University's trustees experience El Salvador immersion program

Published: 2008-07-03

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Students at the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco often take part in summer or semester immersion trips, but these trips aren't vacations. They're meant for students to gain an understanding of the rest of the world in a more personal way so that they might be better leaders in society, said Claudio Chiuchiarelli, chair of the school's board of trustees. The university has 35 immersion programs and 25 more traditional study-abroad programs in 18 different countries, he said. The students are "not just racking up volunteer hours; it's students understanding issues that other people in other parts of the world face," he told Catholic News Service in a phone interview. That is why visiting other cultures is so important, not just for students, but for the people in charge of the university as well, he said. This year, instead of holding their meeting in a hotel conference room, the University of San Francisco's board of trustees, university president Jesuit Father Stephen Privett and others associated with the school went on an immersion trip to El Salvador for seven days in June, he said. The goal was to get the group to understand what the students are doing on these trips, he said.

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