Immersion Experience Locations

Dates: March 1st - March 8th 

Cost: $2400

Student Coordinators: TBD

Overview:

El Salvador Immersion is a faith-based delegation experience where participants learn from the Salvadoran people about their lives, histories, and hopes for the future. A major focus of the encounter is to reflect on the meaning of working for justice rather than working for charity; understanding one’s role as a global citizen; and humanizing the different issues that are present in our societies. Participants learn directly from the Salvadorans about issues such as the impact of war, neo-liberal economics, U.S. foreign policy, migration, mining, the environment, and a tradition of liberating faith.

Activities:

This Immersion will include: visits to martyr sites, grassroots organizations, and a rural community, as well as speakers on history, politics, economics, and more importantly current issues as well as time for shopping for Fair Trade crafts and cultural activities. 

We give special emphasis to the voice and experience of the poor and marginalized of El Salvador. Taking our inspiration from Monsignor Romero, we want to give voice to the voiceless. We encourage you to address with your group your level of interest in meeting with people who also represent more powerful groups and other sectors of society.

It is our desire to provide for your group the opportunity to learn from various political, social, economic and religious sectors according to the interests of the participants.

Dates: March 2nd - March 8th 

Cost: $550

Student Coordinators: TBD

Overview: 

The Father McKenna Center offers a unique immersion opportunity for students and young people seeking to learn more about themselves and about the challenges facing some of the most vulnerable in our community. The Father McKenna Center is located on the basement level of the former St. Aloysius Church. St. Aloysius Parish ceased operations in 2012, but The Father McKenna Center continues to carry on the work of serving men experiencing homelessness and very low-income families in the neighborhoods surrounding the U.S. Capitol. Your experience will offer you the opportunity to serve meals, converse with and share meals with the men we serve. We are committed to making this an educational experience as well as a service opportunity.

What Will You Learn? 1. By connecting with our guests and patrons, you will learn about some of the challenges that those experiencing homelessness and poverty face. Many of our visitors have faced one or more of the following issues: addiction, mental illness, incarceration, or chronic unemployment. 2. You will learn that homelessness is not a condition, but a phase of life. For some it is a transient time, while for others homelessness can be nearly a permanent phase of life. 3. You will learn that anyone can experience homelessness. Experiencing homelessness or not, all deserve dignity and respect. 4. You will learn that you can make a difference in someone’s life by showing concern and interest, as much as through a handout of food, money or other tangible goods.

How Will You Learn? You and your peers will have plenty of opportunity to get to know the men we serve, and to join them for the daily group meeting that precedes our lunch meal. During that session, you may be asked to “interview” one of our guests and then introduce him to the group, and vice versa. You should also take the opportunity to learn from other local agencies that serve the homeless (the Coalition of Housing and Homeless Organizations [COHHO], the DC Fiscal Policy Institute or the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless). You might also meet with your local representative or a senator (or their senior staffers) to discuss what you have experienced and why you believe the government has a role to play in addressing the underlying issues that cause and exacerbate homelessness. You will also have an opportunity to learn from Cortez McDaniel, FMC’s Director of Services. You will have the opportunity to meet with him one-on-one, sit in on one of his meetings, and debrief about your experience with him. Having experienced homelessness himself, his wisdom is well worth getting to understand.

Your experience at the Father McKenna Center offers you an opportunity to serve, to learn and to listen. Your experience will change your heart and may change your life.

Dates: March 1st - March 8th

Cost: $2000

Student Coordinators: TBD

Overview: 

This year Campus Ministry is partnering with Borderlinks. 

BorderLinks offers experiential learning opportunities that explore the causes and difficulties of migration, as well as the impact of U.S. immigration policies. BorderLinks brings to the forefront the voices of migrants and people who are committed to social change.

Learn more here: https://www.borderlinks.org/

Dates: May 19th - May 25th

Cost: $950

Student Coordinators: TBD

Overview: 

This is a new immersion partnership with St. Anne Mission in Klagetoh, Arizona on the Navajo Nation Reservation. 

For this immersion, participants will spend a great deal of time assisting in the regular ministries of the parish. These may include home painting and repair, helping with livestock, visits to nursing homes and other facilities, and other needs that arise.

They will also get time to spend with the Indigenous Navajo Community there at community events & visit local museums and national parks.

