Raven Jane shooting a music video at The Bakery Arts Warehouse, a Denver venue owned and operated by GC alums Dan Eisenstat & Sondra Eby Eisenstat. Left to right: Dan Eisenstat, Ian Campbell, Rachel Eisenstat, Joe Grobelny.
Photo by Kenny Storms

Denver-based musician Rachel Eisenstat, a 2006 Goshen College graduate, is using her musical training from the college’s Music Department to record her band Raven Jane’s debut album. Eisenstat has been working as an independent musician in Denver since 2007, releasing a solo album in 2010.

Drawing inspiration from the unfettered passion in Janis Joplin’s vocals, Radiohead’s versatility and Jack White’s attitude, Raven Jane brews their own spirited contribution to the Colorado soundscape.

Raven Jane is using a relatively new approach to fund the album called crowdfunding, which has gained immense popularity in recent years through sites such as Kickstarter and Rockethub. Friends and fans contribute financially in exchange for rewards such as copies of the band’s album, posters, and private house concerts. The band’s demo video and other music can be heard on their fundraising site.

Several GC alumni are involved in the Raven Jane album. Sondra Eby ’04 is Raven Jane’s marketing manager and web designer, as well as co-writer on some songs; Daniel Eisenstat (GC student from 1999 to 2001) is a co-writer on the album and will play guitar on several tracks. Eric Meyer ’05 also contributed to the songwriting.

Some of the most widely-recognized Denver musicians will appear on the upcoming Raven Jane album. Drummer Daren Hahn works with such national acts as Ani DiFranco, Geggy Tah, The Eels and John Common. Keys player and pianist James Han toured last summer supporting Mumford & Sons with Colorado acts Gregory Alan Isakov and Nathaniel Rateliff. Guitarist Luke Mossman is the lead guitarist for Achille Lauro, who the Denver Post describes as “one of Denver’s best and constantly underrated atmospheric rock bands, and one that deserves a national audience.”

For more information, email contact@ravenjane.com, visit www.ravenjane.com or www.facebook.com/ravenjaneco, or call (720) 496-1502.

Dr. Lee Miller, a 1980 Goshen College graduate, and 2006 GC graduate Matt Bauman are working, along with other researchers, towards major advancements in long term paralysis treatment. Their team’s research with brain-controlled muscle simulation in monkeys was recently mentioned as one of the top 10 break-throughs of 2012 by Science Magazine.

Over the past few years, these researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago have been steadily working on projects which have the potential to help countless people. At Dr. Miller’s laboratory, their innovative approach combines Brain Machine Interface technology with Functional Electrical Stimulation.

How exactly does their project work? …

>> Read the rest of this article on the Goshen Commons website.

Abram Hostetter
(Photo by Jon Styer/Eastern Mennonite University Marketing Office)

The link between genetics and mental illness continues to engage Abram Hostetter, a psychiatrist who is in his fourth decade of world-recognized research into why Old Order Amish are more susceptible to bipolar disorder than the general population.

Hostetter, who was a pre-med major at Eastern Mennonite University in the late 1940s and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Goshen College in 1953, is part of a University of Miami team that has been researching mental illness among generations of Amish families in Lancaster County since 1976.

He and project leader Janice Egeland, professor of psychiatry, behavioral sciences, epidemiology and public health at the University of Miami, worked for years together out of an office in Hershey, Pa. They assembled a team of about a dozen others to assist them.

“The Old Order Amish of Lancaster County have a lower incidence of mental illness than the general population, but a much higher incidence of bipolar disorder, “ said Hostetter.

Bipolar disorder, also called manic depression, often leads to suicide. “It’s in the blood,” said an Amish grandmother – or siss im blut, in Pennsylvania German – when Egeland began her research.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of mania or depression that typically recur and often become more frequent and severe during a lifetime. It’s estimated that about 1 percent of the U.S. population has a major mood disorder.

Over the years, scientists discovered an association between mood disorders and two known genetic markers. In other words, people suffering from bipolar disorder have inherited it from their parents.

