Maple Scholars film showcases history of Goshen Theater p. 9

GC releases ‘Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad’ p. 5

Write on Sports camp celebrates fifth anniversary p. 12

FILM STUDENTS DIVE INTO MARINE BIO LEGACY

Six film students joined 12 biology students for a three-week course taught at GC’s J. N. Roth Marine Biology Station in Layton, Florida, on Long Key. In its 51st year of operation, the course combined elements of communication and biology to put students underwater and on camera.

NEWSLETTER OF THEGOSHEN COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION

COMMEDIA

INSIDE

SUMMER 2017

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COMMBRIEFSFeature Writing Class Visits Chicago Tribune NewsroomMembers of the Feature Writing class spent a day in Chicago in April, visiting with editors at the Christian Century and then the Chicago Tribune.

Celeste Kennel-Shank, a Goshen College graduate and former Record editor who now serves as news editor at the Christian Century, welcomed the class to their offices overlooking the lake on Michigan Avenue. The class spent several hours in conversation with a rotating panel of staff members, including Peter Marty, the publisher; Elizabeth Palmer, the books editor; Daniel Richardson, the art director; and Celeste. The class was invited to stay for a lunch of pita, falafel and salad.

Then the group walked up to the Tribune offices a few blocks north on Michigan Avenue. With security passes in hand, the group took the elevator up to the newsroom, where Margaret Holt, the standards editor, served as the guide. Staff reporter Will Lee talked about his work and fielded questions for the better part of an hour. And then the students sat in on a meeting of senior editors, including Peter Kendall, the managing editor, as they discussed lead stories for the news report. Kendall stayed afterward for a half-hour informal talk with the class.

FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Co-curricular Leaders for 2017-2018The Communication Department appointed senior Katie Hurst as editor-in-chief of The Record for the fall semester. In the spring semester Emily Kauffman, also a senior, will edit the publication.

Leaders for GCTV (The Correspondent) are senior Riley Mills as news director in the fall and junior Karen Ramos in the spring. Tim Litwiller, senior, has been named operations manager for the fall semester.

Seniors Spencer Buttermore and Brad Stoltzfus will serve as station managers for WGCS, 91.1 The Globe.

Kyle HuffordThis year Assistant Professor Kyle Hufford continued his leadership over FiveCore Media in addition to his faculty roles. In the fall Hufford taught the first class of Advance Digital Media Methods Production, where students participated in the 24-hour film festival hosted by Art House. He also traveled with colleague David Kendall to the Savannah Film Festival. In the spring, he attended the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) in Las Vegas with Jason Samuel and three students. At the BEA convention he moderated a panel, “Documentary Film Making for a Cause,” with Riley Mills. FiveCore received several awards. He also taught a special Digital Media Immersion course in partnership with the biology department, on pages 3-4.

David KendallDavid Kendall attended the Savannah Film Festival at the Savannah College of Art and Design, taking in films, panels and workships. During May Term and June, he worked alongside his wife, Carrie Lee, on producing the feature film “The Shade Shepherd.” During the summer he worked on key initiatives for the Goshen Mayor’s Arts Council. He served as the Riverbend Film Festival’s entertainment coordinator, poster artist, emcee, panel moderator, and GC liaison. Additionally in July he traveled to Chicago for a three day intensive workshop at the world famous Second City Training Center. In the fall he is teaching a section of Identity, Culture and Community for the first time.

Pat LehmanPat Lehman taught Communicating Across Cultures, Culture and Community, Organizational Communication, Oral Communication and Senior Seminar during the 2016-2017 school year. In addition, she has continued work on the play she is writing based on interviews with divorced Mennonite women, a project begun during her sabbatical

Agutu Wins State Journalism AwardAchieng Agutu, a junior public relations major, was one of 15 Indiana students to be recognized for excellence in journalism at the Hoosier State Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and Newsroom Seminar on Dec. 3 in Indianapolis.

Agutu won third place in the editorial/opinion category for an op-ed article, “Reflections on living in a white world,” that was published in The Goshen College Record on Dec. 3, 2015. The article earned a first-place award from the Indiana Collegiate Press Association in April, competing in the division for colleges and universities with enrollment under 3,000.

“I didn’t think my article would make it this far,” said Agutu. “Winning this award has

shown me that my story and my voice is valid and people want to hear about it. This is just the beginning. I’m ready to write some more history worth reading.”

