Winter Immersion Program hosts campus-wide reflection. 

Winter Immersion Program (WIP) members hosted their first annual campus-wide reflection event called “The Story of Us” on March 5 in The Perch.

WIP consists of groups of students who served in different locations around the world over winter break. The program’s staff and students have been holding weekly meetings since they returned in mid-January.

“The Story of Us” allowed students to articulate their service experiences to their friends and family. It also inspired everybody involved to live lives that are dedicated to justice, according to Campus Minister Tinamarie Stolz.

“Our group’s theme is basically like letting your heart be broken by the experience and then be rebuilt in a more wonderful way by the people and the experiences that you’ve had,” said Kelsey McCartney ’21, who served in the Gulf Coast. “The event showcases everything that is beautiful and wonderful about the experience.”

At the event, each of the five groups that were part of this year’s program gave a 20-minute reflection about what they did and who they met on their service trips. The event was live streamed and some of the program’s community partners from around the world, including Peru and Guatemala, tuned in to see the impact they had on the students.

Each presentation was unique, but they all addressed themes of heartbreak, sacrifice and solidarity. The groups experienced situations such as poverty and immigration laws firsthand. The dire situations were heartbreaking, but every group said their hearts were filled again by the relationships they made while serving.

The presentations were personalized with pictures from the trips and video compilations. Every individual in the groups got to share their stories about how they were changed even in the short times that they were on their trips.

The complexities of the issues faced could not be summarized in 20 minutes, but the Gulf Coast group said serving in Alabama felt “kind of like a big hug”. This showed the audience the warm reception that the WIP students got when they served. It also showed how much the students have changed now that they are back on campus.

“I think something that’s really interesting about going on an immersion experience is that you come back and you are not the same,” Stolz said. “There’s been an internal change in you, and it’s really hard to put that into words.”

Communicating that change to others can be difficult, but Stolz noted the importance of recognizing the changes that come from being committed to justice.

“If it stays in our heads and our hearts and it never reaches our hands, then what was the point?” Stolz said.