More than a series of classes, SPI is a place to learn in community. Participants live on campus, share meals, attend lectures, and build connections that last long after the program ends.

This year’s sessions will be held May 18-26, May 28-June 5, and June 8-12.

The application deadline for U.S. participants is May 8. Learn more and apply at .

As keynote speaker for the 2026 Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival, Lawrence told a crowd gathered at Lehman Auditorium on Wednesday morning about the year she spent researching plant-animal interactions on the tropical island.

She was tasked with walking a specific route through the forest, starting at dawn, recording every animal she observed and noting what it was doing and eating. She recalled listening to gibbons sing in the mornings, watching macaques leap from tree to tree in the evenings, and seeing her first orangutan in the wild. 

Lawrence, who holds a BA in anthropology from Harvard University and a PhD in botany from Duke University, said she had arrived at college three years earlier “pretending to be a pre-med major so I would have something to say when asked,” but still unsure what she wanted to do. When she returned from that year in Borneo, she discovered a newfound sense of purpose: to save the rainforest. 

“The rainforest had held me for a year, giving me a place to learn about nature and about myself,” she said. “What a gift.”

In the years since, she has devoted much of her life to understanding the human connection to nature and the consequences of actions like deforestation. Her research has taken her around the world to forests in Cameroon, Costa Rica, Mexico, and East Africa, as well as North Carolina and Virginia.

Lawrence spent more than 25 years as a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, where she focused on global forest systems and climate dynamics.

In addition to her academic career, she served as a science advisor to the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Change, supporting climate policy and international negotiations. She played a key role in establishing SilvaCarbon, a U.S. interagency program dedicated to forest carbon measurement and monitoring.

For the past four years, Lawrence has worked as chief scientist at Calyx Global, a carbon credit rating agency. At the startup, she leads efforts to ensure the scientific integrity of greenhouse gas ratings. She also directs research and analytics for nature-based solutions and engineered carbon dioxide removal.

“I still do science every day, but my target is different,” she said. “I think of it as the flip side of academic research. I used to study nature’s climate solutions—how forests and land can alter the climate. Now I study how those solutions get put into action, bundled up, and sold as carbon credits. And my job is to make sure [corporations] are delivering the climate impact that they promise.”

In her address, Lawrence spoke about the wonders of photosynthesis—“It takes something you cannot see and turns it into something you can touch and eat”—and the glorious splendor of spring. “Life is simply bursting out all around us, and it’s an amazing thing,” she said.

She recognized her feelings of eco-grief, the sadness she feels about the loss of ecosystems and living beings, and the increasing rate of extinction. “[T]he earth is more than just a place where we live,” she said. “It’s a place we love. We would not feel sadness if we felt no love. So I just want you to remember that. If you are feeling sad about what’s going on in the world, you’re also feeling love.”

Lawrence said she had been encouraged to read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer six years ago but hadn’t found the time. Having recently read the book, which is 91����Ƶ’s Common Read for 2025-26, she expressed appreciation for its wisdom. 

“Trying to know something is a way to love it,” she said. “That’s what I wish for all of you while you’re here in college. Study something deeply. It will change the way you view the world, including yourself, including nature.”

91����Ƶ’s ACE Festival continues Thursday with a full day of student presentations and performances, an authors’ reception and award presentation, and the first-ever ACE Fest Career Fair. For a full schedule of events, visit .

Watch a video recording of the address below!

Thanks to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Daniel B. Suter Endowment, and the Center for Interfaith Engagement for collaborating with ACE Festival and the Provost’s Office to bring Dr. Lawrence to campus.

The service was co-sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Seminary and led by graduate students Makinto and Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava. It included musical selections from Makinto, as well as the 91����Ƶ Gospel Choir led by Kay Pettus ’25, and biblical readings from Mukarabe.

Reflections on Easter were shared by English Professor Dr. Kevin Seidel, who teaches and writes about the changing relationship between religion, secularism, and literature. His message, titled “Women Explain Things to Me: A Sermon on Luke 24,” focused not so much on Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead but on the “slow, difficult coming to terms with the significance of the resurrection by Jesus’ followers as portrayed in Luke 24.”

“In Luke, the resurrection of Jesus isn’t a simple, triumphant end of the story, but a kind of difficult beginning that unfolds in the Book of Acts,” Seidel said. “The resurrection doesn’t settle debate among Jesus’ followers about who he is. The resurrection proves, I think, profoundly unsettling for them.”

After the service, Seidel said he was glad for the chance to reflect on parts of the resurrection story in Luke 24. “The service was a good way to mark and celebrate the beginning of the seven-week Easter season in the church calendar,” he said.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder said Wednesday’s Easter celebration follows 91����Ƶ’s practice of honoring and observing significant Christian traditions and holidays, including Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

“This morning, as we gathered, there was an opportunity for education about Easter,” he said, “as well as an invitation to worship in the spirit of Easter through Scripture, singing, and reflection.”

Makinto, a frequent worship leader at chapel events, performed Jesus Is Risen, an original song he wrote in 2013, as the opening song for this year’s Easter worship service. The song tells the Easter story and connects it to our own lives, he said. 

“So, as he is risen, we as well can rise above all the challenges we have, above the pains we have, above the solitude we have, and also conquer death and situate ourselves squarely in life with our community around us,” Makinto said.

Makinto and his wife, Mukarabe, moved from California to pursue degrees at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, respectively. They are the directors of , an organization that connects people at the local and global levels for the purpose of development, unification, and spiritual and physical well-being.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder speaks during a campus worship service on Wednesday in Martin Chapel.

Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava reads a selection from Luke 24 (left). Members of the 91����Ƶ Gospel Choir (right) sing during Wednesday’s campus worship service.