Dates: May 20th - May 29th

Cost: $2,500

Student Coordinators: TBD

Data Assistant: TBD

Overview:

Honduras is a beautiful and mountainous Central American country with lush greenery and fertile valleys. Once part of Spain’s vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After experiencing political and economic instability throughout the 1950s-1970s, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. The country is among the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with over 50% of its population living on less than $6.85 per day, which is the poverty threshold determined by the World Bank. Recently, in addition to economic losses surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the country was devastated by two hurricanes, Eta and Iota, in November 2020. These factors contributed to an estimated 8% decrease in the country’s GDP and the destruction of some of its infrastructure. 

Our goal for the immersion is to improve public health outcomes in a number of rural, underserved villages by hosting free medical clinics (called “medical brigades”) in 5 communities. While providing basic medical care is one part of this immersion, we also focus on clean water initiatives, such as testing water for contaminants, providing water filters to communities, and training community leaders and residents on troubleshooting the filters. To understand a community’s public health needs, we conduct surveys, interview residents, map the community, and build relationships with community leaders. Basically, we are doing our best to inform our work with as much information as possible. It is through this broad lens of public health that we can better serve the people of rural Honduras both in the present and future immersions.

 The immersion is open to students from any major, and the diverse nature of our work should appeal to students interested in public health, data science, nursing, political science, biology,, human rights, chemistry, sociology, health professions, economics, and more

Dates: May 19th - May 25th

Cost: $750

Student Coordinators: TBD

Overview:

Appalachia is a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from southern New York to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Living among the beautiful Appalachian Mountains are approximately 25 million people who share a similar history and culture. People work as miners, mill hands, mountaineers, farmers, artisans and musicians, educators, machinists, and entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, the people have often been stereotyped as uneducated and isolated.

Although Appalachia has abundant natural resources, such as coal and timber, the people of Appalachia have always struggled with poverty and have not enjoyed long-term benefits from these industries which were developed during the industrial revolution. In recent years, Appalachia has diversified its industries and has largely joined the economy of the rest of the country, but it still lags behind in most economic indicators. The region also still struggles with access to health care and quality education.

Two landmark Catholic pastoral letters, This Land is Home to Me: A Pastoral Letter On Powerlessness and At Home in the Web of Life: A Pastoral Message on Sustainable Community, give a moving and poetic description of the beauty of the region and its exploitation for energy resources. Billions of dollars worth of coal have been removed from the area, largely by people who do not live on the land, resulting in the impoverishment of the Appalachian people and environmental damage.

The ACW Farm has a variety of community partners that Immersion participants may serve. Though the service site will be determined upon arrival, participants can expect to participate in a variety of service projects that may include community outreach, physical service and farm work, and education about the local area.

Partner Organization: Our community partner for this immersion is the Appalachian Catholic Worker Farm outside Spencer, West Virginia, just north of Charleston. ACW describes the experience they offer students as being one-third service, one-third education, and one-third reflection. Learn more details on the ACW website.

Accommodations: Participants will stay in rustic, communal housing on the grounds of the ACW farm. Meals will be simple and nourishing.

Additional Appalachia resources

Overview:

Do you love Fr. Greg Boyle and his book Tattoos on the Heart? If so this Immersion is the perfect experience to help you dive deeper into the life, work, and community of Boyle Heights, home of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.

Dolores Mission addresses social injustices within the Boyle Heights community, a largely Latino community comprised of immigrant families. The community and its partners continue to navigate gang violence and homelessness on a daily basis. Learn more about Dolores Mission.

Overview:

