10 Best-Kept Secrets about Goshen College
Goshen College, a nationally ranked liberal arts college nestled in the south edge of Goshen city, has long been hailed for its active emphasis on peace and justice issues, experiential approach to education, and their highly lauded international study and service term, which is ranked as the #4 best study abroad program in America.
But some of Goshen’s most amazing attributes are the ones you’ve never heard of. For instance, did you know that GC’s concert hall has hosted Grammy winners like Bobby McFerrin or Tony Award winners like Audra McDonald? Or that the campus radio station has been named the best college station in the nation twice by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System? Or (yes, there’s more!) that students and faculty in the Biology Department are conducting in-depth research on harnessing biofuel from algae?
Really, these examples just scrape the surface. Read on to discover more remarkable facts about Goshen College that will make you want to wave your Maple Leaf flag higher than ever!
Goshen College is currently home to two All-American race walkers: Kayla Gray and Abby Dunn. Nine GC Maple Leafs have earned All-American honors at some point during their athletic careers. From 2007 to 2015, 11 race walkers have qualified for nationals. As of 2015, the Maple Leafs had a total of 34 All-American honors and 50 national qualifiers in the race walk, with many of the athletes doing each of those more than once. In 2007, GC’s Tina Peters was the women’s national race walk champion, both indoors and outdoors.
SST isn’t the only option for studying abroad at GC, however. May Term classes that currently or have recently been offered include Business in China and Business in Spain, Nursing in Nepal, Ecology and Sustainability in the Indian Himalayas, Arts in London, Bible in Greece/Rome, Communications in Kenya, Ecology in Kenya, Economics in Ecuador, History and Culture in Spain and Morocco, Anabaptist History in Paraguay, and Marine Biology in the Florida Keys.
You can read stories written by students and alumni by visiting the SST Stories Project website, a project of Goshen College.
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Experts on the Amish
With the familiar tagline, “Your station for culturally progressive music,” The Globe features a largely Americana music format. In addition to hearing round-the-clock tunes from up-and-coming Americana artists, listeners can also hear GC and local high school sports coverage, tune in to Sunday morning broadcasts from College Mennonite Church services, and hear live broadcasts from concerts at Ignition Music. The station is also a training ground — GC students aiming for careers in radio gain invaluable hands-on, on-air experience at The Globe.
In fact, they did. Listening to 91.1 The Globe isn’t the only way to enjoy a top-shelf music experience via Goshen College.
World-class musicians and performers regularly visit the Goshen College Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall as part of the college’s Performing Arts Series.
The list of past and upcoming performers
In April 2007, President Jim Brenneman signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment to drastically cut the college’s carbon footprint. Driving that goal home again in 2013, President Brenneman announced that the college would begin purchasing 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. In 2015 and 2016, the campus was named an official “Tree Campus USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation. Then in 2016, the college was given an honorable mention as a “Bike Friendly University” by the League of American Bicyclists.
Then there’s the work inside classrooms. Recently, GC introduced four new sustainability majors. Now, the college offers seven academic programs that center around sustainability, including a master’s degree and two off-campus courses at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, the college’s 1,189-acre nature preserve and field laboratory near Wolf Lake, Indiana.
It’s not surprising that these initiatives are attracting national attention. Goshen College has been named one of America’s greenest colleges by both The Princeton Review and Sierra Club.
The Algae Town project in the Science Hall makes use of photobioreactors, which are clear tanks equipped with phosphorescent lighting. The tanks contain gallons of green, algae-filled water, and are designed to encourage photosynthesis.
Algae has worldwide potential –– and has garnered a significant amount of attention, even earning a mention in Wired Magazine.
The problem of how to grow and harvest enough biomass of algae to make it a viable crop remains. But give it time, rest of the world. Goshen College is working on it.
Goshen, Indiana, young scholar.
Since 2012, first-year students at Goshen College have been provided with iPads. That distribution is part of the GC iCore Technology Initiative. The primary goal behind iCore is to prepare students for a changing information environment in which mobile devices are taking the place personal computers and laptops as primary computing devices.

The college’s growing graduate programs include a Master of Science in Nursing, Master of Arts in Environmental Education, and Master of Business Administration. When enrollment is taken into account, Goshen College ranks second among public and private Indiana institutions in the number of graduates who go on to earn doctorates. Nationwide, GC ranks of 87th out of 262 baccalaureate institutions in doing so.
Goshen College also offers Adult & Continuing Studies degrees for men and women seeking to further their careers.

There’s more!
This list is only the beginning. Learn more about life at Goshen College and beyond in the videos and links below.

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