91����Ƶ Campus Worship

Campus Worship is an invitational space for gathered worship in Christian traditions and a variety of styles. Services are held in Martin Chapel of the Seminary Building on Wednesday mornings every other week. 

Campus worship continues with a final service of the academic year on April 22 recognizing 91����Ƶ’s senior student chaplains: Emily Suarez Nunez, Dia Mekonnen, Sara Kennel, and Miranda Beidler. The event will be livestreamed on .

Watch a video recording of the service below!

On Monday, March 23, Anabaptist and Jewish scholars and religious leaders gathered in the Strite Conference Room of 91����Ƶ’s Campus Center for a consultation on Judaism, the Bible, and Anabaptism. The invite-only event was planned by Peter Dula, professor of religion and culture at 91����Ƶ, and Trina Trotter Nussbaum, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement (CIE), and included all-day discussions centering around the work of Matthew Thiessen and Daniel Weiss.

According to Dula, Thiessen, a Mennonite New Testament professor at McMaster University, is “one of the most influential voices in the ‘Paul within Judaism’ school of New Testament studies.” The discussion of Thiessen’s work at the consultation centered around four articles of his.

Weiss, according to Dula, is a Jewish professor of Jewish studies and the philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, “whose work at the intersection of early rabbinic literature and early Christian literature has significant resonances with traditional Anabaptist understandings of violence and the state and critiques of Constantinianism.” Weiss also had four articles discussed.

The morning began with a presentation by Thiessen titled, “What Mennonites Need to Know 91����Ƶ Judaism,” which introduced the work of Weiss. Weiss then responded, and there was time for some questions from the audience. Following a break, a panel engaged with some of Weiss’s research, including articles on Christians and Levites, and the possibility that early Christians did not baptize their children, instead letting them be born into salvation.

After a lunch break, Weiss took a turn introducing Thiessen’s work in a section called, “Reading the New Testament within Judaism.” Thiessen then responded. A panel then engaged in Thiessen’s work, including reflections on how to read Paul with an awareness of Judaism, and whether Jesus meant to start a new religion.

Dula was the guiding force in bringing the two scholars together to have the event. “You’ve got a Jewish scholar writing really perceptively about Anabaptist themes, and you have this Mennonite scholar writing really perceptively about Judaism,” Dula said. “So, I thought we should get them together.”

Nussbaum reflected on the efficacy of the dialogue, and how it was in large part also due to the highlighted speakers. “It worked because the two scholars we were highlighting shared the spotlight so well,” she said. “How many times did we hear, ‘and now I want to open it up to you all?’”

Miranda Beidler, an 91����Ƶ senior who helped coordinate the event in her role as a student chaplain with the CIE, praised the event and guests for creating “inherent dialogue.” She said, “[The speakers] were so willing and open to talk about their beliefs, their theology, in ways that were open and curious about the others’ theology and beliefs, but without imposing their beliefs on somebody else.”

Sara Kennel, another senior student chaplain at 91����Ƶ, was struck by the openness and intellectualism of the event participants, saying, “It felt like a gathering of a lot of people that care about understanding differences, but also are deeply intellectual. … I don’t think that I’ve encountered that many spaces at 91����Ƶ that are that level of scholarship.”

Nussbaum was struck by the impact of cross-religious dialogue, saying, “It’s something pretty amazing that we can see ourselves in another faith. … It was a spiritual love-fest.” Beidler, similarly, connected the event to CIE’s—and 91����Ƶ’s—goals of interfaith work, saying, “It’s us putting into action when we say we care about learning from other people and from other cultures.”

The Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship (ICPF) Conference returned to 91����Ƶ on March 13-15 for another year of examining issues of peace and justice. The student-led conference invites students and faculty from historic peace colleges across the U.S., including Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker colleges, to connect, learn, and grow in solidarity together.

It was the second consecutive year 91����Ƶ has hosted the once-annual conference. The university previously hosted the ICPF in 2020 before it was indefinitely put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the conference was to create a space where students from different campuses could come together, connect, and share the work they’re doing in their own communities, said Shawna Hurst, a sophomore elementary education major at 91����Ƶ and member of the ICPF 2026 Planning Committee.

“I wanted people to leave feeling energized, supported, and equipped with new relationships and resources to continue work moving forward,” Hurst said.

“I think the conference was a success because I saw a real shift in people over the course of the weekend,” she added. “Many attendees arrived feeling defeated and discouraged by the state of the world, and while those feelings didn’t completely disappear, people left feeling less alone. There was a stronger sense of community, and many felt encouraged and re-energized by both the connections they made and the messages shared by our keynote speakers.”

This year’s conference centered around the theme, “Solidarity, Community, and Resistance in This Political Moment,” with a focus on practical campus organizing. “In a time of extreme political division, rising fascism, and anti-intellectualism, what does campus organizing look like?” reads a description of the theme. “How can we leverage our unique heritages and cultures to better serve the broader culture and nation?”

Hurst said it was challenging to narrow down a theme because “it felt like there was so much we wanted to talk about and focus on.”

“Despite everything going on, our main goal was to bring the community, and specifically college students, together to learn ways to practice resistance and show solidarity on college campuses,” she said.

Emily Welty (left) and Nadia Dames (right) delivered keynote addresses during the conference.

The conference featured keynotes by Emily Welty and Nadia Dames.

Welty, an author and theatre-maker living in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York, teaches and directs the peace and justice studies program at Pace University. She is also part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons team that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Her keynote was titled, “All We Have is Each Other.”

