News and Releases
Keyword: alumni update
Faith in Practice: How CMU Inspires Community-Centred Leadership
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
For Kyle Penner, CMU was where he learned how to think about faith, community, and leadership in ways that continue to shape his life today. "My time at CMU helped shape who I am and how I think in the world," he says.
After graduating in 2005 with a major in youth ministry, Penner reflects on the practical lessons CMU offered. Courses on preaching, church history, and biblical texts didn't just give him knowledge, he says they taught him how to communicate with clarity across generations. Something that he says comes in quite handy in his current role as the pastor of Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach.
Read MoreRooted in Faith, Growing Through Ecology: A CMU Alum's Path of Environmental Leadership
Tuesday, September 2, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Sometimes the most pivotal moments are only possible because of the communities we've already been part of. For Joanne Moyer, that moment came at an airport.
While seeing off a friend who was volunteering in Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams (now Community Peacemaker Teams), she bumped into Esther Epp-Tiessen who then worked for Mennonite Central Committee. Because they already knew each other through CMU's close-knit circles, the conversation quickly turned into opportunity.
Read MoreFrom student council to corporate communications: A CMU alum’s journey of curiosity, community, and connection
Monday, September 1, 2025 @ 12:00 AM
Zachary Peters came to CMU for adventure.
In 2005, Peters joined CMU's Outtatown Discipleship School, a program that enabled students to experience travel through a mission trip while still keeping up with their studies.
Read MoreSpring 2025 alumni updates
Monday, June 16, 2025 @ 4:20 PM
John Longhurst (MBBC '79), Winnipeg, MB, was appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2024 for his interfaith journalism at the Winnipeg Free Press, where he has been a faith page columnist since 2003 and a faith reporter since 2019. Through his writing, he seeks to connect people across religions and strives to foster understanding and respect. Longhurst also writes for various other publications in Canada and the U.S., including Canadian Affairs, Anabaptist World, Faith Today, Christian Courier and the Canadian Jewish News. He has won awards for his writing from the Associated Church Press and the Canadian Church Press and, in 2021, he received the Manitoba Lieutenant Governor's Award for the Advancement of Interreligious Understanding.
Read MoreAlumni in their own words - Nathan Loewen (CMBC '94)
Monday, June 16, 2025 @ 9:00 AM
Where has life taken you since you left CMU?
Today, I'm a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama (UA). I moved to Alabama in 2013 and was hired by UA in 2015. I really enjoy working here! It's a very different context from Canada's that I've come to really enjoy. It's the perfect mix of nature and academia!
Read MoreAlumni in their own words - J.D. Penner (CMBC '92)
Thursday, April 10, 2025 @ 10:39 AM
Where has life taken you since you left CMU?
My journey since graduating from CMU (formerly Canadian Mennonite Bible College) has been anything but conventional. While I earned a Bachelor of Church Music with a concentration in vocal performance, and minors in piano and violin, my professional path took a dramatic turn into the world of finance and banking. Early on, I discovered an unexpected interest in administration and finance during summer jobs in Toronto.
Read MoreCMU degree fosters holistic approach to therapy
Monday, January 6, 2025 @ 9:00 AM
Rachel Robertson has always been interested in understanding why people do what they do, and CMU's free counselling services furthered her passion for mental health care. "I would like to say my time at CMU was the best time of my life, but honestly it wasn't always; some years were really hard. But it was at CMU where I first accessed mental health supports, and that was life-changing for me," she says.
Read MoreAlumni in Their Own Words - Wyatt Anders (2010-12)
Wednesday, September 4, 2024 @ 2:32 PM
Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?
After CMU, I was offered a full scholarship at the University of Manitoba. I completed two degrees and played professional basketball. I am now juggling the life of coaching, playing (traveling the world through basketball), refereeing, and teaching in the Winnipeg School Division. CMU was the start of my academic and playing career—I would not have had these opportunities without CMU.
Read MoreAlumni in Their Own Words - Nicole Richard Williams
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 @ 9:45 AM
Nicole Richard graduated from CMU in 2013 with a Bachelor of Music Therapy.
Where has your life taken you since you left CMU?
After finishing my Bachelor of Music Therapy at CMU, I worked as a music therapist in Winnipeg for about three years. During this time, I started working with many clients on the autism spectrum and noticed that doing rhythmic and drumming interventions with these folks really seemed to help them reach some of their therapeutic goals. I wanted to deepen my understanding of how exactly music therapy could help autistic children. Going to grad school had always been a dream of mine, and so I decided to take some time off working to do a Master's in Music and Health Science at the University of Toronto. During that degree, I decided I wanted to continue on and do a PhD and was accepted again at the Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory (the lab out of which the master's and PhD are based) at the University of Toronto.
Read MoreAlumna explores intersection between land, people, and faith at Yale
Monday, December 11, 2023 @ 10:11 AM
Anika Reynar (CMU '17, Interdisciplinary Studies – Social Ecology) lives her life with one foot in the library and one foot in the garden—and also the classroom, the church, and around the table. She's pursuing her passions by doing not just one, but two, master's degrees simultaneously at Yale University.
Reynar is working on a Master of Arts in Religion through Yale Divinity School and a Master of Environmental Management through Yale School of Environment. She's in her third and last year of the joint program in New Haven, Connecticut. "I broadly describe what I'm interested in as being focused around land use and how communities who potentially hold different value sets negotiate how land is used."
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