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in 2016. In the fall of 2017 she will teach Communicating Across Cultures, Culture and Community and Principles of Public Relations. During spring and summer semesters of 2018 she will lead the Peru SST in partnership with Sylvia Shirk, former campus pastor at Goshen College who currently works as an interpreter in New York City. During the summer months she visited Peru for an orientation to the SST program there and also traveled twice to California to see her 2-year-old granddaughter, Nari.

Jason SamuelJason Samuel continued his leadership role as general manager of 91.1 The Globe and his duties as assistant professor in the department. He also had the pleasure of teaching Core 100: Identity, Culture and Community to first-year students. Samuel traveled to Las Vegas, Nashville and New York to participate in broadcasting conferences where he was often a featured speaker and panelist. In July he attended the Mennonite Youth Convention in Orlando to speak to high school students. His seminar was entitled “Spiritual Themes in Popular Music.”

Duane Stoltzfus

Duane Stoltzfus served as editor of a Pinchpenny Press book, “The Goshen College Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad: Essays on Intercultural Learning,” published in April. He will also begin serving as director of the Core. In July he directed the fifth annual Goshen Write on Sports camp, (see pg. 12). In October, he’ll serve as a keynote presenter at a symposium, “Remembering Muted Voices: Conscience, Dissent, Resistance, and Civil Liberties in World War I through Today,” to be held at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. He’ll team up with a Hutterite storyteller from Manitoba to present an account of four Hutterite conscientious objectors who were sentenced to 20 years of hard labor at Alcatraz during World War I.

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHTSJesse Bontreger, 2017, moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in the film industry. Over the past few months, he has worked as a production assistant and in the art department for various TV shows, music videos and commercials, including a children’s series for Amazon and a documentary focused on the BET awards.

Tyra Carver, 2016, signed with Grand Rapids Galaxy, a women’s professional development basketball team affiliated with the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League only six months after graduating from Goshen College.

Ashley Davenport, 2016, is serving as multimedia editor in the broadcast division at Farm Journal Media in South Bend. She was recently accepted into a master’s degree program at Purdue University.

Mikhail Fernandes, 2016, will begin graduate studies in development in the fall at the University of Padua in Italy. Padua is one of the oldest universities in the world, notable for alumni who need no introduction: Galileo, Copernicus, Vesalius.

Doug Hallman, 2010, spent more than three years working in the creative services department at the NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. More recently, he’s been traveling around the world with rock stars like Bon Jovi, managing video technology. He’s also provided video services at the Republican National Convention and the NBA draft as well as various corporate events.

Durrell Ramer, 1987, was recently promoted to the role of global customer service and systems manager with Electronic Theatre Controls, where he has been for more than 20 years. He will oversee customer service, quotations, systems project management, applications engineering and systems drafting for all ETC companies worldwide.

Andrew Snyder, 2017, enters his first year as the coordinator of sports marketing for Goshen College athletics. He has worked extensively covering athletics for the college’s award-winning radio station 91.1 FM the Globe while in college and now shifts focus to social media, photography and video as the department grows.

ALUMNI PROFILEDalton Shetler ‘16Within months of his 2016 graduation from Goshen College, Dalton Shetler began his role as the host of Michigan State University’s Spartan Sports Network. His primary responsibility is covering basketball and hosting pre-game and halftime shows.

This opportunity came at a press conference in Chicago where he had the chance to interview players for Regional Radio Sports Network. He unknowingly met the executive of Spartan Sports Network, Wendy Hart. Shetler had no idea that anything would come of a chance encounter with a complete stranger.

In just his first year on the job, Shetler has covered games from Hawaii to Washington, D.C., and visited historic venues like Madison Square Garden, Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Palestra in Philadelphia. One day, he hopes to be a full-time play-by-play man for a college program.

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With Goshen in its second year of hosting the River Bend Film Festival, Goshen College students, professors and alumni were involved at every level, behind the scenes, coordinating events and showcasing their own work.

David Kendall, associate professor of communication, served as a main entertainment coordinator alongside his wife, Carrie Lee. Kendall’s role included arranging for most of the guests to come to the festival as well as moderating question and answer sessions, talkbacks and coffee talks.

Students working for FiveCore Media were able to be at nearly every part of the festival, recording events and interviews, along with Kyle Hufford, assistant professor of communication, who led the FiveCore team.

Tabitha Immanuel, a junior film major, was working with FiveCore at the festival for most of the weekend.

