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.

Goshen College President Jim Brenneman, NIPSCO’s Manager of Public Affairs Angela Nelson and Goshen College Sustainability Coordinator and Utilities Manager Glenn Gilbert hold up a representational “green carbon footprint.”

Goshen College President Jim Brenneman announced today that the college has taken a major step by voluntarily purchasing all of its electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. This single action will reduce the college’s carbon footprint by about 45 percent.

The college is the first major customer of NIPSCO, the regional electricity provider, to take this action and participate in its new Green Power Program.

“What this means for Goshen College is that going forward from today, no more coal, gas or oil will be burned, no more carbon dioxide will be introduced into the atmosphere to provide electricity for our campus,” Brenneman said during an all-campus convocation. Before this step, the equivalent of 24 train cars of coal were needed (or about 12 tons per student) to provide electricity to campus each year. Coal is Indiana’s primary energy source.

In 2007, Brenneman became a charter signatory to the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. In doing so, he joined with leaders of 175 other higher education institutions in agreement to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions. Goshen College was one of two higher education institutions in Indiana and the first Mennonite college or university to sign the landmark climate commitment. There now are 664 signatories.

Goshen College President Jim Brenneman

“We did that because we are very concerned about life on this planet, it was one more way we can care for the world and it was part of our broader ecological stewardship commitment,” Brenneman said. “Goshen College, like the Mennonite Church which we are a part of, has always been committed to being global citizens. 

By signing up for this program – which is recently available to all customers – NIPSCO buys renewable energy certificates (RECs) on the college’s behalf. RECs are the environmental attributes associated with electricity that is generated from renewable sources. NIPSCO Green Power Program RECs are certified through Green-e® Energy, the nation’s leading renewable energy certification and verification program. Green-e® Energy provides independent, third-party certification to ensure that certified renewable energy meets strict environmental and consumer-protection standards.

Participants in the program pay a monthly premium in addition to the standard electric rate, which goes entirely to pay for the RECs. 

In response to the college’s energy efficiency efforts and commitment to sustainability, NIPSCO’s Manager of Public Affairs Angela Nelson presented a $5,000 check to the college’s Ecological Stewardship Committee to help with further initiatives on campus in the future.

Since 2007, the college has been very successful at energy conservation. “In that time, both natural gas and electrical consumption have been reduced by over 25 percent,” said Glenn Gilbert, the campus’ sustainability coordinator and utilities manager. “Conservation will continue to be a major component of our strategy.” The college is using about the same amount of electricity on campus today as it did in 1992, despite adding 290,000 more square feet of building space.

Gilbert added, “We seek to be leaders in environmental sustainability and to model a safe and effective way for our society to move away from dependency on fossil fuel-based energy sources that have proven to be so destructive to our environment.”

To learn more about the college’s various green initiatives – including composting, prairie planting, making biodiesel, powering hot showers with solar panels and others – visit http://www.goshen.edu/gogreen.

Directions, schedules, activity descriptions and online registration are all available at http://merrylea.goshen.edu/. Register by May 9. Weekend registration includes Saturday breakfast and lunch. Saturday only registration includes lunch. Adults pay $5 for one activity, $10 for Saturday and $15 for the weekend. Kids through college students pay $5 anytime.

WOLF LAKE, Ind. – Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College will kick off its annual NatureFest on Friday, May 10 with a Haymow Concert in the Farmstead Barn at 8:30 p.m. The folk group The Nearby Elsewhere will play.

The Nearby Elsewhere is composed of Craig Mast, Kate Truscello and David Kempf, all from the Goshen/Elkhart area. The trio uses the fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo to preserve traditional tunes, give new folk-life to cover songs, and play some original material of their own. Merry Lea’s Farmstead Barn has beams, rafters and a few friendly bats to add to the atmosphere.

NatureFest is a family-friendly bash that showcases a wide variety of ways to get closer to the outdoors, from hiking to container gardening, from catching insects to tasting wild edibles. All festivities take place at Merry Lea’s Farmstead Site. This year’s theme, “Nature Nurtures Us All,” includes booths and activities that demonstrate our dependence on the Earth for our food, clothing and shelter.

Woodworker Dave Miller, of Goshen, Ind., a former program director at Merry Lea, is back to demonstrate his favorite hobby. Miller knows what kinds of wood will work best for various human needs and also where those trees grow and what they are like when they are living.

Julie Davidson, of Columbia City, Ind., and her daughter, Elena, own sheep and can transform wool into handcrafted garments. Visitors can watch them spinning and learn about natural dyes.

Merry Lea’s eggmobile

At Merry Lea’s agroecology booth, the program’s new eggmobile will demonstrate the chicken lifestyle at its best. This coop on wheels with portable fencing allows the chickens to graze outdoors on fresh pastures.

What do maple syrup, bison, lavender and apples have in common? They’re all grown on farms in Noble County. Farm to Fork, a program of the Noble County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau that aims to educate the public about its local food producers will also be represented.

At 8 a.m. on Saturday morning, athletes can run the Turtle Trot, a 5-K that follows grassy trails past wetlands, woodlands and prairies. Small prizes are awarded for the fastest male, female and child times and the most unusual nature sighting spotted while running.

Canoeing is one of NatureFest’s most popular activities, offered every year. The nine-acre Kesling Wetland is large enough to provide interesting nature sightings yet small enough to allow families to return to shore promptly when young children get restless. Canoes are provided.

