Global Engagement

Apr 29 2026

by Mike McHugh Here’s to hoping that we do not endure as many travel mishaps on our journey to Lahaina as Steve Martin and John Candy experienced in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles! As I write this we are settled into our large bus…

Apr 27 2026

Puerto Rico, here we come!  As we wrapped up the semester and baseball season this past week, we are now turning our attention to our time in Puerto Rico in May.  It will be a unique experience centered on reflections…

Apr 24 2026

by Mike McHugh Next week we depart for Lahaina to join the many hands that have spent the last few years helping build homes for families impacted by the 2023 wildfires. Today, I want to share with you another great…

Apr 21 2026

Only a few days until we embark for London! Roy Jackson and his husband Richard Orr are excited to be leading the Global Literature in London SST.

Apr 19 2026

Only 10 days until we embark for Guatemala! Elizabeth Miller and Neil Richer are excited to be leading the “Youth and Resilience” Guatemala SST this year, accompanied by their two daughters.

Apr 16 2026

Hillary Harder and Micah Detweiler will lead the summer 2026 SST unit in Ecuador.

Apr 14 2026

by Mike McHugh Welcome to this year’s SST blog for the Environmental Disaster and Response with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) May term course. This year we will be traveling to Lahaina, Hawai’i to work with MDS to build homes that…

Apr 06 2026

On Wednesday, everyone returned to Quito, and we were reunited! It was a joy to spend four precious days together sharing stories from service, laughing and singing together, and processing who we want to be when we return home. The…

Apr 01 2026

I’m stationed in the town of Latacunga for service, and am working with an organization called Pastoral Social Cáritas. One of the projects that the organization is working on is a farm in San Pablo, which is about a 25-minute…

Mar 30 2026

One Friday while my host mom was traveling, my host relatives Bethany, Paulina, and Tito took care of me. We explored their town, Guano, including playing at a park and going to a bakery. We went out again at night…

Mar 25 2026

This Indonesia 2026 Community Engaged Learning blog series was compiled and edited using excerpts from a photo essay assignment submitted by our students. We hope you enjoy these snapshots from the second half of SST. Kupang is home for three…

Mar 25 2026

At the foundation, “Su cambio por el cambio,” I work with elderly people in the mornings. I enjoy playing games, leading activities, and learning about their lives every day. The majority of the elderly who go to the foundation live…

Mar 25 2026

This Indonesia 2026 Community Engaged Learning blog series was compiled and edited using excerpts from a photo essay assignment submitted by our students. We hope you enjoy these snapshots from the second half of SST. Three of our students flew…

Mar 25 2026

This Indonesia 2026 Community Engaged Learning blog series was compiled and edited using excerpts from a photo essay assignment submitted by our students. We hope you enjoy these snapshots from the second half of SST. One of our SSTers stayed…

Mar 25 2026

This Indonesia 2026 Community Engaged Learning blog series was compiled and edited using excerpts from a photo essay assignment submitted by our students. We hope you enjoy these snapshots from the second half of SST. Salatiga is a small, compact…

Mar 25 2026

This Indonesia 2026 Community Engaged Learning blog series was compiled and edited using excerpts from a photo essay assignment submitted by our students. We hope you enjoy these snapshots from the second half of SST. Semarang is a coastal city…

Mar 23 2026

This photo depicts my host sister Areli interacting with the owner of a small market close to my host family’s house in Puyo. My host family often has me take their electric moped to this store in the evenings to…

Mar 21 2026

I freely admit that I’m nuts about birds. In Ecuador, I’ve been carrying my binoculars with me everywhere to search for birds in each hedge, telephone wire, and garden. My sincerest apologies to my fellow SSTers who are likely fed…

Mar 09 2026

At the end of week 2, we began our trips to visit students in their service assignments. This week took us north of Quito to Imbabura province to visit Ray and Izzy in Ibarra and Micah and Alina in Otavalo.…

Feb 27 2026

In preparation to leave for their service assignments last week, the students discussed what “service” means. Rather than thinking of this service period as work, they defined it as: the opportunity to be part of something larger in Ecuador giving…

Feb 23 2026

At our farewell party on Friday, host families, teachers, language buddies, university administrators, coordinators and friends of the Indonesia SST program gathered at UKDW for a program put together by our amazing students.  The students sang, played guess-who games, and…

Feb 23 2026

We shifted into this transition week by celebrating Lunar New Year, Lent, and the start of Ramadan. It felt fitting that so many people in Yogyakarta are marking a transition into a new season while our SSTers begin their preparations…

Feb 22 2026

Our last group hurrah during Study Term was visiting Borobudur Temple at sunrise. We woke up at 4:00 am, climbed a small hill to a lookout point, and were rewarded with this view: We toured the exquisite, ancient Buddhist temple,…

Feb 22 2026

It is a bittersweet weekend as we said goodbye to our Quito host families and each other and ventured off to our service placements. Our study portion in Quito culminated with a despedida (farewell) fiesta on Friday to thank our…