To learn more about and order copies of the reports, contact Goshen College’s Center for Intercultural Teaching & Learning at (574) 535-7800, or visit their website at www.goshen.edu/citl. Reports can be purchased for $10 per volume, or for $20 for all three volumes.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Goshen College’s Institute for Latino Educational Achievement, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, published a three-volume series of research reports, titled “Latinos in Northern Indiana,” during the spring of 2011. The reports assess the educational experiences of local Latinos and provide recommendations for improvement.

The research shows a rapid growth of the local Latino population over the past 20 years, though the source of the growth isn’t from immigration; it is from births in the United States.

During a press conference to announce the publication of the reports, Associate Director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies Allert Brown-Gort said, “We need to work on how we integrate these young people and how we make them part of Indiana’s future. We cannot do well unless they do well.”

Many local Latinos have low incomes along with low high school graduation rates and high poverty rates. According to the research, they are generally welcomed and comfortable in schools, but foreign-born students face more social difficulties than those born in the United States.

The report includes several recommendations: better cultural awareness (cultural knowledge and bilingual counselors and teachers), more guidance in college preparation and peer-support programs for parents.

Robert Reyes, director of research for Goshen’s Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning, said, “We are responding to one of the greatest social problems of our time – the challenge of education inequality in America.”

Reyes described the reports as written in a qualitative manner, using stories and quotes to bring the research to life. The first volume, “A Demographic Profile,” examines the recent demographic surge of the Latino population in St. Joseph, Noble and Elkhart counties in North Central Indiana. The second volume, “A Historical Account of Their Settlement 1990-2009,” describes the settlement and adjustment experiences of Latinos in the four cities of South Bend, Elkhart, Goshen and Ligonier. The third volume, “Educational Challenges and Opportunities,” assesses how Latino immigrant students and parents experience the educational systems in North Central Indiana.

Brown-Gort said that he hopes people beyond the academic setting will use the information. “They’re not academic documents; they’re not meant to be stored in a library,” he said. “They’re really meant for working decision makers at all levels from the local to the state and, not only in government, in business also.”

– By Alysha Landis

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.

GOSHEN, Ind. – An “exciting new chapter” has begun at Goshen College, according to the college’s President James E. Brenneman on March 24 as he launched three institutes, all focused on the college’s distinctive academic strengths as they relate to faith.

“Today, I’m pleased to formally announce the creation and launch at Goshen College of the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, the Institute for Ecological Regeneration and the Institute for Latino Educational Achievement,” said Brenneman at a gathering on campus. “Naming these distinctive programs as identifiable institutes will make explicit the quality of our academic work and I believe these institutes will enhance our vision of becoming a truly interdisciplinary, integrative liberal arts college.”

Academic Dean Anita Stalter added, “An institute is a place of study, reflection, analysis and education. The focus of each institute will be achieved by conducting and collaborating on research, delivering academic programming, and sharing what is learned with others.”

Institute for Ecological Regeneration

The Institute for Ecological Regeneration, under the umbrella of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, “will be committed to bringing renewal and vitality to ecosystems through research and education,” said Luke Gascho, executive director of Merry Lea and director of the institute. “Humankind is part of – not separate from – local, regional, national and global ecosystems. Humans have adversely impacted many natural systems — necessitating the call for transformative practices. The institute will study natural history, biotic and abiotic systems and the intersecting human dynamics. The institute will use the best investigative techniques and apply imagination to achieve an improved care and stewardship of creation. Principles of faith and shalom will guide the choice of actions to bring regeneration to ecological issues.”

The projects and programs of the institute will be designed on the integration of four core themes: land, community, faith and peace. “The intersection of these four themes will create a powerful synergy,” Gascho said. Conducting research, maintaining field collections and data, delivering formal academic courses, hosting symposia and disseminating learnings through various media to an array of publics will achieve the goals of the institute.

“The institute provides a context for studying, integrating and applying the interdisciplinary constructs of resilience of the land, responsibilities of people in community, and commitments to peace and justice,” Gascho said.

The current and planned programs of the institute include the agroecology summer intensive and a sustainability semester in residence for undergraduate students, a master’s in environmental education, and conferences and symposia on topics of ecological stewardship. Undergraduate and graduate students will have direct involvement in the goals of the institute through various research projects.

For more information about the Institute for Ecological Regeneration, visit www.goshen.edu/institutes/eco. Questions about the Institute for Ecological Regeneration can be directed to Dr. Luke Gascho: (260) 799-5869; lukeag@goshen.edu

Institute for Latino Educational Achievement

The Institute for Latino Educational Achievement is the research arm of the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Goshen College. The research agenda of the institute is focused on factors that impact the academic success of Latino students in higher education settings, particularly in small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest.

