Stephanie Edwards
First and last name: Stephanie Edwards
Year in school: Sophomore
Major: Religious Studies and Anthropology
Home city/state/country: Gresham, OR, USA
1. Where did you work?
I have gone on two immersion trips through SCU, through the DISCOVER program in conjunction with Campus Ministry.
2. What was the title of your position?
No position title: participant.
3. When did you work there?
I spent Spring Break 2004 in Nogales, Mexico and Thanksgiving Break 2004 in Tijuana, Mexico.
4. What did you do?
There is so much involved with immersion trips that it is difficult to fit it onto paper. The emotional aspect can never be captured, both between you and your fellow group members, but between you and the people you visit. On my first immersion trip, I was completely caught off-gaurd by the immediate intimacy of the people I met. No matter if it was by having dinner in Maria's humble cardboard and wrought iron house, or staying in a migrant shelter, or visiting the plaza early in the morning to hand out hot chocolate and talk to the migrants about why they wanted to to cross the border, everyone was so raw and honest. They did not care what I asked about, or why I asked it, they just wanted someone to listen.
Through their desperation I saw their inherent strength and faith. By beginning to understand these motivations, I was able to further realize my interconnectedness to every living person. It became my goal not to feel empathy, but to somehow work with them to accomplish their goals, and in doing so fulfill my own.
In Nogales, the trip was not service, but education-based. There was so much to learn about the area that I felt overwhelmed, but incredibly blessed. We travelled with the program BorderLinks, with has been established on the border doing this type of trip for quite some time. We spent the first two nights at the BorderLinks house in Tuscon, Arizona, the next two nights at the BorderLinks Casa de la Misericordia (mercy) in Nogales, Mexico, two nights in homestays in Nogales, a night in a migrant shelter, and the final night back in Tuscon.
On SCU immersion you do not use schedules or watches, but it was clear that every day was planned to the minute and that each day had a themed issue to discuss. In Nogales, one day was Labor, and we visited a maquilla (a factory), and talked with union organizers (for the maquilladoras (workers)). Another day was Children/Education, when we visited a two-year technology-based university in Nogales, met with a woman that worked with gang-related issues, and had lunch at the Casa de la Misericordia, which runs a lunch program for kids. The end of the trip was spent tracing the migrant route from Nogales, through Mariposa (a little town off the highway), and through Sassabe, back into the US. We talked the whole time about what it would be like to walk this route, spent the night at a migrant shelter, visited the plaza early the next morning to hand out hot chocolate and talk with migrants, and drove the rutted, unpaved road through Sassabe into Nogales, Arizona. You enter in the desert, and can see people bush-wacking through with water strapped to their backs. Along the way, we also met with Grupos Beta, which is the Mexican Border Patrol, which contrasted with a trip to the US Border Patrol earlier in the week.
The Tijuana trip was not as long, and we spent the whole time at the Los Ninos organization's house in Tijuana. This trip was service-based, and while we discussed issues that the city has, and were able to see the 'real' Tijuana, we helped lay concrete for classroom floors and outdoor areas. It was incredibly hard labor, but it bonded the group together. In the process we met many children that would talk with us about anything, and played many games of soccer. The parents were so thankful to us, as they organize the event and help us all day. We were able to talk with them as we worked, or ate lunch, and learned what their lives are really like.
It is impossible to talk about everything done on immersion, but your only duty or responsibility is to learn and participate. Every night ends with reflection with the group, as is essential because you see so much.
5. How did you hear about this position?
Campus Ministry advertisements, Michael Colyer
6. How does what you learned through this experience relate to your coursework and/or career goal?
What I learned directly correlates with my majors of Religious Studies and Anthropology (cultural). I am studying humans in the classroom, and got to see how they actually live around the world. Immersion applies to every field of study, as well as personal development.
7. How did this experience help you develop your skills and abilities, your personal qualities, your values and perceptions?
My faith was strengthened and changed by immersion, by what we experienced and the communities we created. There is a sense of immediacy about these trips that bonds the group together and allows for relationships that may have never happened here on campus. I developed skills as a leader, a listener, and the ability to relate well to people different than myself. My values and perceptions were completely altered and alligned to a new, and more globally focused purpose. I try to live by a quote on the wall at the Los Ninos house in TJ, that I think encapsulates SCU Immersion: "If you've come here to help me, you're wasting my time. But if you've come because your liberation is bound up with mine, Then let us work together." -Lila Weston
8. What did you learn about yourself that surprised you?
I learned that I can open my heart so quickly that I am brought to tears. Sometimes the situation we live in is so easy that we uncounciously harden ourselves toward others. The simple touch of a child's hand, and her pleading eyes, tore down any facade I may have been presenting. Her simple wish was to play and feel loved for just a moment, and I was able to participate in that.
9. How would you describe the value of this experience to other students?
Invaluable. To me, immersion has started, furthered, and inspired my search for active social justice in my life. There is no way to understand many of the issues immersion deals with (immigration, poverty, faith) unless experienced first hand.
10. What advice would you give to students interested in doing this?
The advice I would give students would be that they should invest themselves fully into the experience. Immersion can be scary at times, but you are always with such a responsible and organized group that it makes the next steps easier. Don't worry about preconcieved notions people have of you, or those you have of them: I guarantee they will will be challenged and changed, no matter how tightly you hold them.
