Santa Clara University

When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity, which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.

– Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.

Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Jesuit order, challenged American Jesuit higher education with these words spoken at the 2000 Justice Conference held on our campus. As one response to this challenge, the University continues to sponsor an annual faculty/staff immersion to El Salvador. (For the history and development of immersion experiences at SCU, see Catherine Wolff and Gerdenio "Sonny" Manuel, S.J., "To Fall in Love and Be Transformed," explore, spring 2006, Vol. 9, No. 2. pp. 5-11.) The immersion seeks to deepen participants' understanding of the worldwide Jesuit educational mission by engaging in the gritty reality of our globalizing world.

Selection Process

Immersion participants are selected from among faculty and staff leaders, and at times key members of the community, based on the criterion that they will have a leavening effect on campus when they return from the experience. Priority is given to:

• Faculty/staff who play a significant role in the University or who have the potential to play such a role with others (faculty/staff/students)
• Individuals who have not participated in a University immersion in the past
• Regular faculty and senior lecturers
• Staff who are committed to the Jesuit mission, have been at the University for three (3) years and are likely to remain for the foreseeable future

The selection process is coordinated by the Ignatian Center staff. In consultation with the President and Provost, the staff seeks to identify a diverse ten-person group with broad representation from across campus; it considers factors including school, discipline, University position (e.g. faculty, staff, or administrator), age, gender, race, and ethnicity.

Participant Commitments

Immersion participants will commit to:

• Attending three (3) pre-immersion meetings
• Doing preparatory reading
• Going on the eight (8) day immersion
• Attending three (3) post-immersion meetings

How to Get Involved

Faculty and staff are invited to apply to participate in the 2012 El Salvador immersion. 

Important Dates/Deadlines for 2012 immersion

• Trip dates: August 23 - 31, 2012
  
• The application deadline: Monday, February 6, 2012
• Participants will be identified and informed by: (TBD)

An information session will be held in Sobrato Hall, Room 32 on:

• Friday, January 20, 2012, at noon
  

For additional information or questions, please contact Laurie Laird, Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, 408 554-5013, lalaird@scu.edu.