The Student Missionary Project is a student-initiated, student-operated program based in the Office of Christian Outreach at Wheaton College. The project selects, prepares, supports, and sends students to serve God around the world under various mission boards during the summer.

SMP began 50 years ago as the vision of Ron Chase (`56). Ron spent the summer of 1957 working at a mission in the jungles of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. On campus for a visit in the fall of that year, he challenged a group of students to start an overseas service project.

Under the joint sponsorship of the Student Council and the Foreign Missions Fellowship and encouraged by the College, the project began. Out of almost fifty applicants, twelve were selected and sent throughout Central America.

Due to the success of the summer, SMP became an annual project. Since that time, over one thousand students of Wheaton College have served in missions through SMP.