With the fall semester already underway, students, faculty, and staff have begun to settle into the rhythms of return. New members of the Georgetown community, especially students in their very first semester, ask lots of questions in these early weeks that range from the quotidian to the existential. A common question that I hear, which animates our work of mission integration at SCS and across the university, goes something like this: So what exactly are the Jesuit values that I hear so much about? What do these Jesuit values mean and how will they influence my Georgetown experience?
Mission in Motion regularly shines a light on the diverse ways that SCS articulates the meaning of the Spirit of Georgetown and puts these characteristics of a Jesuit education into practice throughout our community. Whether in classroom activities, spiritual programs like meditation and retreats, or community-engaged service and justice opportunities, Jesuit values manifest at SCS in ways that are unique to our context as a dynamic center of professional and continuing education. One of the most essential components of living out the Spirit of Georgetown is through service and a commitment to social justice. This commitment, which is crystallized in the University’s mission statement, is evident in the work done by Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service (CSJ).
SCS works closely with CSJ to facilitate opportunities for members of the community to engage deeply with Jesuit values by participating in the Center’s mission to “advance justice and the common good” and promote “community-based research, teaching, and service by collaborating with diverse partners and communities.” One of the critical ways that CSJ accomplishes this mission is through critical immersion experiences like the Alternative Breaks Program (ABP). Grounded in the Jesuit pedagogical model of context-experience-reflection-action-evaluation, CSJ ABP immersions are intended to give students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to engage with “diverse and vibrant communities through direct service, immersion, and reflection in a substance-free environment.” Fostering intersectional solidarity and inspiring lasting commitments to service and social justice, the ABP experiences are meant to return to Georgetown by living on through the witness of participants. For years, SCS community members have been participating in CSJ-sponsored immersion opportunities. I have previously reflected in Mission in Motion about my own critical immersion experience along the U.S.-Mexico border and SCS Vice Dean Shenita Ray has shared her reflections about her immersion in Peru.
This year, there are 10 year-long ABP immersions with in-person travel over Spring Break from March 5-12, 2022. In addition to the immersive travel (which is planned for in-person at the time of this writing), the ABP experience consists of pre-trip learning and community building along with post-trip activities. You can read more about the trip descriptions, which range from exploring the legacy of slavery in Montgomery, Alabama, to rural poverty and the need for economic justice in Pulaski, Virginia. There is no cost for participants or trip leaders as ABP fully subsidizes transportation, lodging, and meals. The application for both participants and trip leaders is due before 11:59 pm ET on September 17, 2021. Questions can be directed to the ABP board at altbreaks@georgetown.edu.
I encourage members of the SCS community to consider applying for the ABP. The experience of direct engagement with pressing social injustices can be transformative to one’s ongoing education and discernment of a professional vocation. The theory of social change at the root of the ABP experience is echoed in these words by former Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach:
“Solidarity is learned through contact rather than concepts. When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is a catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.”