Holy Cross immerses its students in service

by Kim Roberts

By Kim Roberts
Clarion Herald

For the past 25 years, students from Holy Cross High School have participated in week-long immersion experiences each summer traveling to other Holy Cross school communities around the country to work together on service projects and participate in communal prayer, leadership training, fellowship and other Christian activities to make a difference in the local communities of the host school.

“The goal of the program is for the students to be present in the communities that they are sent to and experience the culture while growing in faith with excitement and desire to share in the mission of the church and the Holy Cross campus and community they are assigned to,” said Logan Puissegur, campus minister and chaperone.

Location, location

Each immersion experience is unique based on its location. This year, five different groups of students participated in the Holy Cross Immersion program working in five locations across the country. The national immersion group went to San Jose, California; the archdiocesan immersion group was in New Orleans; the Mater Dolorosa immersion group traveled to Los Angeles; the leadership immersion group worked in Austin, Texas; and the Notre Dame vision group landed in South Bend, Indiana.

“Students are hand-selected for our immersion program,” Puissegur said. “The experiences can change depending on the year. Next year, we will be bringing five students to the Dominican Republic, along with students from Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles.”

Puissegur said students who are chosen to participate in the program only have to cover the cost of their flight, and the school covers the rest of the costs for the trip through fundraising and campus ministry funds.

Five juniors and three chaperones joined other Holy Cross schools to complete service projects in San Jose, which included packaging food for the homeless, cleaning the environment and spending time with the elderly.

Four sophomores and one chaperone joined other schools and youth groups in New Orleans for a service-learning project. Students assisted in food service at Ozanam Inn and the New Orleans Mission and worked with the Vietnamese Catholic and Black Catholic communities in the city.

Two chaperones accompanied five seniors to Los Angeles, joining upperclassmen from Notre Dame High School (from Los Angeles) for a week of service and prayer. The students stayed at a retreat center and participated in service projects that included preparing meals and sorting clothes for the homeless, bagging snacks with Children’s Hunger Fund, cleaning Santa Monica beach, assisting special needs children and cleaning two abandoned homeless sites.

Trip makes an impact

“My first thought of this trip was to visit and have fun in Los Angeles,” said senior Carter Spencer. “I realized my purpose for being in this city wasn’t just to visit, and my heart has been touched. Services such as helping the homeless and going to the children’s school made me realize that a simple smile or being polite to others, despite differing situations, goes a long way.”

Five members of the student council and two chaperones joined other Holy Cross schools in Austin for a week of service and leadership training that included painting and cleaning up the
host campus, praying and team-building exercises.

“Immersion was a deeply impactful trip,” said senior Ethan Turner. “I am grateful to have participated in this program as it has taught me more about the problems of the world, while informing me of the impacts of littering, living below the poverty line and injustice.”

Five seniors joined 200 other students at the University of Notre Dame for a retreat designed to bring them closer to Christ and to recognize how to use their gifts to help improve society.

“This trip truly gave me a new perspective on the world and my life,” said senior Logan Hitch. “After the trip, I’ve come to appreciate the little things that God has blessed us with way more. This was a transforming experience.”

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