What is community immersion?
Community immersion is a version of service learning that is more integrated with a student's
passions and interests, is longer-term and is related to the on-going development of community and
social justice issues. Whereas pulling debris from a river would be classified as community
service, at EUACS an explicit educational component - such as studying the causes of river
pollution and how to advocate for environmental policy reform - makes it community immersion
learning. Community immersion learning fulfills many of the school's goals for students becoming involved citizens, learning through worthwhile tasks, and developing leadership,
advocacy and problem-solving skills. It also provides another avenue for students to discover new
interests and meet potential LTI Mentors.
Community Immersion (Service) learning is defined as a method:
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Under which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully
organized experiences that meet actual community needs that are coordinated with the
school and community;
That is integrated with specific learning objectives and provides structured time for youth to
think, talk, or write about what they did and saw during the actual service activity;
That provides young people with opportunities to use newly acquired skills and knowledge
in real-life situations in their own communities;
That enhances what is taught in school by extending student learning beyond the classroom
and into the community;
That is related to community development and social justice;
Helps foster a sense of caring for others through direct involvement; and That is supported
by regular assessment to provide feedback and guide improvement.
Community Immersion
Community Immersion, a program of the AQ CSTP, is an experimental process of being with the people in
communities. The process helps concretize theoretical classroom discussion through actual experiences. It
also raises the level of awareness and consciousness of the realities besetting the people in the
communities. And lastly, it promotes involvement and service to the communities.
The AQ CSTP uses the principles of community organizing process as a guide in its immersion programs.
It fully recognizes the dynamism and the culture of a given community. AQ considers the community as
partners in development and not as mere recipient of any given project or beneficiaries for any welfare
programs. For this, it tries to go beyond mere extension work.
More than the belief that the communities are resources for the students' acquisition of knowledge, skills
and attitude; AQ CSTP immerse itself in the very situation of the people, hence, it tends to be totally in one
with the people.
Each community needs to find its own solutions to its own problems. There are no easy or "universal"
answers that can be brought in from the outside. Human factors (more than technical ones) are what make
community activities fail or succeed.
To serve those whose needs are greatest, community programs must make every effort to help the weak
gain and keep control (sometimes this may mean refusing or limiting assistance from those in positions of
power-whether inside or outside the community).
To be healthy is to be self-reliant.