Since 1968, the semester-long Study Service Term has been a staple of the Goshen College experience. With its 50-year anniversary in 2018, program leaders took the initiative to build a year-long study to assess how the program could be more equitable and accessible for students.  Kendra Yoder, professor of sociology, the chair of the religion, justice and society department and co-director of global engagement, said, “What we saw was that fewer and fewer people were able to do the full semester program, and the SST alts were just a series of courses that had some kind of global theme, but...

By Mackenzie P. Miller • February 6, 2025 • Features

Jan Bender Shetler, director of global engagement, will retire at the end of this academic year. Shetler started the role in 2018 and has worked at the college in some capacity since 1999. Jerrell Ross Richer, professor of economics, and Kendra Yoder, professor of sociology, will replace her as co-directors.  Shetler came into the role after a search conference evaluated Goshen College’s Study-Service Term. “We [had] this wonderful 50-year-old program that has been so important to our alumni and to student growth, but it felt out of date,” Shetler said. “We really needed to adapt to what students and faculty...

By Annika Alderfer Fisher • November 30, 2023 • News