Click on the image above to see more photos or visit www.goshen.edu/virtualgc/photos.

The Music and Theater Departments combined to perform Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, “The gondoliers,” for the spring mainstage. The cast was made up of 29 students, accompanied by a full orchestra. Some of the historical details and political commentary in this production were changed to reflect current political situations, and the audience noticed rewritten words in some songs and dialogue, which is common in Gilbert and Sullivan productions.

Men’s Basketball
15-16 (overall), 5-11 (MCC)
Junior Errick McCollum II (Canton, Ohio) was named First-Team All MCC and an honorable mention NAIA All American after finishing the season just shy of 2,000 career points (1,994).
Women’s Basketball
7-24 (overall), 2-14 (MCC)
Sophomore Cassie Greives (Rochester, Ind.) set a new single-season record with 289 rebounds.
Softball
11-30 (overall), 4-12 (MCC)
After a one-year hiatus, compiled double-digit wins for first time since 2003. Senior Amy Clem (Logansport, Ind.) set a new single-season program record for home runs with 11.
Baseball
11-45 (overall), 2-22 (MCC)
Men’s Golf
Finished ninth at the MCC Championships.
Women’s Track and Field
Finished third at the MCC Championships with three individual conference championships. The Leafs later placed 14th out of nearly 300 at the NAIA National Championships in St. Louis. Senior Abri Houser (Newton, Kan.), senior Tessa Horst (Dalton, Ohio) and junior Tina Peters (Yellow Springs, Ohio) were named All Americans.
Men’s Track and Field
Finished seventh at the MCC Championships. Sophomore Jon Miller (Syracuse, Ind.) won the individual conference title in the 400-meter hurdles.

Notes: The Goshen College Athletic Department received a program-record 50 Daktronics-NAIA All American Scholar-Athlete awards during the 2008-09 academic year. The Maple Leafs also led the MCC with 54 Academic All Conference selections.

The Sports Information Office was recognized with seven national publication awards at the NAIA-Sports Information Directors Association Convention in San Antonio. Among the awards, www.GoLeafs.net, was honored as the third best official athletic Web site in the country. The Maple Leafs also received top 10 finishes in three media guide categories as well as two feature writing contests.

Visit www.goleafs.net to find in-depth game reports, player stats and insider comments about the Goshen College Maple Leafs.

Northern Indiana may not have the exotic allure of Cambodia or Peru, but after 40 years of sending students around the world for a semester of cross-culture learning, GC is launching a new location for Study-Service Term (SST) program right in its own backyard.

Starting in the spring of 2010, students will have the opportunity to study about, serve in and be immersed in the local Latino culture for a semester in Northern Indiana, which has seen significant demographic changes in the last 20 years. Minority enrollment in Northern Indiana schools – particularly of Latino students – has grown dramatically.

Similar to other SST locations in places that have significantly different cultures, the students will be required to have taken two semesters of Spanish language study beforehand and will take Spanish classes during the semester. They will also study Latino history, literature and culture; they will process their experiences as a group; they will take field trips to Latino communities in such places as Chicago and Indianapolis; and they will serve in local organizations, church programs or schools that are linked to the Latino community.

Though students will continue to live on campus or at home, the plan is that they will each connect with a local Latino family on a regular basis during the semester. In other SST locations, students live with host families during both the six weeks of study and the six weeks of service.

– By Jodi H. Beyeler

WHAT’S DISTINCTIVE about Mennonite higher education?
Graduates of Goshen College, Bethel College, Bluffton University, Eastern Mennonite University, Hesston College, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Eastern Mennonite Seminary answer that question in “12 Traits of Mennonite Colleges,” the main story in this issue of the Bulletin. The story was conceived and produced for Crossroads, EMU’s alumni magazine. How did it end up in the Bulletin? Because of camaraderie and generosity.

Last October, I attended the annual gathering of the Anabaptist Communicators with my colleague Jodi Beyeler in Wichita, Kan. We learned about the Anabaptist “market,” improving Web sites, the value of “branding” institutions and social networking. For me, the highlight was networking with colleagues who share a passion for promoting Mennonite institutions.

