News & Updates

What do you do when the things you were really good at are no longer who you are? This is the question that brought Stephan Powless, Lagro, Ind., to Goshen College. Unlike most undergraduates, Stephan is a 32-year-old father of three with an eight-year career in the military behind him. He’s been in combat in Iraq and in management at General Motors. He’s fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a soldier and demonstrated his earning power. The path forward is unclear, but it is not more of the same.

Ryan Miller has an ornery streak. He is not afraid to be the proud meat lover among vegetarians or the tractor enthusiast among market gardeners. Ryan’s assets include a practical bent and a scrappy willingness to live with the tensions inherent in today’s farming landscape.

Agriculture has always been a part of Hannah Wheeler’s life. Hannah grew up on a 40-acre hobby farm in Hudson, Mich., where the high school mascot is a longhorn steer. She has fond memories of exhibiting market steers at the local county fair and helping her family grow their own meat and vegetables.

Gabe Miller, a junior sustainable food systems major from Ithaca, New York, is a student who thrives at the intersection of big ideas and hands on learning. A conversation with Gabe zigzags between food sovereignty, human rights issues and the building of solar ovens

Clayton Wassilak, a rising senior from Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., is a man of many interests with the desire to tie them all together. The Agroecology Summer Intensive (ASI) at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College is helping him do that.

Are there jobs for people whose mission is “to inspire people to learn about and love the land through use of art?” Aly Munger, a 2017 graduate of Merry Lea’s master’s in environmental education program, found one at Artist Boat, Galveston, Texas. Aly’s title is “eco-art educator.”

On May 9, Merry Lea’s Environmental Education Outreach (EEO) team wrapped up its first year of Kinderforest in a long-awaited burst of greenness. For a full day every month, two classes of kindergartners from Wolf Lake Elementary School, Wolf Lake, Ind., traded desks and bulletin boards for tree trunks and the crunch of leaves underfoot.

On May 25, 2018, the tenth cohort completes Merry Lea’s Master of Arts in Environmental Education. Cohort number ten! That brings the total number of graduate alumni to 51. The eleventh cohort begins on July 6 with twelve students—the largest cohort to date. It’s stimulating to reflect on the journey that led to the establishment of this important program at Merry Lea.

Researchers from Virginia Tech joined Merry Lea school programs two days in April 2018. Daniel Pratson, a master’s student with the School of Forestry and Neil Savage, a research assistant, have been traveling across the country visiting environmental education programs. Their work is part of a nationwide study analyzing the characteristics that drive student outcomes.

Stephan Rauh (ASI 2016) wants to be part of a movement toward greater health–community health, individual health and ecosystem health. That’s why he accepted a position as production farmer at Hungry World Farm in Tiskilwa, Ill.