Theresa Carlson, a senior at Loyola and student leader for Alternative Break Immersions

Loyola ABI Program Immerses Students In Culture

by Ryan Vande Bosche

Imagine yourself in rural South America, teaching three little girls how to play “Red Light, Green Light.” After struggling to describe the game in broken Spanish, you think the girls finally understand it, until they hold hands and cross the finish line together.

You try to explain to them that it is a race, a competition. However, these little girls, growing up in such humble circumstances, know only of sharing and working together.

Theresa Carlson, a senior at Loyola University Chicago, had this experience while on an Alternative Break Immersion (ABI) in Duran, Ecuador.

Alternative Break Immersion is one of many programs found at Loyola that exposes students to social justice issues. The program allows students and faculty alike to experience something different over their breaks. Each Spring Break, students have the opportunity to travel to ten different places within the United States where they will immerse themselves in a new culture. Students also have the opportunity to travel abroad with Alternative Break Immersion over the longer winter and summer breaks.

The Alternative Break Immersion program stresses “four pillars” in the mission statement for the trips. They are “Building Community, Living Simply, Keeping Faith, and Doing Justice.”

Carlson stressed the difference between Alternative Break Immersion and community service. “Immersion is really about understanding the culture, respecting the less fortunate and learning about the injustices these people face,” Carlson said.

“It puts a face on injustice,” she said, “when you see the face of a child who is working at a sweatshop.” The “face of injustice” that Carlson witnessed in Ecuador has inspired her to stay involved with social justice issues.

Now, Carlson is an integral part of the Alternative Break Immersion Program at Loyola University Chicago as a student coordinator and encourages others to immerse themselves as well. As a student coordinator, it is Carlson’s responsibility to help plan meetings, plan the logistics of the trips, and raise the necessary funds.

Between 175 and 180 students and faculty participate in Loyola ABI programs annually. In the past, groups have traveled to various places such as Ecuador, Guatemala, Appalachia, Pilsen (a neighborhood here in Chicago), and Newark, NJ. Each group normally consists of 10 to 20 students and one or two faculty leaders.

Abby Geoghegan, another senior at Loyola and first-time participant, will travel to South Dakota in March 2005 where she will build homes at Pine Ridge Reservation. The Pine Ridge Reservation is home to over 38,000 Lakota and is one of the poorest counties in the country.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting some new people and experiencing a different culture. Everyone I have talked to says that the [ABI] experiences are some of the most memorable ones since being at Loyola,” Geoghegan said.

For more information on Alternative Break Immersions, visit www.luc.edu/missionandministry/service.shtml#about.