“I did find it helpful to meet and hear from very experienced filmmakers,” she said, “most of whom grew up in Goshen and went a long way.”

This year’s festival highlighted the work of female filmmakers and filmmakers of color, which was an important aspect of

the festival for Immanuel.

“I was happy with the number of female filmmakers and filmmakers of color that were there at the festival,” she said. “Last year there were so many male filmmakers and so I was really grateful to hear the perspective of what it means to be a female filmmaker in Hollywood.”

Several films from students were shown, including a documentary from Riley Mills, a senior, on the Goshen Theater titled “Admit One,” (read more on page 9); Mason Mellinger, a senior, whose documentary on re-enactments, “Living History” was shown; and Jesse Bontreger, a 2017 grad, whose short-film, “Sock Puppets” was presented.

In addition to the current students who were involved with the festival, a number of Goshen College alumni were there.

Sarah Elizabeth Miller, a 2005 GC graduate, is a makeup artist, now based in L.A. Miller returned to Goshen as a guest of the festival and conducted a makeup workshop and participated in a panel along with other filmmakers, writers and actors.

Kendall was also instrumental in getting Beth Grant, an actress who has been in over 200 films and TV shows, including

“Donnie Darko” and “The Mindy Project.”

“I would have to say my favorite moment was getting to listen to Beth Grant share her wisdom about the art of acting,” Kendall said. “She shared so much about what drives her passion and how she prepares for her roles.”

Other alumni were involved with covering the event for Eyedart Creative Studio, the firm that had a large part in organizing the event. GC Graduates Gina Liechty (1995), Ben Stutzman (1990), Liz Core Shenk (2014), Adrienne Nesbitt (2008) and Jerry Peters (1985) are all employees at Eyedart and had some part in the River Bend Film Festival.

“I hope more of our students get involved in working for the festival as well as more of our student work selected for the festival,” Hufford said, “maybe even a few on campus events in future years.”

Kendall is also excited for what the future of the Riverbend Film Festival holds.

“I really look forward to Goshen College continuing its support of the festival,” he said. “I feel like there are many more students, staff and faculty that the festival can reach.”

Students, staff and alumni lead the way at Film Festival

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Photo courtesy of FiveCore Media

Goshen College students and staff working with FiveCore Media pose with actress Beth Grant during the River Bend Film Festival.

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Just ahead of the 50th anniversary of Goshen College’s pioneering program in international education, the Study-Service Term (SST), Pinchpenny Press is publishing an intercultural guidebook, drawing on the experiences of faculty, staff and students who have participated in SST.

A release party for the book, “The Goshen College Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad: Essays on Intercultural Learning,” took place on April 12, in the Goshen College Church-Chapel’s Koinonia Room.

The 18 essays, edited by professor of Communication Duane Stoltzfus, address subjects like learning languages, serving as a form of accompaniment, tracking time, framing stories, giving and receiving resources and money, dealing with death and becoming better specialists through study abroad.

Goshen College will celebrate the 50th anniversary of SST in 2018-2019. The program began in the fall of 1968, when students departed for three months in Costa Rica, Guadeloupe and Jamaica.

SST is a 13-week program that’s divided into two distinct parts. During the first half of the the semester, students study language and culture alongside other Goshen College students, usually in the capital city. In the second half of the semester,

students travel to more rural locations to live with host families and volunteer in the community.

In the opening essay, Tom Meyers, the director of international education, notes that nearly 8,000 students have participated in the program, going to 24 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

“With the anniversary approaching, it’s a good time to distill and share something of what has been learned over these years as a resource for students and others who are continuing the tradition and entering into their own conversations abroad,” Stoltzfus

said.

The book includes essays that represent all five countries to which Goshen College presently sends students on SST: Cambodia, China, Peru, Senegal and Tanzania. Students on SST in China this fall are reading the guidebook.

Pinchpenny Press, which is sponsored by the English department, publishes chapbooks for students, faculty and friends of Goshen College. This publication is the 17th volume in the Horswell Anthology series.

The book costs $7 and can be purchased online or at the Goshen College Bookstore.

GC releases ‘Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad’

Film production student fills many roles on movie setTakoda Friesen (right) is a senior film production major from Middlebury, Indiana.

This past May, I spent three weeks working on a film called “The Shade Shepard.” This opportunity was presented to me by Jordon Hodges, the writer and producer of the movie. I met him while working for Five Core during the River Bend Film Festival.

