Immersion Experiences
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 SLU students by 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, 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 those people face — and to allow yourself to be radically transformed in the process.
Your immersion trip may last only a week, however, the knowledge you gain and the growth you experience will last long after that. 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 2024-2025 Immersion Program are open now and are due by Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Contact Michael Schreiner at michael.schreiner@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 are provided in the application.
Apply for the 2024-2025 Immersion Program
Trip Descriptions
This immersion is designed to help you see the world through the experiences, unique challenges and joys of someone with an intellectual or physical disability. You will spend a week with the First Light Community of Mobile, which provides homes and workplaces where people with and without disabilities share life as peers. You will serve with the community as a companion and helper, sharing meals, having conversations and accompanying members, and performing basic maintenance such as painting and cleaning in the houses themselves or at partner agencies.
Partner organization: First Light Community of Mobile
At Saint Anne’s Mission on the Navajo Nation, we will immerse in service and education,
helping with manual work and visiting students at a 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 our responsibilities to those who have hurt us. You will work
with Thrive For Live ministries. Some opportunities will be working in a food pantry, communal meals with formerly incarcerated individuals,
and visiting Rikers Island.
Note: You must be a junior or senior to be considered for this trip.
Partner Organization: Thrive for Life
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 affecting the lives of people on the border. The program includes fellowship at El Paso-Ciudad Juárez fence, presentations at various social justice ministries, assisting with an after-school program, personal accounts of border life exposure to Mexican and Mexican-American culture, tours of colonias (rural settlements) in El Paso, daily reflections, visits to ministries in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and bilingual worship at Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey.
**Please note, depending on up-to-date U.S. State Department travel warnings, we may
not cross the border to spend time in Juarez, MX**
Partner Organization: Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey
Through this trip, you will examine the unique public health challenges created by rural poverty in Appalachia and how 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 nuanced understanding of these issues through personal connections with patients in public health clinics and children in after-school programs. You will also learn about the history of coal and coal miners and the industry's effects on the land.
Partner organizations: Big Laurel Learning Center , ABLE Families