Three large trash bags full of clothing,...