Immersing, learning, growing and advocacy are four major takeaways from Campus Ministry’s UnDocu Week event.
From March 27-31, Campus Ministry held their annual UnDocu Week. The event was created as a way to bring awareness and education about migrant communities to the students, faculty and community members of St. Joe’s.
Over Winter Break, Campus Ministry students had the opportunity to partake in the Winter Immersion Program (WIP). This past winter, students were able to travel to one of three locations including El Paso, Texas with CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace), El Salvador and Las Cruzas, New Mexico where they stayed with their familia, experienced cultures and had conversations about social injustices.
To kick-start UnDocu Week, participants of the program reflected and shared their firsthand experiences from this immersion at Encuentro. Hana Haile ’24, WIP peer minister and Undocu Week planner, reflected on her own experiences and spoke about them during the Encuentro event.
“I definitely think that my experiences on immersion are what connected and fueled my work this semester with UnDocu Week, thinking about [undocumented immigrants’] stories and thinking about the work that still needs to be done, and not in a sense of saviorism,” Haile said. “The way I view it, the people we meet on immersion, those are my community members, those are my friends, and I owe it to my friends to do right by them because I would want them to do right by me.”
Clare Joyce ’25, who attended Encuentro, was able to empathize with a community that she has never met in person, just through hearing other students reflect on their immersion experience.
“You’re learning about something that we don’t get to see here,” Joyce said. “It’s not something we see day to day, but it’s things that impact people’s entire lives, and it’s really important. So it’s a really good educational opportunity to learn about something we’re not seeing.”
According to Tinamarie Stolz, campus minister for WIP, this week is centered around people’s willingness to listen, understand and stand in solidarity with people who are directly impacted by the immigration system.
“I think what the whole SJU community can take from this is listening to people’s firsthand accounts, listening to the voices of people who are directly affected by our immigration system, and there are lots of opportunities that we have to do so,” Stolz said. “[Encuentro] is all about, what does it mean when you are actually in solidarity with people?”
Throughout the week, various guest speakers held presentations on their experiences and work in undocumented communities. One speaker, Diya Abdo, Ph.D., Lincoln Financial professor of English
at Guilford College, emphasized the role of college campuses in raising awareness to refugees resettling in the U.S.
Abdo is the founder and director of Every Campus A Refuge, which aims to partner U.S. higher education institutions with refugee resettlement agencies, where they will support and host refugees. During her presentation, Abdo not only shared information about equality, diversity and justice but she also explained how college campuses are great places to provide housing for refugees in need.
UnDocu Week is designed as a way for college students to hear from peers and professionals alike, acknowledge the systematic issues within the U.S. immigration system as well as outside of the U.S., and use this new knowledge to continue to learn and advocate for justice.
“It’s a way for people and the struggles that come with our immigration system to be seen without being outed because that’s really important for people who do not have U.S. papers,” Stoltz said. “It’s being really sensitive about that, but wanting them to have a voice and a place where they are seen.”
Mackenzie Allen ’23 and Ally Engelbert ’25 contributed to this story.