The movie follows two brothers who are fleeing to Canada after one gets into trouble with the law. The film was shot mostly in rural Shipshewana with additional scenes taking place in other Michiana locations, including LaGrange and Niles.

As it was a very small production, I fulfilled numerous jobs and frequently needed to shift from one role to another. The main responsibilities included grip and electric, second assistant camera, the occasional substitute C stand.

This experience gave me valuable insight into the filmmaking process, I learned a great deal about how a movie actually comes together. This job allowed me to see exactly what each position does and get first hand experience pulling together with a filmmaking crew to wrap up the many details there are to completing a day of shooting. Just one example would be the importance of setting things up as fast as possible in order to allow the director to shoot as many takes as necessary. Photo courtesy of Ryan Hodges Photography

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For Goshen College students who spent May term in the Florida Keys, immersion meant more than snorkeling.

Six film students joined the 12 biology students for the annual three-week course at the college’s J. N. Roth Marine Biology Station in Layton, Florida, on Long Key. In its 51st year of operation, this year’s course was unique in that it combined elements of communication and biology to put students underwater and on camera.

Biology students were enrolled in an upper level marine biology course, taught by Jody Saylor, associate professor of biology, while communication students took part in the class titled Advanced Digital Media Immersion, taught by Kyle Hufford, assistant professor of communication and FiveCore Media general manager.

The film students got in the water with the biology students to participate in and film some of their activities and projects.

“One part that was really striking for me was how much I learned about marine biology,” said Riley Mills, a senior communication major. “I wasn’t participating in their research, but filming them and talking with the students gave us a lot to learn.”

Saylor agreed, saying, “It was exciting for me and the biology students to share our love of science and to introduce new ecology concepts and new organisms to the film students, but it was also interesting to see the course from the film students’ perspective. It made me think about the course in new ways.”

The film students worked to create a documentary focused on highlighting the legacy of the marine biology program and its relationship with the surrounding community in Layton.

At times, the film crew went door-to-door in to see if community members were interested in being interviewed. “The students

had to figure out who to talk to and do a lot of research on the ground to arrange things,” Hufford said.

He added that the town of Layton played a big part in the development of the story. “The community itself is really a character in the documentary, and the majority of interviews were with community members,” he said.

Being outside of Goshen offered film students the chance to engage with storytelling in a different way.

“The opportunities we got in Layton were beyond what we have in Goshen,” said Mills. “We have strong ties here, whereas in Layton we don’t have those same connections. Learning how to become a piece of the community and work with the community was a challenge, but something we wouldn’t have [been able to do] if we had stayed in Goshen.”

Biology and film student immersion

Cover photo courtesy of Kyle Hufford Photos below courtesy of Kyle Hufford and FiveCore Media

Film students Takoda Friesen, Tim Litwiller, David Leaman Miller and Riley Mills interview Jacob Penner, a biology student.

Takoda Friesen uses an underwater camera to capture a moment on film.

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They filled the roles of a traditional film crew, including producer and director, and worked to develop skills in working as a team to produce a large-scale product. The course also gave film students the opportunity to work with different kinds of equipment. With the use of a drone to capture aerial footage and small, underwater cameras to capture shots of biology students working beneath the surface, film students gained a wider understanding of the tools needed for different settings.

“While we were learning what it was like to build a documentary,” said Mills, “we also learned about biology and the effects that the center has had on the community.”

Jose Chiquito Galvan, a sophomore biology student, spoke to the connection between the disciplines that took place in Layton.

“The film students were amazing to work with,” he said. “They provided us as Goshen College a much needed way to reconnect with the community of Layton. Through their film interviews and work, we were able to better understand the community we lived and studied in.”

Hufford said, “The biology students were learning from the film students and the film students were learning from the biology students, and they were sharing back and forth what they were doing. Everybody was curious about each other’s projects and what they were working on.”

The course concluded with both biology and film students presenting their work to the entire group. Biology students presented research topics that they had developed over the three weeks in Florida. Film students presented two short films highlighting themes that will be pursued in the documentary.

While most of the footage for the documentary was filmed during the course in Florida, the documentary will be completed after a class does post-production work in the fall semester. The finished documentary is set to be released in early 2018.

Film and biology students interact with community members and present some of their learnings to each other.

