On Saturday, June 20, our students departed for a new host family and a new setting to begin their Service Term, the second half of SST. Stay tuned for more updates about the communities in which the students are living and the volunteer work they're doing with nonprofits, community organizations, and municipal governments!

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Study Abroad
Study AbroadBeginning Service Term in Ecuador
Study AbroadBelfast: Beauty, Unrest, and Action
Our second weekend at Corrymeela, we hopped on an early bus and train to take on Belfast’s bustling streets and the Belfast Book Festival, which featured homemade ‘zines (handmade magazines) for purchase and for free. The main themes of these...
Study AbroadSaying farewell (for now) to Quito
By Hillary Harder On Friday night, June 19, our group gathered at our Quito headquarters, La Casa de Espiritualidad, to mark the end of our Study period in Quito. We were joined by our host families, professors, and many community…
Study AbroadLearning from experts: studying Ecuadorian sign language and indigenous history
During our six weeks of study in Quito, students had the opportunity to take classes in two specialized areas: Lengua de Señas Ecuatoriana (LSEC), or Ecuadorian sign language; and Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Ecuador. This post includes reflections from…
Study AbroadA Visit to Derry/Londonderry
In week two of our trip, our class went on its first train ride in Northern Ireland, and some of us rode a train for the first time! We were on our way to one of Northern Ireland’s more famous...
Study AbroadRathlin Island
At the start of our final week, we traveled from Corrymeela to downtown Ballycastle Harbor to meet the ferry that would take us to Rathlin Island. For some of us, it was our first time on a boat. The ride...
Study AbroadAt the Gateway to the Amazon
By Hillary Harder This week for our final group trip during the Study period, we traveled to the western edge of the Amazon rainforest. This was our first time leaving the central sierra region of Ecuador and traveling to a…
Study AbroadA Visit to Narnia: Dunluce Castle
To begin our second full week here in Northern Ireland, we set out for Dunluce Castle on a rainy Monday morning. Our journey began with our daily walk to Ballycastle to catch the bus. From there, our Translink bus drove...
Study AbroadSeamus Heaney HomePlace Museum
In the first week of our trip, after a day of orientation and rest, we took our first excursion: a long and bumpy bus ride from Corrymeela to Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy. While the journey there was hot and...
Study AbroadArts and Artesanía: glimpses of week 5
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,…
Study AbroadLife at Corrymeela
When we first arrived, the cliffside view of the coast reassured us that we were really here! Now on days when we don’t have any other excursions, we’ve settled into Corrymeela’s morning schedule of 8:30 breakfast (which always includes fresh...
Study AbroadFirst Translink Trip: Giant’s Causeway
On Friday, May 29th, after making the 30-minute trek from Corrymeela to downtown Ballycastle, we made our first voyage using Northern Ireland’s location public transportation system TransLink. After Jessica purchased 17 tickets we took our seats on the...
Study AbroadMeeting Muralist, Hector Duarte
By Kaliah Lefever and Kenny May Nearly every wall seemed to tell a story as we walked the streets of Pilsen with our guide, Luis Tubens. Luis introduced us to the Mexican muralist movement while guiding us past the neighborhood’s…
Study AbroadLiving History in Cuenca
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,…
Study AbroadVisit from N. Irish author Tony Macaulay
On Saturday night, Northern Irish author Tony Macaulay visited our group to answer student questions and read from his book Paperboy, which the students were assigned to read before the start of the class. Paperboy tells the story of Macaulay’s...
Study AbroadMusic of the People
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…
Study AbroadVolunteering at Corrymeela
We’re working on more posts about our excursions, but in the meantime, here are some photos from Thursday afternoon. The students completed their first round of volunteer hours at Corrymeela. The weather was beautiful, and they helped harvest vegetables...
Study AbroadSettling in to Corrymeela
Greetings from Northern Ireland and the Corrymeela community! You’ll be hearing from the students soon, but I wanted to update you all that despite a VERY lengthy trip, our reward was a gorgeous sunny arrival at Corrymeela. We’re here, we’ve...
Study AbroadMindo: Cloud forest, Carbon onset, Cascadas, and Chocolate
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…
Study AbroadCanyons, Single A Baseball, and Old San Juan
This week, we had the opportunity to play the past two Puerto Rican national champions of the Single A baseball league, which has just over 80 teams covering 50 different municipalities around the island. The champions from the past two…
Study AbroadBuilding Homes and Building Hope
by Mike McHugh “Recovery goes beyond building houses–it helps people regain lost hope and helps them preserve their history, community, and relationships” Shalom Solomon Teferi We wrapped up our time in Lahaina last weekend after working hard for two weeks…
Study AbroadChicago’s Devon Avenue
Across the Street and Around the World by Andrea Mata and Tuka Farhan We had the opportunity to visit Devon Ave., a vibrant and culturally diverse east-west street on Chicago’s North Side. With its strong cultural and religious identities,…
Study AbroadPaseo Boricua: Small Community in a Big City
By: Camryn Barrows, Brinleigh Arredondo, Deecon Hill Entering Paseo Boricua A quick flash to the 70s: gentrification was a fast-acting force that rapidly pushed Latino and Puerto Rican populations away from Lincoln Park, which is now the poster child of…
Study AbroadMaking Hot Chocolate in San Juan del Obispo
By Millie Liddell Yesterday we had the wonderful opportunity to visit Chocolate del Obispo in the town of San Juan del Obispo. We learned about this family-run business and how they incorporate traditional and modern methods to produce chocolate; it…
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