Each semester and summer, 91����Ƶ students spread out across the globe, usually accompanied by faculty and staff who have lived in the area and who, with the help of natives, introduce a perspective into the culture that is far more intimate than just visiting the usual tourist sites. The experience is much more unique than typical study-abroad programs in which students are housed in universities and take traditional academic coursework.

Several graduate programs also offer cross-culturals, including the and , MA in biomedicine [read more and ], and .

View a of 91����Ƶ’s cross-cultural program.

The unforgettable experience of her semester travels in France and the Ivory Coast “still permeates my life 20 years later,” said Carrie Stambaugh Bert at a 2014 . More recently, student Sarah Regan shared that her Central Europe travels “really broadened my view.”

“I learned so much more about things I never even thought about at home, things I never thought existed to know,” she said.

A panel discussion, “Drinking in Knowledge at the Source: 91����Ƶ’s Cross Cultural Program,” at the 2017 faculty-staff conference discussed the origins, goals and changes over the years of one of 91����Ƶ’s most unique programs, which started formally in 1982.

Panelists included:

• is a nursing professor, director of the Humanitarian Action Leadership program and interim cross-cultural program director. She and her husband Jim have led several cross-culturals, most recently to Guatemala and Cuba. The couple spent 10 years in church-sponsored service in Central America.
• , program assistant, has accompanied groups with her husband Brian Martin Burkholder, most recently to Bolivia.
• , emeritus professor of German, was one of the first cross-cultural leaders. His introduction to the cross-cultural experience came with an alternative service tour in Austria with Pax, a program of created in response to the reinstatement of the military draft in the United States after the start of the Korean War. Glick helped to launch Goshen’s Study-Service Term in 1968 and led a year of this program (1969-70) in Guadeloupe, FWI.
•  has led the local context cross-cultural and groups to the U.S./Mexico border, Guatemala and Cuba, often with his wife, Professor Deanna Durham;
• , psychology professor, has led groups to India, where she spent many years as a teenager;
•  is a professor of history and director of the Washington D.C.-based , housed in the Nelson Good House in the Brookland neighborhood. She has also led two groups to Europe.

Audience members included faculty and staff alumni who had experienced cross-culturals themselves as students, faculty and staff trip leaders, prospective leaders, and one faculty member, speaking for many others, who said he was “jealous … When do we get to go?”

Challenging changes: technology and globalization

The first broad theme to be discussed was notable changes over the years. Technology came up several times. Instead of leaving behind their family friends, students have access to phones and computers, which leaders say can be a distraction and even a destabilizing presence.

“It’s difficult for the experience to be an immersive one,” said Brenneman.

This accessibility also impacts parental demands and expectations: “Some parents think that because their child can contact them every day, that they should be talking or Skyping every day, and when they don’t, that becomes a challenge for the student,” one panelist said.

Peachey also mentioned creeping globalization: for example, visiting an American-style mall in Guatemala “can make you think you’re in Bethesda, Maryland.”

At WCSC, Washington D.C.’s rapid gentrification has changed the demographics and diversity of the area. Schmidt, a longtime D.C. resident, points out that when she first started as director in 1999, the city had more than 70 percent African American residents; that number has fallen to just over 50 percent.

She pointed out, though, that the cross-cultural experience is very much shaped by the choices of the leader. For example, one could visit Germany with students, as she did this summer, and completely ignore the current refugee crisis. Her students did not; they interacted with Syrian refugees. “It’s all in how you teach it and what you expose your students to,” she said.

Defining and measuring ‘success’

Professor emeritus Ervie Glick posed a question about measurement of success to his fellow panelists. “There is no test afterwards,” he pointed out, adding that the extensive journaling required of student-travelers often provides a window into unwitnessed and subtle changes to student worldviews.

Burkholder said a “growth in empathy” was a quality she considered to be a favorable measurement. One group of students, when visiting a poor area of a South American city, showed increased awareness of how their presence might be perceived negatively by residents.

Brenneman shared an anecdote of two students who became lost in Kolkutta —“one of the safest cities in Asia” — and eventually, using broken Hindi, found their way back, exhilarated by their new-found confidence.