“Findings from research will be used to improve educational practices at Goshen College that impact the academic success of Latino students,” said Rebecca Hernandez, director for CITL and the institute. “Improving the educational success of Latino students is a relevant issue locally, regionally and globally. The Latino population continues to grow across the United States and it is imperative that the factors leading to their academic achievement be both identified and put into practice in higher education institutions.”

The current and planned research of the institute includes a three-part series titled “Latinos in Northern Indiana”; research on faculty and students of color in the Council of Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU); and community, schools and families action research. Undergraduate students, along with faculty and visiting research fellows, will participate in the institute’s research agenda.

For more information about the Institute for Latino Educational Achievement, visit www.goshen.edu/institutes/latino. Questions about the Institute for Latino Educational Achievement can be directed to Dr. Rebecca Hernandez: (574) 535-7775; rhernandez@goshen.edu

Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism

In recent decades, the most dramatic growth in the Anabaptist-Mennonite family of faith — as in the Christian church more generally — has occurred in countries outside of Europe and North America. There are 1.7 million Anabaptist-Mennonites in the world, representing 227 groups in 83 countries. “From the perspective of five centuries of Anabaptist history, this is a phenomenal development that is transforming the character and future of the tradition,” said John D. Roth, director of the Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen College Professor of History and director of the new Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism. “Mennonites in North America are vaguely aware of this transformation, but we have not been clear about the details of what is unfolding or about its larger significance and meaning.”

The institute – a program of the college’s Mennonite Historical Library (MHL), one of the world’s most comprehensive collections related to Anabaptist and Mennonite history– will build on a rich tradition at Goshen College of Anabaptist-Mennonite studies, the unique oncampus resources of the Mennonite Church USA Archives and the expertise of faculty. The institute will help to nurture a new generation of scholarship and exchange explicitly oriented to the global Anabaptist church. “The institute will serve as a visible and vibrant point of intersection between Goshen College students, Mennonite Church USA, the worldwide Anabaptist communion and the rapidly expanding global Christian church,” Roth said.

The current and planned research of the institute includes the Global Anabaptist Wikipedia, a Global Anabaptist History publication series and participation in the Multi-Nation Anabaptist Profile. The current and planned programs of the institute includes regular conferences, international partnerships with Anabaptist Study Centers, visiting scholars and church leaders and hosting of global church partners. Each year, the institute will identify a Goshen College international student who is associated with a Mennonite church to serve as a student intern or research assistant, as well as offering other student research opportunities.

For more information about the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism, visit www.goshen.edu/institutes/anabaptism. Questions about the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism can be directed to Dr. John D. Roth: (574) 535-7433; johndr@goshen.edu

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 collegeÕ’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.

GOSHEN, Ind. – Sometimes you don’t have to travel thousands of miles in an airplane over oceans to truly encounter another culture. Sometimes you just have to cross the street.

This summer, Goshen College students are participating in the 40-plus year old program Study-Service Term (SST) in Senegal, Peru, Nicaragua – and Northern Indiana. Four college students are participating in the Goshen College Latino Studies Semester in Northern Indiana, the first domestic SST location.

Ana Juarez, the director for the program, said that all four students grew up around here and this is “changing their perspectives on their community, even though it is the same place.”

Sophomore Jair Hernandez, who grew up in Goshen, said, “This program wasn’t set up to be a complete immersion. The purpose is to study a culture that is trying to integrate here. It has opened my eyes to things I wasn’t aware of before. Now I have a different perspective.”

Similar to other SST locations in places that have “significantly different” cultures, the students are studying another language, in this case Spanish. Two of the students are beginners and are learning conversational skills. The more advanced students are learning professional skills, as well as research and literature. In addition, students write weekly journal entries and work on papers and projects.

Junior Ivette Sifuentes, from Elkhart, said that she is enjoying the Spanish classes, the first she has taken as Spanish is her first language. Her teacher is correcting her grammar and helping her not to speak in Spanglish, a mixture of English and Spanish that she grew up with.

Though Hernandez and Sifuentes, as Latino students themselves, are much more familiar with the culture that they are studying this summer, “they are learning their own culture in a different way and have more appreciation for their own culture,” Juarez said. “They are learning more the reasons why different groups immigrated, as well as what people and organizations are already doing.”

Part of that learning comes from regular field trips, guest speakers and cultural events. One month the group met the Fort Wayne Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, attended a quinceanera (a 15-year-old Latina girl’s birthday party) in Michigan, toured Latino businesses in Goshen, explored Chicago’s Mexican and Puerto Rican neighborhoods, participated in an immigration rally in Indianapolis, watched folklorico dancers, heard about the immigration system from different perspectives, and traveled to Toledo, Ohio, to volunteer at a migrant workers camp.

