About GC

Culture for Service: The Goshen College motto

Adapted from the article 'Culture for Service: a journey, an action, a commitment, a motto' written by Rachel Lapp ’95 which appeared in the March 1998 issue of the Goshen College Bulletin.

The Goshen College seal.

Culture for Service – we see it flying on banners, printed on Goshen College literature and stuck on car windows. It says something about the college and its graduates in a way that few other college mottoes do. Culture for Service is a call to action, a call to learn, a reminder of how our Christian values affect the work we do.

Since its beginnings, the college has felt the impact of the twin harmonies of these words, “culture” and “service.” It has sometimes struggled to define how the dual concepts combine into a campus ideal. Described as a “felicitous turn of phrase” by Susan Fisher Miller in Culture for Service: A History of Goshen College, 1984-1994, the motto serves not just as a theoretical challenge but as a “real world” set of instructions for the campus community to incorporate into its life and growth.

Dan Vader ('09) cleans windows during Celebrate Service Day 2006.

Coined in 1903, the phrase has survived nearly a century with the college, through periods of growth and change both internal and external. Once, when the motto came under scrutiny in 1943, GC faculty were asked to evaluate Culture for Service. In a description of its relevance to the campus and its students, the faculty members described the motto as “beautiful and satisfactory.” “Culture for Service also has significance for past pupils,” they said.

Many students look to find that “culture” – including a bachelor of arts or science degree – at a college where service is incorporated into the campus ethos. Prospective students eligible for the President’s Leadership Award, for example, are asked to write about what Culture for Service means to them. Many respond with essays that use personal experiences, expectations for their education at GC, Scripture and observations about how Culture for Service might be used to best serve others. They often describe their own service background.

A call to serve

Art Birkey ('70) talks with hopital patients during SST in Costa Rica.

Students across the country are catching this spirit. According to a fall 1996 survey by the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, freshmen entering U.S. colleges and universities are increasingly service-minded. The survey of more than 250,000 freshmen shows record numbers of students doing volunteer work and record numbers spending at least an hour a week doing service.

When they arrive at GC, all students are encouraged to engage in both the theoretical exploration of service and hands-on projects and programs. According to Lois Miller, GC community voluntary service staff director, around 400 students have given their time, energy and resources to a variety of volunteer programs in each of the past two years. This includes 65 students who respond to local service agencies that come to campus each fall to engage students; more than 150 who donate blood; around 45 individuals belonging to small groups or residence hall floors who choose a service project; and around 25 who participate in volunteer service trips. In 1996-97, students went to Florida, Kentucky and Georgia; so far in 1997-98, they have traveled to Arkansas and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona.

Hannah Wigginton ('08) helps to prepare food during SST in the Dominican Republic in 2006.

Since 1968, students have often learned how broadly service can be defined during SST when they spend half the semester in a “service assignment.” During that time, students have spent roughly 170,000 hours at varying types of service during this portion of their experience abroad. Graber Miller, who led SST groups in the Dominican Republic last year, reminded students that service “includes ‘being’ and ‘understanding’ and ‘accompanying’ as well as ‘doing.’ ”