Why I came back to teach at Goshen College
Goshen College alumni often have the opportunity to use their teaching talents at a variety of higher education institutions. Here are the stories of four of the 38 current teaching faculty who chose to return to their alma mater to serve and offer their knowledge, wisdom and gifts to a new generation of students.
Debra Brubaker ’79
Professor of music
What drew you to want to teach at Goshen College?
The students at Goshen inspire me as some of the most energized, astute and thoughtful college students I’ve ever encountered. I wanted to participate in a learning environment of that caliber.
What do you love most about teaching GC students?
They love to sing, they love to create new things, they love discovery.
What excites you about music?
The unlimited power and potential that music finds in us continues to inspire and motivate me. Our hurting world needs the beauty and understanding that music can create, both within the individual and in a gathered community.
What do you enjoy doing outside of your academic work?
Gardening, quilting, reading, traveling, running, camping, swimming, biking, sharing meals and activities with my children, and hanging out with my cats.
How does the college’s vision connect or shape your teaching
and work?
My focus is on multicultural music and the community that it creates across the globe and across centuries. The best music has a story connected to it. That story may highlight the diversity of the expressed musical experience, but it also shows how we are united as human beings.
How do you strive to make peace through your work and life?
By not being afraid to wade into situations that may be filled with conflict, and trying to find the thread that connects us as humans. Music is the best starting point I know for that to happen.
Is there anything else you would like readers to know about you?
Looking for and finding new multicultural music for my choirs to sing is like opening a present on Christmas day – a delightful discovery with great promise.
John D. Roth ’81
Professor of history
What drew you to want to teach at Goshen College?
When I came to Goshen College as a student I encountered a remarkable set of mentors: professors who were active in research and publishing in their disciplines, but also deeply committed to teaching and to their Christian faith. I remember thinking in one of my history classes, “this would be the best job in the world!” And it is!
What do you love most about teaching GC students?
Goshen students are smart, funny, diverse and curious about the world. Most are eager ask questions, think critically and find links between what they are learning in the classroom and the world beyond Goshen College. I learn from them every day.
What excites you about history?
History is such a wide-open field. Even though we are often focused on a very specific era or region, historians can ask very basic questions about the meaning and purpose in life, the nature of human communities, competing visions of the “good life,” or understandings of transcendence. It brings together the particular and the universal in beautifully complex ways.
What do you enjoy doing outside of your academic work?
I love to read all kinds of books – mysteries, biographies, texts on brain science and ethics – and I run every
day. I also enjoy spending time with my wife and our family, which now includes a granddaughter.
How does the college’s vision connect or shape your teaching
and work?
For the past three years I have been working hard to establish the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism (ISGA), a research program closely linked to the Mennonite Historical Library that focuses Goshen’s longstanding tradition of “scholarship for the church” on the phenomenal growth of the global Anabaptist-Mennonite church. And I recently offered “Anabaptist History in Paraguay” as a May Term course.
How do you strive to make peace through your work and life?
Maintaining close relationships with my colleagues and students is a priority for me. This means being attentive to each other as whole people, including the emotional and spiritual aspects of our identity. I want to treat people with dignity and respect, always seeking out perspectives that differ from my own. Gaining a historical perspective on conflicts – understanding the deeper reasons why people or groups behave the way they do – is often the first step toward reconciliation.
Julie Reese ’92
Professor of psychology
What drew you to want to teach at Goshen College?
My education at Goshen College was excellent, not just in the traditional classroom sense, but also in the relationships I had with professors. I wanted to teach at a liberal arts institution where academic rigor and critical thinking were valued alongside caring for the whole person.
What do you love most about teaching GC students?
I love relating to young people, hearing their ideas, joys and frustrations. They challenge me to think carefully about what I believe and to be aware of how limited is my knowledge of God’s creation.
What excites you about psychology?
No matter who you are or what you do, you have to interact with people. Having a good, albeit limited, understanding of human behavior can make life rich.
How does the college’s vision connect or shape your teaching
and work?
As a psychologist, I seek to understand culture in all of its parts: personal and social. I also work to illustrate connections between psychology and other disciplines such as biology, business, religion and sociology. Yet our epistemologies, or ways of knowing, are distinct, which can be complimentary and at times contentious.
How do you strive to make peace through your work and life?
For me, striving for peace in work and life means to live honestly and humbly, to look at myself realistically and look at others and situations truthfully and compassionately. Although I am not surprised by the world’s brokenness, I strive to make the world a better place and never give up the notion that what I do matters. Ultimately, I am convinced that my ultimate peace and hope is in the Lord whose love, grace, mercy and goodness is far beyond my comprehension.
Is there anything else you would like readers to know about you?
I am a wife to a loving husband and the mother of two wonderful daughters. I am a breast cancer survivor whose bout with a deadly disease has been a wake-up call to try very hard to live each day according to what really matters most to me.
Andrew Hartzler ’98
Associate professor of accounting
What drew you to want to teach at Goshen College?
Since 1998, I have worked in the field of public accounting as an auditor and tax consultant and advisor. About four years ago I sensed God was calling me toward a new area of service and I began to pursue a master’s degree as part of that calling. My connection to Goshen College’s values and the local business community made it a unique fit as a place for God to call me to serve.
What do you love most about teaching GC students?
One of the unique dynamics of Goshen College is the way students and faculty can develop close relationships that have a strong mentoring aspect to them. GC students are passionate about not only becoming leaders in their fields, but conscientious world citizens as well.
What excites you about accounting?
Business permeates most facets of our lives and accounting is an integral component to business. Learning business at Goshen College gives students the opportunity to integrate their faith and worldview with their business knowledge and skills.
How does the college’s vision connect or shape your teaching
and work?
From my first international experiences during Study-Service Term in Central America, to living in the U.S./Mexico border region, my intercultural and international experiences have shaped who I am and how I relate to others. My faith also plays an integral role in how I communicate core values and concepts to others. Helping students to see how all these areas are interconnected is central to my goals as a professor.
How do you strive to make peace through your work and life?
Being at peace and living at peace with others encapsulates my view of how God calls us to live our lives on earth. The primary obstacle to living in peace with others and with God is pride. To overcome pride requires a daily commitment to humility, which recognizes that all of who we are is connected to who we are in Christ.