Hostetter and Egeland found that Old Order Amish families are ideal subjects for genetic studies for a number of reasons:

• They descend from a limited number of pioneer couples who came to America in the 18^th century.
• There is little marriage to outsiders or other forms on in-migration, causing the Old Order Amish of Lancaster to form a closed gene pool
• They have large families and keep extensive genealogical records.
• They prohibit the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs, which often mask the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

“We have a total pedigree of the Old Order Amish community in a computer from the original 32 adults who came in the 1760s until in the 1970s,” said Hostetter, “so we can determine what percentage of genetic endowment any two people share.”

The research team focuses on the original “pedigrees,” or cohort. About 65 percent of the families are named Stoltzfus. Other names are King, Zook, Lapp, Beiler, Petersheim, Blank, Fisher, Miller, Glick, Esch and Smoker.

Hostetter grew up in Lancaster County in a Mennonite family and knew some Amish families with bipolar disorder. His grandfather, who was longtime moderator of Lancaster Mennonite Conference, often consulted with Amish ministers. Hostetter’s father was a farmer and tobacco broker and also had much interaction with the Amish.

“My best friend, an Amish boy, in elementary school had bipolar disorder, as did his mother and grandmother,” said Hostetter. “He committed suicide at age 18 and his sister committed suicide in the 1990s.

Hostetter was a pre-med major at Eastern Mennonite University for two years in the late 1940s and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Goshen College in 1953. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and trained in psychiatry at Norristown State Hospital.

He joined a private practice in his home area and later formed a group practice in Hershey, where he met Egeland, who was on the faculty of Hershey Medical Center. “We first spoke about using the Amish population in Lancaster County to solve the medical puzzle about inheritance of bipolar disorder in 1970,” he said.

Egeland and Hostetter both joined the faculty of the University of Miami but worked out of what they called “University of Miami, North Office” in Hershey.

Nine years ago Hostetter retired from his psychiatry practice at age 74 and moved with his wife to Charlottesville, Va. He returns to Pennsylvania about five times a year, though, to pursue his research. In December 2012 he joined Egeland there.

“We worked on ‘coding’ cases to detect particular characteristics of each of their manifestations of illness,” he said. “We have very detailed medical histories and DNA samples on over 100 bipolar patients.”

“At this point,” Hostetter continued, “we are on the verge of whole genome sequencing for 80 subjects, still attempting to locate all the specific genes involved.”

Hostetter noted that bipolar disorder is treatable and that persons with the illness can lead normal lives. “However, untreated or inadequately treated, there is still a 15 percent suicide rate, to say nothing of the suffering and turmoil these people have and put their families through,” he said.

– by Steve Shenk for Eastern Mennonite University

Naomi Lederach rarely says “I.”

Whether she’s describing her time as a peace worker in Northern Ireland during the Troubles or her experience as a nursing professor at Hesston College in Kansas, Lederach, 79, habitually begins her sentences with “we.” The other half of Lederach’s “we” is invariably her husband, John, who has been her co-worker, best friend and partner for the last 58 years.

Together, Naomi and John have moved from Goshen to Oregon to Kansas—even to Israel and Northern Ireland during periods of great political conflict—always going where they feel called, Naomi as a nurse and John as a pastor and professor. No matter where they live, Naomi and John model for others how to have a lasting, loving marriage and have in fact led marriage workshops together for over 25 years.

Lesson number one? You’re never too old to hold hands, a practice Naomi and John demonstrate regularly.

Their affection for each other was immediately apparent on the sunny spring morning that I visited their Goshen home to interview Naomi. As she and I sat down at the kitchen table, John took drink requests and promptly prepared coffee for me and chamomile tea for Naomi.

“Would you like sugar or sweetener with your coffee?” John asked me politely.

“She wants sugar,” Naomi answered with a wink. John gave her shoulder a small squeeze as he handed her the tea.

Once John left the room, Naomi took a sip from her white mug and said what would become the first of many “we” statements: “We tell each other every day how lucky we are to have found each other. What a wonderful life it’s been.”

Although John has indeed been an integral part of Naomi’s personal narrative, the stories she proceeded to share were still uniquely and unequivocally her own. As she spoke, themes of reconciliation and forgiveness continually emerged as defining values of her life.

These are three of her stories. …

>> Read the rest of this article on the Goshen Commons website.