“That first or second week, I thought, ‘I’m not gonna make it. This is my last semester here, and I’m not coming back,’” she recalled.

But then, she said, she began forming deep connections with her professors.

“Going to school with students nearly half my age, I felt a little more connected with my professors than with my fellow students,” she said. “When I started making those connections, I had this feeling that I was going to be OK after all.”

She had met her advisor, English Professor Dr. Kevin Seidel, during an open house the previous fall. “He checked in one day to make sure I was doing all right,” Beachy said. “We talked about how my experience was going, and that was super helpful.”

Beachy graduated with degrees in English and writing studies last spring after five semesters at 91����Ƶ. She had transferred to the university from online classes at Blue Ridge Community College. By the time she enrolled at 91����Ƶ, she had already spent four years teaching at the church school she graduated from and another 10 years developing curriculum at in Harrisonburg.

When Beachy, who lives in Staunton, expressed interest in pursuing a bachelor’s degree, a co-worker at Christian Light recommended 91����Ƶ. He thought the close-knit community would be a good fit for her, and he was right.

“The fact that 91����Ƶ is small makes it more personable,” she said. “I feel like you get to know your professors better. I didn’t know that when I started, but I’ve enjoyed that.”

She mentioned Dr. Marti Eads and Chad Gusler as faculty members she’s grown close to. “I appreciate the connections I made here, and I feel that some of my professors are still my friends,” she said. “They’re people I connect with when I see them, which is really useful.”

Beachy worked part-time at Christian Light while taking classes as a full-time student and tried to find courses that fit her busy schedule. When the registrar suggested she take a sociology class, she enrolled in Dr. Gaurav Pathania’s class.

She described the sociology professor as “very personable” and fondly recalled that he served chai and cookies in class. “That was something I always enjoyed,” Beachy said. “We would have discussions outside of class, too, and it was interesting to hear his perspectives on life in India versus life here.” She enjoyed his introductory sociology class so much that she signed up for more classes with Pathania. Those sociology classes helped her think about the world differently and better understand social issues.

Pathania remembers Beachy as never missing a class and demonstrating a level of thoughtfulness and maturity that set her apart. “Joyce is truly one of the most exceptional students I have encountered in my five years of teaching at 91����Ƶ,” he wrote.

Through a “Local Context” intercultural program, Beachy spent a summer studying various neighborhoods and social groups in Harrisonburg. That experience led her to try different ethnic restaurants in the area. “I still enjoy doing that to this day,” she said.

Last spring, Beachy served as an editorial intern for 91����Ƶ’s marketing and communications department, writing many well-received articles for 91����Ƶ News. She attended the 2025 Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship Conference and wrote a recap about it. Her story about the intercultural to Guatemala and Mexico was one of the most read stories of 2025. She also wrote about an initiative by the Latinx Student Alliance to distribute “Know Your Rights” cards to members of Harrisonburg’s immigrant community. At the same time, she volunteered to help adult English learners at 91����Ƶ’s Intensive English Program, which was at the heart of another article written by her.

Near the end of her time at 91����Ƶ, Beachy was promoted to the role of literacy coordinator at Christian Light Publications. She said her employer is helping reimburse her for tuition costs.

“In the (conservative Mennonite) setting where I come from, it’s not as common for people to pursue higher education,” she said. “They didn’t have any program in place to help with tuition costs, but now they want to offer it to others who want to go to college, which I’m really excited about. It means some reimbursement for me, but it also opens a path for other people.”

Beachy said there are advantages to attending college as a nontraditional, older student. She met students who knew what they wanted to do and were serious about studying, as well as others who were in college because their parents wanted them there. “They didn’t know what they were doing,” she said. “I always felt sorry for them and wished they could just go out and work for a couple years and figure out what they actually wanted to do.”

She mentioned reading The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was turned into a Brad Pitt movie a couple decades ago.

“It’s about a guy who’s born an old man, and he goes through life backwards,” she said. “I’ve thought about that story sometimes with my experience at 91����Ƶ. I felt like I was doing things backwards. Most people go to school and then start their careers. I did my career first, then went to school. But I’m really glad I did it. Now, if I have friends in their 30s who say, ‘Oh, I want to go to college,’ I tell them, ‘Yeah, you should. It’s absolutely worth it.’”

Professor Martha Greene Eads has been appointed as a mentor in the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program. Eads, who teaches English at 91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ), is the first faculty member from a Mennonite institution to be appointed as a mentor. 

The Lilly Graduate Fellows Program supports academically talented graduate students who are exploring vocations in church-related higher education. It’s one of several initiatives run by the Lilly Fellows Program, which was founded in 1991 at Christ College, the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University in Indiana.

Eads’ mentoring partner in this three-year project is Professor Charles Strauss, who teaches history at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Frederick, Maryland. Eads and Strauss will each have a chance to host the Lilly mentees in conferences on their respective campuses, in addition to collaborating with the graduate students on research, teaching, and professional development.

Their cohort of fellows come from various humanities and arts programs at Stony Brook University, Boston College, the University of Notre Dame, Ohio State University, the Art Institute of Chicago, Georgetown University, and the University of Michigan.

“I can hardly wait to bring these young scholars to see what a wonderful place 91����Ƶ is to teach,” Eads said. “So many people pass through grad school, thinking that they need to snag jobs at major research universities. One of the program’s goals is to help them envision possibilities for flourishing on smaller, church-related campuses.”

Program mentors are appointed in teams of one male and one female scholar from different Christian traditions (Strauss is Roman Catholic).

“He’s an impressive historian, a person of deep Catholic faith, and a lively conversationalist,” Eads said. “I could hardly believe my good fortune when Joe Creech in the LFP office invited me to mentor, but when he went on to say that he was asking Charles to be my teammate, I knew the experience would be too much fun to pass up.”

In addition to graduate student fellowships, the Lilly Fellows Program also offers postdoctoral teaching fellowships at Valparaiso University, maintains a national network of church-related colleges and universities, and operates the Lilly Faculty Fellows Program for mid-career faculty leaders from its network of schools.

Eads taught at Valparaiso University as a Lilly Postdoctoral Fellow in the arts and humanities from 2001-2003. She’s also been awarded several faculty mini-grants from the Lilly Foundation over the years. 

Two 91����Ƶ alumni were in previous cohorts of the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program: Michael Spory ’11, now an architect, and Donovan Tann ’08, who recently joined the language and literature department at the University of Dubuque after teaching literature, writing and film at Hesston College.

91����Ƶ’s recipients of the annual Excellence in Teaching Awards for 2021 are:

• in the Tenured Faculty category, Martha Greene Eads, PhD, professor of English,
• in the Pre-tenure Faculty category, Leah Kratz, assistant professor of business and leadership,
• in the Adjunct Instructor category, Robert Curry, adjunct music faculty and director of the jazz ensemble and wind ensemble. 

The award honors the gifts of faculty across all the positional categories of employment. Criteria include impact on students, effective teaching practices, subject knowledge and continual growth, including a commitment to professional and pedagogical development.

The selection process began with nominations from the campus community. A committee appointed by the Faculty Senate reviewed the nominations and selected the honorees.  

“Much gratitude was expressed by the selection committee to these educators  for the ways they go above and beyond in their service to students and this learning community,” said Professor Tim Seidel, who chaired the committee. “It was such a privilege to read through all of the nominations and get just a small glimpse into all of the incredible work our teachers are doing at 91����Ƶ.”

