Brian Yoder Schlabach

I graduated from Goshen College in 2007. Before that, I had never been to Goshen. In 2011, I started working at the college in the communications and marketing office and have been here for the last 6 years. My title is news and media manager; I’ve had a few different titles since, doing writing, photography and other communications work.

Being a photographer allows me to help tell the stories of the people around me. In Goshen specifically, I always find myself in interesting situations: taking photos of world-class performers in Sauder, being part of big events and getting to be on the inside. An image can become part of community memory. So, in some ways, I feel like I’m capturing a piece of history that people can use to look back on.

When I was a student and was graduating, Goshen First Fridays was just starting up. There were, at the time, a few new restaurants opening as well. But within the last 10 years, I’ve seen a lot of good people putting money into the downtown area making it a really attractive place to come back to. As a young family, there have been lots of great social circles here for us and great places to eat and shop. That’s stuff you’d expect in a big city but we were delightfully surprised by the things Goshen has to offer!