Monday, March 23rd - Friday, March 27th, 2020
Cost: $300
The Ignatian Center sends a group of SCU students to Oakland to engage with community members and learn about the social challenges and graces faced by the community in inner-city Oakland. Participants will explore the complex social realities faced by various communities in the Oakland area. The St. Vincent de Paul Society will host the Santa Clara group for the duration of the immersion. The program will focus in particular on homelessness and poverty, the criminal justice system, food justice, and the educational system in the city. Some components of the immersion will include service in a soup kitchen and work with groups at Saint Vincent de Paul as well as engagement with youth in Oakland. The group will meet with Mandela Partners, a non-profit organization that brings local food enterprises to low-income communities. Participants visit St. Mary's Center, a community of hope, justice, and healing for seniors and preschool youth. A day will be spent with Civicorps, a local conservation corps focused on education and job training. Additionally, participants will engage with Community Works West, focusing on restorative justice and humanizing the criminal justice system. Join us for this unique opportunity to engage in service and learning with other Santa Clara students.
“The Oakland Immersion gave me the opportunity to meditate on how my actions are to connected the social injustices in our local area. I learned how to carry the sense of wrongness we experienced with me, and I let it affect my choices for the better every day.”