This past weekend students from Mexico, Venezuela, the United States and the Dominican Republic converged on Santo Domingo for the international conference for global justice to learn about and experience the work and vision of Movimiento Sin Aula ("Beyond-the-Classroom Movement").

This group of students, professors and professionals is dedicated to creating a just society and solidarity by critiquing the current educational system, creating spaces for reflection, discussion and further education, and offering a critical study of culture beyond that which is available in schooling facilities.

On April 8, the U.S. coordinator of MSA, Tim W. Shenk, a former Goshen College student, met with Study-Service Term leaders Cheryl and Brent Kaufman.

As of yesterday, families in the MSA network have been contacted about hosting future SSTers as a way to further the ties that bind Goshen College with the Dominican Republic and the two groups' respective desire to teach and create social justice.

MSA seeks to create new relationships between people based on values that contribute to forming a new human collective.

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"We are an organization of youth sharing about our society and our history,'' said Ingrid Luciano, international coordinator of MSA. "Young adults recognize the responsibility in the processes of our people and youth to believe and work together with values of solidarity, trust, love, respect and commitment."

A collective of youth from throughout the Dominican Republic, MSA spends hours walking the streets, talking with people and creating spaces for discussion.

The collective provides educational courses on topics such as social economics, gender in the machismo culture, how to improve study and mental skills, natural medicines and reconnecting with the natural world. To encourage a cultural movement, the arts play a major role in their teaching strategy. Poetry, theater, photography, music, film and sculpture are integrated into the plan of study.

Keynote speaker, Heinz Dieterich, a German professor of sociology currently teaching in Mexico, joined the week-long conference to share about topics ranging from the unjust economics of global economy to the reasons as to why wars occur.

Monday evening Dieterich spoke with profound clarity about the new economic voice emerging in Venezuela and Brazil. These two countries, under the leadership of people like Hugo Chavez, current president of Venezuela, are taking a strong stance against free-trade initiatives such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas and offering a different view on Latin America economics.

Initiated three years ago by a group of students and Angel Pichardo Almonte, a professor at the Technical Institute of Santo Domingo, MSA has grown rapidly. Daily media reports during the conference appear in national newspapers as groups of concerned Dominicans hold gatherings on the streets in the evenings.

"There are other forms and ideas to understand our lives,'' said Pichardo. "We must make the movement irresistible.''