Dames is a local business owner and community advocate in Harrisonburg who believes in the power of community, togetherness, and collective action. She delivered a keynote titled, “From Home in Harrisonburg to Roots in Palestine: Finding Your Why in the Work of Resistance.”

Participants share a meal (top photo) and engage in a drum circle (above right) at ICPF 2026. Alicia Maldonado-Zahra leads a workshop (above left).

Workshops were held throughout the day on March 14 in various locations around the 91����Ƶ Seminary Building. Topics ranged from the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people in North America to the colonization of Puerto Rico as rooted in Indigenous genocide. Other sessions offered information on careers in peacebuilding and explored how Anabaptist understandings of peace have evolved over the past several generations.

The conference also included a prayer vigil in response to the war in Iran and genocide in Gaza, an Amahoro Drumming for Peace circle led by Seminary student Makinto, and a potluck with Harrisonburg-area organizations.

“One of my favorite highlights was the Saturday lunch potluck,” Hurst said. “It was such a meaningful moment to see community members continually show up, bringing crockpots full of food to share. It created a tangible sense of care and connection that felt really special.”

Hurst said that one moment that stuck with her happened on Saturday evening when an attendee told her this was their first experience with Mennonites. “They shared how meaningful it was to see people who care about both Jesus and justice at the same time,” she said. “Hearing that was incredibly encouraging.”

The ICPF 2026 Planning Committee included students from 91����Ƶ, Goshen College, and Bluffton University: Ben Koop, Ciela Acosta, Ellie Shemenski, Logan Daugherty, Mackenzie Miller, Monica Ehrenfels, Micah Wenger, Shawna Hurst, and Dr. Timothy Seidel.

Thanks to everyone who supported and volunteered to assist with the conference, including Eastern Mennonite Seminary, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, the Orie O. Miller Center at 91����Ƶ, Mennonite Mission Network, and the Mennonite Church USA’s Church Peace Tax Fund for significant monetary support.

91����Ƶ hosted its ninth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Monday, Jan. 19, featuring a series of events honoring the life and legacy of the late civil rights leader.

The theme of this year’s celebration was “Beyond the Dream: Social Justice and Ecological Consciousness,” and it focused on the message of Dr. King’s 1967 Christmas sermon, in which he preached about all life on Earth being interconnected. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,” he said.

Monday’s events began at 9:45 a.m. with a unity march inside the University Commons. 91����Ƶ two dozen students, faculty, and staff members held signs calling for peace and justice as they completed three laps around the indoor track. Each year, the unity march pays tribute to the many nonviolent marches led by Dr. King and others during the civil rights movement. 

The group of marchers proceeded to Lehman Auditorium, where members of the Black Student Alliance (BSA) and other students shared quotes from Dr. King and reflected on his legacy during Speak Out. One quote that resonated deeply was: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Celeste Thomas, director of Multicultural Student Services at 91����Ƶ and chair of the committee planning the MLK Jr. celebration, said Dr. King imagined a world with community instead of chaos, love instead of hate, and no one going hungry. He imagined a world where families are not separated, where there are no food deserts and everyone has clean water, and where countries don’t bully one another for resources, she added. “Beloved community is sustainability for all mankind,” she said.

Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, director of alumni engagement and community connections at 91����Ƶ, spoke about the theme of the day. “Going beyond the dream means understanding justice is not passive,” she said. “It requires participation, it requires responsibility, and that’s where you come in, 91����Ƶ students. You’re not on the sidelines of this work. You are already shaping the future of communities like Harrisonburg through the choices you make, the careers you pursue, the voices you raise, and the values you carry forward. Don’t just remember him, carry his dream forward.”

Interim President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus spoke about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same. Dycus, who noted that Colvin passed away on Jan. 13, 2026, said the young activist had inspired her for many years. “Both King and Colvin teach us what justice and power look like in necessary ways,” Dycus said. “We gather not out of tradition, not because the calendar tells us to, but because we are committed to taking seriously the work of building equitable, compassionate, and just communities. This is who we are, not just what we do.”

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, an associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Climate and Community Institute, served as the featured speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Convocation. He is the author of Elite Capture and Reconsidering Reparations, a contributor to Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book, and a past recipient of a Marguerite Casey Freedom Scholar fellowship. His presentation was titled “Becoming Firefighters: Climate Justice and the Fight for a Free World.”

He examined recent actions taken by the federal administration to seize oil assets in Venezuela and spoke about the political and economic power of fossil fuel companies. “The control those people and their allies have over our entire lives depends on the political power they wield and defend with the money they get destroying our air and water,” he said. 

Following the convocation, a ceremony on Thomas Plaza rededicated the 91����Ƶ Peace Pole with a vision for peace, justice, and shalom on Earth, including all living things (represented by a new plaque featuring animal prints). The Peace Pole was recently resealed and painted and has newly installed “May Peace Prevail on Earth” plaques. 

Throughout the day, the conference room inside the Student Life Suite transformed into an aromatherapy space, filled with the scents of soap and essential oils. Simone McKelvey, owner of the Simone & Tuesday skincare brand, led two interactive demonstrations, teaching students, faculty, and staff how to create their own soap from scratch using natural ingredients. “Your skin is your largest organ,” she said, “and a lot of the time, we don’t pay attention to what we put on it.”

Participants worked in pairs at eight slow cookers, melting coconut, sunflower, and castor oils, adding lye to distilled water, and mixing the concoction with a stick blender and essential oils to create bars of soap. “When you go to the store and visit the soap aisle, some of them are soap, but some of them aren’t,” McKelvey said. “Some are detergents made with synthetic chemicals. True soap is what you’re making today.”

