Directors’ Corner

This piece was written by Kendra Yoder and Jerrell Richer, co-directors of the Global Engagement Office, as part of the office’s “Global Connections” SST newsletter.

It has been a busy first year as co-directors of the Global Engagement Office. We experienced the steep learning curve of a new job in the midst of political and social change. The latter has heightened anxiety about creating safe and accessible culturally immersive experiences for all students at GC, and required care for our global partners who are impacted by domestic and global economic and social instability.

As we sense U.S. society turning inward on itself, we believe we need, more than ever, to engage our core value of global citizenship. Goshen College defines this as “an intercultural openness, with the ability to function effectively with people of other world views.” Global Citizens must also cultivate “a responsible understanding of stewardship for human systems and the environment in a multicultural world.”

We continue to implement our new “SST for all” curriculum, which aligns our sequential SST curriculum with the student learning outcomes and assessments of our semester SST. This alignment allows students to fit SST requirements into their unique circumstances, relieving the financial and time constraints that often prohibited them from joining semester SST opportunities in the past.

“SST for all” offers domestic and international opportunities and allows students to either bundle their 12 global education credits into one semester or take a series of four courses over several years. Both formats include themes that link the curriculum together in a meaningful way and require stepping outside the classroom to learn about a different culture through community engaged learning.

This coming year will build upon our strong collaboration with Eastern Mennonite University, as we host thirteen of their students across our three semester units, in Indonesia and Ecuador. We look forward to supporting our faculty as they develop new SST classes and to working on a revision of the Capstone class that will emphasize intercultural and sustainability leadership.