Are you interested in getting out of the “Saint Louis University bubble” to learn more about the injustices present in this country? Do you want to build community with fellow students through engaging in meaningful conversations about faith and justice? Are you ready to discover how you are being called to work toward a more just world?
Spring Break Immersion Program
Through engaging in the pillars of community, spirituality, justice and solidarity, the Campus Ministry Spring Break Immersion Program will challenge you to step out of your comfort zone in order to accompany people on the margins and to critically engage with the social injustices facing those people — and to allow yourself to be radically transformed in the process.
While your actual immersion trip may last only a week, the knowledge you gain and the growth you experience will last long after that, and our program will continue to support and engage you in your ongoing efforts to work for justice in your communities and to stand in solidarity through practices of accompaniment and advocacy.
Applications for the 2022-2023 Immersion Program will launch the week of September 26, 2022, and will be due on Tuesday, Nov 2, 2022. Check back here for the link to the application! Contact Michelle Verner, Immersion Program Coordinator, at michelle.verner@slu.edu with any questions.
Financial assistance is available for any student who wishes to participate in an immersion experience but would have difficulty paying the total cost. More details will be provided here after the application is open.
Trip Descriptions
This immersion is designed to help you see the world through the experiences, unique challenges and joys of someone with an intellectual and or physical disability. You will spend a week with the L'Arche Community, an organization that provides homes and workplaces where people with and without disabilities share life together as peers. You will serve with the community as a companion and helper, sharing meals, having conversations and accompanying members, as well as performing basic maintenance such as painting and cleaning in the houses themselves or at partner agencies.
Partner organization: L’Arche of Mobile
Through this trip you will examine the unique public health challenges created by rural poverty in Appalachia, as well as the ways local communities are and are not addressing them. You will spend time in various sites in rural West Virginia, where you will attend presentations about alcohol and drug abuse, access to nutritious food, and the effects of environmental degradation due to industrial activities in the region. You will also work with the local agencies below to gain a more nuanced understanding of these issues through personal connection with patients in public health clinics and children in after-school programs.
Partner organizations: Appalachian Institute of Wheeling University, ABLE Families
At St. Anne’s Mission located on the Navajo Nation, we will immerse in service and
education, helping with some manual work and visiting with students at a local Catholic
school. You will learn from some Navajos about life on a reservation today. There
will be a focus on public health-related issues including substance abuse, diabetes
and access to healthy food. You will also experience the distinctive cultural richness
of the Navajo people, including their history, landscape, mythology and rituals, learning
opportunities for solidarity and accompaniment.
Partner Organization: Saint Anne’s Mission
This immersion explores how crime impacts communities, what measures and policies
can help them heal, and what our responsibilities are to those who have hurt us. You
will work with the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative in the prisons and jails
around Los Angeles County. The group will also meet with organizations working to
reform the criminal justice system in California.
NOTE: Due to age restrictions for visiting prisons/jails in the state of California,
you must be 21 years of age to participate in this immersion.
Partner Organization: Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative, Anti Recidivism Coalition, Homeboy Industries, Inside Out Writers
Step out of your everyday life -- out of your comfort zone -- and into in-depth, experiential learning and cultural immersion. The Border Immersion Experience is an opportunity to learn about the issues that affect lives of people living on the border. The program includes: fellowship at El Paso-Ciudad Juárez fence, presentations at various social justice ministries, assisting with after school program, personal accounts of border life exposure to Mexican & Mexican-American culture, tours of colonias (rural settlements) in El Paso, daily reflections, visit to ministries in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and bilingual worship at Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey.
**Please note, depending on up-to-date US State Department travel warnings, we may
not cross the border to spend time in Juarez, MX**
Partner Organization: Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey