Celebrate EMU’s Alumni Award recipients Friday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 on Facebook Live! These honored guests will be joined at the Homecoming opening celebration with President Susan Schultz Huxman (and you won’t want miss being there when EMU’s lion mascot, Herm, passes the torch to his successor).
View the full schedule of 2020 Homecoming events!
Distinguished Service Award: Susan and Stan Godshall ’65
Susan and Stan Godshall ‘65 have devoted years of their lives to medical and missions work in the United States and in Africa. While serving with Eastern Mennonite Missions, the couple helped to found Shirati KMT Hospital in Tanzania. Stan spent the majority of his 40-year medical career in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, at a family health center. Susan held several positions while raising their three children: teaching Spanish and English as a Second Language and doing administrative work at EMM and Mennonite Central Committee. In 1996, Susan was chosen as EMM’s representative to Africa, the first woman in that role. She chaired EMU’s Board of Directors for six years, serving a total of 12 years, and later trained as a chaplain at the Philhaven Behavioral Health Hospital. Read more.
Alumnus of the Year: Luke Gascho ’74
From the beginning of his career as a 21-year-old principal of a small Christian school to cultivating the Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College into an accredited program with award-winning green building designs, Luke Gascho ‘74 has used every opportunity to live out his commitment to his faith, education, and creation care. He served at Johnstown Christian School for two decades, and shepherded the school through full accreditation before moving into higher education. Gascho then spent 22 years at Merry Lea. The center provides educational programming for over 5,000 K-12 students annually. Under his leadership, the center created field-based programs in sustainable agriculture, environmental science, and sustainability leadership with Goshen College, and a master of arts in environmental education. Read more.
Young Alum of the Year: Lyubov Slashcheva ’11
Lyubov Slashcheva ‘11 works with the nonprofit Apple Tree Dental as a specialist in public health and special needs and geriatric patients. She is also a research collaborator with the Mayo Clinic’s departments of dental specialties and health sciences research, and holds leadership positions in the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, the Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship, and the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions. She, her husband Scott, and their three children live on their urban vegetable farm in Minnesota. Read more.
I love that both the Alumnus of the Year awardee, Luke Gascho, and the Young Alum of the Year awardee, Lyubov Slashcheva, played key roles in the Mennonite-wide Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions which is coordinated by EMU. Luke was an inaugural member of the Center’s governing Oversight Board and Lyubov is the Chair of the Center’s Board of Reference. The Center’s purpose is “to lead Anabaptist efforts to respond to the challenges of climate change.”