These 10 headlines drew readers鈥� attention in the past 12 months:

1.

By far the most viewed story of the year, with 15,000 reads and nearly 600 Facebook likes, was President Swartzendruber鈥檚 December reflections on attacks in San Bernardino, Paris, South Carolina, and elsewhere. 鈥淥ur campus community continues to prayerfully discern what the peace position means to us in a world beset by violence,鈥� Swartzendruber said. He called everyone to practice Jesus鈥� command to love one鈥檚 enemies and to engage in dialogue with those who come from different backgrounds, while pledging that EMU would work locally and regionally at Muslim-Christian dialogue and continue to train students and others with world-changing tools and principles.

2. Amish teacher, 98, returns to alma mater

Amos Yoder 鈥�54 waited a long time for this trip. Yoder, who is Amish and lives in Minnesota, spent his career teaching and farming in the Midwest and Great Plains and never returned to Virginia鈥攗ntil daughter Rebecca Barbo brought him to campus last year. A group of former classmates and EMU alumni relations representatives greeted Yoder on his visit. Yoder said the campus looked very different, but he treasured the opportunity to return to a place so important to him, calling his years at then-Eastern Mennonite College 鈥渙ne of the high points of my life.鈥�

3. Jackson and Katie Maust with the Harrisonburg Rescue Squad

Titled “Married alumni couple spends spare time saving lives,” the story of Jackson and Katie (Lehman) Maust was one of the top five most-read of the year. They work as a physical therapist and emergency room nurse, respectively, but spend much time away from work among the ranks of the 160 HRS volunteers (including many other EMU alumni). Katie says it鈥檚 a calling. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way that we serve God,鈥� she says.

4.

Loren Swartzendruber began the end of an era in April when he announced he would retire at the end of the 2015-2016 academic year. EMU鈥檚 eighth president, Swartzendruber will have served for 13 years in the role and 33 years total in Mennonite higher education. A national search for EMU鈥檚 next president began in June.

5. The Yutzy family and their dairy’s new solar installation

Sustainability on campus and off are always popular reads. The Yutzy family, which includes several EMU alumni, was featured by the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record for innovations at their Windcrest Holsteins farm in Timberville, Va. This past year the farm鈥檚 barn and milking parlor were covered with nearly 1,800 solar panels. The $1.3 million system, made possible via a grant, tax credits, and depreciation allowances, is expected to pay for itself within five years and eliminate the farm鈥檚 power bill. It is Virginia鈥檚 largest privately owned solar installation.

6. Articles honoring faculty of note and moments of historic importance

As we approach the Centennial celebration of 2017, EMU readers enjoyed and shared articles about former faculty members Abraham Davis, who started what is today Multicultural Student Services, and 鈥�59, who spent a quarter-century teaching at EMU before retiring in 2001.聽 Articles on Park Woods Cabin and the Bard’s Nest, as well as the radio station garnered a good number of hits. The celebrated 25 years in March.

7.听

Good news abounded in EMU鈥檚 student numbers in 2015. The incoming traditional undergraduate class included 257 students鈥攗p from an average of 205 in the previous decade and increasing in diversity, as well. Graduate enrollment jumped, with the master鈥檚 in education program showed the most growth. A total of 1,908 students were registered across all EMU programs, including EMU Lancaster, at the beginning of the fall semester.

8.

If you missed Konrad Wert ’01, this photo alone will make you wish you’d caught the show. Wert, performing as the one-man band Possessed by Paul James, returned to EMU. His album There Will Be Nights When I鈥檓 Lonely hit No. 12 on the November 2013 Americana/Bluegrass Billboard charts. Wert graduated with a degree in liberal arts and now teaches special education in Texas 鈥� when he’s not on the road.

9. Harrisonburg’s new restorative justice initiative

Restorative justice articles always draw excellent reader numbers, but this article about the new Harrisonburg initiative garnered a record number of hits and Facebook shares. The new program, the first of its kind in Virginia and more than two years in the creation, involved restorative justice practitioners from EMU and James Madison University, Harrisonburg Police Deparetment, representatives of local law practices, the Commonwealth鈥檚 attorney and the Fairfield Center.

