108th Goshen College Commencement celebrates 240
students’ achievements
View photos from the 2006 Goshen College Commencement.
GOSHEN, Ind. – Processing across campus just before 3 p.m.
on April 23 to open Goshen College’s 108th
commencement services, the more than 350 members of the Goshen
College community – soon-to-be-graduates and current and
retired faculty – marched with appropriate
seriousness.
When the 240 members of the Class of 2006 filed out of the
gymnasium of the Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center an hour and a
half later, having been encouraged by commencement speaker Michael
A. Mata to “Dance to the Rhythm of a Different Tune,”
they were ready to celebrate with family and
friends.
First, though, they were sent on their way by faculty and
administrators who, having exited the gym first, formed a two-sided
tunnel and warmly applauded the graduates – a tradition that
also takes place at the beginning of each academic year to welcome
students back to campus.
Experiencing a Goshen College commencement for the first time in
several decades was Goshen College President-elect James E.
Brenneman, who will join the campus full time on July 1, but who
told the Class of 2006 “on this historic day” in their
lives that college faculty and administrative leaders wished them
each to live out “God’s best intentions for
you.”
Brenneman also introduced Mata, whom he called “mi
hermano” (my brother), the commencement speaker, a colleague
of Brenneman’s on the faculty at the Claremont School of
Theology. Mata, the national director of the Tools for
Transformation Program of World Vision U.S., has served for 17
years on the pastoral team of a Nazarene
multi-ethnic/multi-congregation church in Los
Angeles.
Having focused in ministry and community leadership for the past
25 years, Mata said that while Christians look forward to the
coming of God’s reign on earth, “the day of the great
fiesta … when the tongues of the universe will sing the same
song, and we will all line up in one great conga line, dancing from
one end of heaven to the other,” that “we can
experience elements and dimensions of the reign of God here and
now.”
Said Mata, “Faith is not a passive experience.” He
charged the graduates to “dance to a different rhythm …
to love for those who do not love or have been hurt by love, and to
dream a dream for those who do not or are not able to
dream.”
In one of many tangible signs of their interest in living out
their values, 73 members – about one third – of the
Class of 2006 so far have signed a pledge, part of a national
program, that states that they will “explore and take into
account the social and environmental consequences of any job I
consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations
for which I work."
Represented in this year’s graduating class were students
from 18 different states, including 124 from Indiana, and 16
countries, from Belize to Zimbabwe. The departing seniors
represented 31 programs of study, having majored in everything from
American Sign Language interpreting to theater at Goshen
College.
The academic program with the largest number of graduating
students was nursing, which held its pinning ceremony on Saturday
to recognize the 58 individuals who completed a degree – 28
through Goshen’s traditional, four-year program and the rest
through the BSN degree completion program offered through the
college’s Division of Adult and External Studies that is
designed for working adults. Vicky Kirkton, director of the Goshen
College Nursing Program, said a “very meaningful” part
of the nursing department’s pinning ceremony on Saturday was
a special anointing of hands, a new part of the service, to
commission the senior students (a number of whom already have
positions in healthcare waiting for them upon graduating) in their
future work.
Other top majors in the class were business (19 graduates),
communication (14 graduates) and history (14 graduates). One
student was recognized for earning a one-year certificate in
teaching English to speakers of other languages. On Saturday, each
academic program held an informal reception for graduates and their
parents, families and friends.
One of those departments had a unique reason to celebrate. The
Class of 2006 includes six students who represent the first
American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting majors to graduate from
Goshen College, which is the only four-year ASL program in the
United States to require juniors and seniors to take both state and
national certification tests. Each of the six graduating ASL majors
passed the national written exam on the first try.
Goshen resident Tracey Stack, the first among the group to yet
take the required performance exam toward certification, also
passed that test on the first try. She also holds the special honor
of being the first person in Indiana to have received National
Interpreting Certification under a newly revamped exam and to apply
for the Indiana Interpreter Certificate. Within a week of passing
her national certification, Stack’s phone was ringing with
multiple job offers.
Presiding over the ceremony was Goshen College Interim President
John D. Yordy, who congratulated each graduating senior as they
accepted their diploma as their names were announced by Anita
Stalter, academic dean and vice president for academic affairs.
Also taking part in the service were two parents of graduating
seniors: Ned Wyse, father of Layne Wyse, both from Camden, Mich.,
offered an invocation at the start of the commencement service,
while international student Suzie Arsenovic’s mother Nancy,
who traveled to Goshen from Brussels, Belgium, to celebrate her
daughter’s graduation, offered a benediction.
On Sunday morning, a baccalaureate service planned by a student
committee was rich with music, personal reflections and prayer that
highlighted the community aspect of Goshen College life. Graduating
seniors Joshua Weaver (Bluffton, Ohio) and Dominique
Burgunder-Johnson (Vilseck, Bavaria, Germany) served as worship
leaders, and hymns were led by Miriam Augsburger (Kidron, Ohio).
With families and friends of seniors gathered in the Church-Chapel
for the service, parents were meaningfully included in the program
as Mag Richer Smith of Iowa City, Iowa, parent of Jesse Richer
Smith, offered a prayer of invocation to begin the service, and
Terry Shue of Dalton, Ohio, parent of Bethany Nussbaum and Krista
Shue, led the benediction; senior Will Velez and his father,
William Arturo Velez, of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, read
the Scripture guiding the service, Ephesians 4:1-7 and 11-13.
Associate Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Joseph
Liechty shared a message titled “Becoming Mature in the
Fullness of Christ.” Biology and environmental studies major
Marcos Stoltzfus (Bellefontaine, Ohio) and communication major E.
Myra Karina (Semarang, Indonesia), an international student who
transferred to Goshen after two years at Hesston College, each
shared their reflections on their Goshen experience. Instrumental
and vocal groups shared music throughout the
service.
Miriam Loh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) wrote a litany for the
baccalaureate participants that reflected the commencement speech
theme of Michael A. Mata, reading, in part: “For it is by
grace we now are moving on to new dances of our lives. In our
coming endeavors let us return to others the grace that has
presented herself in each of our lives... Let us do so, in our
endeavors of Service... Of Peace... Of Education... Of
Leadership... As we move to these new endeavors or continue to
explore different areas, may our actions and thoughts be in the
oneness of the faith we profess.”
Other events during the weekend included a senior art exhibit,
the nurses’ pinning ceremony, a senior program displaying the
array of performing arts talent in the class and a reception hosted
by Interim President John Yordy and his wife
Winifred.
– By Rachel Lapp
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 four-year 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.
