Service During Summer SST 2024

For the Goshen College community, service is accompaniment, “an attempt to walk along-side host nationals and enter (where you can) in their work. Service at this juncture in our history is much more about being than doing. It is about respectfully listening to people and showing genuine interest in their history and culture”. These are Tom Meyers’ words, and they guide how we lead our students during the Service portion of their SST experience here in Ecuador. In response to our reflection prompts, the 2024 summer group expressed that for them Service is: “Apañarse —make do—, sharing, connecting, learning, doing what we can to help, exposure, work, having an open mind, following the Ecuadorian lead, respecting their methods, showing up and being present”. These are the ideas that we shared during our pre-departure conversation, they show how prepared and focused students felt, though they were a bit nervous.

We wrote on the board students ideas about Service, though someone was a bit off about the duration of term.

The session at Casa Goshen was quite animated and interesting.

After a few days on duty, students, host families, and organizations started sending us photos of their work and time together.