Among those I met was Andrea S. Wenger, director of marketing and communications at Eastern Mennonite University. While I’d heard a lot about the rivalries between EMU and Goshen, particularly around athletics and student recruitment, I felt a quick kinship with Andrea because of her openness and graciousness. Job wise, we had a lot in common and we talked openly about our joys and challenges. Our conversation went so well that I proposed we continue our discussions, perhaps with colleagues from other Mennonite colleges. When I mentioned that it had been 24 years since I’d last visited EMU, Andrea invited me to her beautiful campus.

In February, Jodi and I traveled to Harrisonburg and met with Andrea and her talented staff. Rachel Nussbaum Eby, director of communications for the Mennonite Education Agency, also joined us. We talked about our work and our ups and downs. We learned that EMU does some things better than Goshen and vice versa. We also talked with Rachel about ways the colleges together can advance our institutions and Mennonite higher education.

The person most passionate about that subject was Bonnie Price Lofton, publications editor for EMU, who proposed working together to increase the number of Mennonite students attending Mennonite colleges. Not long afterward, Bonnie and Andrea conceived an ambitious reporting project, which eventually became “12 Traits of Mennonite Colleges.” Bonnie and Jon Styer, EMU’s photographer and graphic designer, visited all the Mennonite colleges and seminaries to interview people for the story. When they finished, their stories and photos were published in Crossroads.
Because of a deep sense that this story needed a wider audience and a deep passion for what Mennonite higher education offers the church and the world, EMU also offered the stories to the Bulletin. We gratefully accepted this generous gift. Bonnie and Jon did a beautiful job with words and images to tell this story and we are thankful to be able to share part of it with our readers.

Under Rachel’s leadership, representatives of the colleges gathered in July for dinner at the Mennonite Church USA convention in Columbus. Although we compete for a limited pool of Mennonite students, we agreed to collaborate on marketing issues, starting with quarterly conference calls.

Recently, we shared successful communication and branding strategies. If we began the call with any pre-conceptions or rivalries, we promptly set them aside and spoke as colleagues. We exchanged advice about marketing and advertising. We also agreed to keep talking.

I consider this proof of the Holy Spirit at work because I believe that as we collaborate and help our colleges to thrive, we Anabaptist communicators also will be supporting the church’s mission of bringing Christ’s healing, peace and hope to the world. Whether we are Maple Leafs, Royals, Beavers, Threshers or Larks, we have much in common and much we can learn from one another.

Richard R. Aguirre
Director of Public Relations
rraguirre@goshen.edu

Senior cross country runner Sam Chege, a nursing major from Nairobi Kenya, holds shoes donated by the Shoes for Kenya Program

When associated with athletics, the word “community” most often suggests the idea of creating a close-knit group of teammates on and off the court or field of play.

For the GC Athletic Department’s 200-plus student-athletes, the 2008-09 school year was a lesson in a more complete definition of community through the department’s new project: “Leaf Relief.”

Formed around the school’s mascot – the Maple Leaf – and the college’s core value of servant leadership, Leaf Relief is now an annual relief effort to help those in need. With a motto of “Leaf Belief is to give Relief,” the program’s three main goals are raising awareness for worthy causes, taking part in community service projects and raising funds for humanitarian efforts.

“We wanted to show how our student-athletes embrace the college’s motto of ‘Culture for Service,’” explained Women’s Basketball Coach Steve Wiktorowski, who initiated the program.

“It has enlarged our athletic community with everyone working together for a single cause, even though it has been done in different and unique ways.”

The traditional understandings of community in athletics of building a team – while equally important – have often become merely the backdrop for the program. Maple Leaf student- athletes have been active in the local community through projects such as free basketball clinics for elementary school children, providing safety patrols for popular trick-or-treat locations on Halloween, a Toys for Tots Drive and a Family Fun Fest which brought over 100 kids onto campus for a day of free games and crafts.

It has been the more nontraditional ideas or understandings of community service, however, which have set the program apart, such as a pre- season men’s basketball team trip to a maximum- security prison in Michigan for a scrimmage.