The sound of knives chopping onions, horseradish, garlic, hot peppers, ginger, and other vegetables reverberated through the Old Common Grounds space on Monday as participants in two interactive workshops sliced and diced fresh, locally sourced, organic ingredients to create their own jars of fire cider. The apple cider vinegar-based tonic supports immunity and digestion and is packed with  antioxidants, antibacterials, and antimicrobials, making it an ideal remedy for the colder months. In about four weeks, the jars can be strained and used to enhance everything from seltzer water and salad dressing to collard greens, pickles, and hot toddies.

The demonstrations were led by the sister-owners of Kinfolk Farm, a Black women-led farm in rural West Virginia dedicated to nourishing the brilliance, creativity, and legacy of Black and Indigenous people of the Global Majority.

Scroll through a photo album of the day below!

Thanks to Multicultural Student Services, Student Life, and the office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for planning the series of meaningful and educational events to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

This year’s lineup of events includes a convocation with author and philosophy professor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, two workshops teaching participants how to create their own handmade soap, and two sessions demonstrating the use and benefits of a spicy, vinegar-based tonic known as “fire cider.” All events are open to the public.

The celebration is themed “Beyond the Dream: Social Justice and Ecological Consciousness” and centers around the words of Dr. King’s “A Christmas Sermon on Peace” speech from 1967:

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects on directly, affects all indirectly.

The chosen theme closely aligns with the university theme of sustainability for the 2025-26 academic year. “That was intentional,” said Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural student services at 91����Ƶ and chair of the committee planning the celebration. “This is a good time in our country to remember that not everyone is equally privileged and that we should really pay attention to Dr. King’s quote. We are all interconnected, and it’s a great time to practice self-care and self-awareness, recognizing that everyone’s journey is different.”

Monday’s events start at 9:45 a.m. in University Commons with a Unity March around the indoor track. The march will proceed to Lehman Auditorium, where an open forum-style Speak Out event will be held at 10 a.m.

Convocation

Convocation at 10:15 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium will be led by , an associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Climate and Community Institute. Táíwò is the author of Elite Capture and Reconsidering Reparations, a contributor to Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book, and a past recipient of a Marguerite Casey Freedom Scholar fellowship. His presentation will be livestreamed on and uploaded to the 91����Ƶ .

“A lot of his work is around social justice reparations and how it connects to sustainability, which we’ll hear in his speech,” Thomas said. “He really fits what we want to do and the message we want to convey.”

Following his convocation, a soul food lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Northlawn Cafeteria. From 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Táíwò will lead a Q&A session at the MainStage Theater (University Commons 170). 

Soapmaking

In the afternoon, two “Skin Sabbath” soapmaking sessions led by Simone McKelvey of Simone & Tuesday will be held in University Commons 211/212. The first session will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second session will be from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m. Limited space is available for participation and advance is required. Seats will be available for unregistered participants who can watch the demonstrations.

Simone & Tuesday is a natural skincare solutions company founded on the belief that healthier skin should be natural, affordable, and for everyone. Through her soapmaking sessions, McKelvey teaches small groups how to make their own all-natural, personal care products.

“We held an event called ‘Hairitage’ last February with BSA during Black History Month, where students made their own hair products, and it was packed,” Thomas said. “That helped me realize that this generation of students responds well to hands-on activities. They enjoy the opportunity to take something home with them when they leave.”

Fire cider

A pair of fire cider workshops led by Kinfolk Farm will be held at the Old Common Grounds space (University Commons 177) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m. Limited space is also available for participation in this event and so advance is required. Seats will be available for unregistered participants who can watch the demonstrations.

The Black woman-led farm in rural West Virginia is dedicated to nourishing the brilliance, creativity, and legacy of Black, indigenous people of the Global Majority. At Kinfolk Farm, food sovereignty, land liberation, and healing justice are daily practices woven into the way they plant, harvest, cook, and gather in community.

Participants in these two interactive sessions will learn the history of fire cider along with its traditional wellness practices. They’ll also be invited to try a sample! The spicy, tangy folk remedy is often used to support the immune system and is typically made by infusing apple cider vinegar with ingredients such as horseradish, ginger, garlic, onion, hot peppers, and honey. 

Climate simulation

A world climate simulation facilitated by Levi Clymer ’25, 91����Ƶ event operations coordinator, will be held from 2:45 to 4:45 p.m. at the University Commons Student Union. Participants in this interactive exercise will act out the roles of international delegates at a United Nations summit and negotiate a global agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. is also needed to participate in this event.

In case of changes to events due to inclement weather, visit for updates.

91����Ƶ’s Lehman Auditorium has surely seen its share of historic firsts over the years, though last week might have marked the first time a memorandum of understanding has ever been signed on its stage. 

Representatives from 91����Ƶ and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival (SVBF) advisory board, along with supporters of the festival, gathered on the auditorium stage on Thursday, Aug. 14, to celebrate the SVBF’s status as an independent 501(c)(3) organization. The event included a ceremonial signing of documents and drew more than two-dozen people. 

91����Ƶ financially sustained the annual summer festival since its start in 1993 until last year. The agreement signed last week outlines the transfer of ownership from the university to Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Inc., which was granted tax-exempt nonprofit status in January 2025 and officially became independent from 91����Ƶ on July 1. Signers included Dr. Tynisha Willingham, provost and vice president of academic affairs at 91����Ƶ, and members of the SVBF executive committee: Christine Fairfield, chair; Angela Showalter, vice chair; Cara Modisett, secretary; and Fred Kniss, treasurer. 

Thursday’s ceremony provided an opportunity for donors, staff, and stakeholders to mark the momentous occasion and reflect on the history of the 33-year-old festival.