Tenured Faculty: Martha Greene Eads, PhD

Eads joined the 91����Ƶ faculty in 2003, after teaching at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women and at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where she held a Lilly Fellowship in Humanities and the Arts from 2001-03. 

She’s introduced a number of innovative literature courses during her time at 91����Ƶ, getting students out into the community to experience the themes they’re studying, and collaborating across disciplines to co-teach with music and physical education faculty. 

(For a few examples, read up on her students’ pilgrimage to a local graveyard of enslaved persons, her sabbatical work studying historic harms and trauma, and a bibliotherapy program Eads started with a nearby retirement community.)

Even through online learning, “she was also so cheery and interactive, encouraging us to speak up and get to know our classmates,” wrote one student-nominator. “I can confidently say that the class which allowed me to build the deepest relationships was Marti’s class. She gave us so many opportunities for group discussions and made sure that none of us felt lonely because of online learning.”

Another noted how much extra effort Eads puts into her students “to make them better readers, writers, and scholars. She leads by example and her enthusiasm for education and literature is infectious.”

Eads earned a doctoral degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in religion from Wake Forest University, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Wake Forest University. 

Pre-tenure Faculty: Leah Kratz

Kratz began teaching accounting courses at 91����Ƶ in 2007. Previously, she was the assistant fiscal director of Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, and worked in public accounting.

Both student and faculty nominators noted the deep relationships Kratz forms with her students.

“Before COVID, she regularly had students over to her house for meals, and develops a community, family-like feel to the accounting major,” wrote a colleague. “She arranges visits with people in industry so that her students are set up with internships, ready for graduate school, and for the standardized exams.”

“She makes it so we become an accounting family, not just classmates,” wrote a student.

She’s introduced several specialized accounting courses to the program, including classes on nonprofit and governmental accounting. 

“I absolutely love teaching accounting. I feel like God put me on this Earth to spread the good news of accounting,” Kratz said. “Being a small major, we really become a close-knit group. We spend a lot of time together. Watching students from the beginning of the process when they are discovering what accounting is, to seeing them make connections and eventually excel in the major and profession excites me every day. It is why I love coming to class.”

Kratz earned a master of business administration degree from James Madison University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from 91����Ƶ.

Adjunct Instructor: Robert Curry

Curry began teaching studio lessons at 91����Ƶ about eight years ago, but he said the “real work” began in 2016, when he was asked to reinvigorate the Jazz Ensemble that had lay dormant for 12 years. He brought 41 years of experience teaching public school music, as well as performing, conducting, and arranging symphonic, jazz, and orchestra music. 

He retired at the end of the spring semester, and was independently nominated by five students and three colleagues for the Excellence in Teaching Award.

“He has gone above and beyond to get us to have the best experience that we can get in our ensemble. He is very knowledgeable in his field as well as in life,” wrote one student.

“He often goes above and beyond the call of duty in mentoring students and helping them gain a practical working knowledge of important information they will need as music teachers … he is in many ways a reliable and tireless ‘utility infielder’ for our department,” wrote a colleague.

“I cannot say enough wonderful things about Robert Curry,” said another student, who also studied under his tutelage in high school before coming to 91����Ƶ. “He truly cares about the lives and well being of each of his students and wants them to become the best versions of themselves.”

Curry, in turn, had praise for his protegés. 

“One thing I always enjoyed at 91����Ƶ was that the students were willing to try anything I threw at them, whether it be in the Jazz Ensemble or Wind Ensemble,” he said. “With COVID especially, I had to find unusual music for the Wind Ensemble to perform because of how the disease affected enrollment. They rose to the occasion. Students in the Jazz Ensemble were always willing to try a new or different improvisation technique to enhance their performance.”

Curry earned a master’s degree in music education from Brigham Young University and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Butler University.

This year’s Selection Committee members were Carrie Bert, athletics representative; Shannon Cooper, Student Government Association representative; Micah Shristi, Student Life representative); Daniel Showalter, faculty, 2020 awardee; Bonnie Yoder, faculty, 2020 awardee; and Timothy Seidel, committee chair, Faculty Senate representative. 

The committee received 74 nominations for 42 different teachers this year, with 75% of nominations coming from students. 

This was neither the end of the semester we anticipated nor the graduation we expected, but it is the semester we have completed and the graduation we celebrate, said Dean David Brubaker this past weekend to a virtual celebration for graduates from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Those words encapsulate the whirlwind experience of the last nine weeks, as our semester was completely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was not the semester we anticipated, but it was the semester we completed.

And what choice did we have but to persevere, adapt, be flexible and patient, flatten one curve as we were being slung faster on an accompanying learning curve of what exactly to do with ourselves, our bodies and minds in this strange new world.

The following collection of photos and text is a snapshot of the semester, collected in real time and revisited now, for those of you who are more peripheral to 91����Ƶ. It might help to give a sense of how faculty, staff and students responded in and out of classroom — in true 91����Ƶ fashion, with resilience, empathy and commitment.

Here we go (online)!

Some of the first on campus to sense an impending switch were employees in Information Systems. They began thinking about remote learning during 91����Ƶ’s spring break the first week in March, and in anticipation, beefed up their HelpZone articles on a variety of relevant topics.

By March 12, when 91����Ƶ announced a move to online learning, IS had reviewed and increased capacity of all systems and equipment (including webcams, laptops and Chromebooks) necessary for online teaching and campus operations. Needless to say, they were busy.

Two graphs from Jenni Piper, director of User Services, tell the story:

First Helpdesk Tickets. The green line shows last year’s demand and the blue line this year’s.

And second, the number of daily Zoom meetings hosted through the campus account, beginning in early March.

After hosting a training for faculty March 13 and the shift to online the classes the next week, IS handled 64 tickets on March 16, something of a watermark that shows when faculty and staff began to engage with the reality of a move to remote work.

Pedagogues thinking positively

91����Ƶ 10 days into the online shift, I asked a few professors how things were going. Some of their answers are included below. I was particularly struck by the positive perspective of veteran educator Carolyn Stauffer, professor of applied social sciences:

In reality, what we’re experiencing now is the presence of hybrid education. We’ve had the chance to meet in-person for the first part of the semester and now I get to know each participant’s online presence as well. It’s wonderful to be able to build on the assets of both sides of that equation!

Solo field trips

Professor Doug Graber Neufeld‘s “Natural History of the Shenandoah Valley” course syllabus was packed full of fantastic field trips to local natural wonders and lab experiences (like taxidermy practice below).

With his students scattered in mid-March, the field trips turned into independent explorations, such as Katelyn Dean‘s below. Here she holds morel mushrooms she and her dad found in the George Washington National Forest, just one find shared during class time.

“It’s the highlight of my day to hear students who daily recount the joy they find in now recognizing the animals, plants and rocks around them,” Neufeld said. “In such unusual times, experiencing the beauty and complexity of the natural world together has been a unique source of hope for us.” Read more about this class.

Conversations continue

In Professor Marti Eads’ class “Ways of War and Peace,” students met virtually with Reverend Masayuki Sawa, the pastor of a Reformed (Calvinist) congregation in Japan. He spoke of his perception of contemporary Japanese attitudes toward World War II and Japanese perceptions of the US and our own military actions, then and now, among other topics.

