2011 Reading Week
StFX Students and Dr. Denton Anthony in Guatemala
 

Immersion experiences are an exciting and unique way to provide service while living in another culture.

Immersion Service Learning (ISL) offers StFX students an intense experiential learning opportunity involving travel to diverse communities in national and international locations.  The program focus is on service learning experiences that provide a framework for reflection on social justice and community development issues. 

Led by a StFX Faculty member, each group learns firsthand about the culture and development issues within their particular community context.  While being immersed in the local culture, students provide service with community organizations, meet with community leaders, visit sites of historic and political importance, and participate in education sessions facilitated by local community leaders.  Service placements and reflection activities relate the student's experience to social justice issues.

Students can become involved in Immersion Service Learning for personal experience or, with the permission of a professor, can integrate it with their course of studies through research for course credit.  Students can enroll in IDS 305 Immersion Service Learning, a 3-credit interdisciplinary course offered in second term, intended specifically for students involved in the Immersion experience.  They can also incorporate their Immersion experience as an assignment within the following courses:  BIOL 391 (Dr. Edwin DeMont), SPAN 100 & 200 (Dr. Wojciech Tokarz's sections), & DEVS 311 (Dr. Jonathan Langdon). 

With the exception of Belize, the ISL experiences take place during second term recess in February.  The two-week Belize experience takes place during the last week of April and first week in May. 

StFX was the first Canadian University to offer an Immersion Service Learning Program.  Since the inception of the ISL program in 1996, over 700 students have traveled to Belize, China, Cuba, Grenada, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Montreal, Romania, and L'Arche Daybreak in Ottawa and Toronto. 

For more information about the 2012-2013 Immersion Service Learning Experiences, please click on the following links:  Belize, Cuba, Grenada, Guatemala, L’Arche Ottawa, and Mexico.

For further information on Immersion Service Learning experiences, please contact the program assistant for the Immersion Service Learning Program at (902) 867-2583 or smackay@stfx.ca.