Service Learning Trips

The Ministry and Service Office sponsors several trips throughout the year which allow students to grow in their faith and to experience poverty and injustice in the world first-hand. More importantly, these trips connect students with people and organizations who are working to create lasting solutions to these problems. The goal of all CJ's service learning trips is not merely to provide help to those in need, but to experience the causes of injustice and become people of faith who will respond to these issues both now and in the future.  

Applications for the 2012 Summer Mission Trips are currently available.

Urban Plunge Retreat

This year, CJ is bringing back the Urban Plunge retreat. Urban Plunge is a weekend retreat where students are immersed in the justice issues around urban poverty in Cincinnati. Students will be staying and serving with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. During the evening, group reflections, shared prayer, and simulation experiences will be focused around the justice issues of poverty. Ten to twelve students and two faculty members will be living in a simple community setting, sharing meals and contributing to the group. This retreat will take place Friday through Sunday, February 24-26th, 2012 and will cost $70.

Applications are available in Ministry and Service as well as here.   They are due back Thursday, Dec. 15th. 

 

2012 Summer Mission Trips

CJ's summer mission trips provide students with the opportunity to travel nationally and internationally, grow in their faith, learn from other cultures and discover ways people are working to bring about a more just society.  

 All dates and costs to be determined.

 

detroit, michigan

This mission trip is sponsored by Young Neighbors in Action, whose "goal is to help...provide...young people with the opportunity to serve those in need, to learn what the Scripture and our Tradition say about justice, and to hear the ways that God is calling them to bring about the Kingdom."  Go to www.cmdnet.org for more information on this organization.  Participants will build community in a simple lifestyle, volunteer with a variety of agencies that address human needs, integrate prayer and reflection on the experiences of meeting Christ through the poor and discern a personal response to poverty and injustice.  Students will share meals, prayer and reflection together. This trip is open to all students 9th – 12th grade.

 

Punta Gorda, Belize

This trip is a service learning/immersion opportunity in which students will be able to work with and learn from the local community. A small Caribbean country, Belize is fiercely independent and culturally rich. Though tourism is creating a boom of development for the country, many of its regions are still simple and pure while dealing with impoverished conditions. During the trip the group will have a variety of service experiences, some of which include working with the local children and parishioners of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church. Theywill also have the opportunity to assist Dr. Steve Huffman (a CJ parent and chaperone) as he travels in a mobile clinic to visit a few mountain communities and administer health care to the villagers. Working alongside the people of the parish will enhance the immersion experience and support a cultural exchange that will be immensely enriching. Other opportunities for cultural immersion will include visits to the capitol, some Mayan ruins, and the local zoo. This trip offers a chance to compare and contrast our lives of privilege with their lives of simplicity. To work, play and pray with the people of Belize is a chance to see and feel a life of love which Jesus calls us all to live.  This trip is open to current juniors and seniors only.

 

Solsberry, Indiana

This mission trip is a rural plunge experience. The group will be staying at Solsberry Hill Retreat Center. You will partner with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter and work with local residents on housing rehabilitation for low income families. You will also have the opportunity to work with children and elderly residents of this community. Students will also get to spend some of the week doing farm chores at the retreat center. Evenings will be spent processing the day through shared prayer and reflection. You will also get to have some fun by swimming in the pond, lounging on the hammock, enjoying campfires at night and more! Moeller High School will be participating in this mission experience with CJ. This trip is open to all students, 9th- 11th grade.

 

Financial Aid Applications for all trips are found here. Financial aid is only available to 9-11th graders.

All students who have previously attended a summer mission trip, please use the application found here.