ASB is a week-long undergraduate service trip during Spring Break to various underserved communities around the Eastern/Southern United States. Groups travel to areas in Kentucky, Mississippi, Maryland, New Orleans, Michigan and new this year, Charleston, WV and the Bronx, NY! In addition to these seven sites, a group will be heading to Puebla, Mexico. Activities performed at all the sites may include interior and exterior home repair, maintenance work, soup kitchen work, tutoring, and other projects in the community determined by the organizations we work with. Through personal interaction with community members, students learn a great deal about the importance of service, their fellow students, and themselves.

Currently in its 22nd year, the Arrupe Immersion Program is a faith based program responding to the call to work for peace and justice in the world. This call is central to the Christian Scriptures and to the Jesuit mission of the College of the Holy Cross. 

• The Mexico Program is currently in its 19th year. The program seeks to provide students with and experience of the reality of life in Latin America through the eyes of the poor and in light of the Gospel.

The Jamaica Program seeks to offer Holy Cross students the opportunity to encounter the poor and marginalized of Jamaica through interpersonal dialogue and service, to learn about aspects of Jamaican culture through a series of speakers and to nurture and challenge their faith.

• The Kenya Program is our semester break program. Visit the Chaplains' Office to learn about their experiences and explore possibilities of being part of the next trip.

Christmas Giving Program – a team identifies local families in crisis and their needs, then provides our parish family with an opportunity to provide food and Christmas presents for these families.
English as a Second Language (ESL) Instructor – teach English as a second language. Most teachers have only 1-3 students and meet weekly on the St. Therese campus for about 1 hour. Schedules are matched between students and teachers. All supplies and teaching materials are provided.
Food Pantry Ministry – this group provides emergency food to parishioners and community members struggling in these difficult economic times
Mooresville Christian Mission – coordinates teams of volunteers to help with office or clerical works or in the store or the pantry on a regular basis; other tasks may be assigned as needed; also collect non-perishable foods and coats for MCM
Mooresville Soup Kitchen – coordinates teams of volunteers from St. Therese to serve hot meals to anyone in need and provide encouragement and fellowship
Peru Ministry – opportunities include sponsoring children or the elderly, writing letters, or making a donation to Father Alex’s mission in Alto Cayma, Peru.
Pregnancy Center/Walk for Life – raises money for the Mooresville Pregnancy Center with an annual Baby Bottle Boomerang fund drive; participates in the Mooresville Pregnancy Center annual Walk for Life
Prison Ministry – minister to those in prison who have been punished under man’s laws. We offer hope spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically to those who are in prison.
Relay for Life – St. Therese is represented with a team who participates in The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. It is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate cancer survivorship.
Respect Life Committee – promote that all life is sacred from conception to natural death. Participate in annual Life Chain, March for Life, and other Pro-Life events.

• Amnesty International
• Music For Others
• Social Justice
• Frosh/Soph Social Justice
• Environmental Club
• Pro-Life Club
• United Students Against Sweatshops
• S.M.A.S.H.

This Creighton Prep program refurbishes donated computers to send to Africa through the computers for Africa, a non-profit group started by a Jesuit and an Ignatian Associate

focuses on education and action to promote trade practices that support human dignity, economic justice and international solidarity. Here on campus the club works to encourage the use of fair trade coffee and other products.

The Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education is dedicated to preserve and extend the Catholic identity and Jesuit mission of Santa Clara University. Competence, conscience, and compassion these critical qualities are built into the foundations of a Santa Clara University education. The Center's work provides students, faculty and staff with opportunities to examine Jesuit and Catholic ideals, promote social justice through community-based learning, and encourage solidarity through immersion.

Bellarmine currently supports a number of different Immersion experiences for students and faculty members. In June of each year, Bellarmine sends a delegation of approximately 10 students and 4 faculty members to El Salvador to spend two weeks with the people there, learning about their lives, and the important connection that the Jesuits have with El Salvador

During the February Winter Break, a group of roughly 10 students travels to Guaymas, Mexico, to work on a variety of projects there, to serve at a soup kitchen, and to partake in a program that works with impoverished youth.

Locally, Bellarmine sponsors both urban and rural "plunges" on a number of weekends throughout the school year. The urban plunge provides students and faculty with the opportunity to grapple with the issues related to homelessness in San Jose. Students meet with a number of different agencies that serve the homeless, and provide service via working at soup kitchens. The rural plunge takes students to Salinas for several days, where they work with and hope better to understand the struggles faced by migrant farm workers.

Students joining Loyola Volunteers agree serve two hours per week for a semester at a local nonprofit agency or work on various projects during the semester for a minimum of 30 hours. There is an application process that includes participation in a monthly reflection group and attending one Community Service retreat each year.

The Marquette Action Program (M.A.P.) offers the chance to work and interact with people all over the United States. Different sites offer students an opportunity to live and learn from people of different backgrounds. The trips expose you to aspects of poverty, racism and the lives of the disabled in our society.

M.A.P. trips are worthwhile for many reasons: you contribute to the community in which you work, are exposed to different social, cultural and economic situations in our society, grow in awareness of justice issues, learn how service organizations work to make a difference, meet and interact with new people, and have time to reflect upon how the experience relates to you personally and your faith.

University of Scranton students are eligible to participate in Marywood University's two-week service program during May or January working and living with the poor. The mission of the program responds to the message of the gospels to aid the poor, homeless and lonely. Student's travel to South America and participate in the following: aiding educational medical programs, building homes, and sharing faith with daily liturgy and prayer. The participants will live with and experience the Hispanic culture and people; hopefully gaining a richer understanding of their culture, faith, lives and hearts.

For many years St. Rita of Cascia Catholic Church has been supporting and communicating with the missions of Kasisi in Africa, St. Catherine's in Alaska, and the Swinomish Spirituality Center in LaConner, Wa.
Not simply an exchange of letters, this helps the community realize the values associated with being a Jesuit parish, such as a real concern for the well being of others and a spirituality that moves St. Rita's forward.

Parish Social Ministry promotes the social mission of the parish. 
Its emphasis is two-fold: 
           1) education and formation of the parish community and
           2) organization of parishioners into four complementary ministries:
                      charity and direct service
                       legislative advocacy
                       global solidarity
                       community organizing/empowerment.
 

Our parish has been a part of the hopes and dreams of San Bartolome parish in Arcatao, El Salvador.  We have helped by providing an ambulance, milk and eggs for the youth, support for the war ophans project, soccer equipment, help with a Water Project in El Sitio, just to name a few.

So where do we go from here. Today in the villages that make up San Bartolome, most homes are basic two or three room structures. A shower consists of dumping a cup of water over your head, lathering up, and another cup of water to rinse your body.

A humble land and people with big hopes and dreams.

Dreams of children having the ability to choose what they want to be when they grow up. Hopes that they can receive a good education. Dreams of a vibrant tomorrow with friends and families able to provide for themselves.
 

Spring and Fall Break Service Immersion Trips

Global Outreach invites Fordham students to participate in an immersion trip to learn about the social realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and examines South Africa's political and economic history.

Students spend three weeks working with the International Rescue Committee exploring issues affecting refugees from the Great Lakes region, East Africa. Students learn about child protection, repatriation, and child/ maternal health clinics.