Benjamin Kelly, a senior at Goshen College, won the first Spectrum Award in the college’s history. Kelly was also a finalist in the category for Best Sports Reporting. (Photo courtesy of the Indiana Broadcasting Association)

The Goshen College Communication Department’s award shelf keeps getting fuller as broadcasting and journalism students recently received top prizes in several state and national competitions.

Indiana Broadcasters Association Spectrum Award

In November, staff from Goshen’s on campus radio station, 91.1 The Globe (WGCS), attended the 25th Annual Indiana Broadcasters Association Spectrum Awards and Hall of Fame Banquet in Indianapolis, which honors the best in Indiana broadcasting. Senior broadcasting major Benjamin Kelly, from Lagrange, Ind., came away with the first Spectrum Award a Goshen College student has won. He received the award in the category of Best Documentary for his “Leaf Legends” piece profiling the volunteer work of professor emeritus, John Ingold. In addition, Kelly was a finalist in the category for Best Sportscast.

“This is especially gratifying for WGCS as only one other non-commercial radio station was honored at the award ceremony,” said Jason Samuel, the station’s general manager.

First place in College Broadcasters Incorporated’s national production awards
As well, the College Broadcasters Incorporated held its national conference in Atlanta in October and Goshen College received four national production awards nominations:

• Best Radio DJ and Best News Reporting: Senior Kelsey Morris, a broadcasting major from Goshen;
• Best Sports Reporting: Kelly and senior Ian Shelly, a broadcasting major from Marcellus, Mich.;
• Best Newscast: sophomore Danielle Kerschhackl, a broadcasting major from Elmwood Park, Ill.

Kelly and Shelly won the award for Best Sports Reporting for their “Maple Leaf Sports Report.”

Hoosier State Press Association

The Hoosier State Press Association awarded senior Bojana Jankova, a public relations major from Macedonia, a second place for best feature writing among collegiate journalists in 2012.

The award was announced at the Hoosier State Press Association’s awards luncheon in Indianapolis on Dec. 1. Jankova’s award came for a feature story published in The Goshen College Record last spring: “Undocumented immigrant shares her story on stage.”

The annual Hoosier State Press Association contest invites entrants from all colleges and universities across the state, who compete for three places in five categories. Other winning entrants came from Ball State University, DePauw University, Indiana University, Purdue University, Taylor University and the University of Indianapolis.

Thessaloniki, Greece

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College Campus Pastor Bob Yoder remembers how his life was significantly changed by a semester spent in the Middle East during college, when the “Bible came alive” for him. He hopes the same will be true for his students as he helps lead one of two classes spending 20 days during May term traveling together through Greece and Rome, tracing the footsteps of the Apostle Paul. Both classes will be engaging the same material and going to the same places, but have different objectives.

One group is a Bible class of 33 students led by Yoder and Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller. Their focus is following Paul’s second missionary journey in Greece as described in Acts 16-18 and exploring the issues of the various religious communities he influenced and the various books of the Bible associated with those churches. They will conclude in Rome where Paul spent his final earthly days and the study of the book of Romans.

Students also will engage three very different ways of expressing Christian faith, though all are descendents of Paul’s work: Eastern Greek Orthodox Church, Roman Catholicism and the Evangelical church movement, Yoder said. The students will have the opportunity to visit Thessaloniki, Philippi, Berea, Vergina, Mt. Olympus, Meteora, Delphi, Athens, Corinth, Florence and Rome.

“One of my hopes is that we learn lessons about how to cross boundaries in our faith setting, like Paul was engaged in,” Yoder said. “That’s one of the reasons Paul is a hero for me.”

Thessaloniki, Greece

Group times will include worship, reflection and sharing insights from various small group projects and assignments. There will also be times throughout the course where students will be encouraged to individually reflect, pray, read and journal.

“Gaining insight into the faith, spirituality and mission of the Apostle Paul will hopefully strengthen students’ individual faith journeys,” Yoder said. “Another hope is that the Scriptures will come alive for students as they experience the various historical places in Greece and Rome.”

The second group traveling is a broadcasting class of nine students led by Assistant Professor of Communication Seth Conley and Assistant Professor of Communication Kyle Hufford. They are working on producing a documentary examining the ways one of the most influential figures in the Christian Church dealt with cultural, religious, physical and personal boundaries, and how he “bridged the gap.” They are providing the writing, photos and videos on the blog (http://blog.goshen.edu/journeysofpaul).

The crew is traveling with 128-plus pounds of video equipment, including three cameras. “The classes will be taking different approaches in digesting the material and experiences,” Conley said. “We will be asking, ‘how do we tell a great story?’ We will be ingesting the experience and then sharing it with people who can’t be with us.”

The class films an interview with tour guide David Sparks.

Students will be rotating between different roles to gain experience in producing, directing, filming, lighting and audio engineering.

“Along the way, our team will be chronicling not only what we learn about history but also about what Christ is teaching us personally during this journey,” said Conley. “Students don’t always make the connection between broadcasting and their faith, so when this opportunity arose, I wanted to take advantage of it.”

Yoder is pleased that the trip includes both classes with different objectives, and believes that they will enhance each others’ learning. “I see this as an example of the kind of interdisciplinary learning we focus on here at Goshen College,” he said.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College Assistant Director of Public Relations 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.