Apply Now for 2023 Immersions

The Immersion application is open for the Summer of 2023. Priority Application Deadline: Friday, Oct. 28th. Final Application Deadline: Friday, Nov. 4th.

While the deadline has passed, we do have a limited number of spaces available and will continue to take applications from students until spaces are filled. Not all immersions have available spaces. 

2023 Experiences

Financial aid is available for students currently receiving tuition assistance. If cost is the only factor preventing participation in immersion, please contact the Office of Service and Justice to have a conversation. We want all interested, qualified students to be able to participate in this program.  

The locations are as follows:

Sacramento Day Plunge – Sacramento, CA

We will serve with various non-profits who help those experiencing homelessness or severe economic hardship. From the service experience we intend to advocate with the Sacramento’s City Council and lobby at the state capitol in unison with those striving to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness. It will be a day plunge, meaning students will meet at JHS each morning and return to their homes each evening. Approximate cost: $350

Sierra Service Project – Sacramento County

SSP has a long history in Sacramento County, where their central office has been located for decades, but 2023 will be their first year hosting a full summer program in the region! Thanks to a taxpayer initiative through the City of Rancho Cordova’s Measure H Community Enhancement and Investment Fund, this program is supported by public funding. Direct service will include home repairs with low income residents, installation of drought-tolerant landscapes, and neighborhood beautification. Approximate cost: $700 (reduced fee for residents of Rancho Cordova)

Sierra Service Project – Del Norte County, CA

Students work with residents and organizations in the coastal towns of Smith River, Fort Dick, and Crescent City as well as, at times, inland in Hiouchi and Gasquet. Because Del Norte County’s poverty rate is more than 20 percent and is one of the poorest counties in the State, we work with the entire community, including some families who are tribal members. The majority of our work is locally led in partnership with community-based organizations, although some projects will focus on typical SSP home repairs. Volunteers will rotate through community-based projects, many of which have an environmental focus. Approximate cost: $900

L’Arche Tahoma Hope – Tacoma, WA

We will partner with the L’Arche Tahoma Hope Community, spending time working alongside core community members with intellectual disabilities on the community farm, learning about disability justice and socializing with the members of the community. Housing is provided on site. Approximate cost: $1,300

Sierra Service Project – Navajo Nation (Tsaile, AZ)

SSP has a long history of working with partners in the Navajo Nation. Since 1994, SSP has partnered with various Diné (pronounced din-EH, meaning “the people”) communities. Service will include: weatherization for harsh winters, including roof repairs, installing awnings, and building sheds to keep wood dry; accessibility repair projects for elder residents, including decks, stairs, and ramps. Approximate cost: $1,600

Esperanza International – Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Esperanza International seeks to cultivate global citizenship through service experiences in working towards a better world. Partnering with Fundación Esperanza de México, a Mexican NGO, who believe that all people deserve safe and dignified housing. Together, they offer service-learning immersion trips where volunteers help build homes in communities across Tijuana and have the opportunity to authentically engage in the unique border culture through the eyes of its own residents. Approximate cost: $1,600

Kino Border Initiative – Nogales, AZ and Sonora, Mexico

This Jesuit apostolate works to provide humanitarian aid to recently deported migrants, advocate for policy change (in the U.S., Mexico, and beyond) that impacts migration, and educate about the complexities of immigration. Students provide service through meal service and accompaniment of migrants through conversation. Students also meet with ranchers, border patrol officers, and participants in the court system (attorneys, judges) for dialogue with people impacted by migration and for reflection on their experience and response. Approximate cost: $1,600

Ignite: Immersive Faith Based Community Organizing Experience  – Bellingham, WA

Ignite aims to build a dynamic, inclusive, welcoming, and supportive training fellowship on community youth organizing for a cohort of young people representing the diversity that is the Catholic community.  The summer seminar provides and immersion into the farmworker reality, a development of faith based community organizing skills, and building of a network of young people and educators committed to social change.  Approximate cost: $1,600

Jerusalem Farm – Kansas City, MO

We will be living simply and giving of our time and energy to help others primarily with home maintenance and repair so that they may have adequate shelter and avoid code violations. The Jerusalem Farm community, which provides our housing, is led by an alumnus of Jesuit High School. Approximate cost: $2,100

Nazareth Farm – Salem, WV

We will be partnering with the community at Nazareth Farm, who provide our housing and service programming, in an atmosphere of simple living and community. We will assist neighbors in need with home maintenance and repair as well as work on the farm for self-sufficiency.  Approximate cost $2,200

What is an Immersion?

Our service immersion program offers rising Juniors and Seniors an opportunity to put their faith into action in a particular way. The service experiences are about responding to the Gospel call to serve those in need, while questioning the reasons behind why people are in need. Service is a tool for creating spaces for kinship and solidarity. While each immersion has its own unique focus, they all encourage participants to live in solidarity with people experiencing acute needs like hunger, homelessness, physical or developmental disability, isolation due to old age or illness, or dislocation due to migration. Experiencing community, simplicity, justice, and prayer is central to the immersion experience.

Each immersion has goals which are modeled on tenets of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps program:

1. Engaging in direct service with the people of the community that welcomes us;
2. Living simply, while in community with fellow students and people of the host community;
3. Reflecting on social justice and Catholic Social Teaching issues pertinent to the community we are visiting;
4. Reflecting through prayer at the end of each day as a means of noticing where and how God was acting throughout the day, and, further, how God invites us to respond.