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 co-director of global engagement, shared the different ways a faculty member can get involved in SST, saying, “We are always looking at who are the new hires that are happening? Who are some of the new faculty administrators that are, you know, being brought to Goshen College? And we just approach them and put out the idea that someday you could lead SST.” 

This is how Luke Beck Kreider started his journey to becoming an SST leader. He said, “When I first got here, I started having conversations with Jan Shetler, who was the director of Global Studies in the SST program at the time, because I knew that I wanted to be involved in SST somehow, and so it’s just a process of sort of asking about okay, what are we still offering? What are the opportunities?” 

This will be Luke Beck

Kreider’s first time leading an SST semester, but not his first time going on one. He went to Cambodia as a GC student — however, that wasn’t his first choice. “As a Goshen college student, I signed up to go to Indonesia [on] SST, but it was canceled,” he said. “It’s been a place I have wanted to visit, you know, to learn about, ever since I was a college student and now the prospect of going with current college students is really neat.” 

 

Karen and Duane Stoltzfus will lead the spring ’26 Ecuador SST trip.

The Stoltzfus’ are experienced travelers, having spent two years in Peru leading SST. Duane Stoltzfus said, “There was a general invitation to faculty to consider leading an SST semester so we were made aware of it there and kind of pursued conversation with Jerrell and Kendra.” 

Both pairs of leaders received grant money and plan on spending three weeks over the summer preparing in the country they will lead students next spring. Luke Beck Kreider explained that a large part of that will be language learning, making connections, and learning about the area. Duane Stoltzfus shared a similar sentiment. 

Ross Richer explained, “What we hope, then, is that these faculty members come back to campus and then bring this experience back with them.” 

Luke Beck Kreider, preparing for his first SST trip, looks forward to connecting with students. “Leading SST, I think, is a really great chance to connect with students in a much different way than in a normal classroom,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being there with my family and having my kids experience life in another part of the world.” 

On the other hand, Duane Stoltzfus was able to share some of the things that led him to be an SST leader again: “I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of learning a little more each time of the beautiful Spanish language. There is the learning of history and culture of the SST host country, which is just an amazing opportunity to be able to spend days listening to different lectures on significant subjects and to be able to take field trips with students. This kind of immersion in a country is just a great gift.” 

He also shared that his group will be made up of students from both GC and Eastern Mennonite University and he “looks forward to creating a kind of strong cohesive group of people who are ready to embrace a life in Ecuador.”