Nicaragua Faculty/Staff Immersion Trip
a collaborative program of the intersections project and the
volunteer and service learning center
volunteer and service learning center
Nicaragua Faculty and Staff Immersion
In partnership with the Volunteer Service Learning Center, Intersections annually sponsors a faculty and staff trip to Nicaragua for an immersion experience each May. The goal of the program is fourfold: to provide an international experience for faculty and staff that explores global justice issues in the context of a developing nation; to further participants’ understanding of how faith and justice are linked in the Jesuit mission in higher education; to encourage participants to find ways of integrating these themes into their own work at Boston College; and, where possible, to foster mutually beneficial professional relationships with colleagues in Nicaragua and other developing countries.
The enthusiastic responses of past participants are testimony to how readily these goals are being achieved.
Some testimonials from delegation members
I anticipate returning to Nicaragua and developing student trips, but one of my immediate action steps is to describe action as a key component of experience and reflection. For example, in my health communication courses at Boston College we explore aging, disability, health disparities, inability to pay for healthcare and lack of access to healthcare for many individuals. The Nicaragua experience provided vivid examples of action steps in ways that make a difference to others and in ways that change us. The experience allows me to engage differently with students who participate in immersion / education experiences and with students who seek these experiences.
- Ashley Duggan, Assistant Professor,
Communication Department
On a personal level this was much more of an educational experience than I had ever imagined. I think there is no doubt that any of us who work with students come back to campus from Nicaragua with a much deeper understanding of international and even domestic service/immersion experiences and their role in an integrated education. For me personally I am committed more than ever to developing academic experiences that weave experiential learning into the fabric of the course and correspondingly help students enter these experiences with a fuller academic/analytical understanding of the many forces at work. And I think all of us represent a growing cadre of folks bound together by this shared Nicaragua experience who understand the richness of the international Jesuit education system and the opportunities it represents. This now represents a large enough group to perhaps focus on some specific initiative. And of course we come back with a raft of ideas for new connecting programs like a UCA faculty exchange, connecting all our service trips with the local JVI where possible, having a student agency import and sell fair trade gifts and coffee, and using our alumni volunteers as electronic resources for students interested in volunteer work here. The expansion of consciousness of BC faculty and staff has to have many unforeseen effects on our lives and our decisions that enhance the quality of a BC education as well.
- J. Joseph Burns,
Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Faculties
For information contact Dan Ponsetto, ponsetto@bc.edu, or Burt Howell, howellbu@bc.edu.
Click here for more information from the Volunteer and Service Learning Center.