Goshen College has announced that a Study-Service Term cohort will return to Tanzania in the spring semester of 2027. This will mark the eighth occasion that the college has sent students to the nation.  This unit will be led by Phil Allman, associate professor of marine biology, and Tim Pinion, a retired National Park Service employee, who served in various roles between 2015 and 2023. Jerrell Ross Richer, co-director of global engagement, explained that this SST unit is similar to every other cohort, in that the students will spend six weeks doing their study before transitioning to service for the...

By Liam Shaw • January 29, 2026 • News

Leaders for the Ecuador and Indonesia Study Service Terms in spring 2026 were announced recently by the Global Engagement Office. Global citizenship is one of GC’s core values, and one of the ways it is fulfilled is through semester-long SSTs which are led by a faculty director and a resident director.  For the Indonesia SST, Luke Beck Kreider will act as faculty director, and his spouse, Janie Beck Kreider, will act as resident director. In Ecuador, Duane Stoltzfus will act as faculty director, and his spouse, Karen Stoltzfus, will act as resident director.  Jerrell Ross Richer, professor of economics and...

By Annabelle Bartz • February 13, 2025 • News

One of the things I’ve been struggling with this semester is the awareness that, when I graduate in the spring, I won’t have completed a full Study-Service Term semester.  My requirements will have been met — don’t worry, faculty advisors — but I won’t have the experience of spending an entire semester in another country. And that feels strange, because SST has always felt like something of an inevitability for me.  When I committed to GC my senior year of high school, I told several GC alumni at my church that I would be attending. Their initial responses usually involved...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 15, 2022 • Features

16 GC students and two faculty leaders departed for their 13-week Study-Service Term in Senegal in early May. The group returned in late July.  Goshen College’s Study Service Term (SST) is a program that each GC student experiences in some capacity, whether through SST alternate courses, hybrid semesters or a 13-week semester studying and serving abroad. SST contributes to GC’s motto, “Culture for Service,” and core value of global citizenship. When the group arrived in Senegal, they strapped luggage to their bus, traveled an hour to Thiès, and stayed in a small dormitory the first few nights.  “I remember getting...

By Sarah Miller • September 15, 2022 • Features

Next fall, Goshen College will send off its first split-semester Study-Service Term (SST) unit, with participants spending half of the semester on GC’s campus and the other half in Baltimore, Maryland. The unit will focus on the themes of immigration, asylum and refugees. During the first half of the semester, the students will take two classes: one on literature written by refugees and other displaced people, and the second on the causes and consequences of global migration. Then, after the midterm break, they will travel to Baltimore for service placements. The split-semester arrangement reflects a shift in the SST department...

By Caleb Shenk • March 17, 2022 • News

After months of waiting in limbo and much back-and-forth with the Indonesian consulate, the Indonesia Study Service Term group will finally be able to enter the country. The ten students will leave from Philadelphia, where they have spent the study portion of the semester, on Thursday, March 3, for their six-week service component on three Indonesian islands. Five students will do their service on the Java island, three will go to the island of Sumba, and two will travel to Timor. Jan Bender Shetler, director of international education, said that the visas came through on Monday, and they found out...

By Caleb Shenk • February 25, 2022 • News

Last Wednesday, 15 students departed for their Study Service Term in Quito, Ecuador. On Jan. 25, 10 more students will head to Philadelphia as part of an adapted cross cultural experience focused on immersion in Indonesian culture both in the United States and abroad.  Both groups have been forced to adapt to changes posed by the ever-evolving coronavirus.   The prevalence of the virus became apparent for the group heading to Ecuador when test shortages and changed airplane schedules threatened to affect their travel plans.   Even as the students boarded their first flight toward Quito, there was still uncertainty about their...

By Sarah Miller • January 20, 2022 • News

With the first post-pandemic Study Service Term (SST) unit going strong in Ecuador, Goshen College plans for a full return to international study this year, with a new twist. This spring and summer, traditional SST units will return to Indonesia and Senegal as well as Ecuador. Students will also participate in shorter, immersive experiences in Guatemala, India, London, Arizona and northern Indiana as part of a new alternative SST option.  The group in Ecuador right now has six participants, but Jan Shetler, director of global engagement, said that, as concern around COVID-19 goes down, rosters for upcoming units have grown....

