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About this blog:
Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus offers regular and intimate reflections on campus, interesting people she’s met, conversations she’s part of and higher education today.
President Rebecca J. Stoltzfus, a 1983 Goshen College graduate, became president in 2017 after 15 years as a human nutrition scholar and administrator at Cornell University.
Email her: [email protected]
In 1983, when I was a student at GC, I wrote my senior paper on the topic of gender. That was three years after Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin overthrew their male boss in the movie "9 to…
In the midst of the heartbreak, tensions and tedium of the pandemic, I am alert to the changes happening within myself and in our society that may form the lasting legacies of this time. Some of these are causes for…
The past year has, among other things, made me question how well I know my country and its foundations.
The word I’ve kept circling back to is “Grounded.” 2020 knocked me around. I want to stand this year with two feet on the ground, knees slightly bent. I want to feel the earth supporting me; to know the firm…
I am in need of a Sabbath Christmas. Maybe you are too. Here is my wish for all of us in this December of 2020.
I am tired of the armor of masks and physical distancing. I want the armor of light! Our dark ordeal fuels an Advent longing further intensified by our many constraints. We simply cannot do the many things that we want…
This afternoon I do not want to write about cultural divisions, social injustice, the pandemic or even Goshen College. I want to tell you about a man and an octopus.
I refuse to succumb to the temptation to hitch my wagon to this political season and its outcome. I refuse, but honestly I struggle. As emotions swirl and fear about the outcome — or unclear outcome — rises, how do…
How do we work with our anger in ways that are non-addictive, non-violent and even fruitful?
I thought to myself: If we must live through this ordeal (and indeed, we must), this is the community I want to be a part of.
At a time when threats to the life and people we love seem overwhelming and out of control, it is essential that we focus on those things that matter most, and those things that we can control. Our imagination is…
I’m writing on Pentecost Sunday, filled with powerful images of breath and fire. I think of 100,000 people (and many more) who ceased to breathe. And one unarmed black man named George Floyd, who could not breathe under the weight…
Teaching through this transition has been one great act of love on the part of Goshen’s faculty. Last week I reached out to a few of those involved in this massive undertaking and asked them to convey something of their experiences…
Goshen College graduate Christian Yoder ’80 is one of many GC alumni turning his efforts toward medical and public health solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic. I recently sent him some questions. Here are some of his thoughts about what we…
The most powerful ways to disarm our fear are spiritual. Christianity offers us tried and true practices such as prayer, contemplation, singing and approaches to Scripture that, when practiced deeply, move us into a strongly felt sense of love. People…
We can’t skip the stages of grief, but we can be kind to ourselves and one another as we flow through them — sometimes in waves and loops.
I keep a sticky note on my computer monitor with my personal checklist. It’s a reminder, especially when I am stressed or overwhelmed, to go through my checklist, take stock of these dimensions of myself, and to devote attention and…
With all of the recent changes on our college campus due to COVID-19, I wanted to share a message with our seniors and graduate students in these challenging and unprecedented times.
I’m not an expert on viruses, but I do have a lifetime of experience in public health. Public health is about the health of all of us, as a community. Public health does not deny our innate need to attend…
Last week I accompanied the Voices of the Earth (formerly named the Women’s World Music Choir) on their spring break tour in Puerto Rico.
Last week I was in Arusha, Tanzania to lead a research team meeting at Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology (NMAIST). I’ve been doing collaborative research on the health of mothers and children in Tanzania since 1992.
Inclusion is not a quick or easy journey. One public statement — by me or our governor — doesn’t complete the work. More than any formal statement, it is the ensuing conversations, relationships and deepened commitments that create inclusive community…
During our King Celebration 2020 this week, we were asked: "What is your work?" My work is to collaboratively lead Goshen College to be hospitable and just for all of our students and employees, regardless of race, first language or…
We all know the feeling when we’ve been part of a conversation that really mattered — one in which people were fully present, spoke honestly and clearly, and where ideas were formed and tested. We need more of that —…
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