The class was slated to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. Instead, guest speaker Gillian Steinberg, an educator at the Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy in the Bronx, and her students from the Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition met online with 91����Ƶ students.

This conversation and the de-brief afterwards held richness and nuance, Eads said, with several classmates opening up about their own religious experiences, choices and identities. Recognizing the common humanity, despite labels — “just the idea of all of us sitting together talking and all of us from different groups” was a moving experience, said one of her students. []

Creating community with virtual high fives

Engineering professor Esther Tian (pictured above at top right) continued teaching synchronous classes, preferring the structure and the presence of students. “It is also good for students to see each other and talk to each other before class as they would in a classroom.

We do high fives, thumb-ups (and downs) during class, we find out new features of Zoom and use them right away. It has been fun. I also found that one-on-one and small group Zoom sessions were working really well in answering students’ questions as well as advising..”

Senior Collin Longenecker, visible below Tian in the photo above and also at right, was an embedded tutor with a first-year engineering course. Though initially he wasn’t sure how Zoom sessions would work, he adapted well: “The students pop in and out and they can share their screen with me. It is almost like I am in the engineering lab looking over their shoulder trying to help them troubleshoot the problem. I have been helping a few students that I had not helped before we went to online school which is cool.”

Read more about 91����Ƶ tutors at work during online classes.

The power of community to enhance learning was the top tip in a blog post titled ” by Dean (and chem prof) Tara Kishbaugh for fellow organic chemistry teachers using the same texbook. “Community Matters,” she began. Use the relationships that have already been built to help students continue asking questions and learning in small peer groups. And she reminded readers, you can still greet each student individually when they enter your Zoom classroom.

Tech fails/wins: ‘chipmunky’-ness and new relationships

Professor Mark Sawin teaches U.S. History 103, from World War I to the present, with a focus on “power and paradox.” Sawin tried to do a synchronous class on Zoom and “it rather hilariously and spectularly failed,” he reported.

“So, since then, I’ve been pre-recording all my lectures on Panopto so students can watch them asynchronously, and with that program, you can adjust my speed. At 1.5 speed, I start to get rather chipmunky… at .5 speed I sound like the television show ‘Drunk History.’ I’m not sure if that amuses students, but it certainly amuses me.”

With the lectures available at any time, he began using normal class time as an open forum where students could drop in and ask questions.

“I’ve had some wonderful 1-on-1 conversations with students that I would never have had in our normal class setting. In this sense, our ‘social distancing’ has actually provided some closeness that wasn’t there before, and for that I’m grateful,” Sawin said. “I’ve also been pleased and touched by the grace that students have extended to us as we struggle to move our classes online. And I believe we, too, are showing that grace, focusing on the learning objectives and the big important ideas, and allowing a lot of latitude when it comes to the many wifi issues, isolation stresses, and general quarantine chaos we’re all learning to live with.”

Grace and connection

That grace is something education professor Paul Yoder has also experienced. Students in his classes are pre-service teachers and as a pedagogical specialist himself, the shift to online classes provided ample room for discussions around topics related to the digital classroom.

He wrote: “The key word in my planning for weekly class sessions via Zoom has been connection. We have taken time for each of the 18 students to rate how they are doing on a scale of 1-10 and then share with the group. Last week I sent individual emails as a follow up to the few students who placed themselves on the low end of the scale. I have also been excited to hear from some of my advisees who have shared their affirmations of how professors are providing flexibility as needed.  Particularly as we recognize that not all of us have the same level of internet access, I know that living into an ethic of care is essential.”

Nancy Heisey, seminary dean, also used check-ins with her classes, which often included adult students who juggled many responsibiliities, including pastors working in ministry settings.

“We take time every period to share ‘how it’s going’ and encourage one another. Some students are struggling with a household where everyone is working on line in a crowded space—spouse tele-working, children trying to do homework, and seminary student worrying about class work and how to get a video service up for their congregation’s Sunday service.

“I’ve been amazed, though, at the depth of engagement—this morning, my New Testament students each did a creative rendering of a parable of Jesus. They were funny, sobering, and encouraging!”

Hearing some of those needs led seminary professor Sarah Bixler to host an April 1 online gathering that drew 32 pastors, including 22 alumni, from four denominations and eight states. This has led to a free online series for pastors. Check it out here.

A wider global market for CJP

Innovation happened quickly during the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s facilitation class, co-taught by Professor Catherine Barnes and Amy Knorr. Students usually practice skills they’ve learned in person by helping clients with a planned discussion, strategic visioning or group dialogue. With face-to-face options limited and practice still required, students moved online.

Above, one group produced an online strategic planning for Shenandoah Green, a local environmental group, including a circle process, a historical reflection using a digital timeline that folks could fill in, and a card sort, a way of getting ideas out into the open and then grouping them together. “Board members at Shenandoah Green were delighted,” said Knorr, who helps coordinate practice settings for CJP students.

In the midst of the pandemic, CJP also hosted several online gatherings for alumni to connect and share resources.

And significantly, center staff moved quickly to adapt the Summer Peacebuilding Institute to online classes, expedite a new hybrid graduate degree program in transformational leadership, and prepare upcoming semester classes for online delivery.

The massive disruption and accompanying move towards online learning and programs have created new opportunities, said Executive Director Jayne Docherty, especially in a previously untapped market of prospective participants who could not have afforded to travel or would not have been issued a visa in the current environment.

“In the face of the pandemic, many people are waking up to the fact that our societies have become more unequal and unjust and that we are teetering on the edge of violent confrontations between social subgroups. Some of those people are saying, ‘This can’t continue. This is just wrong. What can I do? I want to be part of the solution.’ By moving our programs online quickly, we have helped channel their energy and impulse to help others in ways that prevent violence and address injustices.”

’12 hours ahead of our students’

As daily reports arrived into faculty in-boxes about the closure of practicum and internship placements to students, the nursing department focused on making sure their seniors could graduate on time and join the fight against covid-19.

For one cohort, that meant three 12-hour shifts at a local hospital. For others, they logged clinical hours (and their supervising professor also took calls) at a special covid-19 public health hotline.

“The faculty were meeting hour to hour, staying 12 hours ahead of the students as we were making decisions,” said Professor Melody Cash.

Eventually, a waiver allowed faculty to substitute simulation hours for live clinicals and all 16 seniors finished out the semester in good standing, ready to join the workforce.

It’s the small things…

Marci Frederick (above), director of Sadie Hartzler Library, and Professor Kevin Seidel dressed in academic regalia in honor of their senior seminar students for their last Zoom class meeting.

Congratulations, 91����Ƶ family, on the end of the semester we did not anticipate.

We celebrate.

On a sunny day in September, 64 students from 91����Ƶ stood in a graveyard, listening to the names of people who may be buried there. Cream violets blanketed the ground, likely planted on the graves by mourners from another age. Graveyard director Sarah Kohrs rang a bell, its somber tone signifying a time for silent reflection. 

No one knows for sure who is buried in this clearing by a wooded stream, half an hour from 91����Ƶ’s campus, because they were enslaved Virginians – African Americans who died on a plantation outside of present-day Quicksburg, Va. Many of the graves have no marker at all, and the ones that do are simply bare stones. 

