Welcome SSTers! Orientation & Host Families

Welcome to Quito! We are so pleased and honored to welcome 15 new students to this beautiful country of Ecuador. And welcome to you, who may be following along and supporting our journey from afar.

We had an absolutely fantastic first week of orientation together here in Quito! As an SST leader, I’ve found it’s hard to describe how and why groups are different.  More than anything I think it’s how a combination of personalities, attitudes and commitments to one another creates and fosters a shared dynamic that makes everyone within the group feel a certain way. We can already tell in these first few days this is a special group of 15 young adults, individually and together. Each student is bringing a unique value to the whole and over the last days have each added in their own way to our group’s very positive, encouraging and engaging group dynamic. We so look forward to sharing more with you over the next several months as our time in Ecuador unfolds together.

-Caleb and Nina

For those of you new to our program, SST Ecuador is an integrated cross-cultural program that offers Goshen College students an immersive learning experience in Ecuador. The 12-week course is divided into two sections: a 6-week study portion in Quito, Ecuador’s Andean capital city; and a second 6-week, community service experience in Ecuador’s provinces. During the program, students will participate in five academic and experiential courses, which will help them engage deeply with diverse aspects of their experience (language, family and community, history, and culture) and explore aspects of their identity and worldview.

Thanks for following along! We’d invite you to subscribe to our group’s SST blog, for each blog that we publish you should receive a notification and link in your email the following morning.