That鈥檚 how Laura Benner ’25, an engineering and computer science double major, described cracking the . Joining her on the Kryptos team were her sister Renae Benner and her roommate Mana Acosta ’25, both engineering majors at 91短视频. On April 14, the team of three took first place in a contest featuring 151 students from colleges and universities across 16 states and Australia.聽

Since 2011, Central Washington University (CWU) has hosted this annual online competition for undergraduate students. The contest consists of three challenges that present brief scenarios along with some ciphertext. Contestants work individually or in teams to discover the original English plaintext message.

Students are permitted to use any resources available online to solve the puzzles. But the puzzles require a great deal of effort and critical thinking, far more than ChatGPT, for instance, can do. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really funny,鈥� Laura Benner said. 鈥淚f you give the entire puzzle to ChatGPT, it will spit back some nonsense solution to you.鈥�

Acosta and the two Benner sisters have all participated in the Kryptos challenge before and won first or second place. 

• 2025: First Place Team: Mana Acosta, Laura Benner, Renae Benner
• 2024: Second Place Team: Iris Anderson, Laura Benner, Renae Benner
• 2023: First Place Team: Mana Acosta, Laura Benner, Caleb Hostetler
• 2022: First Place Team: Mana Acosta, Caleb Hostetler, Hannah Leaman

Typically, an 91短视频 team gets together on Thursday night when the competition opens and works until they solve all three challenges. This year, though, the team was able to solve only one challenge on Thursday night. Since CWU does not provide updates on students鈥� progress, they assumed they had lost. But on Monday morning, the last day of the competition, the team received an email saying nobody had solved the three challenges yet. They were shocked and immediately got back together to work on the puzzles again.

鈥淭he fresh start was good,鈥� Acosta said. 鈥淲e should have gotten together on Friday, but we were so sure that other teams had already won.鈥� The three worked quickly and managed to find leads that let them solve the last two puzzles. 91短视频 20 minutes after they submitted their Google form describing how they had solved the last puzzle, CWU sent a confirmation email that the 91短视频 team had won first place.

91短视频 teams have historically performed well in this competition, and by now, they feel some pressure to win. While the 2025 team doesn鈥檛 know how other teams work, contestants at 91短视频 usually dedicate a large block of time to working together. The room is typically silent, with individuals working on their own until someone finds a lead or breakthrough. Then they all talk it over and work together. The most challenging part of the competition is not losing motivation.

The first year Laura Benner joined the team, she didn鈥檛 know much about breaking ciphers and let other members take the lead. But this year she took more agency in solving the puzzles, and for at least two of them, she had 鈥渢hat electric moment鈥� of discovering the plaintext.

While her classes haven鈥檛 directly applied to learning ciphers, she said, 鈥淏oth engineering and cryptanalysis are highly logical. You need to be able to identify patterns and know when the route you鈥檙e going down isn鈥檛 working.鈥� 

Lars 脜kerson ’08 used a familiar Mennonite symbol, that of a quilt, to discuss the importance of belonging. 鈥淲e 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,鈥� he said. 脜kerson, 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.聽

The conference, held from Friday, Feb. 21, to Sunday, Feb. 23, in the 91短视频 Seminary building, centered around the theme 鈥淏uilding Solidarity: from Turtle Island to Palestine.鈥� 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短视频 graduate who served on the conference planning committee, said he was excited by the energy that students brought to the event. 鈥淲e far surpassed my goals for the conference with the number of people involved and the variety of institutions represented,鈥� 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 鈥渨here all God鈥檚 children are free.鈥� For the next 45 minutes, they opened the floor to questions. 鈥淗ow do you build empathy for a cause like a cease-fire?鈥� one attendee asked. Ramer and Martin then discussed the importance of reaching people鈥檚 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短视频 last hosted the ICPF in聽February 2020, before it was indefinitely put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Renae Benner, an 91短视频 junior who helped plan the 2025 conference, said she felt that people learned a lot and built stronger relationships between colleges. 鈥淚鈥檓 optimistic that we successfully restarted the annual ICPF,鈥� she said. As 脜kerson said in his address, 鈥淭he way things are is not the way they must be.鈥� 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.聽

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. 鈥淚 was glad the energy we created this year resulted in the continuation of the annual conference,鈥� he said.

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

From Feb. 21-23, 2025, the 91短视频 Peace Fellowship club will host the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship (ICPF) conference. This student-led weekend conference brings together students and faculty from Mennonite, Brethren, and Quaker colleges across the U.S. and Canada to examine issues of peace and justice.

The theme for the 2025 ICPF is 鈥淏uilding Solidarity: From Turtle Island to Palestine.鈥� Many students from the schools represented at the conference participate in organizations such as  and the 鈥攐rganizations that are working to build Palestine and Indigenous solidarities, respectively. The 2025 ICPF will give students an opportunity to learn more about these movements, educate students about organizing and movement-building, and foster connections to encourage activism on home campuses and in home communities.

Keynote speakers at this event include the co-founders and organizers of Mennonite Action, Nick Martin and Adam Ramer, as well as a longtime member of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, Lars 脜kerson. Their keynote addresses will be held in Martin Chapel at 91短视频鈥檚 Seminary Building, with different sessions taking place throughout the building.

The conference workshops will provide space for more in-depth conversations with Mennonite Action and the Coalition, as well as a time to hear from other practitioners about the solidarity work they engage in. Some of the workshops include creative approaches to decolonial peacebuilding in South America, Palestine solidarity work in Harrisonburg, and a student panel with a mix of justice-related topics.