“I don’t know where I’m from. I don’t know where my ancestors were from. I just know that my immediate family is from Virginia … so these could potentially be my relatives, is how I walked into it,” Jones said. “That’s probably why I got so emotional. I attached myself to them because, if I was born in another time, I could have been them.”

The graveyard is called Corhaven and is part of the . The name Corhaven is a combination of the Latin word for heart and “haven,” in the sense of a “resting place for weary travelers.”

Connecting classroom readings to the real world

91����Ƶ half of the 64 students on the field trip are taking a senior seminar with professors Marti Eads and James Richardson, titled “Stairway to Heaven: Music, Literature, and Meaning.” The rest are in Eads’ class on global literature, which includes works by Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, and Thomas Jefferson.

Keith Bell visited the graveyard with the global literature class, and said that the trip allowed him to understand Equiano’s memoir on a deeper level. The book is “the first recorded slave narrative,” Bell explained. “It was a lot easier to immerse yourself in the text, and to truly see what standpoint he was coming from.”

And to confront this horrific history only 20 miles away from campus – “how close to home it feels … was very eye-opening,” Bell said.

Senior seminars are team-taught courses that encourage students to reflect on their own identities, voices, and life journeys. The courses are interdisciplinary by nature: Eads teaches in the language and literature department; Richardson, in music.

Eads said that she and Richardson wanted to teach this seminar “because we share a commitment to helping orient students toward the Kingdom of God as well as profound admiration for Ron Rash’s exploration of that orientation process in his novel The World Made Straight.”

[Eads spent her 2015-16 sabbatical exploring Rash’s novel and more broadly, the theme of trauma in literature: she participated in a Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience training at 91����Ƶ and attended a Council of Independent Colleges American history seminar summer seminar on slave narratives at Yale University before embarking on her study. Read more about her studies.]

Their students read The World Made Straight before the Corhaven visit. Eads explained that the book grapples with community-wide trauma. In that context, “we wanted to take our class to a site that would be rich in meaning,” she said.

Acknowledging the history in ‘our backyard‘

Kohrs hopes that visitors leave Corhaven recognizing that slavery happened here, “in our backyard.” At one time, she said, 12 percent of the population of Shenandoah County was enslaved.

“I hope that in coming there, they recognize it’s not about shame or blame, but it’s about understanding the past, so that we have a better understanding of the present,” Kohrs said.

Bell said the field trip was that eye-opening experience for him. He grew up in Staunton, and attended a rural high school that did not teach about slavery in any depth.

“Being Caucasian from a primarily Caucasian area, you don’t really learn much about slavery … [Corhaven] helped me to acknowledge it more,” Bell said, “realizing where we are, the history that we have with slavery, and also incorporating that into understanding our text in class.”

Kohrs has continued efforts begun by the history club at nearby Stonewall Jackson High School to identify those buried, by combing through plantation documents, circuit court records, and whatever other 19th-century paperwork wasn’t burned during the Civil War. She started out as a volunteer at the site in 2015, restoring the cemetery to “create a sacred space that could be dedicated to the public,” Kohrs said. The restoration was finished in 2016.

Nobody is certain exactly how many people are buried at Corhaven, or where. Because of this, Jones said she was careful where she walked, to show respect. 

Kohrs said it’s “essentially a life-long project, trying to know the families and the names that are connected there.” Her background is in archaeology, and while she doesn’t conduct any “invasive” research that would disrupt the graves, Kohrs does use those skills as they apply to research.

Corhaven as an emotional experience

Elena Bernardi, a peacebuilding and development major, also went on the field trip. As an Ethiopian-Italian woman who recently moved to the U.S., she approached the experience with a more analytical bent, making connections between Corhaven’s history and The World Made Straight.

“However, when we went inside the actual cemetery and saw the ‘scattered’ placements of the graves, it quickly turned into a deeply human and emotional moment, academics aside,” Bernardi said. “The unmarked graves and missing identities and names created a haunting feeling, more tangible than the one in the book.”

The fact many of those buried at Corhaven were not given so much as a stone marker affected Jones, as well.

“The disrespect in that … that was hard,” Jones said. “When I go visit my grandma or someone, I visit a tombstone.”

“Although this legacy is incredibly painful,” Eads said, “Sarah [Kohrs] invites others into the space to reflect, mourn, and honor the individuals buried there.”

Kohrs splits her time between physically caring for the cemetery and leading tour groups of local students, scout troops, book clubs, and other community groups. She’s hosted everyone from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to Coming to the Table, a national organization with roots at 91����Ƶ that brings together descendants of the enslaved with the descendants of slave owners. Master gardeners volunteer regularly to do most of the physical upkeep, and include community volunteers in their work.

It’s an “opportunity to do a lot of reconciliation work,” around slavery, Kohrs said. “A tangible way to really come into contact with that aspect of healing.”

The students ended their trip with time to write poetic reflections. Bernardi shared an excerpt: “The depressions on the ground, the unevenness of the landscape, created a somewhat eerie feeling; if it weren’t for those details, the place could have been overlooked or mistaken for something with no past or human history.”

To learn more about visiting the Corhaven Graveyard or volunteering community work days, contact Sarah Kohrs at 434-922-2029 or email corhavengraveyard@inthecoracle.org.

What has been your post-91����Ƶ studies and/or career path?

After finishing my English degree at 91����Ƶ, I entered an English PhD program at Temple University and studied early modern English literature while teaching both literature and writing courses. During my graduate program, I was a member of the first cohort of the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program, a selective three-year program that provides mentorship, support and colloquia for graduate students interested in the intersection of faith and scholarship. After completing my PhD, I began teaching at Hesston College.  

How did your academic studies and professors at 91����Ƶ prepare and inspire you for your graduate studies and/or current work?

Being able to have a faculty member as my advisor at 91����Ƶ helped me to select coursework that interested me and which has contributed to my scholarship in unusual ways. I might not have taken as much interest in religion’s role in the early modern world without my introduction to theology course. I also had the flexibility to take senior English seminars in both French postmodern literature and transatlantic modernism, and these courses helped to prepare me for graduate school and to develop my voice as a literary scholar.

The mentorship that I received as a student, both formally through the honors program and informally within the language arts department, was crucial to my decision to pursue graduate study. I developed important intellectual virtues of critical thinking and reflection with my honors cohort, and I was honored to share an informal weekly lunch with Jay B. Landis in my last years at 91����Ƶ. I’m immensely grateful for the way that my professors invested in me as a person and future teacher-scholar.

How did your extra-curricular activities at 91����Ƶ prepare and inspire you for your graduate studies and/or current work?

One of the ways that 91����Ƶ helped to make my education affordable was through a campus job. My work in the library and at the reference desk in particular fostered the skills I needed to be a better researcher and gave me a clearer understanding of what an academic library can do for students and the campus community.

What about your experience at 91����Ƶ has made you distinctive when applying to graduate school or jobs?

Over the years, the positive experiences I had as an 91����Ƶ student have been an excellent resource for my own teaching practice. When I began teaching as a graduate student, I often found myself returning to the kinds of discussion-focused and student-centered teaching techniques that I saw modeled during my time as an 91����Ƶ undergraduate. This repository of ideas helped me to be more comfortable and successful in my transition from college student to graduate instructor and finally to college professor.

