Welcome the spring semester °ä°ů´Ç˛ő˛ő-°äłÜ±ôłŮłÜ°ů˛ą±ôĚýgroup back to campus and hear what they encountered on their learning adventure in Guatemala.

Gather with the Black Student Alliance and Multicultural Student Services for a special Monday morning Black History Month convocation featuring Rev. Dr. Cornell Brooks from the Harvard Kennedy School. There will be a talk-back with Rev. Dr. Brooks from 11-11:30 a.m.

 is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School.  He is also Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at Harvard Divinity School.  Brooks is the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights attorney, and an ordained minister.

What if anything can the Constitution and the “Founding” tell us about the Second Amendment?

Gather with Dr. Kevin Hardwick and Dr. Howard Lubert, JMU professors, for some input on (1) the origins of the Constitution and the process of its ratification, (2) debates during the American “Founding” over constitutional interpretation, and (3) contemporary debates about approaches to constitutional interpretation.  Finally, engage with some brief observations about how those debates have influenced (and might influence) the debate over the Second Amendment.
, Professor of History, James Madison University
, Professor of Political Science, James Madison University

Evelina Kilimnik and Charity Pence will share a violin duet for a musical opening to this engagement.
Adam Moyer (Young Democrats) and Paul Kayembe (College Republicans) will introduce these clubs and the speakers.

Gather for the annual MLK, Jr. Celebration Convocation featuring , Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Jalane Schmidt’s research and teaching is focused upon African diaspora religions of the Caribbean and Latin America, and particularly festivity and ritual. Dr. Schmidt teaches courses which consider the effects of colonization and the slave trade upon religious practice in the Americas. In her book project on 20th c. Cubans’ devotion to their patron saint, she examines religious, racial, and cultural hybridity in the Americas by interpreting the national expansion of this popular cult. In her emerging research, she is investigating how the history of slavery is performed in spirit possession rituals and expressed in material culture. Particularly, she is concerned with how contemporary mediums describe heightened sensory perception as a means for navigating traumatic emotional terrain.

A drum circle follows this convocation program in Lehman Auditorium from 11:30 a.m.-Noon.

For a complete program schedule, see MLK, Jr. Day of Service and Learning.

Gather with , Director of Fellowships and Internships for the Smithsonian Institution, for a presentation entitled Making the Leap: Ten Career Secrets from the Working World.

Gather for Opening Convocation featuring a welcome to a new academic year from Provost Fred Kniss, President Susan Schultz Huxman’s address, Lead Together, an instrumental response on piano from Dr. David Berry, and a prayerful sending for the Vienna & Europe Cross-Cultural seminar led by Justin and Amanda Poole.

https://www.facebook.com/EasternMennonite/videos/286653152116123/

Dr. Sue Cockley, Dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, opens the EMS Fall 2018 Semester with her convocation address, “Christian Leadership in a Divided World.”

Gather as a campus community for an address on Ringing in a New Year, a New Era from incoming . Toward the close of the service, there will be a time of sending for the Cross-Cultural Seminar groups soon departing for Guatemala-Colombia and the Middle East. We will also be ringing in a new year with the tolling of the community bell.

addresses the campus community on Change, Hope and Promise. We will also be sending the Cross-Cultural seminar group to Central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Turkey) ANDwelcoming new students to the campus community with the “Shenandoah Welcome” toward the close of the service.

—â¶Ä”-
 brings a lifetime of service to Mennonite higher education to the interim role. From 1996 until retiring in 2006, Snyder served as the eighth president of Bluffton (Ohio) University.

Previously, she was vice president and academic dean for 12 years at 91¶ĚĘÓƵ. Snyder, who holds a doctorate in American and Victorian literature from the University of Oregon, came to 91¶ĚĘÓƵ in 1974. Until 1982, she taught part-time in the humanities and in English, and was an assistant in the dean’s office. She was named academic dean in 1984 and then assumed the responsibilities of vice president as well in 1987.

After retiring from Bluffton University, Snyder returned to 91¶ĚĘÓƵ to serve as interim provost for the 2008-09 academic year.

addresses the campus community for his final Opening Convocation service on the theme: For Just Such a Time as This. Chapel includes a time of prayerful sending for the Cross-Cultural Seminar groups departing for the Middle East and Guatemala-Cuba.

Scripture: Esther 4:12-14 (The Message):

When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”

President Swartzendruber addresses the campus community drawing from

This service concludes with a  time of sending for the  seminar group departing for SE Balkans: Bulgaria, Greece & Turkey.

launches a new semester as he addresses the campus community with a message inspired by ; ; ; and . Chapel closes with a time of sending for the Guatemala & Mexico Cross Cultural group.

President Swartzendruber launches the year with reflections on belonging based on Luke .

This service concludes with a  time of sending for the Spain-Morocco and China groups departing for the semester.

addresses the campus community with a message inspired by . Chapel closes with a time of sending for the Guatemala & Colombia Cross Cultural group at the end of convocation.

This service concludes with a  time of sending for the New Zealand and South Africa & Lesotho cross-cultural groups leaving soon after chapel.