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SST Semester

Ecuador

Theme(s) Indigenous Communities and Globalization

  • Costs

    Tuition, room and board, plus $900 travel fee. Valid passport & immunizations. First $300 nonrefundable.

    May-Summer SSTers pay summer tuition rates.

  • Length

    13 weeks

  • Required Language

    Spanish 101

  • Credits

    15  hours

    Students in Quito

    What you can expect:

    Hike volcanoes, explore equatorial forests, sample exotic new fruits and connect with local Indigenous communities: this is Ecuador SST. Located on South America’s Pacific coast between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador straddles the equator and features one of the most diverse and vital ecosystems on the planet.

    Ecuador, a country about the size of Colorado, is home to the Andes Mountains, the Amazon rainforest and an extensive Pacific coastal region. With nearly 25 percent of the Ecuadorian population representing an indigenous group, students can expect a rich cultural experience.

    Upcoming Terms & Trip Leaders

    • May-Summer semester 2024-25 – Heidi and Eric Dyck Hilty
    • Spring and May-Summer semesters, 2025-26 –
      • Spring: Duane and Karen Sherer Stoltzfus;
      • Summer TBD

    Study

    For the first six weeks, students live with host families in Quito, a bustling capital city of about 2.5 million people located at nearly 10,000 feet elevation. Students attend school at the headquarters of the Cofán Survival Fund, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of the Cofan indigenous culture and their Amazonian home.

    Indigenous cultures and sustainability are two key themes of this SST location. Students have Spanish language classes each day, as well as seminars and field trips covering various aspects of culture, history and sustainability. The study portion includes trips to cloud forests, Indigenous communities and an extended trip to the Pacific coast.  There, students visit the beautiful Spanish colonial city of Cuenca, which was also the Ecuadorian capital of the Incas. Everywhere you turn in Ecuador, you encounter a tremendous diversity of natural environments and cultures.

    Service

    For the second half of their three month stay, students spread out to smaller communities across the country to live with new host families and complete work assignments. Service assignments may include work with educational, artistic, environmental, health care, social service or agricultural organizations.

    Students standing on a wooden platform

    Courses

    Spanish: Language (4 credit hours)

    GLST 250: Cultural Perspectives -Ecuador (3 credit hours)

    GLST 270: Community Engaged Learning – Ecuador (3 credit hours)

    GLST 260: Global Topics – Ecuador (3 credit hours)

    GLST 305: SST Integration Capstone (2 credit hours)

    • Blogs

      Orientation begins!

      The students arrived Wednesday night and we made it to Casa de Espiritualidad, our retreat and orientation center by 2:00 a.m. It was a short night, but we were ready to go by 9:30 the next morning. Visiting the Historical...

    • Blogs

      Arts, Festivals, and Friendships in Cayambe

      The process of Making Stain Glass Hummingbird: During my time in Ecuador, I got the opportunity to learn and create 4 different types of stained glass hummingbirds. I learned how to cut glass, wrap it in this copper foil, and...

    • Blogs

      “…feel like I belong”

      Students have been on Service for weeks now. This experience has allow them to learn, reflect, and live among Ecuadorians in closer relation to many of them. SSTers want to share their activities and how they process them during this...