The Good LIbrary Art Gallery is currently home to an exhibit recognizing the 50th anniversary of Goshen’s Study Service Term. The exhibit, entitled “Brought Home: Objects and Stories from 50 Years of SST,” is comprised of artifacts students and faculty members brought back to the U.S. from their SST experiences. There is a wide selection of exotic objects, fine art and folk art, including paintings, textiles, toys, carvings, costumes, jewelry, ceramics, baskets, masks and metalwork. Some of the objects were gifts from friends who went to foreign countries, while others were brought back by the travelers themselves. All of these...

By Emily Cummings • March 8, 2019 • Arts

Goshen College hosted a two-day conference this week to reflect on the past 50 years of Study-Service Term (SST) and to look ahead at the future of the program.   The “Global Education for All: Renewing our Vision” conference began on the evening of March 5 with a lecture by Elaine Meyer-Lee, associate vice president for global learning and leadership development at Agnes Scott College.   Wednesday began with a panel of former SST leaders and international education directors who reflected on the past and significance of SST. They were followed by the “Global Education for All” convocation, featuring student...

By Megan Bower • March 7, 2019 • News

Since its inception in 1968, Goshen College’s Study Service Term (SST) has sent over 7,000 students to 24 different countries. And for the past 15 years, Tom Meyers has worked as director of international education at GC — a role which involves overseeing the SST program and further developing it. For Meyers, a graduate of Goshen College, the SST program has been a big part of his life. Meyers has had the unique advantage of experiencing SST as a student, faculty leader, parent and director. As director of international education, Meyers has a long list of responsibilities: organizing all the...

By Cecilia Garcia • November 7, 2018 • Features

For just over half an hour Wednesday morning, the Umble Center was packed for a convocation detailing the 2018 Senegal SST unit. Goshen College sends groups to Senegal every other summer. This past summer’s Senegal unit was one of the smallest in SST’s history, consisting of only eight students: junior Ethan Lapp, seniors Naomi Peters, Lukas Thompson, Zach Ganger, Spencer Aeschliman, Ben Meyer Reimer and Alex Steiner and 2018 graduate Morgan Yordy. The unit was led by Tom Meyers, director of international education, and his wife, Julie. “The group was a delight to work with,” said Meyers. “Small groups can...

By Siana Emery • October 24, 2018 • News

September 12, 1968 marked the inception of Goshen College’s Study-Service Term, with the first units embarking for Costa Rica, Guadalupe and Jamaica. Almost exactly 50 years later, 32 faculty, staff and students met for the SST search conference with the goal of reassessing the distinguished program. Throughout the course of the weekend intensive, participants tackled this question: “How can we strengthen Goshen College’s international education core, including SST, to make it more effective, engaging and possible for our students in the current global context?” Under the leadership of Davydd Greenwood, retired anthropology professor and international studies professor at Cornell University...

By Siana Emery • September 26, 2018 • News

Goshen College is preparing to send a third group of 20 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to Guatemala City in the summer of 2019 for Study-Service Theology Term (SSTT). The study-abroad program in Guatemala is made possible by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, based in Indianapolis. Goshen College is one of 94 colleges and universities around the nation to receive a grant intended to give high school students interested in theology and ministry the chance to explore their future in the church. However, Goshen is the only institution that uses this fund to take high school students abroad...

By Nick Yutzy • September 26, 2018 • News

This past weekend, 24 faculty and staff and nine students from across the campus community convened at the Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan, for the SST search conference. The conference, beginning the evening of Sept. 14 and concluding mid-day on Sept. 16, was an intensive weekend spent discussing the past, present and future of Goshen College’s international education requirement. Attendees will continue working with these concepts throughout the school year. The conference was guided by the question: “How can we strengthen Goshen College’s international education core, including SST, to make it more effective, engaging and possible for our students in...

By Siana Emery • September 19, 2018 • News

In 1968, Goshen College launched the groundbreaking Study-Service Term (SST). 50 years, nearly 8,000 students and 24 countries later, the college is celebrating the program’s landmark anniversary with another pioneering step in international education — reevaluation. In an academic year guided by the core value of “global citizenship,” the 50th reunion of SST will bring both celebration and assessment. Consistently ranked as one of the top study-abroad programs in the country, SST seeks to provide a transformative experience for Goshen students, placing them in developing nations rather than typical study-abroad locations. Unique attributes of the program, such as placement with...

