Study Abroad

May 08 2023

On our first full day in London, Thursday, we embarked on a city tour. In two groups, we familiarized ourselves with public transit, places we will visit later in class, and some famous landmarks. On all of our stops we...

May 08 2023

Finally, we made it! We have waited for a much-needed break from our busy days. We started our day attending Layton Community Baptist Church. Goshen College has been attending this church for about forty years tracing back to when Professor...

May 08 2023

On Saturday, we started our day at 8 am with a lesson on mangroves and sponges. We learned that there are 3 types of mangroves in Florida, the red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans), and white mangroves (Laguncularia...

May 08 2023

Friday started with a lesson on the creatures that fall under the Phylum Porifera (sponges) and Arthropoda (sea spiders, crabs, shrimp, etc), as well as some discussion regarding plankton and other life in the epipelagic. All of this information was...

May 07 2023

A new group of students has landed in Ecuador, just south of the Equator.  Students often debate amongst themselves just what it means to “go on SST”.  In the lore of SST, there are stories of physical hardship, living far...

May 07 2023

We headed towards Minnesota and the sovereign nation of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, on Friday, May 5th, in anticipation of our two week service stint with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS).  After a long day of driving, we spent...

May 06 2023

Puerto Rico (PR) SST 2023 started with a long day at the airport — 23 of us sitting and waiting anxiously for the plane to start boarding. I, for one, was growing impatient and just wanted to go home and...

May 06 2023

by Kendyl Silveus – Sophomore Film Major from Warsaw, IN As a Goshen film major, I have had access to many opportunities and learning experiences. One prime example has been my time in Japan. During this time, I have continued...

May 05 2023

For our second full day of class, we started out at 8am with our first marine biology lecture. We discussed differences between the open, broadly dispersing marine ecosystems and the more rigidly delineated terrestrial ecosystems, and talked about how those...

May 05 2023

May 05 2023

After arriving in San Juan late Wednesday night, May 3, we jumped right in the next day with a visit to La Fortaleza. Originally built as a defensive fortress, it was quickly replaced with the Castillo San Felipe del Morro...

May 05 2023

After a long 16hrs of flights and another 6hrs to get to our destination our tired and jet lagged crew made it to ARI in Nasushiobara, Japan. It was a long 24hrs of travel door to door, but we were...

May 04 2023

Ten students arrived on Tuesday, ready to begin class on Wednesday morning! We started the day with breakfast together and orientation to the course, then we loaded our equipment on the boat and headed to the Bight. The Bight is...

May 01 2023

This May Term I am leading a group of 14 students to Tochigi, Japan for a video documentary project for an NGO called Asian Rural Institute (ARI). This documentary will document the organization’s 50 year history and stories of their...

Apr 11 2023

One of the sacred elements of the SST structure is the final retreat in which students regather from their service locations for a final time together of rest and reflection before returning home.  In Ecuador, our retreat location has been...

Apr 09 2023

On Tuesday April 4 we took a bus from Musoma to Mwanza where we spent one night to enable our very early morning flight to Zanzibar. We lugged our bags to the bus at 4:45 a.m. and after a layover...

Apr 03 2023

Monday April 3, 2023 Yesterday the students safely returned from their respective towns to Musoma! It was a joyous reunion for the students, as many had not seen one another for 5 weeks. The following day, on Monday, we hosted...

Mar 29 2023

Friday March 24, 2023 Naomi – Lake Victoria Disability Center On Friday we visited Naomi and Trevor at their respective service locations in Musoma. Naomi is assisting at the Lake Victoria Disability Center, a non-profit that seeks to provided vocational...

Mar 27 2023

Looking out from a small pueblo in Imbabura Province. I’ve been given the opportunity of using my real eye, my camera, for my service placement. There’s a quote I love (that I can’t remember who or how it is said...

Mar 27 2023

Thursday March 23, 2023 We started our day meeting Destiny at Paroma Primary school on the outskirts of Musoma. This is a private “English Medium” school – meaning it teaches students all subjects using English instead of Kiswahili – for...

Mar 25 2023

As our second week of visits to service locations concluded, students and leaders came to the realization that this chapter of SST is quickly drawing to a close.  The end of SST always brings a mixture of emotions; sadness, joy,...

Mar 22 2023

Saturday March 18 – Monday March 20 Saturday mid-day we arrived in Kemgesi, a short 1 hour drive from Mugumu. We met Billy and Emily who were hanging out in the their favorite canteen on main street Kemgesi. It was...

Mar 21 2023

This past week we set out on our cherished SST tradition of visits to students at their service locations.  Our first stop was to visit our students in the cloud forest and Amazonian rainforest locations on the west and east...

Mar 20 2023

Thursday March 16 & Friday March 17 We left Shirati on Thursday morning and made a quick run to the border so that our family could extend our visas for another 90 days…. the 30 minutes in Kenya was a...