![People canoeing on the river surrounded by green plants](https://www.goshen.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/09/SLS-1024x768.jpg)
![People canoeing on the river surrounded by green plants](https://www.goshen.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/09/SLS-1024x768.jpg)
Merry Lea students forage on canoe trip along Elkhart River
Every year in September, Joel Pontius leads students in Goshen College’s Sustainability Leadership Semester on an eight-day canoe trip from the headwaters of the Elkhart River at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center to Lake Michigan.