Alumni and families of current students: Come back to campus for Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 2-4! See the schedule and register today
News
This blog captures the experiences of Goshen College students participating in Study-Service Term in Ecuador.
Over the course of the semester, students are living with host families, strengthening their Spanish, learning alongside Indigenous communities, and engaging in service that connects local realities with global questions. From the Andes to coastal regions, Ecuador offers a powerful setting for hands-on learning shaped by culture, community, and care. Through these reflections, readers are invited into the everyday moments, challenges, and discoveries that are shaping how students understand the world and their place within it.
To our wonderful students: Friday evening you made your way back to Quito for our final retreat weekend where we had a fantastic several days of reunion and reflection! SST is a mix of challenges, accomplishments and growth moments. Sometimes...
For this month of July, students have participated in service internship placements around the country. Here are some photo highlights!
After completing 20 days in Tena we got the green light and made a move to Service this past Saturday. Yay! Some students were joking that instead of Study-Service Term SST (which is named for the two significant halves of...
CONAIE is the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador and it is a large organization composed of representatives of various indigenous groups in Ecuador and they advocate for more indigenous rights. They do this most often by shutting down main...
As of today, we have been in Tena for more than a week longer than expected. This is due to the countrywide protests regarding indigenous rights and economic security, led by the organization CONAIE, which stands for the Confederación de...
CONAIE stands for the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador. They represent the rights of indigenous people in Ecuador, specifically including the following communities: Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Huaorani, Siena, Secoya, Shiwiar, Záparo, Cofán, and many more. Since the 1980s this...
In our last week of study several students including Nina and myself came down with covid, so unfortunately we had to navigate some significant adjustments in our final week with Quito host families, which included moving spanish classes to zoom,...
We had a wonderful week last week hosting some faculty from Goshen College and making our way North to the city of Otavalo in the province of Imbabura.
One of the texts for our term is Hans Rosling’s Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. I believe one of the great benefits of the book is that it…
After two days of normal class schedule in Quito, we wound our way through the mountains to the northwest region of the Pichincha province where we explored the cloud forest. With historical and indigenous peoples contexts in the back of...
The first week of class are already behind us! Wow, we’ve already covered a lot of ground and feels good to start to settle in and find a new routine between classes and host families. Here is a glimpse of...
Welcome to Quito! We are so pleased and honored to welcome 21 new students to this beautiful country of Ecuador. And welcome to you, who may be following along and supporting our journey from afar. After picking up students from...
We wrapped up our semester with a weekend full of reflections, discussions, relaxing and fun at El Refugio where we had the decompression and processing time we needed to close out our time together here in Ecuador. Thanks to those...
During the service portion of SST, I have been volunteering at a foundation called Su Cambio Por El Cambio (SCXC) in a little town called San Simon. SCXC’s primary missions are to provide a safe after school environment for local...
In January, I took a 3-day trip with my host family in Quito, Paola (host-mom) and Sammy (host-sister). It took 2.5 hours to get to Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas. We took the Cordillera de Los Andes road. This very...
Before we left for SST, we were told to prepare some gifts for our host family. The suggestion we got was to prepare some things from Goshen or our College. But at that time the bookstore was already closed. I...
Nina and I keep in touch regularly with the students via phone calls and texts, but we especially enjoyed visiting students at their service internship placements throughout the last few weeks. We continue to be so grateful for the many...
Soccer games with the family, an example of so many things I’ve experienced and learned throughout only six short weeks in Ecuador. Every Sunday except those during which we were out of town visiting Mindo or Tena, my host dad...
There are a lot of hard things in Quito. For instance, my walk to the Fundación, where we have our classes, is up a very steep hill. My little commute is one of the best parts of my day, however,...
Students left for their service placements on Saturday morning all arriving by the evening and greeted by their new host families. 🙂 We mentioned previously that last Thursday afternoon we spent some concentrated time discussing/reflecting/anticipating the upcoming transition to service...
During our last week of the “study” portion of the term, students traveled to several hours east of Quito to explore the upper Amazon basin. We combined several experiential learning activities – both cultural and environmental, based on the region’s...
We had a full week of classes and wrapped up several large academic pieces to the term. Friday evening students hosted their families for a program and goodbye party. Last night (Saturday) we arrived here to Hostal Pakay in...
Page 6 / 8