Immersion Program

Pedro Arrupe, former Superior General of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), once spoke of Jesuit institutions as educating “men and women with and for others.” One of the primary purposes of Jesuit high schools and universities is to form students for a “well-educated solidarity.”

The Immersion Program at St. Ignatius College Preparatory is a faith-based program with the mission to develop a "well-educated" solidarity for our students in the Ignatian tradition. Solidarity begins with contact with people on the margins, which serves as a catalyst for intellectual inquiry, moral reflection, and spiritual growth.

Supported by faith-based partner organizations, immersion participants will come to know other communities and cultures through their stories, traditions, struggles, celebrations, and expressions of faith. Whether the travel is local, domestic, or international, the primary focus of the Immersion Program at St. Ignatius College Preparatory is to deepen relationships with others and with God. The experiences are rooted in prayer and reflection, and any work performed will be secondary to the time we spend with marginalized communities and individuals in their environments. Our hope is to allow for the possibility of more mutual relationships so that those who welcome us into their homes or who share their stories with us are not seen primarily as people whom we have come to “help” but rather as companions on the journey.

Led by members of the SI faculty and staff, immersion participants experience Ignatian community through the combination of shared experience, simple living, reflection and prayer. As student groups return, they will engage prayer and reflection and continue asking questions raised by their experiences. The hope of the Immersion Program is to foster a lifelong commitment to a “faith that does justice” among its participants.

For more information about our Immersion Program, please contact Tamara Setiady at tsetiady@siprep.org.