Goshen College’s Study-Service Term (SST) program has been ranked fourth on a list of the 50 best study abroad program in America. Since the SST program began in 1968, nearly 8,000 students have participated in 24 countries worldwide.
“My favorite place in the world,” said Andrea Medina, a Goshen College senior social work major from Goshen, “is Alhambra, an ancient Islamic palace in Granada, Spain.”
Goshen College nursing students, with the help of a GC nursing alum, experienced the realities of nursing abroad and found new “sisters” during a May term class in Nepal.
Six international courses will take students across the globe to Nepal, Kenya, Greece, Italy, China, Spain and Morocco – and that’s doesn’t even include the summer Study-Service Term (SST) units in Peru, Senegal and Nicaragua that begin in May. Many of these classes are interdisciplinary and open to all students regardless of year or major.
Four years ago, Heather Zimmerman came to Goshen College from Guam to study American Sign Language. Now, she has graduated and is taking her passion for ASL to give back to the country from which she came.
While most college students spent their summers working a summer job and taking a break from studies, four Goshen College students and recent alumni spent the summer riding around the African savanna in a Land Rover, spotting elephants and studying fire ecology with their professor.
Irene Bornman, of Goshen, brought pieces of Senegal back to Indiana with her when she returned from her nine-year stay in Senegal. Using locally acquired fabrics from markets in Senegal and Mali, Bornman made a variety of comforters and quilts, which will be on display in Goshen College's Good Library Gallery starting May 8 in the exhibit, "Senegal Fabric in Indiana Patchwork: The Quilts of Irene Bornman."
In the Fall of 2010, 19 Goshen College students engaged in a fascinating Study-Service Term in Egypt under the leadership of Director of International Education Tom Meyers. After a semester, the students returned home on the eve of a turning point of history: the popular uprising that forced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled Egypt for three decades. Four of the students have shared their transformative experiences.
As a group of 19 Goshen College students prepared to depart for a semester of study and service in Egypt on Sept. 2 -- the first time the college has sent a group to the Middle East -- President Jim Brenneman offered them words of encouragement: "This is a historic moment. A little over two years ago we had this dream that one day Goshen College students would be able to bridge that great divide between ... the Muslim and the Christian worlds. ... It's an opportunity of a lifetime for you all," he said. "As-salaamu Aleikum (Peace be unto you)." After a second, the group of students replied, "Wa-Aleikum As-salaam (And unto you, peace)."