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“These awards reflect the hard work and commitment

to excellence of students and faculty alike in radio, television and film,” said

Duane Stoltzfus, chair of the department. “It’s striking to see first-year students

receiving awards alongside seniors. To compete at this

level, we need contributions from all quarters.”

2017-2018 Department Awards

Indiana Association of School BroadcastersRadioFirst place• Radio Bit of Skit: JD HershbergerSecond place• Radio Spot Production: JD Hershberger• Radio Interview: JD HershbergerThird place• Radio Copywriting: JD Hershberger• Radio In-Depth: JD Hershberger• Radio Bit of Skit: Laura Hoover• Radio Show: Laura Hoover and

Spencer Buttermore• Radio On-Air Personality: Samantha

Horsch• Radio News Report: Dalton Shetler• Radio Spot Production: Victor Garcia

TelevisionFirst place

• Television News Package: Karina Flores• Television News Program: Karina

Flores, Jesse Bontreger, Spencer Buttermore, Karen Ramos

• Television Non-News Program: Jesse Bontreger, Takoda Friesen, Tim Litwiller, David Leaman-Miller

• Cinematography: Riley Mills• Television Copywriting: Riley Mills

Second place• Television Spot Production: Jesse

Bontreger• Television Non-News Program:

Elizabeth Derstine, Carley Wyse• Corporate Video: Tim Litwiller• Television Sports Program: Dalton Shetler• Videography: David Leaman Miller

Third place• Music Video: Josh Helmuth• Videography: Karina Flores, Jace

Longenecker• Television Copywriting: Tim Litwiller

• Short Film: Jesse Bontreger, David Leaman Miller

• Video Sound Design: Mason Mellinger

Broadcast Education AssociationRadio• First Place for promo: JD Hershberger• Third Place for on air talent: JD

Hershberger

Television• Third Place for Best News Magazine

Show: GCTVVideo• First place for Multi-Camera Show:

FiveCore Media• Award of Excellence - Long Promo:

FiveCore Media• Award of Excellence - Short Promo:

FiveCore Media• Award of Excellence - Short

Documentary: Riley Mills with FiveCore Media

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

The Goshen College Communications department had another successful year, receiving awards at every level recognizing students’ work with WGCS 91.1 The Globe, The Record, The Correspondent and FiveCore Media.

The Globe was awarded the 2017 Signature Station Award by the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), the competition’s highest national radio award.

Goshen College was named Indiana Television School of the Year by the Indiana Association of School Broadcasters, which marks the fifth time in the last eight years the college has earned the title, as well as a number of individual awards.

FiveCore Media won five bronze Telly Awards, the most Telly’s that GC has ever won. “Giving our students hands-on learning opportunities and seeing their hard work nationally recognized is very rewarding,” said FiveCore Media’s General Manager, Kyle Hufford. “This is why competitions are so important to the learning process, and we have seen many of our graduates benefit from these professional projects and awards in their portfolios.”

The Record and staff members won a number of individual awards at the Indiana Collegiate Press Association’s annual conference, as well as the second place award for “Newspaper of the Year.” A total of 27 students collected awards in numerous categories.Photo courtesy of Duane Stoltzfus

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The Globe was awarded the 2017 Signature Station Award by the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), the competition’s highest national radio award.

Staff members additionally collected a number of individual awards at the annual Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) conference in New York City in March, including being nominated as a finalist for “Best College Radio Station in the Nation.”

Intercollegiate Broadcasting System

First-place• JD Hershberger, Most

Creative Show• Spencer Buttermore,

Best Sports Update• WGCS 91.1 The

Globe staff: Best On-air Giveaway, Best Station Logo

National Finalist Awards• JD Hershberger: Best

On-Air-Personality finalist, Best Celebrity Interview finalist, Best Radio Drama finalist, Best Comedy Program finalist

• Laura Hoover: Best Radio Drama

• Lucia Nisly: Best Campus News

• Demetria Towns: Best Campus News finalist

• Dalton Shetler: Best Men’s Basketball Play-By-Play finalist

• Andrew Snyder: Best Play-By-Play Other Sports finalist

• Colin Samuel: Best Live Broadcast Promotional Event finalist

• Victor Garcia: Best Station Contest 91.1 The Globe: Best Giveaway Item finalist, Best Use of Instagram finalist, Best Station Facilities finalist

• GCTV (Greta Neufeld, Ben Cotton,

WGCS WINS 2017 SIGNATURE STATION AWARD

Photo courtesy of Jason Samuel

Demetria Towns): Best Video News Report finalist

• GCTV (Karina Flores): Best Video Sports Report finalist

• FiveCore Media (Jesse Bontreger, David Leaman Miller, Takoda Friesen, Tim Litwiller): Best Video Variety Program finalist

In March, the Goshen Theater premiered the documentary “Admit One: The Story of the Goshen Theater,” written and directed by Riley Mills, a senior communications student.