Camping without the need to pack and cook food is a draw for some families. Weekend registration fees include Friday night s’mores and a hot breakfast and lunch. A wild edibles snacking table will supplement the more traditional fare.

For a foretaste of Fancheon Resler’s Container Gardening Workshop, drive by 3100 N. 350 W. Albion, where she practices her art. Participants are invited to bring a container to plant.

A new feature this year at NatureFest is a young adult track. It includes an off-trail hike led by Bill Minter, New Paris, Ind., who teaches land management courses at Merry Lea. Hikers ages 16 to 22 – or those spry enough to keep up with them – will see a perched bog and a ghost forest of tamarack trees. Following the young adult track is a good way to explore interests in environmental science and meet Goshen College professors.

Merry Lea was created with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy and the generosity of Lee A. and Mary Jane Rieth. The 1,189-acre nature preserve is located in central Noble County, midway between Fort Wayne and Goshen, south of Wolf Lake.

Members of the Goshen College Community School of the Arts Rejoice Children’s Choir (left to right) Mackenzie Mast, Priya Sommers, Ava Miller, Abigail Click, Kyle Deal and Allison Sapp rehearse for their upcoming spring concert on May 5 at 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.
(Photo provided by the Goshen College Music Center)

Concert:  Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert
Date and time:  Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 4 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Cost:  $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, available at the door. GC students/faculty/staff free with valid ID.

Two Community School of the Arts children’s choirs will be joined by graduating CSA student performers as part of the annual spring Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert on Sunday, May 5 at 4 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

Performing will be Rejoice Children’s Choir (grades 3-5), directed by Kristin Kauffman, and Shout for Joy Children’s Choir (grades 6-8), directed by Sandra Hill. Each choir will perform choral works individually, and then join together forming a 75-voice combined choir.

Graduates from each choir will be recognized and receive awards during the showcase.

The concert will also feature performances by three high school seniors who will be graduating from the Community School of the Arts this spring:  pianist Wade Troyer, of South Bend; and vocalists Aaron Yoder, of Middlebury, and Sadie Gustafson-Zook, of Goshen.

Tickets cost $7 adults, $5 seniors/students, and are available at the door beginning one hour before the concert. Goshen College faculty/staff/students are admitted free with ID, as well as CSA students and their immediate family members.

The CSA children’s choirs will be holding auditions for new members for the 2013-2014 school year on Monday, May 13 and Tuesday, May 14 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center.  New students may reserve an audition time by calling the Music Center Main Office at (574) 535-7361. Singers in the choirs will be registered through the Community School of the Arts. Tuition is $75 per term, plus registration fee. Need-based scholarships are available.

The mission of the Goshen College Music Center is “Enriched lives and enhanced community through quality artistic programming and educational opportunities for all.” The Community School of the Arts serves hundreds of community families each season, offering private lessons, two children’s choirs, five orchestras including the Elkhart County Youth Honors and Intermediate Concert Orchestras, and Music Together classes for preschool children in Elkhart County. Need-based scholarships are available for every CSA activity. For more information, please visit www.gcmusiccenter.org or call 574-535-7361.

President Brenneman

Related links:

• View photos from the 2013 Baccalaureate service
• Read the press release about the service
• Commencement speech by Dan Charles, NPR’s food and agriculture correspondent (full-text)

Baccalaureate sermon, delivered by Dr. James E. Brenneman, President of Goshen College on Sunday, April 28, 2013 in the Goshen College Church-Chapel

Scripture Reading:  Ephesians 3:16-19

I.

Today, I am full of joy and profoundly grateful. I rejoice with you and all your loved ones that you made it to the finish line of your respective degree programs, be that a bachelors or masters at Goshen College. I am grateful that you have drunk deeply from the well of knowledge and grateful that in the process you have learned something of the height and depth of the love of God.

Knowledge and love, love and knowledge – two sacred values worth pondering by any would-be graduate of any university, but even more so, a Goshen College graduate. And so, I am particularly grateful, that the Senior Class Planning Committee chose for this baccalaureate service the scripture from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians – a prayer that combines love and knowledge, knowledge and love.

II.

“Knowledge is power” so we’re told by the philosophers, social scientists, civil rights activists, educators, infomaniacs, and just about everyone else. Love is power, we’re told. If so, A.J. Jacobs should be one of the mightiest men alive. He’s the editor of Esquire Magazine who wrote the New York Times best-selling book entitled: The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. A.J. spent more than a year reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, all 44 million words, from a-ak, which is an ancient East Asian music, to Zyweic, which is a town in Poland known for its beer.

A.J.’s the same guy who later wrote the bestseller, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible in which “he lets his beard grow so unruly that he’s regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, battles idolatry, and worries about stoning an adulterer he knows, and he tells the absolute truth in all situations – much to his wife’s chagrin.” AJ’s wife also hated it when AJ was writing Know-It-All  because he would tend to throw up his new-found knowledge about almost everything into regular dinner party conversation with friends. For example, one cold night upon arrival at a friend’s home, their friend Shannon opened the door with the usual banter, “A little nippy out there.” To which, A.J. responded, “Not quite as cold as Antarctica’s Vostok Station, which reached a record 128 degrees below zero, but it’s still a little cold.”

Another time at a seafood restaurant, he pointed out, just as the abalone was being served – using less delicate language than I am about to – “Do you know how many “be-hinds” the abalone has? For those of you who just have to know, the answer is five. We all know a few “know-it-alls’ don’t we? At times, know-it-alls are insufferable.