Following a piano performance of Bach’s Prelude in E major, BWV 854, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, from Dr. David Berry, director of the music program at 91����Ƶ and artistic director of the SVBF, Professor Emeritus Dr. Kenneth J. Nafziger offered a historical perspective on the founding of the festival. 

Nafziger, a member of 91����Ƶ’s music faculty for 39 years before he retired in 2017 and founding conductor and artistic director of the SVBF, shared stories from the festival’s earliest days.

In 1992, near the start of the fall semester, he was having a dinner with several 91����Ƶ friends when they began asking him about his experiences conducting the Lake Chelan Bach Fest in north-central Washington that summer. “I noticed that Joe (former 91����Ƶ President Joseph Lapp) was taking notes,” Nafziger shared. “When the note-taking stopped, he said, ‘What would it take to get something like that going here?’ We took him at his word…and in January of 1993, we were given the go-ahead to do a festival in June. With expert help from Helen (Nafziger), Scott Hosfeld, and Marcia Kauffman, we made the first one happen, and it included vanilla ice cream and hot raspberry sauce at intermission.”

“The beginnings of rehearsals from the second season forward resembled a family reunion,” he continued. “Local orchestral players, including JMU friends, local singers and relatives from east of the Mississippi and Canada, we grew.”

Willingham spoke about the relationship between 91����Ƶ and the SVBF. “You are still a part of the 91����Ƶ family and the fabric of 91����Ƶ,” she said. “91����Ƶ has three core values—academic excellence, peace and justice, and active faith—and the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival exemplifies those core values.”

“We know that in our public schools, the arts have been the first things that have been cut,” she said, crediting the festival’s “pay-what-you-can” ticket pricing with allowing everyone to experience music, regardless of economic status. “The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival is a gift. It’s been a gift to 91����Ƶ for over 30 years, it’s been a gift to our community for over 30 years, and it’s been a gift to everyone who has stood on this stage.” 

Included in the memorandum of understanding is an agreement that Lehman Auditorium and Martin Chapel will continue to serve as venues for SVBF performances for at least the next three years, said Les Helmuth, interim executive director of the festival.

“What I discovered in this past year of talking with donors, businesses, and people behind the festival is that the breadth and depth of support is this wide,” he said, stretching out his arms. “It comes from all walks of life, and it’s fabulous. It really is. It’s a great community treasure, and we desperately need to keep it going.”

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Ann Bixler, dean for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at 91����Ƶ, delivered the blessing for the event. Other 91����Ƶ representatives in attendance included Interim President Rev. Dr. Shannon W. Dycus and Kirk Shisler, vice president for advancement.

The 34th annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival will be held from June 8-13, 2026. Find out more at .

An original musical premiering at 91����Ƶ’s MainStage Theater this week brings audiences the captivating, never-before-seen story of a Russian poet, nun and saint who saved countless lives during World War II and was killed for it. Created by 91����Ƶ professors Jerry Holsopple and Justin Poole, “On the Breath of God: The Life of Maria Skobtsova” runs from Friday-Saturday, March 28-29 @ 7 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, April 3-5 @ 7 p.m.; and on Sunday, March 30 @ 2 p.m.

The sweeping drama traces the remarkable life of Skobtsova, played by 91����Ƶ senior Reah Clymer, from impetuous teen to chain-smoking nun who sheltered refugees and helped many Jews escape Nazi-occupied Paris. Known as “Mother Maria,” she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was executed.

“You really see the arc to Maria’s life,” Poole said. “By the end of the play, you’re completely invested in who she is, and you see this dramatic transformation she goes through.”

The fourth collaboration between Holsopple and Poole, “On the Breath of God” brings together a multigenerational cast and crew of 91����Ƶ students, alumni, faculty/staff and community members. The musical features a chorus of four women mystics from history, singing lyrics taken directly from their texts to Celtic folk melodies, performed by musicians Perry Blosser ’18 (violin), Benjamin Brantley (guitar), and Dirk Holsopple ’10 (Uilleann pipes). These mystics, played by students Elie Hoover and Erin Batten and alumnae Caitlin Holsapple ’16 and Elizabeth Eby ’22, surround Skobtsova during pivotal moments in her life. Though invisible to her, they influence her decisions through their words.

“Celtic music is able to hold trauma and hope together,” Holsopple said. “That’s what this story is. It’s the story of a woman who endured all kinds of trauma and never lost the ability to have hope and keep doing what she believed was right, up until the very end.”

Clymer delivers a masterful performance as Skobtsova, pouring her soul into the multifaceted character, capturing her playfulness, fierceness and suffering. “Mother Maria lived a tough life,” Clymer said. “She lost two daughters, went through two divorces, lived through war and displacement and deportation, and was thrown in jail multiple times. I’ve had to go there, emotionally, in every rehearsal.”

The set design is minimalist yet imaginative. Backlit stained glass panels form the backdrop, paired with an animated collage of photos projected onto two screens. While most characters in the play wear neutral-toned, period-specific clothing, with Skobtsova dressed in a Russian Orthodox nun’s habit, the mystics don flowing robes accented with pops of color. Frequent 91����Ƶ Theatre collaborator Rachel Herrick returns as costume designer. Rounding out the crew are Shannon Dove (technical director and set design), Robert Weaver (light designer), Tom Carr (sound technician), and Sarah Peak (stage manager), among others.

Despite the play’s early- to mid-20th century setting, Clymer said its themes are just as relevant today. “This story is so timely,” she said. “It’s about immigration. It’s about refugees. It’s about war and political turmoil.”

Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $10 for children 18 and under, and $6 for university students. For tickets, visit:

Read a preview of the play from the Daily News-Record .

