Study-Service TermGoshen College’s Study-Service Term is one of the quintessential aspects of the institution. Follow our coverage as the program changes and grows.
Goshen College’s Study-Service Term is one of the quintessential aspects of the institution. Follow our coverage as the program changes and grows.
October 8, 2020
GC alumnus talks decolonizing service work
The Goshen College Alumni Council and Yoder Public Affairs Committee hosted Shashi Buluswar ‘91, last Thursday, Oct. 1 during Homecoming, as a part of the new series: GC Talks. Buluswar, CEO of the Institute for Transformative Technologies and a 2020 Culture for Service awardee, presented on the history of international service work and how it came to exist in the form most widely recognized today, which he says has included a shift away from reliance on foreign aid agencies. When Buluswar first arrived at Goshen College as a business and computer science major, the idea of culture for service was...
September 24, 2020
Public Health practicum to offer global engagement
This year, Goshen College is partnering with Mennonite Central Committee to offer SST-alternative courses in the form of a year-long series on global public health. The Global Health Virtual Practicum, as the series is being called, will cover a wide variety of global health issues, including projects done in partnership with organizations around the world. “Over the year we will be working with a wide variety of MCC’s partner organizations from around the world,” said Paul Shetler Fast, MCC’s Global Health Coordinator and one of the organizers of the practicum. Fast ‘08 and his wife, Rebecca Shetler Fast, have been...
September 3, 2020
Low numbers push first on-campus SST to spring
Following a soft launch last April, Goshen College’s inaugural on-campus Study-Service Term, “Dreams & Journeys: Immigrants & Refugees,” was set to welcome its first cohort this fall, but only five students signed up. In response to low numbers, the semester-long opportunity has now been moved to the spring 2021 semester. The hope is that interest will grow among students over the next few months, said Jan Bender Shetler, director of international education. “We just aren’t getting the number of students we thought,” Shetler said, noting that the new SST option was introduced after four international summer and fall terms were...
March 15, 2020
SST units to return home, all international May Term classes cancelled
The current Ecuador and Tanzania Study-Service Term units were informed over the weekend that they will return home this week, nearly three weeks earlier than planned. This decision came only hours after all Goshen College international May Term classes and summer SST units were also cancelled following a level 2 or 3 travel advisory issued by the U.S. State Department of Bureau of Consular affairs. While those who were set to travel in May digest the information, the SST units have begun preparing to return home. Noelia Calderon, a sophomore business major currently based in San Vicente, Ecuador, explained that...
March 13, 2020
Coronavirus cancels China SST
On Thursday, March 5, Goshen College announced that the China fall Study-Service Term would be relocated to Indonesia. The announcement was made on the college’s website where a specific Coronavirus page has been set up to keep the campus community updated and informed about the virus and its impact on the college. An email was then sent out to students, employees and retired Goshen faculty and staff from the Dean’s office to inform them of the change. The change in the SST destination is a result of China remaining at a level 4 on the travel Advisory scale by the...
February 7, 2020
Coronavirus causes concern for SST
On Saturday, Feb. 2, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular affairs announced that China is now a Level 4 on the travel advisory scale. This announcement informed U.S. residents to not travel there due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. On Wednesday, Chinese health officials raised the death total of the virus to 490 people. The recent news has created concern amongst those set to travel in the fall to China on SST. Jan Bender Shelter, director of international education, contacted the students who are currently signed up for the trip and their parents via email. Shelter expressed...
January 31, 2020
“Teaching me more than anyone else”
Editor’s Note: Every once in a while I invite someone to share a story with the Record in the form of photojournalism, with a short statement detailing what the pictures mean to them. If you’re interested in that kind of storytelling, reach out to the Record or myself. This week’s come from Gloria Bontrager-Thomas, a sophomore currently on SST in Tanzania. “This is Henry. He’s two, and doesn’t speak English. Since coming to Tanzania two weeks ago, we’ve been trying to figure out how to communicate without being able to speak the same language. We play ball, tickle, and chase...