And yet, like any college worth its salt and tuition, we at Goshen College have encouraged you, invited you, prodded you to learn everything you could about everything you can all the time and everywhere and to do so for the rest of your lives. We wanted you to know as much as you could within your particular major or minor or double majors or triple minors and everything in-between. We take pride that your degree hails from among the top 10 percent of all colleges and universities among thousands by almost every measurable criterion by almost any comparative lists. We are thrilled that you will go on to earn Ph.D.’s at a rate per number of graduates higher than almost any school in the nation. Haven’t we done our best to create “know-it-alls” of most, if not all, of you?  At the very least we want to make  “know-as-much-as-you-cans” of all of you. And isn’t that a good thing? Well, yes, of course it is, but …

For the most part, the central project of most western colleges and universities has been to gain and dispense knowledge – to help the students become, well, “know-it-alls.” We are constantly testing your knowledge in college, something that we should do. Yet, “love” is seldom a distinct category for which we design curricula. “To love well” is not usually on a typical course syllabus as one of the stated outcomes of a class.

A math professor was asked in a recent survey of thousands of college teachers, whether he thought part of his role was to develop the moral and spiritual formation of students. Likely typical of his profession on this survey, “I only do math, not spiritual development,” he replied. “That is not in my area of competence.” We seem to have become so silo-like in our respective disciplines that the original intent of universities to develop students of character has all but disappeared. By the way, that math professor was not from Goshen College.

So it was absolutely refreshing to me when choosing the scripture lesson for this occasion, you went against the grain of higher education to describe what you thought was a great Goshen College education. After assessing all your hard work, all those long hours of study, all the newly gained skills and many learned accomplishments. After all that! And as great as that may be, when all’s said and done, you did the exceptional thing. You returned to the prayer of St. Paul to summarize your Goshen College experience. For you, the most important take-away was not simply raw, bare-boned “know-it-all-ism.” The most important take-away was to have been, as the Apostle Paul said, “rooted and established in love,” love of God, love for each other, and love for the world.

There it is: love and knowledge, a formidable team. From Socrates to Nietzsche to Levinas and Habermas, western philosophers have debated about the relationship between knowledge and love and power. St. Paul seems to be aware of those links: “I pray that you will have the power,” he writes, I pray you will have the “power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (of God), and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.”  Now that’s an epistemology worthy of a Ph.D. dissertation, one, I hope, will be written by one of you in this room someday. “To know a love that surpasses knowledge.” Amazing.

III.

In the 14th century, an anonymous English monk wrote a sublime work entitled, “The Cloud of Unknowing.” He wrote it to counsel a young person, a student of his, as to the limits of knowledge, especially in knowing God. For him, if there is to be a breakthrough to God, it would not likely come about by “knowing it all.” Rather, he writes: “… God can well be loved, but God cannot be thought … You must step above thought stoutly but deftly, with a devout and delightful stirring of love, and struggle to pierce that darkness above you; and beat on that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love, and, whatever happens, do not give up.” Love in the cloud of unknowing is a love that encompasses the best of learning pedagogies, yet surpasses knowledge. Love in the cloud of unknowing is worthy of our life-long pursuit.

A love that surpasses knowledge, in the end, as St. Paul said, is what “endures forever.” A love that surpasses knowledge can bridge differences, profound differences in what we know to be certain for ourselves, even when someone else is certain about his or her perspective. When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” it was not just a nice cliché. He was using a form of moral reasoning typical of rabbinic argumentation: state the extreme instance, such that every lesser instance is more attainable and expected. Jesus sensed that until one learned to love someone who profoundly disagrees with you, you, we, have not truly known love. Indeed, one of the best ways to learn, to grow, to know-it-all, is to wrestle with alternative points of view. To not learn to love difference is to stunt one’s mind and, sadly, one’s heart as well.

I hope that as you leave GC, you have learned to love someone you may have otherwise not known had you not come to GC. I hope you have learned to love someone of a different faith perspective, a different interpretation of Holy Scripture, a different life-orientation. Jesus isn’t asking us to agree. Jesus is asking us to love in the midst of our differences with a “love that surpasses knowledge.”

When I look around, I think you have caught the Spirit of that Love, a love that has aided you in adjusting to college, of missing home, of sorrowful estrangements, and losses. Together we suffered the unfathomable deaths of Professor Jim Miller and fellow student Millicent Morros.  And yes, there were anxieties over tests, of choosing a major, of the unknown future. But through it all, we discovered together that “love surpasses knowledge.”

IV.

The same Spirit of love permeated your lives in small and hugely significant ways. I remember the year when most of you arrived on campus (2009-2010), you helped the Athletic department raise enough money in its Leaf Relief Project to dig a fresh-water well at St. Mary’s Mumias Secondary school in Kakamega, Kenya. The following year (2010-2011) some of you travelled to the Mideast to help with summer camp programs at Wi’am, the Palestinian Peace and Reconciliation Center established by Marcelle Zoughbi’s father. During the harsh winter of 2012, you, along with faculty and staff, helped raise $25,000 and build a new Habitat for Humanity house for the family of Eddie Mayorga, a Goshen College Physical Plant staff member. I remember that during the ground breaking, Eddie reached out his hands and said in Spanish, “If I could hug every one of you I would. I thank God … for the support that you have given me.” And then, as if that wasn’t enough, you took-on another house-build for another family this year.

You have volunteered to tutor for the love of kids, you composted waste for the love of the earth, you prayed around the clock for a whole week several different years for the love of God and the world. Your senior class gift is among the top amounts given: given to support Prism programing, SST endowment, and a Community Gardens project.