Similarly, the kind of critical thinking and interdisciplinary openness that my professors modeled helped to prepare me for the kind of inquiry and research that I would go on to do in graduate school. Because 91����Ƶ is a member of the Lilly Fellows Program Network, my advisor – Professor Marti Eads – helped me to apply for a fellowship program that provided financial support and mentorship that helped me to navigate graduate school more effectively.

What attracted you to attend 91����Ƶ as an undergraduate?

When I was looking for colleges, I was interested in a place where I could work closely with my professors in small classes and where I could explore a variety of different academic areas as an undergraduate. The 91����Ƶ honors program was particularly exciting to me because of the way it challenged me to grow as a student and as a person.

What are some favorite memories of your time at 91����Ƶ?

One of my highlights was studying in Guatemala and Nicaragua as my cross-cultural semester. This kind of learning was completely different from the setting and classes that I had taken before, and I know that what I gained through language and cultural study has continued to shape my perspective as a teacher/scholar. Our leaders, Ann and Jim Hershberger, were outstanding academic, personal and spiritual guides for our whole group.  

First-year nursing major Andrew Stoltzfus, for example, has never performed Shakespeare before and says it’s difficult to memorize lines, but he’s still “enjoying it immensely.”

The cast of 91����Ƶ’s fall production, “Measure for Measure,” rehearses with enthusiasm and dedication – a trademark of the university’s actors, says Professor Justin Poole, theater program director.

“[Shakespeare’s] plays pose so many compelling challenges, and they are open to dynamic conceptual adaptations,” Poole said. “’Measure for Measure’ has many rich themes that will resonate, such as abuses of power, the power of forgiveness, and apparently conflicting loyalties to God and family.”

Performances will be in the Lee Eshleman Studio Theater Nov. 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 4 at 3 p.m. A school matinee will be on Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. (Note the change from the date listed on the print calendar.)

Due to the subject matter, some material may not be appropriate for children under the age of 12.

Tragicomedy

“Measure for Measure” is set in Vienna where Duke Vincentio temporarily steps down from rule. As the moral depravity of his subjects reaches a breaking point, the Duke gives the seemingly virtuous Angelo control of the kingdom. Isabella, a woman pledged to the church, finds herself in a morally compromising situation that could have come out of the #MeToo headlines. Shakespeare’s relevant tragicomedy comes to life in a fast-paced and music-filled production.

“Measure for Measure” is a play Poole has wanted to stage for years at 91����Ƶ, he said. So when Marti Eads, professor of English, suggested it in response to the #MeToo movement, Poole said he needed “no convincing at all … it was a fantastic idea.”

Making the language their own

To learn and understand Shakespeare’s words, the actors’ preparations have included studies with No-Fear Shakespeare, which provides a modern English translation.

The language can be confusing, said Anna Ressler, a junior psychology major. “But once I understand what my lines mean, I can figure out where to put the emphasis and how to make the line flow and make sense. It is also helpful to ignore all the commas and line breaks and only pause where there is other punctuation. Justin frequently reminds us to do this.”

After memorizing his lines, Stoltzfus said, “I tweak how I express them to give off the intended meaning. Shakespeare takes a little growing used to, but after a while it all blends together nicely.”

Poole collaborates with his actors on their character interpretations. Freshman music major Isaac Longacre appreciates that flexibility.

“I love how nothing is set in stone,” he said. “During rehearsals we just go with the flow and try to see what works. If something doesn’t feel right, we can play around until we find what works for the scene. Along with this, my character, Lord Angelo, is very different than any other character I’ve played. I enjoy this, because it pushes me outside of my comfort zone.”

Blending elements

Poole adapted the play, omitting some characters, adding a Greek-like chorus, and blending elements from Greek and Roman tragedy and English morality plays, he said, adding that all were “big influences on Shakespeare as a playwright. This production makes those influences particularly apparent.”

The adaptation also includes setting the play in the late 19th century.

“The tensions between a creeping moral decadence and a decaying sense of Christian spirituality remind me of Vienna in the late 1800s through early 1900s,” said Poole, who has traveled extensively to the city. “For this reason the costumes, lighting, and staging are heavily influenced by Art Nouveau, aestheticism, and symbolism. Klimt and Mucha are the artists who provide the most direct inspiration.”

Composer Jim Clemen‘s original score is influenced by the music from that period and 91����Ƶ theater graduate Robert Weaver is providing mood-setting lighting, Poole said. “Rachel Herrick‘s costumes do a fantastic job of setting the tone. [Theater Tech Director] Shannon Dove‘s set resembles a bombed-out cathedral, as a metaphor for society’s loss of its connection to the church.”

Performing in the studio theater gives a greater intimacy between actors and audiences, Poole said. His staging allows the actors to weave in and out of the audience.

Poole refers to “Measure for Measure” as Shakespeare’s morality play about the dangers of lust.

“The issues raised in the play will particularly resonate with audiences today, but people have always dealt with these things,” he said. “I hope the audience will come away knowing that there are many ways to do Shakespeare, and that his plays can still surprise us as they connect to us in deep ways. I hope that the actors will have a new appreciation for Shakespeare and will understand the great rewards that come from performing in his plays.”

The performance is sponsored by Everence.

For tickets, visit the box office in the lower level of the University Commons or call 540-432-458, Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Cast and Crew

Isabella: Anna Ressler  (a junior from Kidron, Ohio)

Duke Vincentio: Andrew Stoltzfus  (a first-year from Harrisonburg, Virginia)

Angelo: Isaac Longacre (a first-year from Quakertown, Pennsylvania)

Claudio/Chorus: Yoel Bobadilla  (a junior from Lancaster, Pennsylvania)

Pompey/Chorus: Avery Trinh (a first-year from Columbia, Maryland)

Lucio/MistressOverdone/Chorus: Christian Stutzman  (a sophomore from Sugarcreek, Ohio)

Provost/Barnardine/Chorus: Jay Sheppard  (a first-year from Maidens, Virginia)

Mariana/Juliet/Chorus: Renata Loberg  (a graduate student from Salem, Oregon)

Composer: Jim Clemens

Set Designer: Shannon Dove

Costume Designer: Rachel Herrick

Stage Manager: Gwen Mallow (a junior from Quicksburg, Virginia)

Assistant Director: Joseph Seitz (a first-year from Harrisonburg, Virginia)

Lighting Designer: Robert Weaver

Assistant Stage Manager: Jareya Harder (a first-year from Mountain Lake, Minnesota)

Sound: Chris Runion (a sophomore from Broadway, Virginia)

Stage Crew: Alexa Lahr, Johnny Prioleau, Chris Runion, Jay Sheppard

Theater Promotions Assistant: Liz Marin (a junior from Harrisonburg, Virginia)

Costume Crew: Phil Yoder, Katya Mattichak

Poster Designer: Missy Mutterspruch

Costume Manager: Hailey Holcomb

Props Manager: Ezrionna Prioleau

Lighting Assistants: Jareya Harder and Liz Marin

This year’s festival was the biggest yet, with approximately 350 people attending and voting for the winning teams, who were awarded cash prizes of $100 (first place) and $75 (second and third places). The event was sponsored by International Student Services and the International Student Organization (ISO), which also reimbursed chef teams for their ingredient purchases.