By Siana Emery • September 12, 2018 • News

While many students headed home for the summer, 31 Goshen College students jumped on planes to Dakar, Senegal, and Lima, Peru, last May for a summer abroad. For Tom Meyers, Director of International Education and leader of the Senegal Study-Service Term unit, the eight-student group tied for the smallest group he’d ever led. “It was great,” Meyers said. “A small group can be problematic, but it can also be very helpful. In this case, the group got along great.” Conversely, the Peru unit was composed of 23 students. Anne Buckwalter, Naomi Peters and Spencer Aeschliman, all seniors at Goshen College,...

By Carter Mckay-Epp • September 5, 2018 • Features

In 2015, 61 percent of Goshen College’s graduating class went on SST. For the class of 2017, that number is down to 46 percent. Tom Meyers, Director of International Education at Goshen College, says those figures represent how SST is struggling to adapt to Goshen College’s changing student demographics. “We have fewer legacy students now. We have a lot more local students now for whom SST is a strange idea,” Meyers said. There are 215 first-year students at Goshen. Of these 215, 56 are commuter students and 74 are student-athletes. Effectively 60 percent of Goshen’s first-year class consists of students...

By Carter Mckay-Epp • April 27, 2018 • Features

Following a hiatus of nearly 20 years, the Indonesia Study Service Term is beginning again, with the first unit taking off in the spring of 2019. The group will be led by Brenda and Jodi Srof. This SST location will occur every third year, like Tanzania and China. The last time Goshen College sent a group of students to Indonesia was in the spring of 2001. The college left the country following a travel warning placed by the U.S. government in the wake of terrorist activity, which has long since been lifted. In its place the college established the Cambodia...

By Siana Emery • November 9, 2017 • News

Pat Lehman, professor of communication, is adding another set of responsibilities to her job as she anticipates leading the 2018 Spring and Summer Peru SST units. Lehman will leave in mid-December for Peru to prepare for the SST, with students following in January for the spring semester SST. She is looking forward to the upcoming trip. Lehman said, “I’m excited about strengthening my Spanish…seeing some of the world-renowned sites like Machu Picchu…and working closely with Goshen College students in an SST experience.” While she only recently visited Peru for the first time earlier this summer, this isn’t her first time...

By Nathan Pauls • October 26, 2017 • News

On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the fall 2017 China SST unit flew to Chengdu, China to study and teach for a semester. The group consists of 15 people, with music professor Bev Lapp and her husband Dale Klassen leading the trip, along with their two daughters. The China SST happens every three years, in rotation with the Tanzania and Cambodia SST programs. Over 30 SST units have gone to China, says Tom Meyers, director of international education at Goshen College. This is one of the most diverse SST groups, with students representing Asian, African-American and Latinx nationalities. Meyers says that the...

By Nathan Pauls • September 7, 2017 • Features

On June 11, 20 students, all still in high school or recently graduated, boarded a plane at O’Hare Airport in Chicago bound for Guatemala. For the next two weeks these students would engage in an intensive program created by Goshen College and the Lilly Endowment called Study-Service Theology Term (SSTT). This program was designed with the intent of exposing young people interested in theology to different ways of theological thinking, and to start nurturing the tools for theological leadership. The Lilly Endowment is a philanthropic organization based out of Indianapolis that recognizes the need for a new generation of driven...

By Lucia Nisly • September 7, 2017 • Features

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of Goshen College’s pioneering program in international education, the Study-Service Term, Pinchpenny Press is publishing an intercultural guidebook, drawing on the experiences of faculty, staff and students who have participated in SST. A release party for the book, “The Goshen College Guide to Studying and Serving Abroad: Essays on Intercultural Learning,” will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12 in the Koinonia Room of the Church-Chapel. The 18 essays address subjects like learning languages, serving as a form of accompaniment, tracking time, framing stories, giving and receiving resources and money, dealing...

By Record • April 13, 2017 • News