Students in Merry Lea’s Master’s in Environmental Education program discuss vexing social problems in their Environmental Issues and History class. They prepare presentations on topics like micro-plastics and nuclear disasters. All the same, students say they find hope in the course.
In December 2018, John Mischler and I attended the Perennial Farm Gathering hosted by the Savanna Institute in Madison, Wis. The Savanna Institute is a non-profit organization that supports the development of restorative, savanna-based agricultural systems.
Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College hosted the Michiana Regional Seed Swap January 19 at Goshen High School, Goshen, Ind. Despite snowy weather, eleven vendors, over a hundred guests and thousands of locally adapted seeds came from as far away as Indianapolis and South Bend.
Children at the Goshen College Lab Kindergarten are now participating in monthly kinderforest sessions similar to those that happen at Merry Lea.
Merry Lea’s master’s students encountered the complex science and muscular equipment behind the flush of a toilet January 9. The visit to Goshen’s Wastewater Treatment Plant was part of an environmental issues course taught by Dr. Joel Pontius.
Mandira Panta, a junior sustainability studies major from Kavre, Nepal, chose Goshen College partly because she wanted a liberal arts education. In her country, it is typical to plunge directly into a specific field, but Mandira wants a future that includes both science and social science perspectives.
“Camping, hiking, fishing, boating…My parents raised me to be an adventurer,” says Skye McKinnell, a senior environmental science major from Salem, Ore. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she wanted a career where she could work outside.
Benjamin and Rianna Isaak-Krauss bring a unique perspective to the 2018 cohort of Merry Lea’s Sustainability Leadership Semester (SLS): they are seminary students rather than undergraduates. The married couple will graduate from the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in 2019 with credits from the SLS on their transcripts.
Read about the first seminary students and the first Tanzanian to live at Merry Lea's Rieth Village; see how the Kinderforest program has grown and keep up on staff transitions. Our public programs and our nearest town round out the mix.
How do you know the right time to retire? Luke Gascho, Merry Lea’s executive director, has asked this question of friends.
