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,...

By Record • September 5, 2019 • Features

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

Peru SST coordinator Celia Vasquez and her husband, Oswaldo Aguirre, made the flight from Peru to the Midwest to experience the Goshen area, speak in several classes, and reconnect with old acquaintances. This was Vasquez’s first visit to Goshen in over 10 years, and Aguirre’s first time out of his home country. While visiting, Vasquez and Aguirre partook in a number of activities around the Goshen area, as well as some day trips to nearby sites of interest, such as Lake Michigan. Their visit also fell during an exciting time to experience an American pastime at its peak, as they...

By Josh Stoltzfus • November 10, 2016 • News

[caption id="attachment_32846" align="alignright" width="350"] The spring 2016 SST unit poses for a group photo. They returned April 5.Photo by Sadie Gustafsson-Zook[/caption] Last week, the Spring SST units from Cambodia and Peru made the return to Goshen College after 3 months of learning, serving and living in another country. Students in Cambodia, a southeast Asian country nestled between Thailand and Vietnam, spent the first half of their Study-Service Term in Phnom Penh, the capitol city. Students took classes for the first six weeks at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, growing accustomed to the language and culture while learning about the...

By Josh Stoltzfus • April 14, 2016 • News

James Garcia speaks three languages and wants to be a doctor, but he never imagined that he would end up translating in a hospital operating room when he left for three months in Peru with Goshen College’s Study-Service Term (SST) this past summer. But that’s where he found himself a few weeks into his service assignment in Cusco, after a series of events led to his unique experience of being a bridge between people during their most vulnerable times. A junior biochemistry major from Gurnee, Illinois, Garcia is an involved student. He has been a member of the soccer team...

By Katie Hurst • October 29, 2015 • Features

“Here I felt like I was all eyes, seeing scenes in swatches of color I was unable to interpret.” -from Tangled Paths, an SST stories submission by Leah Nofziger, ‘94 Goshen College alumna. Often, when the question “How was your SST?” is asked, it is followed with an uncomfortable smile and a terse reply of “good.” Sometimes the experience is summarized with a generic “I went to Machu Picchu” picture. Goshen College’s Study Service Term creates an immeasurable amount of stories, from studying in Cambodia to serving in Peru.  These experiences can be quite difficult to express and it’s frequently...

By Dona Park • September 17, 2015 • Features

From the mountains of the Chanchamayo province in Peru, fair-trade coffee beans made their way to Java Junction to be sold by Mennonite youth groups around the United States. The cost of attending conventions can be burdensome, so this past year, a Goshen College sponsored fundraiser, Menno’s Best Coffee, helped cover partial costs for 55 youth groups to attend Mennonite Church USA’s national convention. The fundraiser also collected money for the global ministries of Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Central Committee. According to the Menno’s Best Coffee webpage, the money received by Mennonite Mission Network went to Top of the...

By Jordan Waidelich • September 10, 2015 • Features

Spring is the season of new beginnings, of budding flowers, perfect sunny days, ultimate Frisbee on the KMY lawn and allergies. It is also the season of the return of the SSTers. On the 7th of April 2015, Goshen College welcomed back the students who spent their semester studying abroad in Peru. The students included: Ammon Allen-Doucot, Elizabeth Franks-North, Maria Bischoff, Christian Bechler, Ike Lehman, Micah Wiebe-Powell, Leah Ramer, Joanna Epp, and Courtney Featherstone. This group was led by Duane and Karen Stoltzfus. “SST was a lot. It was a lot of learning, a lot of stressing, a lot of laughing...

By Annie Agutu • April 16, 2015 • News

Briziada, 5 years old, makes a two-hour trek down a mountain in Ausangate with her 4 siblings and parents to the area World Vision project office. At the same time, Frances Fonseca, Goshen College second-year, stomach filled with butterflies, bumps along the three hour ride between that office and her host home in Cuzco.  Fonseca, on Peru SST, was spending the six-week service portion working for World Vision. World Vision is a Christian nonprofit that began in the 1950s and focuses on the well being of children around the world.  The organization uses a sponsorship system to raise money that...

By Elizabeth Derstine • January 15, 2015 • Features

This summer, two students created a Peruvian cookbook, “Los Sabores del Peru,” to sell for charity. Gretchen Geyer, a senior studying social work and business, went to Peru for Study Service Term (SST) in the spring of 2014. During the Service portion of her time, she lived in Ayacucho, where she worked to prepare food at the comedor, a free soup kitchen hosted by the church Luz Y Vida. There, she and two other chefs worked, “essentially making food for 50 to 60 little children from the ages of 3 to 14,” said Geyer. For Geyer’s final project, she studied differences between food preparation in...

By Mia Engle • September 10, 2014 • News

The Ross Richer kids could tell you what it’s like to hike Huayna Picchu in the rain and the best way to make a frozen chupete popsicle. If you asked, they could also tell you, in a matter of minutes, how many students were in their parents’ SST groups – 184, to be exact. It’s been almost a month since Jane and Jerrell Ross Richer and their children, Sierra (14), Naomi (12), Teresa (10) and Jordan (8), returned from two years of SST leadership in Peru. The family has a total of three years under their belt, with four semesters...

By Kate Stoltzfus • September 25, 2013 • Features

  Rosa Wyse began her mornings in Peru with a mug of chamomile tea, a salted avocado and a conversation with her deaf host parents, Rosio and Rolando. Knowing little Peruvian sign langauge, Wyse struggled at first to communicate with her parents–especially her dad, Rolando. Over time, though, Rolando warmed up to Wyse and loved to tell her Bible stories and Peruvian folk tales. “He would get all puffed up and sign ‘I’m an Incan warrior!'” Wyse said of her host dad. “He loved telling stories and being goofy. He reminded me a lot of my dad back home.” Wyse...

By Bekah Kamp • January 24, 2013 • Features Ariel Ropp • January 24, 2013 • Features

Karina Kreider, a junior, decided to make good use of her time–and hands–over Christmas break. Inspired by the idea that hand-made crafts and knowledge are a dying art, Kreider and her dad built an entire toboggan by themselves. The sled was constructed from old floorboards, rope and ash wood. Though Kreider said the structure of the toboggan was fairly simple, the process was more intricate than she had anticipated. “Between the two of us,” Kreider said, “we probably both spent 15 to 20 hours on the toboggan.” The largest complication, Kreider said, was figuring out a way to curve the...

By Becca Kraybill • January 17, 2013 • Features

  This fall, two Study-Service Term units are pioneering changes for the SST program. Both the Peru and Morocco units, which departed September 5, hold significant new components. Though Goshen College has traveled to Morocco twice with the “Spain and Morocco” May Term, there has never been a full SST there, according to Tom Meyers, director of international education. Morocco SST students had originally signed up to travel to Egypt, where a unit ran in 2010. Egypt 2010 was “very successful,” Meyers said. However, two months after Goshen College students returned from Egypt, a revolution made the country unstable. Meyers...

By Becca Kraybill • September 12, 2012 • News

American Sign Language students might be trading the sunny beaches of Jamaica for the snowcapped mountains of South America. Tom Meyers, director of international education, will travel to Peru this month in hopes of setting up a dual-track Study Service Term program there, accommodating both students who are studying Spanish and those who are learning American Sign Language. After ASL students returned from SST in Jamaica last fall, Goshen College decided to end the program there. The short-lived Jamaica SST location started in the summer of 2007 and lasted for three terms. Jamaica was the first SST unit that was...

By Summer Hasan • September 21, 2011 • News