10. Any sports story!

EMU news blog readers love their sports! There’s always great coverage available at , but sometimes EMU news and your former sports-writer editor can’t resist the urge (with permission from Sports Information Director James De Boer) to “break” a sports story.

Whether finding articles at EMURoyals.com or EMU News, sports fans read, like and share them, from profiles of former athletes like pitcher-turned-Mets group sales director Kirk King ’07 to features on athletes in action, such as , Hannah Chappell-Dick and Kat Lehman at the indoor track NCAA championships, and a history-making baseball trio.

The editor’s favorite in this category was coverage of a charity basketball game that resulted in the photo above and the following headline: “Black Student Union fundraiser game pits the (victorious) Streetball Kingz against the hometown Wreckin’ Royals.”

Here’s wishing you happy reading in 2016. Send news tips to editor Lauren Jefferson at lauren.jefferson@emu.edu.

鈥�Jesus loves me, this I know, though my hair is white as snow,鈥� he began. 鈥�And my eyes are going dim, I鈥檝e had cataract surgery. Still He bids me to trust in Him. Though my steps are oh so slow 鈥� I have a cane. I belong to the Canaanites. Though my steps are oh so slow, with my hand in His I鈥檒l go. On through life, let come what may, on through life, He鈥檒l be there to lead the way.鈥�

Davis, who was baptized in 1943 while serving in the U.S. Army, worked from the 1960s through the 1980s in Christian institutions of higher education to bring multicultural awareness and diversity into curricula and campus communities.

He came to EMU near the end of his career, serving from 1980 to 1985 as the first director of the Cross-Cultural Center, the precursor to today鈥檚 .

Davis was introduced in the chapel service by senior Philip Watson, a member of the Black Student Union and a student representative to EMU鈥檚 Diversity Taskforce. Watson spoke of Davis鈥檚 scholarly accomplishments and thanked him for the role he played nearly 35 years ago.

鈥淗e is one of the unsung heroes of EMU鈥︹�� Watson said. 鈥淗is accomplishments paved the way for many of the programs and organizations that are active today, such as the Black Student Union, Latino Student Alliance and International Student Organization. Without people like Dr. Abraham Davis being one of the first to pioneer cultural change at 草莓社区, many of these organizations would not exist today.鈥�

An invitation to lead change

The Cross-Cultural Center, known as the CCC, was a place 鈥渨here international students and students of color could support each other鈥� and where 鈥渟trong relationships鈥� could be established with the predominantly heterogenous campus community at the time.

Davis was also tasked with 鈥渆thnically integrating the curricula in the various departments,鈥� he said in an October interview at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community with Watson. 鈥淭he curricula was prevailingly ethnocentric at the time, from the white perspective only. I spoke in chapel, bought books and films for the library, spoke in classes, invited other black professors and musicians to campus from around the country.鈥�

In 1980, as a result of a 鈥渃ross cultural task force,鈥� Davis also became minority advocate program coordinator.

鈥淚t was the beginning of things 鈥� It was so new then,鈥� said Davis, of the move towards multicultural curricula and inclusion. 鈥淭here were some who were supportive. Some professors invited me to class and some would send students to me. Some people had never met a black professor with a PhD from a Big 10 university. Even now, that鈥檚 true.鈥�

Carpenter to professor

Davis鈥檚 six years at EMU were among his last appointments in a long and challenging career in academia. He often encountered prejudice and bigotry. Just a few years before he began teaching at Indiana University while earning his doctorate in rhetoric and public address, a crowd of white students had marched with Confederate flags in protest of the election of a black student to the position of student body president.

While Davis jokes that he might now choose a more practical major than rhetoric, and perhaps even a different career, he is sure of one thing looking back over his 92 years: that his professional choices were driven by a hunger to know more about the Bible.

Raised in South Carolina under Jim Crow restrictions and trained as a carpenter, Davis says his parents, neither of whom attended high school, encouraged him to seek further education. But it was his acceptance of Christ at age 22 while stationed with the U.S. Army in Marseilles, France, and his subsequent baptism in Okinawa in 1946, that changed his life.

鈥淎fter I became a Christian, I became much more interested in people than in building things,鈥� Davis says.