Juarez said she is trying to introduce the students to three distinct groups of Latinos near Northern Indiana: the group in Michiana who are mostly newcomers working in the manufacturing sector, another being the long-term Latino communities with established organizations in urban Chicago, and the last being migrant workers in agricultural settings.

Like students in other study abroad locations, the students in Goshen are paired up with host families, though they meet with them weekly instead of live with them. Senior Kellyn Yoder sometimes goes shopping with her host family and is helping them paint in their new house. “It helps me put a face on the immigration issue,” she said, as she has talked with them about the possible effects of the recent changes in Arizona’s immigration laws.

In addition, the students have the opportunity to do service throughout the three-month program in a position that fits their interests. Hernandez is interested in community organizing and is working to get more Latinos involved with neighborhood associations through his service assignment with La Casa. Though he had “really wanted” to go abroad during college, he ended up deciding that he would rather “help people here where I am from.”

Yoder, an English major, is teaching English and citizenship classes at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Goshen. “The program offers opportunities to be more immersed than I was before,” she said. “This has been really good. I am more involved in the community now and know so much more about this place I grew up in.”

Sifuentes is translating for patients at the Center for Healing and Hope health clinic in Goshen. “I am learning more about the Latino community in Goshen,” she said. “We are going to a deeper level with people and I am seeing needs in the community and what people have to offer. … I have gained a sense of more responsibility [for my community]. As I see needs, I feel more responsible.”

Sophomore Chris Ballge is doing his service assignment at the San Jose Carniceria, where he has opportunities to interact a lot in Spanish with his coworkers and he hears customers speaking the language frequently while he shelves and stocks groceries. He had wanted to study abroad in Peru for a college cross-cultural immersion experience, but he has a family and is very involved in his church, so he couldn’t leave for three months.

Since 1968, when Goshen College was one of the first colleges in the country to require international education to graduate and began the unique semester-long SST, the college also has had the option for students unable to travel abroad – often due to life circumstances and commitments – to fulfill the requirement by taking related elective, on-campus courses. Approximately 20 percent of students take the alternative courses, which are taken when their schedule permits and are spread out over several academic years.

The impetus for the development of a domestic SST location was funding designated in the 2006 Lilly Endowment grant for the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL), which was created to serve the educational needs of a rapidly increasing Latino immigrant population. Minority enrollment in Northern Indiana schools – particularly of Latino students – has grown dramatically in the last 20 years.

– by Jodi H. Beyeler

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.

GOSHEN, Ind. – This summer, 21 incoming U.S. Latino, African American, Asian American and Native American college students participated in the Goshen College Summer Academic Leadership Training (SALT) program – sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL) at Goshen College to help first-year students successfully transition from high school to college.

Throughout the three-week program, from June 14 to July 3, students lived on campus and took either a speech or writing class. In the process, students received three academic credit hours.

During the program, Suzanne Ehst, academic counselor at Goshen College and academic coordinator for SALT, saw an intellectual growth that she believes will help the students as they begin classes in the fall. “I’ve seen students grow in their intellectual independence,” she said. “In the first week, students seemed most comfortable when every detail of an assignment was clearly spelled out. … [Now] I see students taking more intellectual risks, forming opinions about complex subjects. … If they can carry this disposition into the academic year, they will have an excellent start to their college careers.”

Jair Hernandez, a student from Goshen who participated in the program, also believes the academic portion of the program was a helpful preparation. “As far as transitioning to college, the most helpful part has to be going to class, because the difference in the amount of work needed for a high school class and a college class is very different and this program showed me that,” he said.

To be eligible for the program, students had to be on track to graduate from high school last spring, admitted to Goshen College in the fall as a full-time, first-semester incoming student and be a member of a minority group historically underrepresented in higher education.

After class in the morning, students participated in an afternoon peer-led study session. Two teacher’s assistants were hired for each class to help students with assignments and give updates to the professors on the progress of each student. “Our hope is that by requiring this study time, we’re fostering habits that will spill over into the academic year: get your work done before you play, and don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Ehst said.

In addition to the class and study sessions, a not-for-credit math lab was an option for students to gain confidence in mathematics and to understand its relevance outside the classroom.

To enrich the curriculum, the group took field trips to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, the Mexican Arts Museum in Chicago, and to Indianapolis. The trips were structured to strengthen the ethnic identity component of the program.

While SALT was first an academic program – giving students a glimpse into the discipline to succeed in college – there was also a community-building aspect that gave students the ability to make connections with peers and others around campus.

“I was always excited to come to GC, but living here for three weeks has shown me how cool the people here are in terms of their outlook toward strangers,” Hernandez said.