You have held newborns in Nicaragua, taught English in Cambodia, served the deaf community in Peru, held basketball camps down the street. You have learned to live lives of service and learning on every inhabitable continent on earth. By my estimation, in the four years you were here at Goshen College, all students, along with faculty, staff, and administrators showed God’s love for others with more than 60,000 service hours per year that you were here! You, my dear students, have embodied a “love that surpasses knowledge.”

V.

If as you leave GC, you have more questions than when you arrived; if you are not, in fact, “know-it-alls,” if you have come to the edge of all you know; and yet have learned a bit more about how to love God, love yourself, love others and love creation, then you have received an education of a lifetime.

In the end, though, I believe that to know such love, is less about our capacity to “beat on the thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love,” than it is a simple gift unbidden by us from an all-knowing God, who broke through the clouds of unknowing as the Christ, and continues to do so, to bid us welcome! In the end, in his great epistemological masterpiece on Love (1 Corin.13), St. Paul concludes:  “faith, hope and love, abide, but the greatest of these is love.”

So, graduates of 2013, I pray with St. Paul and all your beloved professors, that more than any diploma presented to you later today, that each of you for the rest of your days may continue to “receive power to know the height and depth and the breadth and the width of the love of God in Christ – a love that surpasses all knowledge.”

Dan Charles

Related links:

• View photos from Commencement 2013
• Read the press release about the service
• Baccalaureate sermon by Dr. James E. Brenneman (full-text)

Commencement address by Daniel Charles, food and agriculture correspondent for National Public Radio, at the 115th Goshen College Commencement on Sunday, April 28, 2013

Thank you so much, President Jim Brenneman. Thank you faculty and staff of this college. Greetings to you, graduates! Congratulations!

It’s a privilege to stand here at a commencement of Goshen College. It’s also extremely daunting to me, personally because Goshen has played a really important part in my own life.

I grew up in a Mennonite community in Lancaster, Pa. – a farming community. I always knew about Goshen, out there in Indiana, and my best friend from high school came here to study.

I didn’t. I had my own personal issues to work out. First, I had to stay home for a year after high school to help milk the cows. Then, when my oldest brother came home, to take over the farm, and I could leave, I wanted to really leave. And the cheapest, safest way I could find, to go as far away as possible, was a work exchange program in Europe that the European Mennonites had set up. I worked on a farm in France, which I have to admit, was kind of disappointing because I wanted to get away from farming and then at a retirement home in Germany washing dishes and sweeping floors.

After that, I decided I wanted to study something international, and I transferred to a university in Washington, DC: American University. After I graduated, I stayed in Washington, figuring out a way to earn a living. And that’s where Goshen came to my rescue; not Goshen directly, but graduates of Goshen.

I was in my early 20s; many of you will soon be in your early-20s. I’m not sure I even realized that I needed to find other people who understood me, who shared some of my story, some of my questions, and who were on a similar path.

But I realized it when I finally met them, through friends of friends, at parties or concerts or weekend volleyball games. We were all a similar age, all trying to find our place in the world; figuring out things like jobs and friends and beliefs.

I was drawn to a network of people who already knew each other from Goshen. They were kind, generous, interested in the world, and I felt like I could trust them. They became my closest friends. They still are. Some, I see at church; Others, I get together with for lunch or dinner every few weeks. Some have moved away, but we still stay in touch through mail, e-mail or the occasional phone call.

This is why I’m grateful to Goshen. I feel like it created a community that became my community. So that’s my main connection to this place.

Let me stick with this personal story for a bit, because it’s connected to the title of my talk: This idea of searching for what’s real, what’s authentic.

When I went off to Europe, and then when I moved to Washington, my parents, I’m pretty sure, were a little anxious about me. Maybe some of you have felt that cold draft of anxiety from your own parents from time to time. Maybe you’re just starting to feel it now that you’re graduating.

What were they anxious about? That I’d lose my way, I think or that I’d lose my connection to them, and to things that they felt were really important. They probably wouldn’t have used these words, but I’ll put it this way: They were worried that I was wandering away from a life that was genuine and real; as real and true as the hay that we stacked in the barn every summer, the clothes that my mother sewed, the weeds and the green beans that grew in our garden. Also, as authentic as relationships – good and bad relationships – that are pieced together from shared experiences of living across the fields from each other for 30 or 40 years; from sitting together in church, going to each other’s weddings and funerals, helping each other out when sickness comes, or a barn burns down.

They worried that when I ran off to the big city, I was entering a kind of make-believe world; a world where – to borrow an advertising slogan from many years ago – image is everything; where people earn their living from words that ultimately are just empty words; where nothing is quite what it seems, because people work so hard at creating an impressive facade; communities where people come and go. They all seem very nice, but you really only see one side of them – the side they choose to show you; where relationships are superficial; not authentic.

Just imagine: They worried about this – and Facebook wasn’t even invented yet!

Now, my parent’s fears were not realized – at least I don’t think they were, partly because I found friends like the ones I mentioned. Also because I found out that you can, in fact, build communities in the city that are just as strong as those in the country. I even met someone in Washington who also grew up without television. Brigid and I fell in love, got married, and had children. My friends and I, we’re also watching our children grow up together, and we’re going to weddings and funerals together.

But I still sympathize with my parents’ worries. In fact, I now share them when it comes to my own children. And I think a lot about this question of what’s real and not real; what’s authentic and not authentic; what’s true and not true, because Facebook, and Photoshop, and online dating – they now do exist! But also, I think about this because of my work.

