New immersions to El Salvador

By Johanna Mitchell

Craving an experience abroad that coupled service with their studies, a few arts and business majors developed the university's first two student-initiated immersion trips.

Arts and business students can now participate in discipline-specific immersions to El Salvador this spring break.

The arts immersion program, sponsored by the Bannan Institute, emphasizes the ways in which the arts can be used to improve lives. The business immersion, sponsored by the undergraduate business program, seeks to open students' eyes to international economics and globalization.

Both programs were inspired by experiences the student leaders had through Santa Clara's Kolvenbach Solidarity Program.

"El Salvador was a transformative experience for me," said senior Maureen McKenzie, who first visited the country during the summer after her sophomore year. McKenzie said she hopes to incorporate aspects of the previous trip with an arts twist.

McKenzie and junior Ashley Borchardt designed the program, which will include listening to Salvadoran speakers discuss social justice issues, visiting various arts organizations or schools, and visiting the site where six Jesuits were killed in 1989.

The program will be largely funded by a donation from a local business owner who was inspired by a proposal McKenzie presented in her social justice and the arts course during spring quarter last year.

The Bannan Institute has also given a $5,000 grant to the program. The institute was instrumental in providing resources during the planning stages of the immersion experience, said McKenzie.

Students participating in the arts immersion will be accompanied by Aldo Billingslea, chair of the department of theatre and dance, and Renee Billingslea, professor in the art and art history department.

The Billingsleas will mentor students in a planning process during winter quarter and guide reflections following the immersion centered around "the ways which the arts can be used as a tool to create just, knowledgeable and creative communities," said Borchardt.

"It's about finding out how our talents can meet the world's needs," she said.

Living in solidarity will be a primary focus for students participating in the arts immersion, who will be staying with families in a rural area outside San Salvador.

Students participating in the business school immersion will also be staying with local families at night, but participating in very different activities during the daylight hours.

Student leaders Kyle Ozawa and Sam Baker, both senior business majors, have developed a schedule that incorporates visits to the U.S. Embassy and the El Salvador Chamber of Commerce.

The participants will be enrolled in a winter course that will introduce them to the economic situation of El Salvador through guest speakers and a teleconference with Mark Ravizza, S.J., a Santa Clara philosophy professor who is currently teaching in El Salvador.

The students will also sponsor an El Salvadoran business owner through KIVA.org, a Web site that allows any person to lend up to $300 to an entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Ideally, participating students will be able to visit the small-business owner during their stay to see firsthand how their donation can affect change, said Ozawa.

Ozawa, who has participated in five immersion trips and acted as the student coordinator for two, said the inspiration for the department-specific program came from a realization that he was one of very few business students who had chosen to participate in immersions.

"We saw room for a lot of opportunity for the school to give business students a better understanding of social justice," said Ozawa.

El Salvador was chosen for its unique economic situation, Ozawa said, and he added he hopes students will be able to see the effects of national trade agreements that they do not always hear about in the classroom.

The undergraduate business program is funding the immersion program, which Ozawa said is "just the beginning." The immersion program is now a permanent fixture in the department's budget and will become an annual event.

Both immersion trips offer spots to 13 or 14 students, and the costs have yet to be determined.

Applications for the business school immersion program are due Nov. 26 to the business school Dean's Office in Kenna Hall.

Applications for the arts immersion are due Nov. 7 to the Justice and the Arts Initiative Office in the Music and Dance Facility.

Contact Johanna Mitchell at (408) 554-4546 or jjmitchell@scu.edu.