Blessed with a beautiful baritone voice and a flair for performing, Davis wasn鈥檛 sure 鈥渨hat direction the Lord wanted me to go 鈥� should I be a singer, a preacher, what?鈥� For a time, he trained as a teacher with the Child Evangelism Fellowship in Santa Monica, California (at this point in the interview, Davis reeled off three short snippets of hymns, all perfectly in pitch, that he used to teach children on the playgrounds in California and his hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina).

Eventually, though, using the GI Bill, Davis pursued studies at Lancaster (Pa.) School of the Bible (now Lancaster Bible College) and then Houghton College in New York, where he graduated in 1955 with a degree in classical Greek and minors in speech and art. He earned a master鈥檚 degree from Temple University (Philadelphia, Pa.) in speech correction the following year and a PhD. from Indiana University in 1971.

When he came to EMU in 1980, Davis had taught a wide variety of subjects at several universities, including South Carolina State College for Negroes (now South Carolina State University), Houghton (where he was also debate coach), Indiana University, and Messiah College, where he rose to be dean of the Philadelphia campus.

鈥榃ork to be done鈥�

Among the speakers to honor Davis were President Loren Swartzendruber and professor emeritus Titus Bender, a member of the committee who hired Davis from his position at Messiah.

鈥淚鈥檓 grateful for the work that Dr. Davis did while he was here and I pray that we can continue his legacy,鈥� said Swartzendruber. 鈥淭here is still much work to be done and we know that.鈥�

He noted that the current campus community continues to work on cultural competencies and communication as it welcomes an increasingly diverse student population (this year鈥檚 includes 37 percent of students who are ethnic minorities or from another country). Swartzendruber also spoke of EMU鈥檚 early support for integration 鈥� the college admitted its first black student in 1949, just one of first two institutions in the former Confederate states to do so.

Though Watson, with the assistance of Multicultural and International Student Services Director , was the organizer of the service, Eric Payne was the link between past and present. It was Payne who met Philip Watson one day outside the fitness center. Payne is an assistant coach with women鈥檚 basketball and Watson a sprinter on the track team. The two started talking, and Payne urged Watson to reach out to Davis, who lives in Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a mission of mine to see that Dr. Davis get his recognition and I鈥檓 honored to be here to help in that 鈥�,鈥� said Payne, who has coached at EMU since 2002. 鈥淭his is a high point in my life. I told Dr. Davis that a few days ago and he thought I was joking but it鈥檚 true.鈥�

Teacher and coach mentored by Davis

Payne calls Davis a mentor even though the two just missed each other on the EMU campus. A native of Waynesboro, Virginia, Payne came to EMU in 1986 and struggled with the culture on campus. By that time, Davis had seen his position eliminated by budget cuts and was teaching elsewhere. Payne, though, found traces of the professor, of his eloquent rhetoric and his incisive cultural criticism, in the chance discovery of an article by Davis.

Payne quoted a few sentences during the service from the article, which he still has in his possession: 鈥溾�� [M]any if not most are not motivated to intensify or dilute the ethnocentricity in curricula to the adaptive methods of teaching, testing and advising according to the needs of select international and national minorities. However, I am still willing to rap and dilute this hypothesis with faculty and students whenever and wherever they desire individually or collectively.鈥�

The blunt accuracy of the statement, along with the use of the word rap 鈥� 鈥淚 love that,鈥� Payne told the audience 鈥揷aused him to think someone 鈥済ot it.鈥� Though Payne stayed on campus long enough to help invigorate the Black Student Union, he eventually finished his degree at James Madison University.

Still, that chance encounter drew Payne to seek out the professor when he retired to Harrisonburg a few years later. For many years, the two stayed in touch. Payne eventually finished credential coursework at EMU and now teaches at Fort Defiance High School. He plans to graduate from EMU with a master鈥檚 in education in the spring.

He too, along with Philip Watson, who graduates this spring with a degree in psychology, carries on a legacy that was sustained and energized by Davis and his work at EMU.

鈥淚t was one of the great honors of my life to be part of this,鈥� Payne said. 鈥淚 thank God for Dr. Davis.鈥