Cast

Liz “Maria” Skobtsova – Reah Clymer
Sophia – Melody Wilson
Jura/Sailor – Ross Haun
Alexander Blok/Captain/Father Dimitri – Adam Hoover
Dmitri/Daniil/Peters – Joe Seitz
Father/Metropolitan – Shannon Dove
Evgenia/Klara – Kay Pettus 
Ana/Ida – Alexis Lewis
Gardener/Father Kern/SS Officer – Nathanael Eby
Lyuba/Nun at Lourmel House/Inna – Cassidy Walker
Nun/Irena – Emilee White
Therese of Lisieux/Hildegard of Bingen – Elie Hoover
Hadewijch of Flanders – Elizabeth Eby
Mechthild of Magdeburg – Caitlyn Holsapple 
Julian of Norwich/Theresa of Avila – Erin Batten
Young Liz/Giana – Vienna Poole
Young Giana/Nastia – Felicity Poole

Crew

Co-creator – Justin Poole
Co-creator – Jerry Holsopple
Costume designer – Rachel Herrick
Technical Director/Set Design – Shannon Dove
Light Designer – Robert Weaver 
Sound Technician – Tom Carr
Stage Manager – Sarah Peak
Assistant Stage Manager – Jordyn Thompson 
Video Production Assistant – Zack Furr
Video Production Assistant – Oslyn Mejia Gomez
Cast and Crew Photographer/Video Production Assistant – Cassidy Walker
Video Production Assistant – Willem Hedrick 
Video Production Assistant – Allie Watkins

Musicians

Violin – Perry Blosser
Guitar – Benjamin Brantley
Irish Pipes – Dirk Holsopple

There’s a new morning talk show host in town, and she’s here to celebrate.

As a special Mornings with the Mayor edition of Convocation on Wednesday, Harrisonburg Mayor Deanna Reed, director of alumni engagement and community connections at 91����Ƶ, stepped into the role of host as she interviewed several trailblazing women leaders making their mark on campus. The one-of-a-kind program, held at the Student Union, celebrated Women’s History Month and paid tribute to departing 91����Ƶ President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman.

Reed steered the show with her trademark candor and panache, holding court over the “live studio audience”—one student could be seen regularly holding up an “Applause” sign—while she posed fascinating questions to 91����Ƶ students, staff, and alumnae. “It’s the show where we bring you big energy, great conversations, and way too much coffee,” quipped Reed.

The first guests to grace the stage were a pair of 91����Ƶ students, Arelys Martinez Fabian and Meredith Lehman, and a recent alumna, Ray Ray Taylor MS ’24. Fabian, co-president of Student Government Association, highlighted the increased representation of women in campus leadership roles. Taylor, a lab instructor who was a track and field team, called for erasing negative stereotypes and for supporting women in sports. When asked about which woman in history she would share a meal with, Lehman, a Rhodes Scholar studying at Washington Community Scholars’ Center, answered that she had recently heard about Zheng Yi Sao, a pirate leader active in the South China Sea from 1801 to 1810. “She was one of the most successful pirates in a time where you don’t really hear about female pirates,” Lehman said. “I would ask her where she pulls from to gain confidence and belief in herself”

Another panel discussion featured three powerhouse administrative leaders who are “changing the game in education and beyond”: Carrie Bert, Dr. Shannon Dycus, and Dr. Tynisha Willingham. Asked to provide her younger self advice, Bert, 91����Ƶ athletic director, said she would’ve told her to pause and breathe to appreciate the moment. Dycus, vice president for Student Affairs, Equity and Belonging, shared some tough conversations she had when starting in her role about fighting hard to be heard. Willingham spoke about unique challenges she’s faced as a woman provost. “I think we often still see that even when women are in leadership roles, they are expected to be nurturing and can’t be as direct,” she said.

Clad in her signature royal blue pantsuit, Huxman, the featured headliner for Reed’s morning show, bounded down the aisle and shined in the spotlight. Huxman is 91����Ƶ’s ninth president, the first woman to lead in the role, and is retiring this summer after nine years of service. She joked about some unexpected lessons learned over those years. “I started with a closet that had five blue outfits,” she said. “It’s half my closet now, skirts and outfits like this, and even shoes.”

She also spoke about forming closer connections between the university and city, colloquially known as the “town and gown relationship,” during her time at 91����Ƶ. Early on, she said, she had visited with elected officials, educators and business leaders who told her they had never stepped foot on 91����Ƶ’s campus. “I tried to work, especially in that first year, to get folks to campus,” she said. “I brought the delegates and our elected representatives up to my office. And, again, they said, ‘Well, I’ve been an elected representative for 12, 15 years, and I’ve never been in the president’s office.’”

At a time when many colleges across the nation are shuttering their DEI programs, 91����Ƶ is doubling down on its commitment to the initiatives that bolster diversity, equity and inclusion and make all students on campus feel welcome. Huxman spoke about initiatives she’s witnessed over her two terms, including the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration started by Celeste Thomas during her second year as president, the Black Lives Matter mural—the only city in Virginia with a BLM street mural, Reed said—the establishment of the Office of DEI, the start of the Lavender Graduation, and the institutional statement on land acknowledgement. “It is 91����Ƶ’s time to lean into DEI,” Huxman said. “It’s wrapped into our mission, it’s wrapped into our vision and values, it’s wrapped into the Sermon on the Mount. And this is who we are as a faith-based institution.”

