The application process for Spring Break immersions has now closed.
Appalachia, West Virginia
March 24-31, 2012 Cost: $600
Santa Clara students will spend the week learning first-hand about community development, culture, and environmental issues in rural West Virginia. In partnership with the Appalachia Institute at Wheeling Jesuit University, the SCU delegation will volunteer with a variety of community-based organizations that may include: senior center, health care center, violence prevention program, head start program, and a re-building project. Students come to understand the cultural significance of this region through music, food and conversation with community members. SCU Students will visit the museum of history in Charleston, West Virginia’s capital and will learn about current political reality and its impact on critical issues in the region. The immersion group will also learn about the region’s biodiversity, mountain-top removal mining and natural gas extraction. SCU students will stay at Wheeling Jesuit’s Lantz farm and will have the opportunity to prepare and cook the evening meal together.
Los Angeles, California
March 24-30, 2012 Cost: $300
The Santa Clara immersion trip to Los Angeles is facilitated in partnership with Campus Ministry and will be hosted by the community of Dolores Mission, a Jesuit parish in East LA, whose parishioners take the initiative to address issues that challenge their community. These pressing issues include gang violence, human rights abuses against youth and immigrants, childcare, health care, educational, and employment opportunities. SCU students will visit Homeboy Industries and have lunch at the Homegirl Café. Jobs not Jails is the mission of Homeboy Industries, which provides job placement, training and education to at-risk and former gang-involved youth. The immersion group will also help out with the after school program at the Dolores Mission school. Students will learn about the parish, school, and pastoral outreach programs and personally get to know members of the community. An integral component of this immersion is the home stay experience with local families. SCU students will partner up and stay with families throughout the week, which provide opportunities for conversation and shared meals.
Navajo Nation (Tuba City, AZ)
March 24-31 Cost: $600
The Santa Clara delegation traveling to Tuba City, Arizona will spend the week on the Navajo Nation in northeast Arizona hosted by Amizade Global Service-Learning. SCU students will be placed in a classroom throughout the week and will work directly with Navajo students at the Tuba City Boarding School. Through this experience SCU students will be able to build relationships with young students, share about their experiences as SCU students, and provide valuable to support to the teachers and students. The group will also learn with and from the local community about the region’s health care, education, welfare and environmental issues. Students will learn about Navajo history and culture through various activities that may include: visits to the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and the Navajo Interactive Museum, story-telling with community members, and participating in a Navajo sweat lodge ceremony. The SCU group will stay in a hogan, which is a traditional Navajo home.
New Orleans, Louisiana
March 24-31, 2012 Cost: $650
The Santa Clara delegation will spend most of the week working with St. Bernard Project on home construction projects. The group will learn about the effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans through visits, conversations, and meetings with community-based organizations in New Orleans. The immersion experience will include conversations with community members who were affected by the storm and community leaders who have struggled to respond to the community’s needs. We will consider the role that race and class played in the hurricane evacuation process, as well as in the city planning for New Orleans. We will talk with experts and everyday people about their hopes, dreams, and plans for rebuilding their communities. Work with the St. Bernard Project ranges from mold remediation, hanging dry wall, finishing touches on a home, and everything in between.
San Francisco, California
March 24-28, 2012 Cost: $200
The SCU immersion group will spend time in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District and the SOMA district, the area in the city with the highest population density and the greatest percentage of poor and homeless women, men, and children. SCU students will volunteer with St. Anthony Foundation, a dining hall serving about 2,500 free meals per day, and share lunch and conversation with the people there. Trip participants will learn about many of the pressing issues and needs in the community through volunteer work with a variety of services the St. Vincent DePaul Society manages in the city, meetings with people working in non-profit organizations. The group will also visit community based mural projects in the city and work with an elementary school class on a paintbrush diplomacy art project.
San Jose, California
March 26-30, 2012 Cost: $200
Santa Clara students will spend five days volunteering and learning first hand about poverty and homelessness in downtown San Jose, just beyond SCU’s campus. In partnership with Sacred Heart Community Service, an organization that prepares and distributes food to over 20,000 people every month, the SCU delegation will volunteer at a food pantry and clothing store for those in need. Participants will volunteer at a senior center and tutor middle school students as well. The trip will promote a vivid awareness of poverty through a simulation experience in which participants will spend a day as homeless individuals receiving basic services from community agencies, and the group will sleep at a homeless shelter for one night during the trip. Finally, trip participants will learn about urban gardening projects connected to SCU. Participants will reflect on these experiences in the context of their education at SCU, and the group will have the chance to hear from with professors, community organizers, and other local leaders who actively work for equality and justice in our nearby community.
Tucson, Arizona
March 24-31, 2012 Cost: $650
The SCU delegation will spend the week in the Tucson learning about immigration policy and reform and its impact on the lives of people living along the US-Mexican border. Hosted by BorderLinks, an international organization that builds bridges of solidarity across North and Latin American borders the SCU students will learn about the complexity of life in this region. This immersion offers students an intensive week of learning about immigration and migration through conversations with people and groups most impacted by these issues. The group will learn about the history and culture of this region through conversations and meetings with migrants, community leaders, activists and NGOs which may include: Green Valley Samaritans, Florence Project, Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Café Justo, Sierra Club and Kino Border Initiative. SCU students will stay at the Borderlinks retreat house in Tucson, Arizona.
Application Process
The application process for the 2012 Spring Break trips is now closed.
Selected participants commit to 5 group meetings prior to the trip and 3 group meetings in the Spring quarter after returning. Click here for a brief overview of the immersion process.
If you have questions or would like more information for any of these immersions, please contact Valerie Sarma at vsarma@scu.edu or (408) 554-5272 or Mike Nuttall at mnuttall@scu.edu or (408) 554-2747
Immersion Cost and Fundraising
The participant fee for each immersion covers food, lodging and transportation (including airfare) for the entire trip. We are happy to work with students to set up payment plans, support fundraising efforts, and we have some financial aid available for those students with access to the last resources. Specifics related to the financial aid process will be discussed with the Kolvenbach staff in the interview. To this point we have been able to meet the financial needs of all students who have been accepted to immersions and we hope this will continue. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
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