Class of 1969 SST Endowment Project

Class of 1969 50th Anniversary Class Project

As Goshen College celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Study-Service Term, we acknowledge the important ways that graduates in the class of 1969 were involved during the first units abroad. You demonstrated a courageous and adventuresome spirit as pioneers in this unique and challenging program at a time when international travel and study was much less common than today.

In the summer of 1967, Goshen College sent three experimental SST units to Haiti, Barbados and Colombia. Eight members of your class participated in this program. A little more than a year later, the SST program officially began and 41 more of you traveled with other students and faculty leaders to SST sites in Costa Rica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua.

SST has been and continues to be central to the mission and goals of Goshen College. Since 1968, more than 8,000 GC students have gone on SST and studied and participated in service and work assignments in 24 countries. Many of these students have returned home with a better understanding of the world, greater confidence in themselves and a new vision regarding what they wanted to do with their lives.

Goshen College President Rebecca Stoltzfus is committed to continuing this legacy, and has recently named the SST Endowment Fund as a strategic priority to ensure that this vital program will continue to impact future generations of Goshen College students. Each year the college needs to use nearly $1 million of its operating budget to cover the costs of SST beyond what students pay, and the college has started an SST endowment fund to help cover these costs.

The goal of the Class of 1969 is to raise $200,000 in cash gifts by October 2019, and to receive $1 million in pledges in the form of deferred giving. So far, there have been gifts or pledges totaling $117,000 toward the cash goal, and six bequests or planned gift pledges totaling $377,000 in deferred gifts. As a former SSTer, you are invited to join us as part of the group of lead donors. This is in addition to any other gifts you may have made or plan to make to the college.

All members of the Class of 1969 are invited to participate in this project as they are able. By successfully achieving the goals listed above we also hope to challenge all succeeding classes to help Goshen College build the SST Endowment Fund. Our generous responses will serve to inspire and motivate all classes that follow, and to join us in celebrating Goshen’s long history and commitment to international education.

» Download the pledge form

Whatever your participation in this class project might be, we hope you will put our 50th year class reunion on you calendar, October 4-6, 2019. We look forward to seeing you!