Immersion trips expand horizons for volunteers

By Kaveri Gyanendra

As the season of thanks and giving back to the community came and went, students from the Santa Clara community traveled to various destinations to volunteer their time and effort to improve the lives of many underprivileged families.

Over Thanksgiving break, two large busses caravanned over 80 students to the Otay Region in Mexico where they spent three and a half days working to improve the poverty stricken areas where numerous families are in need of improved living conditions. The main aspect of the trip entails building homes, said Mexico Immersion Student Coordinator Katherine Nicholson.

Starting early on Saturday morning, the group split into five smaller groups and were each taken by smaller, local buses to a work site where the construction began. Some mixed and poured the concrete for the floor while others began the framing for the walls. The crews worked until sundown, then headed back to their camp where they ate dinner together and reflected on the happenings of the day. The fun continued as the students spent time bonding--s'mores, games of Mafia and campfire songs brought the group closer.

The routine carries on for three days as the students commit themselves to completing the project of building homes for the families in need. The construction is completed early Tuesday afternoon and followed by a "Key Ceremony." The family is invited into their new home where they gather with the students and are presented with numerous gifts brought by the volunteers.

"We have one or two students who are bilingual lead us in a discussion where we display thanks for having the opportunity to have this transforming experience, and share our best wishes and blessings for the family," Nicholson said. "At the same time, the family expresses their gratitude for our help. It never ceases to be a tearful thirty minutes.

"We then pass the keys to their new home around in a circle, so each student that helped to create the home has a chance to touch and hold them. They finally end up in the hands of the family. It is a powerful experience to be a part of, filled with emotion and sincerity."

Volunteer Brigitte Clark worked with a single mother and daughter who lived in poor conditions.

"The mother was working a full time job helping other single parents in the community, while not being able to support her own [family]," Clark said. "They were living in a tiny trailer where the length of it wouldn't fit someone lying straight on the floor, and imagine two people in thereâ?¦ Very tiny and cramped. And we gave them a home. [It's a] great feeling."

On a whole, many volunteers considered it a revolutionary experience in which they had the opportunity to really immerse themselves and change someone's life.

Ted Hough, planner of the December Mexico immersion trip says the experience is beyond building homes in an underdeveloped area.

"I think that these immersion trips are very important for people who are trying to get the most out of their education," Hough said. "We are all thrown into a very tight bubble of friends here in Santa Clara and it is an experience like an immersion trip that can introduce students to a completely different side of life. The immersion experience is a unique and eye opening one that can change a persons life forever for the better."

The Ignation center on campus sponsors numerous trips a year, including a 2010 Spring Break trips to numerous cities, including Los Angeles, Navajo Nation, Nogales and San Francisco, amongst others. Participating students pay around $250-$350 for travel, food and housing fees; scholarships are available.

Contact Kaveri Gyanendra at kgyanendra@scu.edu or (408)-551-1918.