The 26-minute documentary explores the rich history of the Goshen Theater and the efforts currently underway to restore and revive it.

The documentary began as part of Goshen College’s Maple Scholars program, which provides selected students with a $2,500 scholarship to stay on campus over the summer and focus on a single project.

“We weren’t really sure what our project was when we started,” said Mills, “so we looked to the community, at areas that needed attention.”

In their search, they found the Goshen Theater.

“We’ve had various student projects shown there, and we are a partner with the Riverbend Film Festival, which is a great opportunity for students – and the Goshen Theater is the hub of the film festival,” said Kyle Hufford, assistant professor of communication and general manager at FiveCore Media.

Mills was a pioneer in pursuing a longer-form documentary.

“In the past, [Maple Scholars] have worked on short pieces, little features on people in the community, more short-form storytelling,” Mills said.

“This time around we wanted to tackle something a little bit larger and chose a historical/educational piece.”

“Admit One” won an award of excellence from the Broadcast Education Association and was featured in the student category at the Riverbend Film Festival.

Mills tells the history of historic downtown Goshen Theater

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DEPARTMENT RECEPTIONThe Communication Department joined seniors and their families in a celebratory reception during commencement weekend in April.

Photos courtesy of Com-Mar

SOPHOMORE YAZAN MEQBIL WINS 2017 C. HENRY SMITH PEACE ORATORICAL CONTEST

Yazan Meqbil, a sophomore molecular biology/biochemistry major from Hebron, Palestine, won the top prize of $500 at the annual C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest with his speech titled “Beyond Occupation of Mind and Body.” His speech will also be entered in Mennonite Central Committee’s bi-national intercollegiate oratorical contest.

“My name is Yazan Meqbil,” he said, in opening his speech. “A Palestinian, refugee, Muslim, student, Arab, semi-Jordanian, brown, F-1 visa holder, a threat, a terrorist. My name is Yazan Meqbil, a human being who is marked by all the labels I’ve just mentioned. A human being who is dehumanized because of his religion, ethnicity, color, nationality and legal status.”

Mimi Salvador, a senior peace, justice and conflict studies major from Tena, Ecuador, was runner-up with her speech titled “Indigenous Motherhood in Defense of Life.” Salvador was also the first-place winner in the 2016 contest.

Coming in third place, Hitesh Sharma, a junior accounting major from Kathmandu, Nepal, spoke on “Locked Doors, Exploited Modesty and Stripped Autonomy: Feminism Outside the Borders of the United States.”

The two other speakers included Alma Rosa Carrillo, a senior interdisciplinary (nursing, sociology, peace, justice and conflict studies) major from Mexico City, and Dona Park, a senior history and art major from Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Carillo’s speech was titled “Quisieron Enterrarnos, Pero No Sabian Que Eramos Semillas: They Try to Bury Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds. Remembering and Continuing the Fight for Justice of the 43 Missing Students From Ayotzinapa.” Park’s speech was titled “A Perspective of a Korean Canadian Something Maybe American.” Park was the first-place winner in the 2015 contest.

“I thought the speeches this year were exceptionally strong and very relevant in light of current political, national and international realities,” said Pat Lehman, event organizer and professor of communication. “Our speakers were all international students this year, and I worked hard to find and use judges with international experiences and perspectives.”

The judges for the contest included Zulma Prieto, the founding editor of El Puente, a Michiana-area Spanish-language newspaper; Tom Meyers, director of international education and associate academic dean at GC; and Jair Hernandez, a 2013 GC graduate and alumni board member who won the contest in 2011. Lehman and Leah Stebly, a 2017 graduate with a major in public relations, directed the contest.

Speech contests have been part of Goshen College’s history since the early 1900s; the C. Henry Smith contest allows the campus community to hear more about relevant, contemporary issues related to peace.

Photo courtesy of Com-Mar

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Communication students represent department at Academic Symposium with variety of presentationsTwenty-three students presented their research at the annual Academic Symposium on April 1, with a several presenters from the Communication Department.