While not every project has been that dramatic in scope, each has taught lessons of community and sacrifice outside the typical boundaries of a team. Dozens of student-athletes joined with the entire campus community in March to help distribute food to 5,000 local families for an Elkhart County Feed the Children event.

The Maple Leafs Student-Athlete Advisory Board selected LaCasa, Inc. – a local organization that assists with the social and economic welfare of individuals, families and neighborhoods – as the program beneficiary of the year’s Leaf Relief fundraising events, which raised about $2,500.

The understanding of community has also gone well beyond the borders of this country with the sponsorship of a World Vision child in Rwanda and the Shoes for Kenya program. Developed by senior cross-country runner Sam Chege, a nursing major from Nairobi, the Shoes for Kenya program gathered more than 100 pairs of used tennis shoes to be shipped to his home country, where most runners train barefoot because they cannot afford the luxury of the footwear.

“It is very important to us that our student- athletes are both leaders and servants in our campus community, the Goshen community and across the world,” said Athletic Director Tim Demant. “Our athletes have proven that they will step up and exceed our expectations both on and off the field of play.”

–By Josh Gleason, sports information director

Joe Brunk working at the shirt factory in the basement of Coffman Hall. Brunk was superintendant of Maple City Shirt Co. from 1934 - 37.

On Sept. 15, 1934, the north end of Coffman Hall’s basement filled with the whirr and clacking of a new enterprise: The Maple City Shirt Company. Its students faced with the economic challenges of the Great Depression, Goshen College had suffered a 15 percent drop in enrollment two years earlier and ramped up efforts to sustain enrollment. Although themselves strapped for cash, faculty extended credit to students, students from west of the Mississippi River received discounts to help pay their transportatioin to Goshen and the college unified its tuition, room and board fees to a straightforward – but for some still unaffordable – $187.50 per semester.

Equipment for the shirt factory was acquired from Maugansville, Md.

The college enlisted the entrepreneurial savvy of faithful alumnus Joseph E. Brunk ’20 (1888-1973) to create a new opportunity for student aid. Having earlier served as the college’s business manager, for the previous decade Brunk had been working in the management of fruit-canning company C.H. Musselman Co. After investigating several enterprises, Brunk arranged for the purchase and transport to Goshen of the equipment of a shirt factory in Maugansville, Md. Brunk had estimated the shirts cost $6.36 to produce, and that they might be sold to retailers for $7.84. Critical to the successful start of production was Brunk recruiting his cousin, Martha Martin [Lehman] ’15 (1903-2000), who had worked in the Maugansville factory.

With Brunk as superintendent and Martin as patient tutor, about 20 students worked in two shifts through the first year of operation. Students like Minnie Sutter ’42 (1915-2002), who had scratched together $88, and Emmanuel Hertzler (1917-2009), who came to Goshen with $50, were able to cover the rest of their costs with grants earned in the factory. Over 1,014 dozen blue chambray and grey covret workshirts were cut, sewed, seamed, hemmed, buttonholed, labeled, pressed and folded during the first year of operation.

Producing the shirts seems to have been more successful than marketing them. College representatives on student recruitment trips offered shirts to merchants in the towns they visited. Student Paul W. Miller ’39 (1908-1990) came up with a catchy slogan – “Every stitch a link of strength” – to advertise the shirts on telephone poles. But even in Mennonite communities, merchants complained that their customers were reluctant to switch from accustomed brands to purchase Maple City shirts.

In its three years of operation, the factory appears not to have produced a business profit, but does seem to have successfully met its original objective of providing several dozen students the means to pursue their education at GC.

– Joe Springer, Curator, Mennonite Historical Library

On March 10, 115 Goshen College students, faculty and staff helped the Feed the Children organization distribute food to more than 5,000 Elkhart County families hit hard by recent job losses (above). Throughout the year, the Music Center’s Community School of the Arts offers an Acorn Scholarship program, helping Elkhart County children of all income levels receive professional music lessons for as little as $1 per lesson (below). The program received the 2008 Indiana Youth Investment Award, as it has provided $75,000 in scholarships to 170 children since its sliding-scale system began in 2003.