Within a day of arriving at WCSC, Schmidt says students are sent on a scavenger hunt around the nation’s capital, using any combination of public transportation to visit known and not-so-known places. The tradition builds confidence in a very tangible way.

“In our culture, there’s not enough opportunities for proving themselves and taking risks and having an adventure,” said Peachey, theorizing about what makes the cross-cultural program such a transformational experience for undergraduate students. “I think that’s one of the big draws.”

More on 91����Ƶ’s cross-cultural program

• Visit a to see the program’s history of travel and immersion around the world.
• Learn more about 91����Ƶ’s cross-cultural requirement and visit the cross-cultural blog.
• Read more about to Europe, Bolivia, Navajo Nation and Spain.
• The explored Anabaptist and Reformation history, with special attention to women’s history and to sites in Austria.
• The first in fall 2016, led by Professor and his wife Amanda, attended 35 plays, visited 38 theaters, and produced their own dramatic piece about the different stages of cultural integration.

The final blessing, offered by Undergraduate Campus Pastor , included a prayer for each attendee, the students from all faiths and backgrounds who would begin arriving on campus that day, and — in acknowledgement of — for courage to confront “systems of racism that destroy rather than build the Kingdom of God.”

This year’s theme — “Expanding the Legacy, Enlarging the Tent” — emphasized integrating 91����Ƶ’s history and traditions with a vision for its second century; the conference also officially launched 91����Ƶ’s celebrations.

Strong vision

President donned three different types of eyewear during her keynote address to illustrate the “special kind of seeing we do in Anabaptist Mennonite schools … more clearly, deeply and widely.” [Listen to the .]

91����Ƶ is well-poised with “strong vision and high purpose” for the future, she said.

Merging perspectives of hindsight and foresight with Anabaptist-inspired insight, she noted 91����Ƶ’s strong and vibrant historic legacy; a robust, holistic and distinctive education that includes cross-cultural study and faith formation; and a cohesive, faith-filled community of faculty and staff.

“We have just begun to promote a vibrant future of counter-cultural Mennonite education, one that prepares our students for relevant and in-demand careers and meaningful spiritual lives shaped by the reconciling love of Jesus,” Huxman said.

While praising 91����Ƶ’s entrepreneurial spirit, epitomized in pioneering professor emeritus and philanthropist Margaret “Speedy” Martin Gehman and Alumnus of the Year , Huxman noted new academic offerings: the program, offered collaboratively with Goshen (Indiana) College, as well as the new four-year and a neuroscience minor.

Approximately 380 new and returning employees participated. The fall semester begins Monday, Aug. 28.

 Many voices

A panel of respondents to Huxman’s speech included , , and . The final session of storytelling, a much-loved tradition, included , , , and .

Special guest Donald B. Kraybill provided a one-hour preview of his forthcoming Centennial history, 91����Ƶ: One Hundred Years of Counter-Cultural Education (Penn State Press, 2017) to be released at the Oct. 13-15 .

Four breakout sessions highlighted influential programs, themes and concepts:

• — Professors and traced the history of racial-ethnic diversity at 91����Ƶ, with special attention to current diversity trends and shifting paradigms. They asked, “How could and should paradigms and power structures shift? How can and should our new diversity help us more fully understand and realize the radical nature of our Anabaptist values?” Click here to .

• Drinking in Knowledge at the Source: 91����Ƶ’s Cross Cultural Program — A panel of five experienced cross-cultural program leaders discussed one of 91����Ƶ’s most unique academic programs and included , professor and interim cross-cultural program director; , program assistant; , emeritus professor; , cross-cultural leader and adjunct instructor; and professors and .
• Creating a Beloved Community at 91����Ƶ: Organizational Culture as Blessing and Barrier — Professor discussed culture and sub-culture identities as both assets and liabilities. He invited the group to list both blessings and barriers to 91����Ƶ’s culture (and multiple sub cultures), noting that you must first understand your own organizational culture before you can interpret for — and thus fully integrate — newcomers.
• “Thy Word is Truth”: Old Song, New Tune — Professor , associate dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, and Professor discussed “word” and “truth” as the biblical writer imagined these words, and engaged with ways that the motto speaks to 91����Ƶ at 100 years.