January 31, 2020
New climate tool highlights varied effects of global warming
Climate change is affecting Goshen College programs around the world in very different ways, a climate tool published in a New York Times article confirms. In Goshen, the number of days in a year at or above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) has hardly changed, hovering around 11 since 1960, but that number has increased profoundly in warmer study abroad locations, the tool shows. By the end of the century, projected warming is more striking still, even in best-case scenarios. In Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, where 17 Goshen College students are currently living with host families on SST, the...
January 31, 2020
Spring SST units depart, new curriculum finalized
As classes began last Wednesday on campus, 38 Goshen College students embarked on an intercultural journey as the spring 2020 Study-Service Term units departed. 17 students made the trek to Tanzania, while 21 departed for Ecuador. This semester’s unit marks only the second group Goshen College has sent to Ecuador following the switch from Peru. As with the fall semester, the group is led by Andrew Hartzler, professor of accounting, and his wife Ruth. The unit in Ecuador partners with the Cofan Survival Fund, which is a carbon-offsetting partnership. After leading a fall unit of only six students, Hartzler recognizes...
November 29, 2019
Vote set to approve SST pilot program
The first faculty-wide vote on revised Study-Service Term curriculum will take place on Thursday, Nov. 21, beginning the process of approval for the 2020-21 SST pilot program. The proposal, which originally included changes to SST core courses, course sequence/length of SST term and cost, was altered to solely address the piloting of two new courses, after faculty and staff addressed their concern. “The faculty, administrators, everybody is about the big idea,” said Jan Shetler, director of international education. “They’re happy about it, but it’s the logistics of this thing that kind of boggles the mind. How do you have all...
November 6, 2019
Ecuador SST unit adjusts to unrest
The students in Goshen College’s first Ecuador Study-Service Term unit entered their fourth week in adjusted service locations on Monday, sent as a group to the coast after protests rocked the country for two weeks in October. The six students were set to head off to different parts of the country to stay with host families for the second half of SST. Four students were scheduled to go to two different communities in the highlands before transportation strikes froze travel and isolated rural communities. Last week, Andrew and Ruth Hartzler, SST leaders, and Jan Shetler, director of international education at...
September 5, 2019
Making the switch to Ecuador: changes in SST
Only months before leaving on SST, six Goshen College students learned that they would go to Ecuador, not Peru. The transition brings sadness and concern, as well as joy and new opportunities to past and future SST students. Logistical issues with visas and banking were the main reasons for the change, according to Jan Shetler, director of international education. While the SST program in Peru had a greater emphasis on sustainability studies and cultural differences, the program in Ecuador allows for a greater focus on Indigenous cultures and their struggles for equality, she said. Jerrell Ross Richer, professor of economics,...
March 27, 2019
Peru SST makes way for Ecuador
After 14 years, 37 units and over 600 students, this summer’s Study-Service Term in Peru will be the last for the country. Instead, beginning with the fall 2019 unit, Ecuador will become the South American location, making it the 25th country to be part of the SST program. The decision was first announced to students on Tuesday evening at a meeting with the fall unit. By the end of the night, all those signed up for Peru SST for the 2019-2020 school year had heard the news. Tom Meyers, current director of international education, explained that the decision had been...
March 10, 2019
Opening lecture promotes the value of global education
A plenary lecture on Tuesday evening by Elaine Meyer-Lee, associate vice president for global learning and leadership development at Agnes Scott College, marked the opening of a two-day global education conference at Goshen College. The lecture took place in the Church-Chapel. Meyer-Lee works with the SUMMIT program at Agnes Scott College to prepare students to thrive in a global community through a curriculum based in global learning and leadership development. Meyer-Lee is also a former Goshen student and traveled to Haiti on SST in 1984. The conference, which ran from March 5-6 and was entitled “Global Education for...
March 8, 2019
MCC with a pinch of SALT
Jill Steinmetz, a 2018 Goshen College graduate, is currently serving as a digital media specialist for Mennonite Central Committee as a part of their Service and Learning Together program in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Steinmetz knew from a young age while listening to stories of past volunteers in her Mennonite church in Northwest Ohio that she wanted to work abroad for MCC. She was intrigued by the impact these volunteers had on their communities and the unique experiences they had and she wanted to become a part of that herself. She initially intended on taking a gap...