This SST unit is over...The students returned August 5, and this site is no longer being updated, but we'll leave it posted for friends of the Dominican Republic, and of SST.

It's been fascinating and amazing! Many thanks to our host families and many friends in the Dominican Republic, and also in Haiti!

Goshen College

SST office

Join Paul and Kathy Meyer Reimer and seventeen college students as they meet the Dominican Republic this summer (1998) on Goshen College's SST program.

SST, not the Super Sonic Transport, but the Study Service Term is the highlight of college, for many students at Goshen College.

Goshen believes that becoming familiar with a culture significantly different from that of the United States is a crucial part of a liberal arts education, and requires a semester of International Education for graduation.

Most students satisfy the International Education requirement by spending a semester on SST in a foreign country. Goshen faculty leaders living on location organize language study, cultural input, and service opportunities for a group of about 20 students.

The first seven weeks, students all live in the same city, studying language and culture. But life with a family from the host country and fieldtrips, key experiental parts of SST, are also very important.

The last seven weeks, students disperse to usually rural locations where they work with local schools, clinics, or social service agencies, and complete individual projects of country study.

Leaders of the SST program in 1998 in the Dominican Republic are Kathy Meyer Reimer, Associate Professor of Education, and Paul Meyer Reimer, Adjunct Professor of Physics. Also living with them will be their two boys, Peter age 4, and one-year-old Benjamin.

Together, Paul and Kathy have lived abroad often, most recently spending a year and a half in Japan. Paul spent two of his growing up years in high school, in Costa Rica, but this term will be their first time living in the Caribbean, and their first time leading an SST unit.

Paul and Kathy left for Santo Domingo on April 6. The students will arrive in early May and stay until early August.

Come back to this site again! We hope to share our reflections in a kind of group web journal about one term of SST in the Dominican Republic.