Mention the words "student immersion" and images of travel to Montana, Mexico, New Orleans, or even India come to mind. But for students at La Salle Catholic College Preparatory, their intensive service learning experience took place closer to home, just a two-and-a-half-hour drive from their Milwaukie, Oregon, campus. Nine students with faculty member Stephanie Blumenson spent three days at L’Arche Tahoma Hope Farm.
L’Arche is part of an international federation that serves people with developmental disabilities. At the Tahoma farm, the community consists of adults both with and without disabilities who work together to produce flowers, tomatoes, and other small vegetables. While doing this, the disabled members learn job skills.
During their stay at the farm, La Salle students helped with farm chores, harvesting crops, weeding fields, and cleaning out greenhouses. They prepared for a local harvest festival and assisted during the event. In the evening, the students and community shared dinner in the L’Arche dining room and joined together in a prayer service.
“The students were a little shy at first,” commented Director of Service Stephanie Blumenson. “Many of them were apprehensive since they had little experience working with adults who have developmental disabilities. Quickly, the students became friends with the farm employees, who showed our students what to do and how to complete different jobs. Each student eventually built a closer bond with a particular L’Arche member.”
La Salle will have several other immersion trips this year, including one to the De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning Montana, one to Salem, Oregon, for the farmworker immersion experience, and three “in town” immersions. These last three take place on Saturdays and educate students about the realities of homelessness.
La Salle Catholic has had an immersion program for 15 years. The La Salle Blackfeet School experience, with a ten-year history, is the longest running for the school.