I’m a journalist.  I tell stories on the radio. And there are two ways in which my kind of work is connected to this search for what’s real.

The first way is pretty obvious. Something isn’t real if it’s not true, if it’s a lie. And we journalists, part of our job is to try to figure out what’s factually true. We all hear all kinds of things and we have a professional responsibility to ask: What’s the evidence for that? How do you know that?

If somebody says, “I heard it from my neighbor,” we say, “OK, who’s your neighbor? I need to find out how he or she knows this.” We need to find the person who saw this thing first hand and then check with other people who were there, to see if they saw the same thing.

If it’s a scientific kind of fact, we ask to see the evidence, and not just the I-read-it-on-Wikipedia sort of evidence; actual here’s-the-data kind of evidence. Because we know, from bitter experience, that people believe all kinds of things that aren’t true.

I was working on a story about coffee just a few months ago, and I kept coming across this fact: Coffee is the world’s second-most valuable traded commodity, after oil. I read this statement in a book; I saw it on a Fair Trade Coffee web site; in a column in Time magazine, all kinds of places; so many places, in fact, that a lot of people figured it must be true.

But it’s not. If you take the trouble to look up the actual statistics of traded agricultural commodities, kept by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, coffee actually comes in at number 16, tucked in between chicken meat and sugar, and way below soybeans, wheat, and palm oil. That’s not even considering other, non-agricultural commodities, like steel or copper.

OK, so it doesn’t really matter that much where coffee ranks in global statistics, but this kind of thing happens a lot. People believe things just because they heard it somewhere, and it sounds good or because it fits our prejudices or because we have to believe it to get along with our friends.

I’ll mention just one more example – again, sticking close to something that I write about:  Genetically engineered crops. Every time I do a story about these crops, and it shows up on NPR’s web site, people jump in on the comments section and start an argument over whether GMOs – genetically modified organisms – are good or evil.

Some say, on the one hand, that GMOs produce sterile seed; if you try to replant that seed, it won’t grow. Others explain that the company Monsanto is suing farmers who happened to be growing some Monsanto’s genetically engineered soybean varieties in their field, even though those varieties just blew in on the wind; the farmers didn’t know those plants were there and didn’t want them there, but they get sued anyway. On the other side of the argument, people write that genetically engineered crops are absolutely essential to feed the world’s growing population or that they’re necessary to improve the lives of poor farmers in Africa.

I get depressed when I read the comments section. I get depressed partly because the claims, at least as stated, aren’t really true. I’m not going to go into the details of why I say that. It would take too much time, and I’m not really here to do a seminar about GMOs. Also, it’s not the main thing that I find depressing.

The really depressing thing is that I get the feeling that the people who write these comments aren’t even interested in knowing whether or not what they think is true. They seem to simply reject, out of hand, anything that would challenge their own beliefs.

The only really important thing in this debate, like many other debates, seems to be simply which side you’re on. Once you’ve picked a side, your brain can only absorb information that’s in line with what you already know – or think you know.

Now you’re probably thinking: OK, but there are a lot of cases where it’s not clear what to believe, because we can’t know for sure. That is exactly true. We don’t know, absolutely for sure, whether, say, new charter schools in the poorest parts of Chicago are going to be make life better for children there or whether a law requiring background checks on people who want to buy guns really will reduce the amount of killing in this country.

But there’s always at least some information that can help us make decisions about these things, and improve our chances of doing something sensible. And our job – not just my job as a journalist, but the job of all of us – is to search for the best, the most true and useful knowledge and understanding that we can, not fake facts that sound really good, like that amazing statistic about coffee.

I’m pretty sure that I’m just reminding you of something you already know. You’ve certainly heard some version of this before. This is, after all, that core value of Goshen College that President Brenneman and others have been talking about from the very first day of classes this year, repeat after me: Passionate learning.

It takes passion to sort out rumor from truth; to be willing to consider evidence that contradicts our assumptions; to spend the time searching for answers to hard questions.  It takes passion to really learn.

That’s one side of this search for what’s real. There’s a second side of this that I’d also like to talk about, and I think it’s actually a little more difficult or at least the road isn’t as clearly marked. This is not so much a search for what’s true, but what’s authentic?

And here, I think, journalists like me aren’t great role models because there’s an aspect of what I do for a living is really quite inauthentic.

I’ll try to explain this with a little thought experiment. Would you say that I’m talking to you right now? Are you hearing me? Seems like it, right?

OK, let me step away from the mic for a second. Do you hear me now? No? You can’t hear me? Obviously, you weren’t really hearing me before. You were hearing the loudspeaker, a reproduction and amplification of my voice.

You may be saying to yourself: This is kind of a silly distinction, but let’s think about this. Our real voices have limitations. I can’t talk loudly enough to fill this room. So we call in technology to help; in this case, microphones and amplifiers and loudspeakers.

But that technology changes the nature of what happens here. This is not a conversation; you can’t talk back. But at least you know that this is really me standing here, talking to you. Even if you aren’t hearing my real voice, you can be pretty sure you could, if you were close enough.  And then we could have a conversation.

OK, now let’s think about my work. People tell me, “I heard you on the radio.” But they didn’t, really. They heard a reproduction of my voice duplicated millions of times by radio speakers and ear buds in homes and cars and offices. That can’t be me, obviously. There’s only one of me.