Presentations are based upon course work, Goshen College’s Study-Service Term, the Maple Scholars program, internships, experiential learning opportunities or some combination of the above.

Four students in the communication deparment, Jesse Amstutz, Sadie Gustafson-Zook, Abby King and Katie Hurst, were among the presenters.

Amstutz carried out a survey for his Communication Research class on the use of technology in the classroom.

“I have always been slightly bothered and distracted by classmates that use their phones during class, even though I am guilty of this as well,” said Amstutz. “I was curious to find out why students use their phones in class, what they do on their phones and whether they also found it distracting.”

Gustafson-Zook organized focus groups with on-campus RA’s also for Comm Research to examine the dynamics of students in ResLife positions.

An excerpt from her conclusion states: “Throughout this research, my suspicions were confirmed that being an RA is a job full of positive and negative aspects. My research further solidified my belief that a well-functioning team of RAs is integral to a healthy campus community.”

King conducted an extensive survey focused on the spirituality of Goshen College students. An excerpt from her conclusion reads, “Overall, participants were interested in spirituality. From the answers given about how faith perspectives changed, it is clear that discussions about faith are happening at Goshen College and students are growing from said discussions. By targeting three areas of spiritual formation (inner development, questioning meaning and acts of service) I was better able to analyze my data on students’ opinions of GC’s impact on their faith formation.”

Hurst’s presentation was titled “Effective Ecotourism” and combined personal experiences with SST final project work on ecotourism in an Amazon village in Peru.

“I chose the ecotourism research while in Peru because as North Americans with the privilege to travel we need to be thinking about how our travel habits affect the places and communities we are going, especially on SST,” said Hurst.

The mission of the symposium is to acknowledge original undergraduate and graduate research that plays an essential role in Goshen’s academic program and to encourage students and faculty to contribute to the larger conversation about knowledge that sustains the academy. The symposium brings together students and faculty members involved in original research and scholarly activity from all disciplines.

Jo-Ann Brant, a professor of Bible and religion, and the current academic dean, served as coordinator of the Academic Symposium.

Photos courtesy of Com-Mar

Abby King and Jesse Amstutz were among communication student presenters at the 19th annual Academic Symposium.

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Sports reporters from all over the county gathered for two weeks in July to hone their craft – the only catch? They were middle schoolers.

As part of the Goshen Write on Sports camp, 13 students from area schools joined a teaching staff of five to interview athletes, research and publish a feature article, and edit and produce a video over the course of two weeks on GC’s campus.

“We celebrated the fifth annual Goshen Write on Sports camp with a sense of strong support from our returning teachers and students,” said Duane Stoltzfus, chair of the communication department at Goshen College and director of the camp.

Students had the chance to observe professional reporters interviewing professional athletes, as well as the opportunity to ask questions themselves. They then wrote ‘spot stories’ after the interview, practicing getting quality information from quick interviews and turning it into a story under an aggressive deadline.

“We were delighted with our guests on campus, both athletes and journalists,

including a professional soccer player, Femi Hollinger-Janzen, who joined us via video right after practice in Boston,” said Stoltzfus.

In addition to Hollinger-Janzen, a Goshen native who graduated from Bethany Christian High School and Indiana University alum who now plays for the New England Revolution, students had the chance to interview Team USA Paralympic athlete Sam Grewe, Goshen College basketball player Sophie Sears and GC employee Bob Toews, who competes in tower racing events across the country.

Outside of the classroom students had the chance to speak to two Division I athletes and a professional baseball player.

“As always, one of the highlights was attending a South Bend Cubs game and interviewing athletes there and at the University of Notre Dame,” said Stoltzfus.

At Notre Dame campers interviewed basketball player Rex Pflueger and mid-distance runner Samantha Murray. Afterwards, students wrote stories about

their time and interviews at Notre Dame, and one reporter-in-training was even published on Notre Dame’s website. At the South Bend Cubs game students were able to talk with third baseman Vimael Machin before batting practice.

Write on Sports camp is free to students thanks to generous donations from sponsors and individuals.

Write on Sports celebrates fifth anniversary

COMMEDIA was edited and designed by Katie Hurst, a senior majoring in communication.

Photo courtesy of Katie Hurst

“The greatest measure of our success,” said Stoltzfus, “will come in quiet moments throughout the academic year when students put words to paper or screen with a newfound sense of confidence and skill.”

For more photos and student blog posts visit goshen.edu/writeonsports.