Nine students attended A Mind Spread Out on the Ground immersion to Canada in May 2023. This immersion was meant to enhance the common reader experience read in fall 2022. The experience focused on Indigenous voices and experiences throughout history and in contemporary times. A highlight of the experience was learning about the programming provided at The Native Women’s Resource Centre and their recent efforts to elevate the voices of 4000 murdered and missing Indigenous women. 

Following the immersion to Canada, participants enrolled in IDS 111: Be a Changemaker during the fall 2023 semester. In this course, each student developed and facilitated a changemaker action project impacting a cause or community they care about. Projects range from cross generational sharing to women’s health and wellness to the history and culture of the Pacific Islands.

Finally, the immersion participants traveled to the College Leadership Summit in Chicago, Illinois to explore the topics of social justice, human rights, and inclusion. While there, students led a Changemaker networking session where they worked in small groups with attendees to help brainstorm through the changemaker action project workbook and helped attendees begin to draft their own grant proposal to fund their own Changemaker project. 

Just Mercy Immersion, 2021

Serenbetz Leadership Immersion Award

This immersion experience was inspired by the fall 2020 common read, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. In this book, Stevenson recounts his early years working as a lawyer to defend poor, marginalized, and even wrongfully-accused and imprisoned individuals in the South. The immersion allowed students to understand the personal and social responsibility character traits addressed in the pages of Just Mercy in a more sophisticated and critical way. 

Eight selected students traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to experience The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, and met with staff at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). An unexpected treat was meeting Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and EJI founder, walking along a street near the museum. Mr. Stevenson was gracious enough to visit briefly and take a picture with the group.