Diverse group of graduate students begin at Merry Lea

GOSHEN, Ind. – Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College welcomed its second cohort of master's students in environmental education on July 6. Students from three countries began their 11-month program with a guided tour of the 1,189-acre property where most of them will live as well as study.

Merry Lea's faculty designed the master's program to take maximum advantage of the nature center's ecologically diverse land base, strong K-12 program and experienced faculty. Students begin their year with a natural history course taught primarily outdoors and earn practicum credit by teaching school groups that come to Merry Lea. They also study leadership, land management, pedagogy, research methods and environmental issues.

If someone charted the varied paths that brought Merry Lea's 2009-10 cohort together in Wolf Lake, Ind., it would require a world map and many colors of markers.

Hannah Miller, who spent the last eight years studying Chinese and teaching in Shanghai, China, has travelled the greatest distance to study at Merry Lea – in more ways than one. Miller's former city is home to 20 million people and says she is still adjusting to a setting with swamps instead of streetlights and frog calls instead of traffic. A "city kid" all her life, Miller hopes to do environmental education with youth in urban settings. "It's hard to see the effect you are having on the environment when you live in a city," she observed.

Robert Puster is a personal chef by trade, with roots in the deep South. He plans to focus his graduate research around food so that he will be able to educate his industry regarding its impact on the environment. "Chefs are not taught green aspects of food preparation," Puster explained. "I was told to thaw a leg of lamb by running water over it for four hours."

The upper Midwest is home to Laell Schulte, who has a background in wildlife management. Schulte says she grew weary of tracking woodpeckers and other research projects. Her vocation was reborn when she stumbled into a job as a park ranger and discovered how satisfying it was to share her interests in nature with others. Now, Schulte is at Merry Lea, hoping to strengthen her skills as an educator.

Jennifer Amstutz, of Geneva, Ind., is a sixth grade teacher taking a year-long sabbatical from her school in Ossian, Ind. Amstutz watched a large nature preserve behind her school languish due to loss of funding. She came to Merry Lea partly to learn how to make the most of this untapped resource. She envisions units where children learn math and science while interacting with the natural world.

Bethany Testa-Avilla has an undergraduate degree in visual and public art with a concentration in museum studies. As a California native, Testa-Avilla is new to Midwest ecosystems and looks forward to experiencing thunderstorms and snow, as well as preparing curriculum for a camp setting.

Several students say that their desire to integrate their Christian faith with their love for the earth brought them to Merry Lea. In particular, Kathy Shantz, of Waterloo, Ontario, and Maddie King, of Lynchburg, Va., look forward to the faith-based components of the program.

LaToyia Gilbert, of Gary, Ind., works with youth in an inner-city ministry she and her husband founded. She discovered that taking kids to camp was one of her favorite things to do. "I saw the way the kids came back changed when they visited the outdoors," Gilbert said. "God has put me in this position to get kids thinking about the environment."

Carol Good-Elliott, of Goshen, Ind., is also pursuing a master's degree through the program. Good-Elliott works at Merry Lea as an environmental educator.

Annually, 7,000 students participate in a wide variety of environmental education programs at Merry Lea, which is located near Wolf Lake, Ind. It is among the best-assembled land preserves in Indiana and contains a diverse group of Indiana ecosystems. The preserve contains a wonderful complex of wetlands, bogs, lakeshores, upland and lowland forests, prairies and meadows.

In April 2006, Merry Lea dedicated the first phase of Rieth Village, a cluster of three earth-friendly buildings which are Indiana's first to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system's highest standard. The facilities demonstrate Merry Lea's commitment to sustainable green architecture and will provide an ideal setting for undergraduate and graduate ecological field studies.

For more information about Goshen College's Master of Arts in Environmental Education program, visit www.goshen.edu/merrylea/graduate.

– By Jennifer Schrock

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.