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This blog captures the experiences of Goshen College students participating in Study-Service Term in Ecuador.
Over the course of the semester, students are living with host families, strengthening their Spanish, learning alongside Indigenous communities, and engaging in service that connects local realities with global questions. From the Andes to coastal regions, Ecuador offers a powerful setting for hands-on learning shaped by culture, community, and care. Through these reflections, readers are invited into the everyday moments, challenges, and discoveries that are shaping how students understand the world and their place within it.
By Hillary Harder Last week was full of opportunities to take in art in many forms. As our Study period continues, we have been delving into many areas of specialization that Ecuador is particularly known for. Museo Guayasamín On Thursday,…
By Hillary Harder This week our travels took us to the beautiful city of Cuenca in the south of Ecuador! Because it’s a long ways from Quito, we broke up the drive and spread our travels over the whole week,…
By Hillary Harder This week in Quito our group experienced a very different type of “guest lecture” – a musical presentation by a band called the Banda de Pueblo Urbano! The banda de pueblo is a long-standing musical tradition in…
By Hillary Harder As we reached the end of our second full week in Ecuador, we embarked on our first group trip to the beautiful town of Mindo, located in a cloud forest about two hours northwest of Quito. On…
Week one of our Study period has been full of rich learning, time with host families, bonding as a group, and seeing beautiful sites around Quito! Here’s a glimpse of what our daily routine looks like on Study, as well as some highlights from this week’s activities.
Over the weekend our students began settling into their new homes with their host families in Quito! The students arrived just in time to celebrate Mother's Day: each family celebrated in their own way
Our group spent three days at a retreat center in Quito getting to know each other and becoming acquainted with our new city.
Ever wondered what SST leaders do during the month before students arrive? Here are a few glimpses of what life has looked like as we prepare.
Hillary Harder and Micah Detweiler will lead the summer 2026 SST unit in Ecuador.
On Wednesday, everyone returned to Quito, and we were reunited! It was a joy to spend four precious days together sharing stories from service, laughing and singing together, and processing who we want to be when we return home. The…
I’m stationed in the town of Latacunga for service, and am working with an organization called Pastoral Social Cáritas. One of the projects that the organization is working on is a farm in San Pablo, which is about a 25-minute…
One Friday while my host mom was traveling, my host relatives Bethany, Paulina, and Tito took care of me. We explored their town, Guano, including playing at a park and going to a bakery. We went out again at night…
At the foundation, “Su cambio por el cambio,” I work with elderly people in the mornings. I enjoy playing games, leading activities, and learning about their lives every day. The majority of the elderly who go to the foundation live…
This photo depicts my host sister Areli interacting with the owner of a small market close to my host family’s house in Puyo. My host family often has me take their electric moped to this store in the evenings to…
I freely admit that I’m nuts about birds. In Ecuador, I’ve been carrying my binoculars with me everywhere to search for birds in each hedge, telephone wire, and garden. My sincerest apologies to my fellow SSTers who are likely fed…
At the end of week 2, we began our trips to visit students in their service assignments. This week took us north of Quito to Imbabura province to visit Ray and Izzy in Ibarra and Micah and Alina in Otavalo.…
In preparation to leave for their service assignments last week, the students discussed what “service” means. Rather than thinking of this service period as work, they defined it as: the opportunity to be part of something larger in Ecuador giving…
It is a bittersweet weekend as we said goodbye to our Quito host families and each other and ventured off to our service placements. Our study portion in Quito culminated with a despedida (farewell) fiesta on Friday to thank our…
We’re experiencing lots of fun and smiles during our final week in Quito! Today, Gaby taught us how to salsa dance. There were lots of laughs as we loosened up, flung our arms, twirled our hips, and spun to the…
As we enter the final week of our study portion of the term, it is amazing to reflect on all of the sights and experiences Ecuador has offered us so far: from hummingbird sanctuaries in the cloud forest to participating…
We are halfway through our study portion and our language skills are improving, slowly but surely. Each morning is spent in Spanish language classes with our three wonderful teachers, Silvia, Loli, and Fernanda. They help reinforce vocabulary and common phrases…
This weekend, we visited the beautiful city of Mindo in the cloudforest. In an effort to onset our carbon footprint from the flights to Ecuador, we partnered with our friend Klever Tello, an employee in the Mindo municipal government, in…
We had an active weekend! Many host families took their students on adventures in and around Quito. They visited Parque Metropolitano, centro histórico, teleférico, Otavalo, Pichincha, Parque Bicentenario, Mitad del Mundo, Lago San Pablo, Nono, Tabacundo, among others. Here are…
This week, we became acquainted with Ecuador’s history and art, beginning with a tour of churches in Quito’s centro histórico. One of the largest and most notable is the Basilica, which serves as a large cultural and religious landmark in…
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