First place went to Leah Wenger, Sylvia Mast and Abigail Jolly for their chicken tikka masala, rice and naan; second place went to Mario Hernandez, Fred Flores-Cano and Mohammad Albaqami for their ceviche; and the Black Student Union represented by Jessica Washington and Clarissa White for their mac and cheese. 

Festival organizer and ISO president Xhorxhina Ndoka has attended three years. The senior from Albania was a member of the winning team as a first-year student, when she and her Honduran partner made tres leches, which turned out delicious – she heard: “I never had the chance to taste it, actually,” she said.

But the festival is about more than food and culinary chops, Ndoka said: “This event is important because we are not only competing or doing some food tasting. We are manifesting our cultures, sharing a taste of our home countries, and bonding with one another. Breaking bread is an act of family and close friends.”

“It’s definitely gotten busier,” said senior Emma Miller, who has attended the festival each of her years at 91����Ƶ. “A lot of people are aware that there are students from other cultures on campus, but they don’t really know what that means and they might not interact with them a lot. This is a great way to share culture and brings all that together so they can see firsthand what that looks like.”

Nearly every continent was represented by the chef teams.

This year sisters Val and Natalia Hernandez made arroz con leche, a Honduran dessert.

“I remember we used to have it when we were kids for Christmas, or when there was any holiday,” Val said. “They would just make a big batch of it, and everybody in our family would have it, and so we’re bringing it here and just remembering people and some of our festivities.”

Jeremiah Yoder served fried plantains, like those he had growing up in Burkina Faso.

“It’s not really a meal,” he said. “It’s more of an add-on, something that will go with almost every meal, especially if there is a lot of people partaking in it.”

Professor Marti Eads’ husband Christopher was manning the table of three-ingredient peanut butter cookies that she and their daughter Effie had made, to represent the United States.

“They’re really good, surprisingly good, considering there’s almost nothing in them,” he said – just eggs, peanut butter and sugar.

Senior Allene Henderson was serving an Australian dessert that she said in her home country Chile is called merengue torta: meringue, cream and strawberries – “very simple, but very hard to make,” she said.

There were laugenbrezel – a soft lye pretzel – and Bavarian sauerkraut from Germany made by Victoria Barnes, Chinese dumplings with green onion pancakes and sour and spicy shredded potatoes, lumpiang shanghai spring rolls and more.

And that winning mac and cheese? White describes it as “one of my soul food dishes I was taught to make when I was younger and I just stuck with it. Since I was able to walk, I’ve been in the kitchen just learning.”

First-year student Jonathan Reimer-Berg said he found himself gravitating toward the Latin American food, perhaps due to being enrolled growing up in a dual-language program; on his plate were arroz con leche, tamales and one of the 90 empanadas made by Glorianne Flores Mojica and Rachel Loyer that were gone within 30 minutes of the festival’s start.

Not far from where David Park and Jae Hyun Cho were serving South Korean noodles – in rapidly disappearing both spicy and sweet dishes – Gabby McMillon had made a brittle rendition of an almond and maple syrup treat she often buys at a Korean bakery in northern Virginia.

The festival is “really valuable,” she said, because it allows people to experience different cultures and to try food they don’t normally eat, plus learn new ways of preparing common foods.

“Considering the fun and the reviews we have received so far,” Ndoka said following the event, “we will upgrade this annual event into something bigger next year. What’s more encouraging than seeing Americans cook Indian food and international students engage and bond with one another?”

A straight talker with an evangelical flair that betrays his Southern Baptist roots, Posey shared some eye-opening strengths and weaknesses related to his own experience as a student at 91����Ƶ, and urged the gathered community to answer the call to “meet students where they are.”

He ended with four practical questions related to faith formation — picture Posey saying “Go get ‘em,” as we all trot to the mound — that participants carried with them throughout the day’s panel sessions, presentations and worship.

Recognize and build on your strengths as related to faith formation. Evaluate and understand your weaknesses. Ask how you can more effectively merge your calling with your work. And finally, how can you better mentor young people to lives of faith?

91����Ƶ’s faculty-staff conferences are community gatherings at the beginning and end of the academic year. This spring’s event focused on “fostering faith among students but also among ourselves,” said Professor Marti Eads, who chaired the planning committee with Campus Pastor Brian Martin Burkholder. “I hope you leave the day fed and hungry for more.”

Titled “Journey Companions: Fostering Faith Formation at 91����Ƶ,” the theme enabled discussions and development of an objective in 91����Ƶ’s strategic plan: to nurture spiritual growth and enhance formational engagement among faculty, staff and students.

“Undergraduate students in our faith mentoring survey a few years ago expressed eagerness to hear more from faculty and staff about their personal faith journeys and how they navigated doubt, challenge and opportunity,” said Burkholder. “This conference gives us a chance to hear from each other about how we’re doing that in our work on campus and how we might expand opportunities for fellowship and relationship-building into new places and spaces.”

More from Coach Posey

At a time when 91����Ƶ’s student population is more diverse than ever – and that diversity includes culture, religion, race, ethnicity and political beliefs – Posey pointed out that being open and hospitable to different perspectives is very much a part of faith formation. It was deep relationships with a small number of influential faculty and staff that aided his own spiritual and intellectual development, he said.

Posey talked about the challenges of coming to 91����Ƶ from Poquoson, a mostly white, upper middle-class community among the many military bases in the Hampton Roads area. A communications major, he said the first person he met outside of the baseball coaching staff was Professor Jerry Holsopple, an experience “which really should have counted as my cross-cultural,” he joked.

“Even among the baseball team, I heard in those first few months perspectives that differed from mine, and that was a culture shock for me, away from home for the first time, away from my girlfriend, trying to figure out some of the things that come with being at 91����Ƶ,” he said.

What helped him become more comfortable and get through “a rocky first couple of years” was a tight relationship with head coach Jason Stuhlmiller (then a high school special education teacher and now area director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and connections with faculty members Holsopple and Deanna Durham — all mentors who got to know him “on my level, on my playing field, in my arena.”

Though he came primarily with an identity and purpose tied to his athletic experience, Posey said that changed over the years, and now he’s grateful that he chose to stay and “not miss out on experiences that have been really important to who I am today.” There are plenty of students today, ones he coaches and others he knows, who have had a similar difficulty adjusting to the 91����Ƶ community.

“Whether you agree with why that student is here at 91����Ƶ or not, you have four years to build a relationship with that person and talk to them about things you’re passionate about, whether it’s peacebuilding or social justice,” he said.

One beauty of these opportunities is how they remind us of what matters: in the midst of a losing streak, Posey said a player reached out to him to talk about how God was calling him but he felt unworthy. “I want to give my life over to Christ, but how do I reconcile that?”  he asked.

“It’s easy to get lost in our jobs and lost in what we’re doing and not remember why we’re here,” Posey said. “But we have to keep that in perspective. I would venture to say that we’re all here at 91����Ƶ because we hope to impact young people in a way that contributes to the rest of their life.”

Bringing imagination to course design

In his keynote address via Zoom, , professor of education and director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College, challenged faculty to have imagination about their course designs. He told the story of different workers on a construction site, one of whom said he was cutting a stone block and the other which said he was building a cathedral: “What do my students think is happening when they sit in my classroom? What is it they think they are doing?” he asked, and, “What do we think we are teaching in our subject area? What does it contribute to the world? To the Kingdom of God?”