Left to right: Fern Brunner, Vic Koop, Carl Helrich, Ron Milne and Judy Wenig-Horswell

These five teaching faculty members together represent 138 years of dedicated service to the mission and the students of Goshen College:

Fern Brunner ’62 is retiring as associate professor of nursing. She has taught courses in psychiatric/mental health nursing, nursing leadership and introduction to professional nursing, and has been instrumental in shaping curriculum. Brunner joined the faculty in 1989 and served the campus community for 20 years. Send her a note at: fernlb@goshen.edu.

Carl Helrich is retiring as professor of physics. He has taught courses such as physical world, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, classical field theory and senior seminar. Helrich has also led in creating two ongoing programs: the Maple Scholars summer research program and the annual Religion and Science conference. He joined the faculty in 1985, led an SST unit in Germany and served the campus community for 24 years. Send him a note at: carlsh@goshen.edu.

Vic Koop is retiring as professor of psychology. He has taught courses such as general psychology, developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, personality theory and contemporary viewpoints. Koop joined the faculty in 1982 and served the campus community for 27 years. Send him a note at: victorrk@goshen.edu.

Ron Milne ’67 is retiring as professor of mathematics. He and his wife Reference and Instruction Librarian Sally Jo – who is also retiring after 25 years of service to the college – have led SST units in Haiti, Ivory Coast and Indonesia, and will lead one to Senegal in 2010. Milne has taught courses throughout the mathematics curriculum with a focus on students who would become elementary teachers and secondary teachers of mathematics. He was involved in the introduction of computers into the mathematics curriculum in the 1990s. Milne joined the faculty in 1976 and served the campus community for 33 years. Send him a note at: ronjm@goshen.edu.

Judy Wenig-Horswell is retiring as associate professor of art. She has taught courses in jewelry-making, drawing, design, humanities and art history, and has helped lead Arts in London for many years. She created the presidential medal worn by Goshen College presidents on special ceremonial occasions. Wenig-Horswell joined the faculty in 1975 and served the campus community for 34 years. Send her a note at: judymw@goshen.edu.

Graphic provided by The Wall Street Journal Sunday

Stephen Kreider Yoder ’81, San Francisco bureau chief for the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and his 18-year-old son Isaac decided to do a different kind of father-son project this year. They have been jointly writing a weekly column for the Journal called “Yoder & Son.”

“Our column has to have some sort of financial groundings each week, but we try to build off each topic to hit a broader theme,” Isaac said. “As a result, the column ends up being more about priorities, ethics and family relationships than strictly personal finances.”

As readers have followed along with them, they have shared their insights, family conversations and thought processes on such issues as: curfews, cell phone use, choosing a college, paying taxes, when to spend/when to save, job compensation and investing. And regularly, the two respond to readers’ feedback and questions in future columns.

“Isaac and I aren’t advice columnists,” Steve said. “We’re more of an in-print reality show. We’re trying to portray our arguments, ruminations and blunderings over money issues in hopes of inspiring discussion among our readers’ families.” Follow along on their family journalistic journey by visiting topics.wsj.com/person/y/stephen-kreider-yoder/4321. You can also e-mail them at yoder&son@wsj.com.

– By Jodi H. Beyeler

A screenshot of www.RachelsEnglish.com, created by Rachel Smith '01

A linguistics Web site doesn’t seem like an obvious path for someone who studied computer science, applied math and music in college, but Rachel Smith ’01 found a niche that combines all of her interests with the launch of her Web site www.RachelsEnglish.com.

The site teaches American English pronunciation based on Smith’s extensive vocal music training – she earned a master’s of music degree in opera performance from Longy School of Music – and her experience teaching English as a foreign language on Study- Service Term. Among other features, she charts all the American English sounds related to each letter of the English alphabet, describing by video the physical positions and movements of her tongue, teeth and lips in making those sounds. With her knowledge, she was able to create and maintain the Web site herself.

“I have had some people find it and tell me it is just what they are looking for; that they really think they can use it to help themselves improve their accent on their own, and to top it off the site is free,” Smith said. “And that is my goal, to have it be a really good resource for self-teaching. Feeling like I’m putting something out there that is helpful to people, as well as connecting with people from all over the world, is probably the most rewarding part.”

– By Tyler Falk ’09