Renae Benner, one of the 91短视频 students helping organize the ICPF, looks forward to meeting other students who 鈥渃are deeply about peace and justice issues.鈥� She hopes those who attend the conference will 鈥渓eave feeling inspired to take action for peace and be informed about how to do that.鈥� Many faculty and students at 91短视频 care deeply about seeking peace and justice, she added, making the university well-suited to host this conference.

91短视频 last hosted the ICPF in February 2020 and before that in 2014. Generally, participating institutions take turns hosting the conference every year, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference has not been held since 2020. The conference planning committee is excited about restarting the conference and looks forward to building new connections during this time.

Visit the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship webpage to find more information about the schedule or register for the conference.

Participants at ICPF are expected to come from Mennonite colleges and universities including Hesston College, Bluffton University, Goshen College, Bethel College, Canadian Mennonite University, and Conrad Grebel University; other Anabaptist, Quaker, and Brethren universities such as Messiah College, Elizabethtown College, and Manchester University; and other colleges in the Harrisonburg area such as James Madison University and Bridgewater College.

This event reflects 91短视频’s commitment to its core value of peace and justice by providing a platform for students and faculty to engage in critical conversations, build meaningful connections, and take tangible steps toward transformative change in their communities and beyond.

Read a preview of the event in the Daily News-Record .

The 鈥淎ll God鈥檚 Children March for a Ceasefire,鈥� organized by , included participants ranging in age from 11 to 74 years old. Marchers left from Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg on July 18, walking about 13 miles each day on their journey before arriving at the White House on July 28. Between 35 and 125 marchers took part in the action each day, with some devoting a day and others completing the entire route.

Watch a shot and edited by 91短视频 student Micaiah Landis,
offering a behind-the-scenes look at the march.

Together, the group braved the heat, humidity and rain, climbed into the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the Shenandoah National Park, and walked down quiet country roads, along busy highways and through suburban neighborhoods and parking lots. They slept in churches and camped in open fields. They listened and watched as passing drivers honked and waved in support of their cause. They marched while singing hymns and held evening worship services along the way.

You can read daily dispatches from the group鈥檚 journey
on the Mennonite Action website .

When they arrived in D.C. the marchers joined an protesting the annual conference of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). On July 30, members of the group protested inside the halls of the Hart Senate Office Building. Capitol Police made 47 arrests in the peaceful protest.

The march and arrests received a flurry of national media coverage. Outlets including , , , and highlighted Mennonite Action and its cause.

We spoke with 91短视频 senior and nursing major Jenna Weaver, sophomore and computer engineering major Renae Benner, and Tyler Goss, director for student engagement and leadership development, about their experiences.

How did you participate in the march and D.C. actions?
Weaver: I walked the first nine days of the march, almost making it to D.C. I also was a medic for the march, which mainly involved tending to people鈥檚 blisters, helping remove hundreds of ticks, calling the paramedics when needed, and watching out for dehydrated folks as we walked during several very hot days!
Benner: I participated in the entire march from Harrisonburg to Washington, D.C. On July 28, I joined the service of lament held outside the White House. The next day, I joined an interfaith chorus that sang songs calling for peace at the conference center hosting the CUFI summit. On July 30, I joined another rally with speakers and singing and helped on the jail support team for those arrested for peacefully protesting.
Goss: I was fortunate enough to attend the whole march and time in D.C. So, any of the good trouble Mennonite Action was up to over those days, I was there. Specifically, I helped to coordinate the programming during the march. From daily devotional-style gatherings, to yoga, to game nights, and evening prayer, I was the one tapping shoulders and connecting people’s gifts with the various programming leadership.

What were the most memorable or impactful experiences from your participation?
Benner: The day we marched into D.C. was full of energy. Lots of people joined us in the morning and more joined in as we walked. As we neared the bridge to cross the Potomac River, I was overwhelmed by the significance of what we were doing. It felt like such a powerful political action to enter the city by foot, in a line of over a hundred people, carrying the banners we had carried across Virginia. The entire two weeks felt this way: I knew I was experiencing something remarkable, and all I could do was try to take it in.

What drew you to get involved? Why is it important to participate in actions like these?
Weaver: I barely knew of the ongoing violence in Palestine until my intercultural to Israel-Palestine last summer, led by Tim and Chris Seidel. I learned so much history of native people being removed from their homes, and created relationships with people that I am still in contact with. When the Hamas attacks occurred in October, and then the extreme violence by Israel, it stirred so much anger and sadness in me. I was a part of various local protests, , and was a part of the on 91短视频’s campus. When the idea of the march came up, I knew I would do it. As a Mennonite, we believe in nonviolence. How could I not stand up for tens of thousands of beautiful humans being killed when my faith calls me to do so?

How has this changed your perspective, or how has participating in this impacted you?
Goss: I have always known our 91短视频 students are incredible, but, wow, I wish everyone could have seen the brilliant ways all of the 91短视频 students involved in the march and D.C. actions led with such courage and compassion. The meal organizers, the videographers, the de-escalators, the phone callers, the police liaisons, the medics, the song leaders, the protesters…our students took the lead in every role of the action.

What do you feel the result of your actions and involvement were?
Benner: Hundreds, and sometimes maybe thousands of cars, drove past us each day as we marched. Lots of people took videos. I don鈥檛 know exactly what people were thinking as they saw us walking. However, I was inspired by how many positive, or at least curious, responses we received. I think we gave some people hope, because we are continuing to care about Gaza and speak out against violence. Maybe we inspired some people to also raise their voices in protest. I hope our demonstration caused a few people to learn more about what鈥檚 going on in Palestine, or even to question their preconceptions for a moment.

Is there anything else you feel that would be important to share about?
Weaver: Just overall gratitude for the organizers of Mennonite Action who worked so hard to make the march happen, as well as donors and Mennonites across the U.S. and other countries who prayed for and supported us.

For more photos from the march and protests, visit the .