And you know what? Most of the time, when somebody tells me that they heard me on the radio, the next thing they say is, they can’t actually remember what I was talking about. If we were talking face to face, I think they would remember.

This is what technology does. The radio or the Internet magnifies my voice incredibly, but it also changes the quality of the communication and you completely lose any sense of a personal relationship.

Now think about conversations that happen by means of your favorite screen: Your cell phone or your iPad or whatever. How authentic are those conversations or the relationships that you create through that form of communication? What are those relationships like?

How much of you gets communicated through text messages? To put it another way, how real is the version of the world that you encounter through that screen?

These are tricky questions, and I’m not even going to try to answer them today. I will just leave you with a few ideas to stimulate your own thinking.

I’m part of a church that’s small enough that we’ve never needed an amplifier. We call it House Church, even though we don’t meet in each other’s living rooms anymore. But we stick with the name, in part, I think because we want to act like we’re still meeting in houses.

I think it does make a difference that we don’t speak through loudspeakers. I have a feeling – I can’t prove it – that when we’re talking in our normal voices, the way you would around the dinner table, we’re a little less likely to say things because that’s what we’re expected to say in church. I think we’re a little more likely to say what we really think, to be authentic.

Or think about music. It’s a totally different experience, when someone is standing here singing, or there’s an orchestra playing, compared to when we’re listening to a recording. From a recording, we expect unnatural perfection; there’s no drama, no uncertainty about what might happen next.

I’m not saying stop listening to iPods or the radio. I’m not saying stop going to any church with a microphone and loudspeakers or stop looking up things on your iPad. Technology is amazing and wonderful and useful.

What I am saying is: Don’t use it to replace actual life with something that’s endlessly entertaining and always at our fingertips, but less authentic.

What I wish for you is the same as what my parents wished for me. This authenticity I’m talking about is connected to values that they treasured – values that also are at the heart of the religious tradition that built this college: humility, honesty, community.

Those are values to live by, even today – especially today.

So cook a meal. Have your neighbors over for dinner. In fact, make that dinner a regular tradition. Plant a garden. Make it a community garden. Sing a song. Play an instrument. Paint.  Use that iPad to make your own movie. Build a life that’s true and real.

Thanks for listening. And best wishes to you.

Goshen College graduate Emily Trapp, a music major from Canby, Ore., celebrates receiving her degree following the April 28 commencement service.

RELATED LINKS

• Photos of Commencement Weekend activities
• Baccalaureate sermon by Dr. James E. Brenneman (full text)
• Commencement speech by Dan Charles, NPR’s food and agriculture correspondent (full text)

Members of Goshen College’s Class of 2013 received undergraduate and graduate degrees on Sunday, April 28 after being encouraged to seek God’s love that surpasses knowledge, as well as true and authentic relationships.

The Class of 2013 consisted of 277 graduates who were awarded the following degrees: 185 Bachelor of Arts, 55 Bachelor of Science in Nursing, 21 Bachelor of Science, 14 Master of Science as family nurse practitioners and two Master of Arts in Environmental Education.

At a morning baccalaureate worship service in the college’s Church-Chapel, President James E. Brenneman delivered a sermon titled “Love in the Clouds of Unknowing,” based on Ephesians 3:16-19, in which the Apostle Paul speaks of God providing “love that surpasses knowledge.”

Although philosophers, social scientists, civil rights activists, educators and many others have described the quest for knowledge as a central goal of life, Brenneman said “love in the cloud of unknowing” can surpass knowledge as well as bridge profound differences.

“When Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies,’ it was not just a nice cliché,” Brenneman said. “Jesus sensed that until one learned to love someone who profoundly disagrees with you, you, and we, have not truly known love. Indeed, one of the best ways to learn, to grow, to know it all, is to wrestle with alternative points of view.”

Brenneman praised the graduates for their spirit of love, which he said allowed them to adjust well to college, endure separation from family members and friends, thrive despite academic adversity, sorrow and heartbreak and to give back through their donations and service to the community and the world.

“You have held newborns in Nicaragua, taught English in Cambodia, served the deaf community in Peru, held basketball camps down the street. You have learned to live lives of service and learning on every inhabitable continent on earth. By my estimation, in the four years you were here at Goshen College, all students, along with faculty, staff, and administrators, showed God’s love for others with more than 60,000 service hours per year that you were here. You, my dear students, have embodied a ‘love that surpasses knowledge.’”

Brenneman closed his sermon by encouraging the graduates to remember the central message of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 that “faith, hope and love, abide, but the greatest of these is love,” which is an enduring gift of God.

“I pray with St. Paul, and all your beloved professors, that more than any diploma presented to you … that each of you for the rest of your days may continue to receive power to know the height and depth and the breadth and the width of the love of God in Christ – a love that surpasses all knowledge.”

On April 28, under slate-gray clouds, 138 current and retired Goshen College faculty members led the graduates in a procession into the Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center for the 115th Goshen College Commencement.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, under slate-gray clouds, 138 current and retired faculty members led the graduates in a procession into the gymnasium of the Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center for the 115^th Goshen College Commencement. The Goshen College Commencement Orchestra, directed by Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun, played a prelude, a processional and recessional.

Brenneman welcomed a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered for the ceremony by describing the joy of grandparents, parents, and other family members, friends, faculty, administrators, staff and the accomplishments of the graduates the past four years.