Asked about which woman she would share a meal with, Huxman answered Ida B. Wells, a journalist and co-founder of the NAACP. “Every time I reread her biography, I just think, how did somebody walk the earth of this magnitude?” said Huxman, regaling the crowd with tales of Wells’ accomplishments. “…I always think that, in a very real sense, the graduates from our university at 91����Ƶ are well-prepared to be peace and justice advocates like Ida B. Wells.”

A special treat honoring the president was free for those attending the event. Baristas at Common Grounds Coffeehouse whipped up mugs of the “Hux Deluxe,” a vanilla latte with a little cinnamon sugar on top. “I love that it’s a latte and it has cinnamon on it,” Huxman said. “Somebody knows I like that.” 

The interviews were interspersed with video segments documenting powerful 91����Ƶ alumnae who are shaping the world. These included Khadija O. Ali MA ’01, who became the first female state minister of the Somalian government and serves as an ambassador for the country, and Najla El Mangoush MA ’15, who was the first female foreign minister of Libya. Another video showcased the legacy of the late Sadie Hartzler, 91����Ƶ’s first full-time librarian whose name graces the library today.

Mukarabe, a student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding who fled genocide in Burundi in 1993, read from a poem and led the crowd in a moment of silence for women persecuted around the world. She was joined by her husband Makinto, a student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, as they performed music to cap off the event. Together, they shared “Amahoro,” a Kirundi cultural expression conveying peace and God’s blessings, through song.

Braydon Hoover, vice president for enrollment, served as sidekick/announcer for “Mornings with the Mayor.”

Trina Trotter Nussbaum ’00, MA ’17 will never forget the first time she saw the view from the Campus Center balcony. Standing on the balcony overlooking the Front Lawn and gazing east toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the then-first-year student recalled telling a friend: “I don’t know what I’m going to study, but I know this is where I need to be. This is my place.”

“All it took was one look at those mountains, and they seemed to tell me, ‘You belong here,’” Trotter Nussbaum said. 

That was nearly 30 years ago. Today, Trotter Nussbaum is the new director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, a position she’s held since Jan. 1. She still feels that same sense of belonging at 91����Ƶ and works to ensure others on campus feel it too. Through her role at CIE, she celebrates and supports students, faculty and staff from a wide range of faith traditions and backgrounds. 

It was a long road that led her to 91����Ƶ. After graduating from high school in North Lima, Ohio, Trotter Nussbaum, who was raised Mennonite, moved to Pittsburgh and completed travel agency school. She gradually learned that it wasn’t the career for her. Returning home to Ohio, she ran into a childhood friend about to graduate from 91����Ƶ who told her, “You should give 91����Ƶ a try.” It was just the push she needed. 

Trotter Nussbaum arrived on campus in the fall of 1995 as a 22-year-old first-year English major. She was older than the others in her Northlawn dorm, but she saw that as a blessing. “It helped me settle down and figure out what I wanted to do.”

That turned out to be theater. Trotter Nussbaum credits 91����Ƶ’s theater program with recognizing her strengths as a performer and teaching her invaluable listening and improv skills. During the second semester of her junior year, she added a psychology major. Though it delayed her graduation by another year, she said it ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. “I might not be acting or counseling right now, but I draw on those skills every day,” Trotter Nussbaum said. She graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s degrees in theater and psychology, along with a minor in justice, peace and conflict studies. She said professors in her justice and theology classes challenged her faith with love and grace, ultimately strengthening it and shaping her into the faith-based peacebuilder she is today.

After a decade spent working at nonprofits and government agencies, Trotter Nussbaum returned to 91����Ƶ in 2013 as associate director of CIE. Fueled by formative experiences during a 1998 intercultural trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, she began pursuing a master’s degree in conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. It took her another five years to complete the two-year program while working at CIE and raising two children. In 2017, she earned her MA.

Ever the lifelong learner, Trotter Nussbaum continues to seek out further education. She’s working toward earning MDiv equivalency so that she can enroll in the new Doctor of Ministry program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

Over the years, she’s received numerous scholarships as a student. She said those scholarships, as well as 91����Ƶ’s tuition benefits for employees, made it possible for her to continue her studies. “I love how 91����Ƶ encourages its employees to take the classes they want to take,” she said. “The ability to take classes, even one at a time, for almost free is such a blessing.”

Trotter Nussbaum and her husband, Brian Nussbaum ’00, live in Harrisonburg with their two children. Her brother, Travis Trotter ’99, serves as university registrar for 91����Ƶ.

Your generous support helps students like Trotter Nussbaum pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. Together, we can help write 91����Ƶ’s next chapter.

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

Three choirs from diverse musical and cultural traditions will join together for a concert held at 91����Ƶ this week.

The event, Love, Joy & Peace: A Choral Celebration!, will be held at Lehman Auditorium on Friday, March 14, at 7 p.m. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10.

Dr. David Berry, director of the music program at 91����Ƶ, described the event as a big celebration. “The idea for this concert was truly born out of a sense of community,” he said. “We’re not just bringing together different styles of music, but also we’re bringing together people from different communities.”

The concert will feature performances by:

• the 91����Ƶ Chamber Singers, the university’s auditioned touring chamber choir, directed by Professor Benjamin Bergey, singing songs of hope and unity from its recent spring break tour;
• the 91����Ƶ Gospel Choir, a talented group of students directed by 91����Ƶ senior Kay Pettus, delivering uplifting gospel music; and 
• the Kush Anglican Choir, a choir from a Sudanese congregation in Harrisonburg, directed by 91����Ƶ senior Rita Toto, performing traditional Sudanese songs in Arabic. 

Berry first heard the latter choir perform at a fundraiser last July at A Bowl of Good in Harrisonburg. The supported Pax Dei for Nuba, a nonprofit raising awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. “Their choir sounded incredible, and they perform a variety of music, including songs from their culture and in their native language,” Berry said. “I knew we had to invite them to perform on campus.”