In late April, Lehman, now 85, made another trip – not quite so far – from his home in Ohio to James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he and nearly 60 other “Paxers,” including organization co-founder and former leader Cal Redekop, received a from JMU’s .

Pax, a program of (MCC), was created in response to the reinstatement of the military draft in the United States after the start of the Korean War. Mennonites, Quakers, Brethren and other conscientious objectors could perform alternative service in Europe, and later in Africa and South America. Pax continued until 1975, three years after the draft ended. By the time the program closed, nearly 1,200 young Americans, and some Canadians, had served in 40 countries.

An ‘influential’ program

Nearly 300 people packed a reception hall at JMU to celebrate the organization’s legacy. Terry Beitzel, director of the Mahatma Gandhi Center, noted that Pax was receiving only the fourth award in the center’s 10-year history. The center gives a global nonviolence award, which has been presented to former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter and South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, and also the community service award, past co-recipients of which include restorative justice pioneer , a professor at 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ), and JMU nursing professor Vida Huber.

“Pax was chosen for the award because of its contribution to establishing alternative service programs and influencing the formation of the U.S. Peace Corps, but primarily because of the emphasis on service to others,” said Beitzel, who has taken courses and taught at 91����Ƶ’s and earned a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

“Pax serves as an example of service and peacemaking for all of us today,” said JMU Provost Jerry Benson.

Redekop, now 89 and living in Harrisonburg, accepted the award on behalf of Pax and its volunteers.

“I’m only the handmaiden for Pax or handlanger – German for lackey,” he said, before calling up ‘76, who chairs the MCC U.S. board. Hershberger, a professor at 91����Ƶ, spoke of the Pax legacy and how it affected her own MCC work, with husband Jim ‘82, in Central America.

‘Paxers’ still connected

Redekop and Paul Peachey ‘45 dreamed up the new organization while the two were in Europe serving in post-war relief efforts with MCC. (Both Peachey, who eventually taught at 91����Ƶ, and Redekop went on to academic careers in the field of sociology. Redekop is also a former business executive who has written widely on Christian ethics in business.)

Inspired by the Latin word for peace, the Pax program began in Europe with housing projects for war refugees, including German-speaking Mennonites from Ukraine, who were caught between the German and Soviet armies. Redekop, raised in the Midwest in an immigrant community of German-speaking Mennonites from Russia, was able to communicate in the low-German dialect.

The cultural exchange between Paxers and the people they helped was rich and rewarding. Lowell E. Bender ’67, current MCC board member and the evening’s master of ceremonies, was a Pax worker in Germany, Austria and Greece from 1961-63, where he witnessed the long-term devastation caused by the war while constructing new houses for families whose homes had been destroyed years before. Bender came back to the United States after his service and enrolled at 91����Ƶ.

“We were all changed by our experiences,” he said, of the Paxers.

“Many of the Pax veterans still stay in touch with the people they served,” says ‘62, whose interest in the German language and culture began with his Pax tour and eventually led to a teaching career as a German language professor (he retired from 91����Ƶ in 2004). Reunions of the , the unit Glick served in, have been held nine times since 1970, including once in Salzburg, Austria.

Paul M. Harnish ’64, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, visited a large, modern chicken processing co-op that he helped start years ago in an impoverished area of Greece. His little hatchery began with 500 chicks imported from the United States. Harnish remembers his delivery being complicated by the need to spend the night in a hotel with the chicks before he could return to the village.

Editor’s Note: The history of the Pax program is featured in two books: Urie Bender’s Soldiers of Compassion (1969) and Cal Redekop’s The Pax Story: Service in the Name of Christ (2001). A 2008 award-winning documentary Pax Service: An Alternative to War was produced by Burton Buller, Cal Redekop and Albert Keim, a former 91����Ƶ history professor.