“Our journey together has been filled with lots of hard work, late nights, poetry jams, bicycle rides, deep learning and joyful memories. We came with questions and leave with a few answered, but many more to ponder. We have prayed together, shared lots of fun, some pranks, loads of goodwill, a few severe mercies and deep sorrows,” Brenneman said. “In the end, when the last diplomas are given, when all is said and done, I hope and believe that each of us has become better individuals having encountered each other on this part of our journeys.”

Brenneman acknowledged the tragic loss of Millicent M. Morros, 48, who was killed on March 14 in downtown Goshen. She received a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership at Sunday’s ceremony and a moment of silence was observed on her behalf. Her classmates in the adult program wore pink roses in her honor.

After an invocation and the hymn, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” Brenneman introduced the commencement speaker — Dan Charles, a food and agriculture correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). Before working at NPR, Charles was an independent radio producer and writer and he has contributed articles on technology, public health, environment and education for publications including National Geographic, Science and the Washington Post.

Dan Charles, a food and agriculture correspondent for National Public Radio, addresses “Searching for what’s real in a digital world” during the 115th annual commencement at Goshen College on April 28.

In his commencement address, “Searching for what’s real in a digital world,” Charles talked about growing up in a rural Mennonite community near Lancaster, Pa., and how his life was enriched by Goshen College graduates, who have become some of his closest friends. Charles said he has developed close connections with others and enjoyed a true sense of community, but worries that young people today have a much more difficult time searching for what is true and authentic.

First, Charles, said, an increasing number of people aren’t interested in knowing whether or not what they think is true; they reject, out of hand, anything that challenges their own beliefs. They also refuse to absorb new and contradictory information.

“Our job – not just my job as a journalist, but the job of all of us – is to search for the best, the most true and useful knowledge and understanding that we can, not fake facts that sound really good,” Charles said. “It takes passion to sort out rumor from truth; to be willing to consider evidence that contradicts our assumptions; to spend the time searching for answers to hard questions. It takes passion to really learn.”

Second, Charles said, cell phones and computers have made it more difficult to have authentic communication with others and relationships based on face-to-face contact. “How much of you gets communicated through text messages? To put it another way, how real is the version of the world that you encounter through that screen?”

Charles closed his speech by cautioning the graduates against replacing actual life with something “endlessly entertaining and always at our fingertips, but less authentic” – electronic devices, like smart phones and tablet computers, and social media platforms like Facebook.

“This authenticity I’m talking about is connected to values that … are at the heart of the religious tradition that built this college: humility, honesty, community,” Charles said. “Those are values to live by, even today – especially today.

“So cook a meal. Have your neighbors over for dinner. In fact, make that dinner a regular tradition. Plant a garden; make it a community garden. Sing a song. Play an instrument. Paint. Use that iPad to make your own movie. Build a life that’s true and real.”

After Charles’ address, Director of Student Financial Aid Judy Moore, who is retiring, was recognized for her 12 years of service to the college.

The graduates then received their degrees and signed their names in the Goshen College historical book – a tradition linking them to generations of alumni.

Presiding over the conferring of degrees was President Brenneman, who congratulated graduates after Academic Dean Anita K. Stalter announced their names. Assisting in the presentation of master’s degrees were David Ostergren, director of the graduate program in environmental education, and Brenda Srof, director of the graduate program in nursing.

After the degrees were conferred, the graduates, the faculty and the audience joined in the singing of “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

Also taking part in commencement were Rick Stiffney, the chair of the Goshen College Board of Directors, who offered the invocation, and Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Regina Shands Stoltzfus, the mother of graduating social work major Rachel Maya Stoltzfus of Elkhart, who gave the benediction.

After the benediction, faculty and administrators lined the main corridor of the Recreation-Fitness Center and applauded the departing seniors. The “applause tunnel” tradition also takes place at the beginning of each academic year to welcome students back to campus. This year, graduates, family members and friends lingered outside for hugs and photographs despite a misting rain.

Represented in this year’s graduating class were students from 23 states, including 114 from Indiana, and from 20 countries.

The undergraduate class included one graduate with a triple major, 28 graduates with double majors. Thirty-four students graduated with highest honors – grade point averages of 3.9 to a perfect 4.0. In addition, 92 others were on track to achieve GPAs of 3.60 and above.

The academic program with the largest number of graduating students was nursing, which held its traditional pinning ceremony the day before commencement to recognize the 26 individuals who completed the traditional, four-year program. This year marked the 60th graduating class for the nursing program. In addition, 29 individuals were granted degrees through the Bachelor of Science in nursing degree completion program and 14 individuals got Master of Science in nursing degrees.

Other top undergraduate majors in the Class of 2013 were organizational leadership (21), biology (20), business (16), social work (14), interdisciplinary (12), elementary education/special education (12) and environmental science (11).

As in past years, many graduates took the Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility, a national program at more than 100 colleges and universities. By signing the pledge, the graduates promised to “explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.”

Graduates and faculty members planned the morning baccalaureate service. It featured an instrumental prelude on viola and piano by graduating seniors Chelsea A. Wimmer, a music major from Telford, Pa., and Emily M. Trapp, a music major from Canby, Ore.

The service began with a congregational hymn, “Here in this Place,” led by Justin N. Yoder, a music and interdisciplinary major from Perkasie, Pa., followed by a formal welcome from Alita J. Yoder, a biology major from Elkhart. After the congregational hymn, “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” senior reflections were offered by Rebecca W. Yoder, a social work major from Lancaster, Pa., and Juan Carlos Diaz, an art major from Goshen.

