InDepthA collection of our most-followed stories. From immigration to administration, we cover it all.
A collection of our most-followed stories. From immigration to administration, we cover it all.
January 24, 2013
ASL students see signs of love in Peru SST
Rosa Wyse began her mornings in Peru with a mug of chamomile tea, a salted avocado and a conversation with her deaf host parents, Rosio and Rolando. Knowing little Peruvian sign langauge, Wyse struggled at first to communicate with her parents–especially her dad, Rolando. Over time, though, Rolando warmed up to Wyse and loved to tell her Bible stories and Peruvian folk tales. “He would get all puffed up and sign ‘I’m an Incan warrior!'” Wyse said of her host dad. “He loved telling stories and being goofy. He reminded me a lot of my dad back home.” Wyse...
January 17, 2013
From the Peace Corps to Ecuador: tales from winter break
Karina Kreider, a junior, decided to make good use of her time–and hands–over Christmas break. Inspired by the idea that hand-made crafts and knowledge are a dying art, Kreider and her dad built an entire toboggan by themselves. The sled was constructed from old floorboards, rope and ash wood. Though Kreider said the structure of the toboggan was fairly simple, the process was more intricate than she had anticipated. “Between the two of us,” Kreider said, “we probably both spent 15 to 20 hours on the toboggan.” The largest complication, Kreider said, was figuring out a way to curve the...
October 18, 2012
Nine semesters, five countries, one family
It may be that the prospect of living abroad and working in diverse cultural settings is as much a selling point for staff as it is for prospective students. Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, religion & philosophy, certainly thinks so. Of current faculty, Keith Graber Miller is the most ambitious SST leader on campus. He and his family have led four units to the Dominican Republic, one unit to Cuba that had to be relocated to Costa Rica, a unit in China and two units in the southeast Asian country of Cambodia. This Dec. they head to Cambodia for a...
September 12, 2012
Summer around the world
Four students–one SSTer, one Maple Scholar, one camp counselor and one Ministry Inquiry program participant–share their warm weather experiences. “This summer I had the pleasure of leaving the flat farmland of Indiana behind in favor of the much more dramatic Colorado Rockies as I worked at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. I was a counselor and was able to work with kids from third grade through high school. We went on three hikes every week, to valleys, waterfalls and mountains, including 14,110-foot-high Pikes Peak. We occasionally had to coax campers into making it all the way to the end, but I...
September 12, 2012
A new country, a new language for fall SSTs
This fall, two Study-Service Term units are pioneering changes for the SST program. Both the Peru and Morocco units, which departed September 5, hold significant new components. Though Goshen College has traveled to Morocco twice with the “Spain and Morocco” May Term, there has never been a full SST there, according to Tom Meyers, director of international education. Morocco SST students had originally signed up to travel to Egypt, where a unit ran in 2010. Egypt 2010 was “very successful,” Meyers said. However, two months after Goshen College students returned from Egypt, a revolution made the country unstable. Meyers...
March 28, 2012
Domestic SST program undergoes major revisions
Starting in fall 2012, Goshen College students who choose not to take an international Study Service Term or a study-abroad equivalent will be required to do the domestic SST: Latino Studies program instead. Incoming students and current first-years will no longer have the option of taking SST alternate courses on campus. Unlike previous domestic SST units, the revised program will now last an entire school year as of fall 2012. Before, students in the program had to cram all 13 credits into a single semester, but now they will take seven credits in the fall and six in the spring....
March 15, 2012
Financial report boasts new figures
Jim Histand, vice president of finance, announced the tuition rates for the 2012-13 school year to students in an email on February 15, which showed a slight increase from the 2011-12 school year. Although Histand notes that these increases are similar to most years, they leave some students asking more questions about the finances of Goshen College. An operating budget has been set for the 2012-13 school year to cover expenses such as labor, salaries, and benefits; financial aid; advertising and other administrative costs; and maintenance. The total budget, which is funded by a variety of sources, is set at...