After each choir performs their own selection of songs, the three vocal ensembles will combine on stage to sing “Let’s Come Together,” an original composition written by guest artist Makinto.

Makinto, a talented multi-instrumentalist and African Soul artist studying at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, will also perform solo selections throughout the evening and collaborate with Berry on a piano duet for the final musical number. 

Makinto previously performed as a guest artist at 91����Ƶ’s 2023 Music Gala Concert. He and his wife, Mukarabe, co-founded Amahoro International, a mission organization promoting peace and development in East Africa. Learn more about his journey to 91����Ƶ here!

The 91����Ƶ Department of Music partnered with the Center for Interfaith Engagement and Multicultural Student Services to present this concert. It is sponsored by the Music, Peace and Justice grant, in conjunction with the Music & Peacebuilding major.

Lars Åkerson ’08 used a familiar Mennonite symbol, that of a quilt, to discuss the importance of belonging. “We need to piece back together the quilt of our belonging, acknowledge the extent of our fragmentation, touch and unfold the edges of our differences, and become stitched together by the colored threads of our grief,” he said. Åkerson, representing the , served as the first keynote speaker for the 2025 Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship (ICPF) conference. His work with the Coalition involves building Indigenous solidarity, and he discussed collaborations he helped facilitate between Maya and Mennonite farmers. 

The conference, held from Friday, Feb. 21, to Sunday, Feb. 23, in the 91����Ƶ Seminary building, centered around the theme “Building Solidarity: from Turtle Island to Palestine.” It brought together 110 attendees, some from the Harrisonburg community and area universities, and others from Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker colleges across the U.S. Aidan Yoder ’24, a recent 91����Ƶ graduate who served on the conference planning committee, said he was excited by the energy that students brought to the event. “We far surpassed my goals for the conference with the number of people involved and the variety of institutions represented,” Yoder said.

Two speakers, Adam Ramer and Nick Martin, shared the second keynote address on , an organization working to build Palestinian solidarity. Ramer and Martin discussed the purpose and mission of their organization for about half an hour, explaining that they stand with the downtrodden and oppressed, particularly those in Palestine, and strive for a world “where all God’s children are free.” For the next 45 minutes, they opened the floor to questions. “How do you build empathy for a cause like a cease-fire?” one attendee asked. Ramer and Martin then discussed the importance of reaching people’s hearts by going beyond logical arguments and appealing to values and emotions.

Between the keynote addresses on Saturday, attendees chatted over pastries, fruit, and coffee and attended workshops. Some workshops focused on broad topics such as nonviolent action, while others discussed specific justice and peacebuilding endeavors, including Palestine solidarity in Harrisonburg and visual and digital activism in Brazil and Argentina. Yoder said he heard from many attendees who enjoyed the workshops as a place to ask questions and learn more.

91����Ƶ last hosted the ICPF in February 2020, before it was indefinitely put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Renae Benner, an 91����Ƶ junior who helped plan the 2025 conference, said she felt that people learned a lot and built stronger relationships between colleges. “I’m optimistic that we successfully restarted the annual ICPF,” she said. As Åkerson said in his address, “The way things are is not the way they must be.” Although he was talking about activism more broadly, his words could also apply to restarting a beloved conference, one that Goshen College first hosted 77 years ago. 

A highlight from the conference for Yoder came during weekend reflections when the committee announced that two colleges had tentatively agreed to host the ICPF for the next two years. “I was glad the energy we created this year resulted in the continuation of the annual conference,” he said.

Those planning the ICPF 2025 conference were Renae Benner, Shawna Hurst, Micaiah Landis, Georgia Metz, Tim Seidel, and Aidan Yoder.

For Mennonite-raised Nightbitch author Rachel Yoder, what excites her most about speaking at 91����Ƶ is learning how Mennonites will react to her book. “Will they be offended? Will they relate? Will they see it as productive or worthless?” — all questions she’s pondered in an email to 91����Ƶ News.

“Now that I’m more outside the Mennonite tradition than in, it feels important to me to remain in conversation with the community regardless, not only as a means to understand the tradition better, but as a means to understand my own story, why I make art, why I have to write things that are ‘dark’ or ‘evil’ or ‘unpleasant,’” said Yoder, who will present at 91����Ƶ’s Writers Read Author Series on Friday, Feb. 28.

Yoder grew up in a Mennonite community in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Ohio before studying English literature as an undergraduate student at Georgetown University. She is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. Currently, she serves as assistant professor of screenwriting and cinema arts at the University of Iowa. 

Her debut novel Nightbitch, published in 2021, is a “strange and unforgettable story about a sleep-deprived stay-at-home mother who, after apparently growing extra nipples, sharper canine teeth and a tail, develops an ‘exhilarating and magical’ ability to literally become a powerful bitch. ()

“It became a cult hit, was named one of the best books of the year by Esquire, got shortlisted for a PEN/Hemingway award — and has now been made into a film starring Amy Adams and directed by Marielle Heller.”

91����Ƶ Professor Kevin Seidel said the Language and Literature Department tends to invite authors for its Writers Read series who have some connection to the Mennonite tradition or who can “help us see past the edges of that tradition.” Yoder, he said, meets both of those conditions.

Seidel credited fellow 91����Ƶ English Professor Kirsten Beachy with introducing him to Nightbitch a couple years ago. 

“She handed me the book with a smile that, looking back, probably meant I dare you to read this,” he recalled. “The first paragraph was so brilliant, so affectionately self-deprecating, and so off-kilter funny that I had to read the rest.”