As one early summary of SST stated, to be effective the study-abroad term must

allow students to have vivid, firsthand life experiences so they can "punch

through what has become for many the confusion, impersonality, and vacuity

of life in sterile, suburban America."³⁴Such an intention -- and the desire to

place students where they are in the minority racially, socially, linguistically,

and religiously -- necessitates that SST programs be located in Third World

countries, or places which have been on the receiving end of colonialism.

Each year SST units of 12 to 23 students, along with a faculty member

and a spouse or assistant, go to one of three or four locations for a full

semester. Groups regularly go to the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Côte

d'Ivoire, and the former East Germany, and occasional units are located in

Indonesia and China. Other countries where SST has been based in its 30-year

history include Belize, El Salvador, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, South

Korea, Nicaragua and Poland. Nearly 6,000 students have participated in one of

the more than 300 SST units, and about 50 present faculty members have led

the Study-Service Term. About 70 percent of Goshen's current students

complete their international education component through SST, and others

transfer in credits from various junior-year-abroad programs or special

overseas courses of study. Others -- particularly nontraditional students with

families or job responsibilities -- take a series of on-campus international-

studies courses to meet the requirement. International students are not

required to do SST though they are encouraged to seek service experiences

while studying in the U.S. Over the years, SST has garnered national

recognition for the college. Goshen is regularly mentioned among "America's

Best Colleges" in U.S. News and World Reportand in Barron's Best Buys in

34_{"The Study-Service Trimester Abroad," March 1971, 10.}

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