Study Abroad

Jul 09 2021

The majority of our time in the Navajo Nation was spent building relationships with the Black Mountain Church community. But, we also managed to fit in a number of guest speakers, field trips, hikes and other activities. Crystalyne Curley, Senior...

Jul 09 2021

Willa Beidler is a sophomore biochemistry major and the author of this post. This week the adventure shifted as we stayed with host families for three days. I stayed with a woman named Sami and her mother Leta. The two...

Jul 09 2021

Anna Smucker is a Graphic Design major, double minoring in Music and Bible and Religion. For the past three days, I had the opportunity to stay with a host family and two other students, a couple of miles away from...

Jul 08 2021

Aurora Flores Avila is a sophomore nursing major with a minor in Spanish. After a late night of singing and prayer we all awoke sleepy eyed and ready for another day of church camp. The day’s activities started with breakfast...

Jul 08 2021

Meagan Gutierrez is a senior double major in English and Secondary Education. On our second day at Black Mountain Mennonite Church, a local teacher came to talk to us about her life and career. Irene Bizahaloni teaches the Navajo language...

Jun 27 2021

Ben Good-Elliott is a senior physics major. As somebody from Goshen, I am used to lots of trees. While there are plenty of corn and soy fields around, in town, there are trees blocking off large portions of the sky....

Jun 27 2021

Ben Reichenbach is a senior molecular biology major and theater minor. He wrote the following reflections from Mesa Verde. The first thing that I noticed when we entered our campsite at Mesa Verde National Park was a chorus of almost...

Jun 27 2021

The author of this post is Levi Glick, a senior interdisciplinary major: Our first stop was at Bethel College to hear from historian and archivist, John D. Thiesen, about the earliest anthropological study of the Hopi tribe in modern day Arizona....

Jun 27 2021

We left Goshen on the morning of June 16 with a 15 passenger bus, a mini van and a car packed with 18 students, 5 members of the Yoder Lind family and as many backpacks, sleeping bags, and suitcases along...

Jun 27 2021

We’re piloting a new model of Study Service Term. After two intensive courses on campus in May and June, students take a six week course of immersive, experiential learning first with the Navajo people and then with the Hopi. Students...

May 28 2021

All good things must come to an end, including experiential learning in outdoor settings that give our lungs a chance to breath fresh air and our minds an encounter with paradigm-shifting perspectives, a.k.a. the Indigenous Economies May Term course.  Most...

May 23 2021

Going to a place where you have never been before and doing things that are unfamiliar can be quite scary. But besides this feeling, there is also something else that you look forward to and that is excitement. This is...

May 23 2021

Upon arriving in Marianna, Florida we were greeted by the long term Mennonite Disaster Service volunteers. After being introduced to crew leaders, cooks, and an office manager we were given a rundown of what a typical work day looked like....

May 23 2021

Every experience on this trip has been extraordinary. Adapting to a new environment has been a challenge and I have never relied on my faith more than the test of this trip. Mennonite Disaster Service kindly offered us housing during...

May 19 2021

  The author of this post is Naomi Ross Richer, a first-year Deaf Studies major from Goshen, Indiana: The southern shore of lake Michigan is home to Mnomen, known as wild rice in English. This staple in the traditional Potawatomi...

May 17 2021

Monday May 17, 2021 Today students presented preliminary analysis of their data collection to test their senior thesis protocols, which they will implement this coming fall during the Marine Biology Semester. We celebrated with a trip to the beach and...

May 17 2021

After two long weeks of doing service work with MDS we headed to Ellijay, Georgia. Over the past two weeks we worked hard every day getting up at 6 am and eating breakfast at 7 then heading to the work...

May 17 2021

The weeks leading up to our trip to Florida consisted of long routine days with piles of assignments and studying. The weather was also fairly gloomy and fluctuated between the low 40s to 60s. A break from Indiana was definitely...

May 17 2021

One of the goals of this course is to understand social responsibility and analyze from the place of empathy. We volunteered for two weeks to build houses for families that need help to recover after Hurricane Michael. Meeting with leaders of...

May 17 2021

The author of this post, Oskar Sunderland, is a junior Graphic Design major from Seattle, Washington: Our group’s tour to the Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm at Indiana Dunes National Park was a unique and compelling window into the past....

May 17 2021

Simon Graber Miller, a senior Biology major from Goshen, Indiana, shares his perspective on one of our outdoor activities: After a captivating talk from Billie Warren on indigenous perspectives of ecology and economy, we had a delicious lunch of hummus...

May 17 2021

Ariana Perez Diener is the author of this post.  A senior Environmental and Marine Science major from Goshen, Indiana, Ariana reflects on our time with a member of the Pokagon Band Potawatomi while at Indiana Dunes: On Tuesday morning our...

May 17 2021

Sunday May 16, 2021 This morning there was no lecture, so we were all able to sleep in a little more than usual, if we chose to do so. We also had the option of attending church. As our trip...

May 16 2021

Saturday May 15, 2021 Today started off with a lecture at city hall about micro plastics in the ocean. The ocean is currently littered with plastic and trash, but some people don’t know that plastic breaks down into tiny microplastic...