By Sierra Ross Richer • November 4, 2021 • News

Two weeks ago, the arrival of six Goshen College students in Ecuador, marked the return of Goshen’s international Study-Service Term program after a year and a half.  The group made an early departure from Goshen on Aug. 31. Besides a minor complication with one student’s visa which delayed her entrance into the country for a few days, the trip is running smoothly and the students are steering clear of COVID-19.   “Ecuador made international news for the dire situation they faced early on in the pandemic,” said Caleb Longenecker Fox, one of the leaders of the unit.  Since then, over half...

By Amelia Witmer-Rich • September 16, 2021 • News

Goshen College is known for its immersive, cross-cultural Study-Service Term (SST) experience. Traditionally, that experience has involved a semester abroad; however, the college is beginning to explore new programs within the United States, including a six-week SST on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in the American Southwest this summer.  Consisting of 18 students and led by sociology professors Kendra Yoder and David Lind, the first Southwest Indigenous Perspectives SST unit departed for the Navajo Nation on June 15 and returned to Goshen on July 26.  Students signed on for this SST option for several reasons. Some did not feel comfortable...

By Augusta Nafziger • September 9, 2021 • Features

On Mar. 26, the Global Engagement Office made the decision to cancel the fall 2021 China SST unit. It’s the second year Goshen College has delayed their longest running SST unit, run consecutively since 1980.  Jan Bender Shetler, director of global engagement, said that GC has been in conversation with their partner institution, China West Normal University (CWNU) in Nanchong, Sichuan Province.  “We have been talking to them through emails and Zoom conversations since last year when it was cancelled,” she said. “Certainly more intensely in the fall and again in the spring. They kept thinking that things would open...

By Patrick Webb • April 9, 2021 • News

International and domestic study opportunities will be adapted in 2021 with new locations and opportunities beyond the traditional Study-Service Term. With four semesters of SST cancelled due to COVID-19, many students are scrambling for more flexible options to receive their SST credits, and the international education office is working to meet students’ needs. Jan Bender Shetler, director of international education, has been working with faculty to create a wide variety of international and domestic travel courses. Each program is led by a professor, and according to Bender Shetler, they fall under “two buckets:” INTL 251 Cultural Perspectives and INTL 271...

By Greta Lapp Klassen • March 25, 2021 • News

A little over two months ago, Caleb and Nina Longenecker Fox left the United States for Ecuador. As leaders of the upcoming Study-Service Term units, there is a lot to accomplish before the students arrive in the fall. Caleb and Nina Longenecker Fox have been excited about this opportunity for a while.  Caleb Longenecker Fox went to Nicaragua for SST when he was a student at Goshen and has been interested in leading SST ever since. The pair have always wanted to live abroad for a more extended period of time. With this in mind, Caleb Longenecker Fox said that...

By Jackson Steinmetz • March 18, 2021 • Features

“I wanted to make something that truly reflects the wonders of SST.” And after spending three months abroad, third-year film production major, Eric Miller, did just that after being inspired to create a two-part documentary conveying his memorable trip to Ecuador. “I remember before embarking on this journey, I knew next to nothing about what you actually do on SST,” Miller said. “There were some videos, but it’s mostly just people talking about it, rather than showing it.”  Titled ‘El Refugio de Ecuador’, Miller’s first documentary captures the chaos that ensued as the coronavirus swept across the globe.  The third...

By Record • January 21, 2021 • Features

Goshen College announced last Tuesday that international courses scheduled for this summer and May term have been canceled due to concerns with the coronavirus.  Study-Service Term programs are expected to resume in fall 2021. The courses affected by this decision are arts in London, filmmaking in Japan, hiking the Inca Trail in Peru and the summer SST units to Ecuador and Senegal.  Canceling these courses was a decision made based on four criteria: little positive movement has occurred in COVID-19 rates or changes in State Department and CDC travel restrictions at present; there is faint hope of being able to vaccinate...

By Jackson Steinmetz • October 22, 2020 • News