Following the scripture reading and President Brenneman’s sermon, a cello quartet and vocal ensemble of 24 graduates performed “The Seed that Lands on Fertile Ground,” which was composed by Levi Smucker, a music major from Akron, Pa., with text by Justin Yoder. Its moving refrain featured the words: “How wide, how deep, how high, how long; may the roots that nourish and anchor hold strong; and may love bloom boldly in a world of wrong; wherever the Spirit may blow, let seeds of hope grow, as we journey along.”

The baccalaureate service concluded with a prayer of blessing by Minister of Worship Gwen Gustafson-Zook, a congregational sending song, “You Shall Go Out with Joy,” and a benediction by Alita Yoder.

Other events during the busy weekend at Goshen College included a senior program, which showcased the talent of the Class of 2013, a senior art exhibit, academic department receptions for graduates and their families, a reception for adult programs and an evening reception hosted by President Brenneman and his wife, Dr. Terri J. Plank Brenneman.

CLASS OF 2013 HIGHLIGHTS
Total number of graduates: 277
Number by category: 14 candidates for Master of Science degrees, 2 candidates for Master of Arts degrees, 185 candidates for Bachelor of Arts degrees, 55 candidates for Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees; and 21 candidates for Bachelor of Science degrees
Number of double majors: 28
Number of triple majors: 1
Number of students graduating with highest honors — grade point averages of 3.9 to a perfect 4.0 (based on grades as of December 2012): 34
Number of students graduating with GPAs of 3.60 and above (based on grades as of December 2011): 92
Number of states represented in this year’s graduating class: 23
Number from Indiana: 114
Number of countries represented (other than U.S.): 20
Number of undergraduates by top programs of study: nursing, 55; organizational leadership, 21; biology, 20; business, 16; social work, 14; interdisciplinary, 12; elementary education/special education, 12; environmental science, 11; art, 10, Bible and religion, 10; molecular biology/biochemistry, 10.

— Written by Richard R. Aguirre

All events are open to the public and are free unless otherwise noted.

5              2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Juried Student Art Show reception, Music Center’s Hershberger Art Gallery

Any student who has taken an art class during the past year is eligible to submit work to be selected for this exhibit. Awards and a raffle drawing will take place at 3:30 p.m.

5               4 p.m., Community School of the Arts Showcase Concert, Music Center’s Sauder Concert hall

Two Community School of the Arts (CSA) children’s choirs will perform as part of the spring CSA Showcase Concert. Performing are Rejoice Children’s Choir (grades 3-5), directed by Kristin Kauffman, and Shout for Joy Children’s Choir (grades 6-8), directed by Sandy Hill.
Tickets: $7 adults, $5 senior/students, available at the door one hour before the concert. GC students/faculty/staff free with ID.

6              9:40 a.m., Convocation: “Breaking Down Barriers: The Journeys of the Apostle Paul,” College Church-Chapel

This 30-minute documentary was filmed and produced by Goshen College students in conjunction with FiveCore Media, and takes viewers through the journey of Apostle Paul as he broke down barriers to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hear about student experiences during the filming in May 2012.

19             7 p.m., Youth Honors Orchestra Concert, Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall

The Elkhart County Youth Honors Symphony Orchestra (grades 9-12), conducted by Goshen College Assistant Professor of Music Christopher Fashun; and the Concert Orchestra (grades 7-9), conducted by Katelyn Truscello, will perform their spring concert. Tickets are $7 adults, $5 seniors/students. Goshen College faculty/staff/students are free with valid ID. Tickets available at the door one hour before the concert

JUNE

2              African Art Exhibit opens, Music Center’s Hershberger Art Gallery

Keith and Ann Graber Miller, owners of Found Gallery, will display works that will consist of parts of Found’s African Collection, which includes mostly West African masks, bronzes, beaded sashes, indigenous mud cloths, Kuba cloths and Kente fabrics, and wooden sculptures. The pieces are mostly from the 1930s through the 1980s, with some made for tribal use and some for trade.
Reception: Sunday, Sept. 22, 2-3:30 p.m. The exhibit will end on Sept. 22.

Goshen College’s Administration Building, Church-Chapel, Good Library, Music Center, Newcomer Center and Umble Center are accessible to people using wheelchairs and others with physical limitations.

Directions to the college and a campus map are available at: www.goshen.edu/aboutgc/map. For ticket information, contact the Welcome Center, at (574) 535-7566, or email welcomecenter@goshen.edu.

The Goshen College Symphony Orchestra (GCSO) will present a concert of orchestral works by American composers in their spring concert, on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall.

The GCSO, conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Dr. Christopher Fashun, will present an “All-American” program, featuring performances of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness’ Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, Op. 128, and Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2, Op. 30 (“Romantic”).

The ensemble will also celebrate the 90^th birthday of Goshen College Professor of Music Emeritus Mary Oyer with a performance of William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama, a piece specially selected for Dr. Oyer by Fashun. Birthday cake for all concert attendees will be served following the concert in the Music Center lobby.

Tickets cost $7 for adults and $5 for seniors/students, and are available at the door one hour before the concert. Goshen College students, faculty and staff are free with valid ID.

Fashun, DMA, also directs the Lavender Jazz Ensemble, oversees the music education program, conducts the orchestras for musicals and opera and teaches applied percussion. In 2011, he became the music director of the Elkhart County Honors Youth Orchestra where he has the opportunity to work with talented high school musicians throughout Elkhart County. Fashun holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and received his Master of Music degree in percussion performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Iowa where he studied conducting with William LaRue Jones and viola with Christine Rutledge.