Three resident assistants, including Edgar Saucedo-Davila, a sophomore, Rocio Diaz, a senior, and Jeremy Pope, a junior, with resident director Chad Coleman, worked on the community life staff. “I have really enjoyed observing and interacting with the students involved,” said Coleman. “They are energetic and really have embraced the experience more so than I could have ever imagined. Three weeks isn’t a lot of time to acclimate yourself, but they did so within the first two days of the program.”

Although the program focuses on current students, a research component through the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning aims to create the best possible bridge program for future students at Goshen and at similar colleges. Throughout the program, students were interviewed and their experience will be assessed to see what changes can make the program even more effective. The study will also track student progress throughout their time at Goshen.

In the future, Director of Multicultural Affairs Odelet Nance says Goshen College hopes to have similar transitional and pre-college programs for other students, such as first generation and international students. “I believe this program will be the start of some really great initiatives,” Nance said.

But ultimately the program is about the students. “We believe these students have academic and leadership gifts to offer Goshen College,” Nance said. “And we are excited about them returning in the fall.”

–By Tyler Falk

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.

Dr. James E. Brenneman, president of Goshen College, announced creation of the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning at Goshen College. Lilly Endowment Inc. will fund the new center with a $12.5 million grant – the largest single grant Goshen College has ever received – which will focus on three areas: researching the resources and challenges that changing demographics bring to a rural Midwest community and to higher education, creating an intercultural learning environment to benefit all students and strengthening current efforts in recruiting and retaining regional Latino and other minority students.

The new center will build on the college’s historic academic strengths, core values and its experience in international education and extend these more intentionally to the increasingly diverse local community and the world of higher education.

“The exponential power of this grant and program is for the research and information to be shared on the national stage,” President Brenneman said in announcing the gift. “Goshen College is excited about creating additional opportunities to better partner with students able to succeed in college if given the opportunity. We are determined to make this program successful, and the gift from Lilly Endowment Inc. will help us create a brighter future for this diverse community.”

President Brenneman added, “While this new venture represents a bold step for Goshen College, we will continue to honor our values, tradition and mission as a Mennonite institution of academic excellence while we serve all students from this region and beyond.”

The Endowment offered Goshen College the opportunity to dream about a truly transformative program for their campus. Goshen College suggested to the Endowment this visionary plan of creating a center that addresses the needs of the college, the community and higher education. The program is a faith response of an educational institution whose roots are firmly planted in the Christian tradition, which calls for welcoming newcomers in their midst.

“From our colleagues in education and community development around the state, we hear time and time again of their desires to engage new immigrant populations in higher education and community life,” said Sara B. Cobb, Endowment vice president for education. “With its tenet of welcoming the newcomer and its legacy of excellence in education and community service, Goshen College is well suited to launch this new center. It will benefit not only Goshen students and communities in Northern Indiana, but through research and dissemination efforts it also should help colleges and communities throughout the country in enhancing their efforts to reach out to Latino and other minority students.”

Minority enrollment in Northern Indiana schools has grown dramatically. For example, in Goshen Public Schools it has grown fivefold – from 8 percent to 41 percent – since 1990. Statewide, research shows (National Center for Education Statistics) minority enrollment in Indiana’s public schools has grown almost 9 percent in that same period. But minority enrollment in Indiana’s colleges has increased only 2 percent during the same time.

Latinos and other minorities have been drawn to areas such as Northern Indiana by increased employment opportunities in industry and agriculture. Other Midwest communities with small liberal arts colleges have large and growing Latino populations.

Plans call for the new center to be created early next year and include hiring a staff, establishing scholarships, recruiting a minority cohort for enrollment in the fall of 2007, providing cultural programming for the campus, addressing student support services, reaching into the local Latino community and offering opportunities for current faculty to learn Spanish. Other possibilities include collaborative faculty-student research, a “bridge” program to assist minority students in preparation for college, partnerships with other colleges and universities and the local public schools, recruitment of Latino and other minority faculty and assessment of the college’s academic curriculum.

As part of its commitment to educational excellence, Goshen College launched in 1968 a pioneer study abroad program called Study-Service Term (SST). Since then, this program has transformed the college’s educational curriculum, the campus culture and the lives of its students and alumni. Through SST, about 80 percent of Goshen students spend a semester abroad in a developing nation immersing themselves in the country’s language and culture, and performing volunteer service. Goshen was one of the first colleges in the nation to require an international education component in its curriculum, and it is the college’s experience with this program that is the foundation for the new center.

“Given recent trends in regional demographic cultural growth, bringing the institutional vision of global citizenship closer to home makes sense at this time,” said President Brenneman.