He recounted a call from a former student excited at having lent a willing ear to a German-speaking train rider after remembering what Smith had taught in German class, that the purpose of learning a language is less to speak it than it is to listen.

Pedagogical norms, he said, are simply how things are done in any given era, according to prevailing social norms. These norms often separate course content matter from reality’s ambiguities that merit curiosity and practicable empathy.

‘Examining assumptions’

After the annual recognition luncheon, five break-out sessions were offered on a variety of topics, including workshops on spiritual practices for mentors, exploring spirituality types in mentoring.

Panel discussions offered insights into faith formation in various programs, including the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and athletics.

Professor Ann Hershberger and interim director Don Clymer invited shared insights into making faith connections for and with students on travelling on 91����Ƶ’s required cross-cultural trips.

“When we are forced out of our routines, we have to rethink many things and examine our assumptions,” Clymer said. That makes for many opportunities to plant seeds, Hershberger added.

Their own and session participants’ stories bore that out: the student whose host mother prayed for her hemoglobin deficiency, which then was resolved to a degree that without a blood transfusion is medically impossible; the group that found cohesion in protectively encircling a sick classmate who had become ill on a crowded street; the homesick and tired group that, by recounting how they had experienced the presence of God in the last three days, turned their “mumbling and grumbling to singing.”

The group also gathered ideas for trip leaders to further prepare for and build on faith building experiences, cultivating groups in which students have starkly different faith understandings, and establishing shared resources and activities that have proven effective.

A final 45-minute gathering, hosted by Burkholder and Professor Johonna Turner, invited reflection and sharing.

Christopher Clymer Kurtz contributed to this article.

The orchestra’s performance of composer ’s “Music of the Land: Portraits of Rural America” will be conducted by 91����Ƶ music director and professor Joan Griffing during the spring orchestra concert at 7:30 p.m. on March 22, 2018, in Lehman Auditorium, with Walker in attendance.

Walker composed the suite last year after visiting Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The New England Quaker’s earlier work “91����Ƶ Leaves,” inspired by the poems of Robert Frost, had been heartily received by the 91����Ƶ community, she said, and she wondered if “something based on Shenandoah-area poetry might not be even more relevant.”

Griffing responded enthusiastically to the idea – Walker’s music is accessible to and loved by listeners and performers alike – and 91����Ƶ writing professor suggested that Walker use as inspiration the poetry of Robert Morgan, a North Carolinian who writes about rural America.

“So, I followed through,” Walker said.

The performance will include four of Morgan’s poems – “Clogging,” “From the Distance,” “Singing to the Corn,” and “Time Passing” – as read by Roman Miller, a farmer and professor emeritus of biology.

“The poetry speaks of the music heard in everyday, rural life,” Walker writes: “A community clogging dance; the church bells ringing out over the fields in the evening; a farmer ‘singing’ to encourage his crop to grow; and an old family clock, filling the silence with the tempo of time passing. This is the music of the land.”

Griffing said she was “honored” by Walker’s “especially meaningful” dedication of the work to the 91����Ƶ orchestra. Performing a new work composed for and dedicated to them is an “exciting opportunity” for students, who will receive feedback from the professional composer at the dress rehearsal.

As part of her visit to 91����Ƶ, Walker will also speak to students in the senior seminar “Peacebuilding in the Arts: Our Stories, Our Selves.”

“She makes a living as a composer,” Griffing said of Walker. “There are not that many people who are able to do that, and so that’s something very unique that she will share about with our students.”

Now at 91����Ƶ, he recognizes a rooted affinity to Anabaptist teachings, “which I’ve come to realize I’ve followed for longer than I knew it existed.”

Thompson shared how his work and faith are deeply intertwined during a special chapel service last week jointly hosted by 91����Ƶ’s STEM academic departments. Around campus, at the same time, other departments hosted special, unique chapel gatherings.

Just as his immersion in various “denominational streams has shaped my relationship with Christ and made it more full,” Thompson told the gathered, “likewise, the science and art of psychology has contributed to my understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God. My faith informs my work. My work informs my faith. I don’t know any other way to do it.”

Thompson’s words were encouraging to psychology major Lydia Musselman. “Hearing a professor’s personal story and reflection opens doors to conversation and deeper relationship, and gives hope to those struggling with our faith journey,” she said. “Connections and growth make sense in reflection. It was good to be reminded of that truth.”

91����Ƶ’s professors tend to be “down to earth and open people, but there’s a clear difference between a classroom and a chapel,” said junior English and writing major Josh Holsapple, who attended the Language and Literature Department gathering. “Having that extra layer of chapel is important.”

91����Ƶ’s annual departmental chapels offer students, faculty and staff the opportunity to talk about understanding, finding and living the work to which one is divinely called. While exploration and recognition of the Christian faith is part of the university’s core curriculum, these chapels are another time and place where faculty and students relate in deeply meaningful ways, said Undergraduate Dean Deirdre Longacher Smeltzer.

“The connection of faculty, staff and students around the idea of vocation is a piece of the faith mentoring and personal relationship-building that makes the 91����Ƶ experience special,” she said. “The fact that we care about students as whole people is a value that students cite over and over again as something they really appreciate.”

Junior biology major Caroline Lehman agreed. “The professors at 91����Ƶ, are, in my opinion, the school’s best asset. Being surrounded by people who not only do their jobs exceptionally well but also seem to love their work and grow in faith along the way has had a huge impact on what I hope to find in my future career. What that career will be, however, and how I will get there is still clouded with uncertainty, which can be really stressful at times. Hearing 91����Ƶ’s professors, people who excel in their work and love their jobs, speak about their own experiences in finding their career paths and using faith as a guide through the uncertainty has been both comforting and inspiring.”

Poetry and stories for enlightenment and new energy

In the Roselawn gathering space on the second floor, Professor Vi Dutcher opened the Language and Literature Department chapel with the introduction of alumna and novelist Patricia Grace King, on campus for her Writers Read event later that week. Those present were invited to offer a single-word descriptor of their early childhood religious experience — and all but one person needed more words, with “nearly everyone offering a phrase or brief story,” said Professor Marti Eads, adding that everyone’s contributions were gladly heard and appreciated. The group then joined in a reading of Seamus Heaney’s “Station Island XI,” a translation of a 16th century poem by Spanish mystic San Juan de la Cruz.

The Student Education Association titled their time “Walking your faith…Teach like no other,” hosting a discussion around relationships and religion, and how to integrate faith and calling in a constantly changing world.

“What I find meaningful in the department chapel is the opportunity for faculty and students to collectively examine how faith and teaching intersect in the classroom,” said department chair Cathy Smeltzer Erb. “Each participant brings his/her own story to the conversation, and leaves with a reservoir of new stories to shape one’s faith journey.”

In other chapels…

The Business and Economics department hosted four students who attended the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) convention in November 2017. MEDA works at the intersection of faith and business as an international economic development organization with the mission of creating business solutions to poverty. The students shared about how they were personally and professionally inspired by their participation in the conference. Speaking were Lucas Miller, junior economics major; Isaac Brenneman, a junior double major in business administration and recreation leadership and sports promotion; Ryan Faraci, senior double major in accounting and business administration; and Kyungho Yu, a junior economics major.

The Department of Applied Social Sciences based their time around an entry in “Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals,” focusing on the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X and Hebrew 10:26-39.

