Arrupe Immersion Experience Expands Its Reach
While many of their classmates boarded planes and cruise ships to tropical locales, nearly 40 USF students spent spring break in a more nontraditional way. They built homes for the poor, delivered meals to the sick, and learned about the lives of the disadvantaged at the border in Tijuana.
Sophomore Gilbert Marquez chose to spend his week away from classes by living at the YMCA in the Tenderloin and working with the Salvation Army and St. Anthony’s Foundation. “This program offers a lot of perspective on social justice,” he said. “For me, that means being in the face of poverty, and interacting with it. Not just being a volunteer. I develop a relationship with it and start to understand it.”
Marquez was a participant in the Arrupe Immersion Experience, a program sponsored by University Ministry that offers students, faculty, and staff opportunities to live, work, and reflect in a socio-economic environment that is different from their own. Faithful to the Jesuit ideal of educating men and women for others, this program draws its inspiration from Pedro Arrupe, S.J., former superior general of the Society of Jesus.
The program, which began five years ago, is now extending its reach even further. This year, an Arrupe Immersion Experience in the Tenderloin was offered for law students during their spring break for the first time. Four law students participated. The following week, when the undergraduates were off for spring break, seven students went to the Tenderloin, five students helped build a house in San Francisco with Habitat for Humanity, 10 students learned about poverty and immigration issues in Tijuana, and 12 students helped build houses in Guatemala, also with Habitat for Humanity.
Plans are set for the addition of a new Arrupe trip to the Philippines in January 2002. A group of about 15 students will spend two weeks in the Philippines working with Habitat for Humanity during the winter break. The program will be known as Arrupe Immersion Experience: Lakbayan. Lakbayan is a Tagalog word meaning, “the journey to which you go on, and from which you return.”
“The trip to the Philippines reflects the university’s commitment to the Pacific Rim,” said Mike Duffy, associate director of University Ministry who coordinates the Arrupe program. “The Filipino population at USF is significant. Adding a trip in January provides the opportunity for more students to get involved.”
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