Cuernavaca:  Known as the “City of Eternal Springtime” and the birthplace of revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, Cuernavaca is located two hours south of Mexico City in the state of Morelos.  CGEE’s study center is located near the city’s historic center, with a 16th century Cathedral and Hernan Cortés’ Palace.  The study center has dormitory style rooms, a dining room, a library, and classroom space.  When it opened in 1982, Cuernavaca was a focal point for the liberation theology movement under the late Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo.  Since the establishment of industrial parks just to the south of Cuernavaca, the city has become a destination for poor farmers from neighboring states who seek factory work because they can no longer live off their land.  At the same time, affluent Mexicans from Mexico City own vacation homes in Cuernavaca. As a result of rapid industrialization and unplanned growth, the natural environment has deteriorated and one witnesses the extremes of abject poverty and great wealth side by side in Cuernavaca.     Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl:  Amatlán is a rural Nahua indigenous town in the state of Morelos about an hour outside of Cuernavaca that has organized to try to defend its cultural inheritance and indigenous spiritual legacy from outside exploitation.  It is a good option for a day excursion or for several days of homestays with local families. Participants can hike (30-45 minutes) to an ancient sacred site and learn about Nahua indigenous spirituality and cosmovision. Participants can experience an indigenous sweat lodge (temescal).  Residents share about the history of communal land and current struggles to defend it, as well as about the racism that the community has faced.  Others share about their experience as immigrants, working in the U.S. or being deported.

Click here to learn more about our program and partner 

Overview:

This January Campus Ministry is partnering with the Encuentro Project. The Encuentro Project offers participants a faith-based, multi-faceted immersion program in the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez border region to experience a deeper understanding of the complex migration reality and of this community. By providing education, service, activities, reflection, prayer and community, the Encuentro Project motivates participants to engage in peaceful, effective action for greater justice and compassion for migrants and refugee persons as presented in Catholic Social Teaching. The Encuentro Project hopes to provide experiences that transform the hearts and minds of participants and open new perspectives about forced migration and asylum seeking by vulnerable people. 

The program will provide a residence (single, double and multiple occupancy rooms; maximum capacity of 19) in central El Paso. During the stay, participants will be able to:

• Encounter and minister to migrant, refugee or vulnerable immigrant persons, in shelters, guest houses and/or parishes
• Visit with persons and organizations serving in the El Paso region
• Visit with persons and organizations serving the Ciudad Juarez region (optional)
• Participate in workshops on Catholic Social Teaching and migrant/border realities
• Participate in personal and group reflection and regular community evening prayer
• Live in community; longer term participants will have the independence needed to fulfill their program

Note: Though not essential, some fluency in Spanish would be beneficial.

Learn more at https://encuentroproject.org/

Overview: 

Our partner for this immersion, the Br. David Darst Center in Chicago, serves as an experiential learning space to build community, work with local partner agencies, dig into reflection on injustices and their root causes, and create action plans to address those injustices. Community comes through shared time cooking and cleaning meals, storytelling, and practicing values of hospitality, inclusion, and stewardship as a group. Through partnerships with local agencies, retreat participants are able to get to know people in Chicago directly impacted by injustices, challenge societal stereotypes, and break down barriers that continue to perpetuate inequity and indifference. The Darst Center focus on the intertwined nature of injustices in our programming by highlighting the systems of homelessness, food insecurity, incarceration, education, and immigration. Through various activities and group dialog, we reflect on the underlying causes of what we see at partner agencies, and we discern our own responsibility and action plans going forward.

This immersion will include visits to partner agencies, reflection activities, communal meals, and recreational time. Groups reside at the Darst Center in shared rooms, and we travel through the city via vans or buses provided by the group or via public transportation.

The Darst Center is here to create a unique experience for the immersion participants. With some flexibility and creativity, they work to ensure the retreat programming will impact the students and support their growth in nurturing a personal passion for social change. This immersion focuses on five 'burning issues' of injustice: homelessness, food insecurity, education, immigration, and incarceration. The Darst Center structures immersions in three main ways: 1) visits to our partner agencies, including both direct service options and experiential learning opportunities; 2) educational sessions and reflections designed to go deeper and extend the work and observations from partner agencies; 3) communal practices of shared meals, recreational time, and upkeep of our shared space.

The Darst Center works with both religious and secular schools and groups to shape immersion experiences that speak to the specific context and needs of the participants. Depending on the group's background, age range, and religious context, they offer a number of components for Immersion Retreats: videos and articles on our five burning issues, daily communal prayers, reflection activities and small group sharing, and opportunities to attend local events in Chicago related to current justice campaigns and efforts.

As the Darst Center wraps up a retreat with a group, they work to craft an action plan or accountability plan for participants to continue bringing what they have learned into their lives at home, school, faith community, and beyond. For schools within a shorter driving distance of Chicago, they are able to offer post-retreat workshops on campus for students to enrich their leadership skills to create social change at home.