Top Goshen College stories of 2020

2020 marked one of the most unusual years in Goshen College’s 125-year history. The top stories of 2020 reflect new ways of learning, reasons for celebration, noteworthy achievements and more.

Read them here:

 

• Stories from the pandemic:

  
  COVID-19 changed the way we did a lot of things. Here are some stories that illustrate how students and faculty got creative this year.

  • Students connect to the classroom from around the globe
  • Fall mainstage goes interactive with Cymbeline: Interrupted
  • Goshen College, ever singing: The show will go on, virtually
  • ‘Walking in the World’ class takes on new meaning for students in quarantine
  • Scattered around the world, astronomy students measure its circumference
  • Virtual Interpreting: Sign language seniors regroup after COVID-19
  • ‘GC Talks’ series provide virtual lectures and webinars 
  • Pandemic doesn’t stop International Student Club from raising funds, distributing scholarships

• GC offers new majors in public health, criminal justice and restorative justice

  

  Visiting professor Brianne Brenneman holds a public health class outdoors in August.

  As the world changes, GC is on the front foot in preparing graduates to go out into the world to make a difference.

• Goshen College’s refreshed brand emphasizes ‘where everything connects’

  
  This year we embarked on a journey to refresh our brand. After listening to you – alumni, current students, employees, prospective students and community members – we heard that Goshen College is a place where connections are made: personal, social, intellectual, spiritual and professional.

• New Center for Communication Studies opens in Newcomer Center

  
  This fall the new Center for Communication Studies opened, bringing together all communication department extracurriculars － WGCS, Globe TV and The Record － in a new home in the west wing of the Newcomer Center.

• Rankings and awards continue to highlight GC’s strengths

  • Goshen College remains in top 10 Midwest colleges in U.S. News & World Report rankings
  • GC ranked #1 in Indiana and #5 nationally by Washington Monthly magazine
  • Student Newspaper of the Year for the third year running
  • Sixth state title as “Radio School of the Year”
  • Five national first-place radio awards and a finalist for this prestigious Pinnacle Award.

• Doctor of Nursing Practice program celebrates its first graduates

  The first graduates from GC’s first doctoral programs received their degrees this year. Meet these leaders in the medical field.

• Goshen College receives $1.2 million in grants from Lilly Endowment Inc. and Community Foundation of Elkhart County for community engaged learning
  

  This year we received a Phase Two Charting the Future grant worth $1 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to be used toward developing a new centralized Office for Community Engaged Learning to further strengthen our student experience and to reach a wider student base, including adult learners, in the community.

• GC leads in the community

  • Goshen College and local leaders meet for virtual community summit on anti-racism and community safety
  • Goshen College leads coronavirus initiative for Latino community

• GC celebrates its quasquicentennial: 125 years 

  

  • Goshen College sees strong growth in gifts and donors during 125th year
  • Seeing purple: Campus leaders dye hair to raise funds

• This year we said farewell to several beloved people in the GC community:

  

  • Goshen College mourns passing of assistant baseball coach Doug Wellenreiter
  • Anna Bowman, retired social work professor and a founder of women’s studies program, dies at 90
  • Albert Meyer, former physics professor and advocate for Mennonite education, dies at 90
  • Nick Lindsay, former assistant professor of English, dies at 92