Justice in January: Immersion Program
(Left) Chelsea Hunt: Logistics Assistant, Nate Garberich, Lauren Mills, Connor Brenes, Luisa Gallagher: Staff Advisor (Right)
The Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL) is introducing a new service-based immersion program called Justice in January. Based on the Social Change Model of Leadership and the Jesuit Philosophy of service, Justice in January aims to provide students with opportunities for self-reflection, collaboration, and service with and for others.
Justice in January will take place this January 8-15th with 3 student coordinators, 9 student participants and staff advisor Luisa Gallagher. While living and working in the Hill-Top neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington they will partner with the Guadalupe House, also known as the Tacoma Catholic Worker in homeless outreach. They will also serve at L’Arche Farm with adults with developmental disabilities.
Service can act as a powerful vehicle for developing student leadership in a collaborative environment. Under the Social Change Model, leadership is viewed as a process rather ran a position, emphasizing the need to understand self and others in an effort to effectively create community change. Senior Justice in January coordinator Nate Garberich said, “I like doing service because I find that it forces me to reflect on the reality of the human condition. Basically we are all suffering in some way or another, and while that might sound quite negative, doing service further reminds me that humans are capable of coming together to transcend that suffering, and turn it into something really powerful.” Senior coordinator Lauren Mills also noted that “Service means being one with those people you serve.” Lauren said, “It doesn’t make me a better person to do these things, it just means I can learn from those around me and the opportunity that service gives me.” The Social Change Model focuses on the values of solidarity, as well as expounding the values of equity, social justice, self-knowledge, personal empowerment, collaborating, citizenship, and service.
Nate stated that, “In my opinion the mission of Justice in January is to bring together a group of students who hold a variety of different leadership roles to spend a week doing service and reflecting on leadership. We hope participants will walk away more aware of their leadership style, more confident that they can ignite social change, and better able to work with other different leaders when back on campus.” It is our hope that Justice in January participants will have the opportunity to grow in self-awareness and leadership, as well as learning how to initiate change in themselves and in the society that they are serving.
Written By:
Angie Funnell, Gonzaga University Senior majoring in Public Relations
& Luisa Gallagher, Coordinator of Student Engagement at CCASL