Alethea Foster, a freshman wrote: “The entire freshman Honors cohort traveled to Italy to enrich our studies of virtuous, communal, Christ-centered life by examining key moments in history. Through this trip, I’ve seen God’s faithfulness to His people throughout the Church’s many centuries of history. Christ has upheld His body through persecution and prosperity. As He has done in the past, He will do in the future.”
Ella Bivens, a junior, said that “after being treated like family by many of the Kenyans that we have met, I hope to become more hospitable after I return home.”
Natalie Dennis, a senior, said that her J-Term mission trip to Honduras “pushed me outside my comfort zone,” leading, ironically, to a “sense of peace. Being in a different environment gave me space to slow down, reflect, and work through some personal challenges that had been weighing on me.”
Those are just a handful of the reflections by more than 400 Taylor students who participated in the University’s J-Term overseas. Among others, the trips included studying sustainable development in Malawi, following the Footsteps of the Apostle Paul in Greece and Italy, applying medical missions in Ecuador, participating in athletic camps in Costa Rica, and building relationships with the people of modern Egypt while visiting its ancient sites.
In all, 471 Taylor students ranging from freshmen to seniors spent much of January on 19 trips encompassing five continents.
Combining educational and service components, the J-Term trips run on two tracks, the “Academic” led by Jennifer Moeschberger, Director of Off-Campus Programs, and “Lighthouse” service opportunities led by Chip Bii, Director of Taylor World Outreach.
In addition to the countries already noted above, the nations on this year’s docket also included Belize, Brazil, England, Guatemala, Ireland, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Paraguay, South Africa, Spain, Zambia, and an Islamic majority nation in Southeast Asia. Taylor teams also traveled across the US, including Hawaii and New Mexico.
The breadth of opportunities continued Taylor’s 57-year history of J-Term and strong commitment to global engagement.
Including semester study abroad and mission trips over a one-week spring break in March that will include another 85 students, nearly a quarter of all Taylor students head overseas throughout the school year, consistently ranking the University in the top 10 for travel among all bachelor level programs in the nation.
The Lighthouse component of J-Term began in the fall of 1971 when Dr. Ruth Ann Breuninger organized a ministry to Nassau, Bahamas, to take place in January 1972. The resulting trip counted as the capstone course for the Christian Education seniors who went. They conducted seminars for church leaders and Sunday school teachers on Christian Education principles and techniques.
Between the year 2000 and 2024, more than 1,200 Taylor students took 83 Lighthouse trips to 24 countries stretching from Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic to India and Thailand.
Since 2006 the Spencer Center has equipped departments to lead global learning experiences that take students beyond the classroom and around the world to practice their discipline, such as teaching in classrooms in Belize and Southeast Asia, and studying the Bible in Israel, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Students have had the opportunity to study literature in London, biology in Hawaii, nursing in Zambia, or to bring their coding skills to organizations in Europe and South Africa. Opportunities have included studying Spanish in Guatemala and learning about the ways that Business as Mission (BAM) can open doors in Paraguay.
According to Dr. Scott Moeschberger, Taylor’s Dean of Global Engagement, “These learning experiences represent the type of ‘high-impact practices’ that distinguish Taylor graduates and equip them for their calling beyond their time at the University.”
This year, as Taylor students were learning and ministering in Kenya, President Michael Lindsay traveled to Nairobi to finalize an agreement with Daystar University to expand opportunities for global engagement, intercultural learning, and faith-based scholarship.
Daystar is the latest addition to Taylor's partnerships with other universities, which now stretch over three continents and include Stranmillis University College in Belfast and Handong Global University in Korea, along with Memorandums of Understanding with Lithuania Christian and Tokyo Christian University.
Taylor’s worldwide outreach is appreciated not just by current students but by alumni who graduated from the University decades ago. One of them is Derek Hoffmann, a long-time State Department employee who graduated from Taylor in 1998. Derek’s father, Stephen Hoffman, was a politics professor and a diplomat. Derek is married to Tamara Shaya Hoffman, a diplomat herself whose story was chronicled in a recent Ripple Effect story).
“As a long-time diplomat, the son of one and the husband of another, Taylor’s emphasis on global engagement continues to be one of the most appealing qualities of the University,” Derek said.“Evangelicalism is actually much broader of a faith community than people realize, so it’s good to get some different views out there. Taylor’s J-Term is one of the ideal ways to do so, and the fact that we have hundreds of students participating every year is fantastic.”
