During Mardi Gras break, Campus Ministry students and professors traveled to El Paso, Belize, and the Dominican Republic for Spring Hill’s annual immersion trip. Through these programs, the college seeks to accompany the most marginalized through service.
The Spring Hill Immersion programs consist of both the college’s International Service Immersion Program (ISIP) and the Jesuit Experience Trips (JET). They build mutual relationships through learning and leading students to answer a call to advocate for justice. Dr. Wilson, a professor who has been a part of the immersion trip since it began in 2004, expanded upon the immersion program and his time in Belize, “Our primary responsibility was we built two gazebos for an elementary school in one of the Mayan villages. The reason for that is many of the kids that go to school live right there by the school so they go home for lunch, but there are some kids that are bussed in and they wanted to provide areas that had shade for them to eat lunch, and our first day there we saw exactly how brutal the conditions can be.”
While in Belize, there was another organization there to help with the building of the gazebos. During their time, the students learned about the culture and environment. Other students traveled outside the country including the Dominican Republic. Senior Becca Howard gave insight into the trip, “We visited a couple of different schools ranging from more impoverished areas that don’t receive a lot of government funding to private Jesuit-funded schools.” The students and faculty also visited a maternal clinic with doctors and volunteers that provided the community with nutritional information for pregnant women. They also visited sugar cane fields that continue to struggle with discrimination.
While students and faculty went outside the United States borders others went to El Paso, Texas near the United States southern Border. Joe Studt is a senior who attended the El Paso trip and stated, “When we were in El Paso we sat through various lectures on the issues facing the migrants of the border and other issues. We talked about the legal aspect and the difference between state and federal laws and how that affects what goes on at the border. We also served at a migrant shelter called Holy Family Shelter for two afternoons.” The students were able to cook and serve food to migrants with the ability to share a meal with them and get to know them.
With the immersion trip continuing its tradition on The Hill, Dr. Wilson commented, “For our students, the immersion program will be the best possible experience they can have outside the classroom. Given the mission of this college fostering men and women who are leaders in service to others, there is no better expression of that than ISIP bar. None.”
For more information about the trip or are interested in attending next year or would like to join campus ministry, you can contact them at [email protected].
