Are you interested in getting out of the “SLU 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?
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.
Check back in August for 2019-20 immersion program participant application.
Contact Michelle Verner, Immersion Program Coordinator, at michelle.verner@slu.edu or 314-977-1532 with any questions.
Serving as a student leader on an immersion experience allows you to be a role model and a guide to your fellow participants. You will help your peers enter more fully into the host community and be open to the challenges posed by seeing the world from a new perspective. You’ll assist others in understanding the program pillars of community, spirituality, solidarity and social justice as they relate to your particular trip and how those concepts can be integrated into their lives after they return to SLU. You don’t need to be an expert on any of the immersion trips or social justice issues to be a student leader-- you just need to be open to learning more, walking with your fellow students, and sharing your wisdom!
Before
Prior to the immersion experience, you will build community with fellow student leaders
and get to know yourself as a leader on an Immersion Student Leader Retreat, engage
in seven 2-hour sessions of student leader formation throughout the fall and early
spring semester based on the pillars of the program (community, spirituality, solidarity
and social justice), assist in the publicity and recruiting efforts for the Immersion
Program, help with the trip participant selection process and take the lead on planning
and facilitating five pre-trip meetings with the trip group in the spring semester
(with assistance and mentoring from staff facilitators). Student leaders will also
be present for all-community events leading up to the trips, including info sessions
in September, the Program Kickoff Event in late January, and the Sending Forth Service
just before the immersion trips leave.
During
While participating in your immersion, you will demonstrate the values of the program
through your behavior, as well as help the facilitators assess the needs and concerns
of other students and help facilitate reflection during the course of the trip. Student
leaders will model an attitude of openness to challenge and growth, maturity, and
respect for the host communities that are visited on each trip.
After
Following your return to campus, student leaders are key to helping the group process
and integrate the experience into their lives at SLU. Each group will meet at twice
following their trip to begin to process their experiences on the trip and to explore
what solidarity looks like here on campus. Student leaders are responsible for spearheading
a post-trip “solidarity project” with their group. Student leaders must also be present
for and may be asked to help with the Post-trip Day of Reflection which takes place
a couple of weeks after the trips.
Student leadership positions are serious, year-long commitments requiring three to five hours a week, and more in the weeks leading up to big events. This commitment should be discerned carefully, as the full commitment and excitement of our student leaders makes this program success!
April 14, 2019: Student Leader Applications are DUE
April 23-25, 2019: Student Leader interviews
April 29, 2019: Student Leader selections made
Sept. 13-14, 2019: Student Leader Retreat
Sept. 26, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #1
Oct. 3, 2019 6-7 pm: Information session
Oct. 10, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #2
Oct. 24, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #3
Oct. 30, 2019 6-7 pm: Information session
Nov. 7, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #4
Nov. 21, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #5
Dec. 5, 2019 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #6
Jan. 16 2020 5:30-7:30pm: Student leader formation #7
Jan. 23, 2020 5:30-7:30pm: Program Kickoff Event
Jan. 27 - Feb 28, 2020: Five weeks of pre-trip meetings with trip participants
March 5, 2020 6-7pm: Sending Forth service
March 6/7 - 14/15, 2020: Spring Break Immersion Trips!
March 16-27, 2020: Two weeks of post-trip meetings with trip participants
March 28, 2020 9am-3pm: Post-trip Day of Reflection
March - April, 2020: Solidarity Projects
Applications for Student Leader positions are open now - click here to apply!
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. There is
also a day trip to understand the realities of New Orleans, LA.
Who we work with: L’Arche of Mobile
Trip cost: $300
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.
Who we work with: Appalachian Institute of Wheeling Jesuit University, ABLE Families
Trip cost: $300
On this trip through the Casa Romero Renewal Center (a bilingual urban retreat center
which seeks to continue and extend the ideas of social justice, community outreach,
environmental health, diversity and spiritual awareness to the Milwaukee community
and beyond), you will immerse yourself in the urban context of Milwaukee, a Midwestern
city with many similarities to St. Louis. The themes covered in this trip will be
“Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers” (focused on the issues of homelessness and hunger)
and “Racism in the U.S., Milwaukee, and in Our Hearts” (exploring the multiple levels
of racism, unpacking power and privilege, and gaining tools for action).
Who we work with: Casa Romero Renewal Center
Trip cost: $300
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.
Who we work with: Saint Anne’s Mission
Trip cost: $300
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. You must be 21 years of age to participate.
Who we work with: Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative, Anti Recidivism Coalition, Homeboy Industries, Inside Out Writers
Trip cost: $600
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.
Who we work with: Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey
Trip cost: $600
This immersion, in collaboration with the Center for Service and Community Engagement,
explores immigration issues through the outreach and advocacy efforts of the Kino
Border Initiative, a bi-national human rights agency located literally just a few
steps from the US-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Participants
on this trip will experience the many perspectives and stories of border life, from
migrant people, and those who serve them, to Border Patrol and border communities,
who often struggle to balance security concerns with principles of human dignity.
The experience of constant movement and migration is integrated into this trip through
the lengthy drive from St. Louis to several border cities and by camping in the desert.
Who we work with: Kino Border Initiative
Trip cost: $600