February 16, 2012
Tuition costs revealed for 2012-13
The President’s Council has released tuition, room and board costs for the 2012-13 school year. In a statement sent to students Wednesday afternoon, Jim Histand, vice president of finance, revealed that tuition will cost $26,900, room $4,750 and board $4,250 for the full year. “For the past decade or so, Goshen has been taking a very steady and consistent approach to its pricing and working very hard to contain costs from year to year,” said Histand. “Current year increases are very similar to prior years.” The numbers represent a $1,550 total increase for students. However, the option to take 16...
January 26, 2012
For the Record 1/26 – A call to all first-years: let’s hang out!
Hypothetical situation: I’m sitting in the dining hall, eating my fair share of something that’s not fish, and a person I’ve never seen before, a first-year student perchance, walks in. Realistic reaction from me: instant judgment! As much as it pains me to admit it (OK, fine, it’s not much pain), I have a habit of immediately judging people based on their looks, attire, stride, entourage and general vibes I receive. I realize that this make me seem like a jerk, which very well could be true, but I have no remorse about that. Truly, if I feel bad about...
January 12, 2012
Students adjust to change in SST location
At the beginning of 2012, the decision to discontinue the Study-Service Term in Egypt was made official. Tom Meyers, director of international education, and the International Education Committee knew they needed to come to a conclusion about the safety of sending students to a nation in the midst of revolution by the beginning of the new year. Starting last January, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to protest government corruption, unemployment and poverty. Within months, the people overthrew a president who had been in power for 30 years. Various reports have speculated that the death toll within the first months...
January 12, 2012
Tanzania SST-ers revive chicken slaughtering experience in Goshen
Plucking chicken feathers wasn’t something Leah Thill, Indy Miller and Laura Krabill expected to do on their Study-Service Term in Tanzania last spring. During a visit to a service location one afternoon, however, they learned the process of turning live chickens into a meal for 13. On a warm March day, Thill, Miller and Krabill met with five other SST-ers in Mogabiri and were invited to a host family’s home for dinner. Sharing a meal with a family is an act of hospitality in Tanzania, and as a token of their appreciation the Goshen College students decided to buy two...
September 21, 2011
ASL, Spanish may both go on Peru SST
American Sign Language students might be trading the sunny beaches of Jamaica for the snowcapped mountains of South America. Tom Meyers, director of international education, will travel to Peru this month in hopes of setting up a dual-track Study Service Term program there, accommodating both students who are studying Spanish and those who are learning American Sign Language. After ASL students returned from SST in Jamaica last fall, Goshen College decided to end the program there. The short-lived Jamaica SST location started in the summer of 2007 and lasted for three terms. Jamaica was the first SST unit that was...
April 14, 2011
Tanzania and Peru SST returns
Almost 30 faces returned to the pool of Goshen students yesterday after a semester’s worth of traveling for Study-Service Term. Fifteen students safely returned from Tanzania and 14 returned from Peru. The Tanzania group arrived Wednesday afternoon around 3 p.m. The 7 remaining students of the group either traveled afterward or flew directly home. Tanzania 2011 was led by Ryan and Donna Sensenig with their two children, Mara and Isaac. The group spent the first six weeks of the term in the capitol, Dar es Salaam, studying Swahili and Tanzania’s culture. For the second half of the semester, students were...
March 31, 2011
Jamaica S.S.T. to be discontinued
Following careful deliberation, the Study Service Term (S.S.T.) Office decided that Jamaica S.S.T. will discontinue after three terms of running. The decision is primarily driven by not enough students showing interest in the program. On the most recent term to Jamaica in the fall of 2010, only nine students participated. “Simply put, we can’t sustain the program with so few participants,” said Tom Meyers, Director of International Education. A second factor of the discontinuation is the perception that Jamaica S.S.T. was exclusively for American Sign Language (ASL) students. Understandably, the program attracts many ASL students because it allows for interaction...
March 10, 2011
People share opinions about tuition increases
“It just kind of concerns me because pricing out certain students gets rid of some diversity and goes against Goshen's core values.” -David Harnish, a junior History and Secondary Education double-major “We continue to work at making Goshen College affordable for students through all types of financial aid. At GC we have been gifted with a large amount of money that we can use to help cover the cost of attendance for students.” -Lynn Jackson, vice president for enrollment management “Goshen College works very hard to provide...