The History and Bible and Religion departments joined for a time of reflective scripture reading, prayer and singing around the theme of Living Water, while the Nursing Department also spent the time in worship and reflection.

“Anyone interested in rural health care, women’s economic empowerment, race relations in the southern United States, female friendship or theological angst will find this book compelling,” said Professor , who first met Yarger as an undergraduate student at Wake Forest University.

In 1996, Yarger began interviewing an aging nurse-midwife to inform an exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History, where she worked as a folklorist. An interview became a series of visits which became a “peculiar, lopsided sort of friendship,” as she told .

Lovie was the first nurse-midwife in North Carolina, and delivered around 4,000 babies from 1950-2001. After years of chats, reflection and writing, Yarger published Lovie to tell the health pioneer’s story and Yarger’s experience of their interactions.

Lovie begins the story: “God gave women this wonderful functioning system … He put the baby in there, and I fully believe he’s capable of getting it out. And here menfolks who’ll never have a baby have taken all the rightness out of it. They took all the naturalness out of it and turned it over to men and insurance companies …”

Yarger takes over the narration as the reader’s guide to learning more about an almost larger-than-life woman who lived “with the absolute certainty that she was doing the work she had been put on earth to do.”

Yarger grew up in North Carolina, and has worked as a museum curator, oral historian, journalist and editor. She graduated from Wake Forest in 1989, then earned her master’s in folklore from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In 1999, she met her future husband John Browner in a bookstore in Durham. Six years later, they packed up their lives and four-month-old daughter and moved to Germany.

In Munich, Yarger and her family run an English-language secondhand bookstore, where she organizes children’s and social justice events and writing workshops.

The lecture will highlight her latest scholarly work, (West Virginia Press, 2016) in which she served as editor of the first anthology of Randolph’s autobiographical writings.

Randolph was an African American abolitionist, minister and community leader. Born enslaved on a Virginia plantation, he moved with several freed slaves to Boston, from which he helped the Baptist church become a thriving denomination among African American Protestants. His writings provide an accurate perspective of enslaved life, African American religious customs, and ministerial work.

Admission is free (donations appreciated), with light refreshments and books available for purchase after the event.

English professor says she is delighted Bassard is visiting 91����Ƶ. “Praise for Kathryn Bassard’s scholarship in African American literature as well as for her presentation skills has made me eager to have her speak at 91����Ƶ for some time. Moreover, her Christian conviction animates her work. I expect her campus presentations to be both challenging and edifying.”

Bassard will also give a chapel address Friday, Nov. 11, at 10 a.m. in Martin Chapel and meet with the Black Student Union.

“As an ordained Baptist minister, Kathy is superbly qualified to challenge us with a message on racial reconciliation,” says Chair . “As an academic with a remarkable record of scholarly publications and now a top administrator at one of the Commonwealth’s largest universities, she is the kind of leader who will inspire and challenge us all.”

Bassard earned her undergraduate degree at Wake Forest, a master’s degree at VCU, and her PhD, along with a graduate certificate in women’s studies, at Rutgers University.

From 1992-1999, Bassard taught at the University of California – Berkeley where she rose to the rank of associate professor. She returned to VCU in 1999 and was appointed professor of English in 2010.

She has received numerous awards and grants, including recognition by the Center for Teaching Excellence, Honor’s College, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, as well as from the Pew and Ford foundations. In 2005, she was the recipient of the VCU’s prestigious Elske V.P. Smith Distinguished Lecturer award.

Recent publications include (Princeton University Press, 1999) and (University of Georgia Press, 2010).

She examines poetry, novels, speeches, sermons, and prayers by African American women from Maria W. Stewart to Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, discussing how such texts respond as a collective “literary witness” to the use of the Bible for purposes of social domination. Bassard spoke about this topic in 2012 as a guest on the radio show “.”

The conference is a meeting place for music professionals and organizations from the Americas, where they focus on musical artists making a cultural and social impact in their communities.

Musica Harmonia’s half-hour performance revolves around three spiritual pieces that continue the group’s mission of promoting peace and cultural awareness through musical collaboration. Two of the pieces are based on poetry [written by Professor ] inspired by 91����Ƶ alumna and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Leymah Gbowee’s memoir about her organizing women to stand up to a dictator in Liberia.

The third piece, “The Human One,” composed by 91����Ƶ professor , is a representation of God coming to Earth to live among man within the human experience.

Musica Harmonia commissioned the pieces and built a symbiotic relationship with the composers they worked with, according to , violinist and 91����Ƶ chair.

“A lot of it is about trying to use music as a tool in peacebuilding, so that’s why we commissioned certain pieces,” Griffing said. “We really enjoy the collaborative nature of working with living composers, especially when it comes to addressing issues related to our time.”

At conferences like Decolonizing Music and with Cuba and the United States renewing ties, one can expect further mixing of musical genres. Griffing is sure that the improved relations will be a prominent emphaisis at the conference because it’s on people’s minds.

“Arts are a great way for people to connect with one another and to cross boundaries,” she said. “I’m sure that will be interesting to see, especially since travel is made more possible.”

This text was excerpted with permission from a Sept. 17 Daily News-Record article.

Events included a team trivia competition, services to help expedite acquiring or renewing a passport, a cross-cultural learning fair that showcased future trips, and an evening discussion titled “Beyond Hello: How to Become an Hospitable Campus.”

This last event was facilitated Diana Tovar, a graduate student from Colombia who also works as alumni network coordinator for the , and her classmate, Fulbright Scholar , from Lebanon. Participants shared experiences of being welcomed or not welcomed on campus and then discussed ways that 91����Ƶ could be a more welcoming and inclusive place.

“After listening to participants’ stories and sharing our feelings, some very innovative ideas were proposed,” Tovar said, adding that the suggestions will be passed on to student services.

The most popular event of the week is the annual International Food Fest on Friday night. Twenty-nine entries graced the tables in Thomas Plaza at the hotly contested competition. For a small fee, campus community members could enjoy small selections, then vote for their favorite.

Food ranged from sweet and sour spare ribs to gong bao chicken, fried tomatoes with eggs to special Iraqi dishes, as well as favorites like quesadillas, provided by members, and arepas con queso y hogao, corn cakes topped with cheese and Colombian creole sauce, provided by Tovar, Edith Johanna Muñoz and Andrea Moya. Alumnus Carissa Luginbill tapped into her cross-cultural experiences, which included assisting Professor on the summer cross-cultural to Eastern Europe: she prepared kepta duona, strips of fried rye bread with a dipping sauce that are popular appetizers in Lithuania.

“This event is a great way for students, staff and professors from our many different academic programs to mingle,” said , director of Multicultural and International Student Services.

Among those participating were undergraduates in Global Connections, a first-year class for undergraduate international students, and several students in 91����Ƶ’s .

Professors also joined students for the event. Visiting scholars from China cooked for a crowd, as did Fulbright Scholar Dr. Shafa Almirzanah, of Indonesia, and Professor , who brought pig-pickin’ cake, a traditional dessert from her native North Carolina (named for the event to which it was brought: barbeques).

Pastel de tres leches, a sponge cake soaked with three kinds of milk— whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk — was the winning entry, provided by Georgina Ndoka, Kevin Sungu, Paul Kayembe and Valeria Hernandez Bustillo. They took home $60 for their culinary efforts.