Student Profiles
![“One of the reasons I chose CMU was because of the smaller school size, smaller class size, and there is more accessibility to meet with professors and explain that [I’m a deaf individual],” says first-year student Annika Goodbrandson.](https://www.cmu.ca/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=/uploaded/Annika_Goodbrandson_4034.jpg&w=1500&h=1000&aoe=0&q=100&f=.jpg "“One of the reasons I chose CMU was because of the smaller school size, smaller class size, and there is more accessibility to meet with professors and explain that [I’m a deaf individual],” says first-year student Annika Goodbrandson.")
Deaf first-year student finds place at CMU, both on the court and in class
Adaptability might be Annika Goodbrandson's greatest strength. As a multi-sport athlete, Goodbrandson understands the importance of versatility and flexibility. Goodbrandson is lacing up for Canadian Mennonite University's (CMU) Blazers women's basketball team this year, and her greatest strength will be to the test.
As a deaf individual, the prevalence of adaptability has been lifelong for the first-year CMU student. Goodbrandson's family became aware that she was deaf at the age of two, and shortly after, the decision was made to get cochlear implant surgery and start speech therapy. Because of this, Goodbrandson can hear relatively clearly and fills in what she can't by reading lips.
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A heritage moment for CMU athlete
We all know the saying "when one door closes, another one opens," but for many people the COVID-19 pandemic has closed a lot more doors than it has opened. That's not the case for CMU men's basketball guard Binh Nguyen, who now finds himself playing professional basketball in the VBA in his native country of Vietnam.
Flash back to summer of 2020, when the world was in lockdown from a rapidly spreading virus. Training was shutdown, the likelihood of a college season starting in fall was just a glimmer of hope, and the idea of a year of online classes was rapidly looking like an inevitability. Like most people around him, Nguyen was rapidly shrinking his social bubble as the list of restrictions on social gatherings, travel, and services continued to lengthen; however, at a time when others were just waiting for the pandemonium to end, Binh Nguyen was researching opportunities to grow his game while everyone else was locked in.
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Practicum student helps shape Anabaptist worship
When Amelia Pahl envisioned how her practicum would go, she didn't expect she would be dissecting an 18th century prayer book and seeing how it could be used for worship today. Yet this was one of the many tasks she took on this summer.
Pahl, a fourth-year CMU student doing an interdisciplinary degree in Religion and Narrative, did a three-month practicum placement with Together in Worship, a website of free Anabaptist worship resources that was launched this fall.
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Practicum Story: Finding life and energy in church ministry’s diverse demands
"My primary experience of the inner workings of a church has been gathered under a pandemic. [...] The variety is endlessly surprising, delightful, tiring, invigorating, and of course, exciting."
Marina 'Marnie' Klassen, 22, is in her fifth and final year of an interdisciplinary BA in Social Theology, with Communications and Media minor. Over the last few months, she has been working through a pastoral internship with Home Street Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, in fulfillment of her CMU practicum.
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‘For the straight way was lost’: Navigating faith, grad studies, and mental illness
When MA Theology student Grace Kang was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she found herself forced to re-evaluate almost everything. So she went to grad school.
Haeon Grace Kang—Grace, in Anglophone circles—came to CMU searching for God: "I thought that studying God might help me to find a more intimate relationship with God. So far, I'd say that has worked out," she says.
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