How do students at an East Coast university relate their studies on U.S.-Mexico border issues to the daily lives of the people who live there?

    Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland has come up with a solution — an immersion program called the Project Mexico. Twenty students from the Jesuit-run school spent the Fall semester preparing for a 10 day trip to San Diego. Then they hit the ground running in January.

    Normally, the Loyola students spend time in Mexicali, Baja California, but with the current specter of border violence, their activities were confined this year to the U.S side of the border. 

    “We were able to take a tour with the Border Patrol, speak with the Border Angels, spend time with day laborers, stop by a shelter for unaccompanied minor immigrants and visit a community garden run by refugees,” said Mary Andrea Goicochea, student adviser for the Loyola students.

    Each evening the students reflected on their face to face encounters with people who live and work along the border. “All in all, the students were transformed with these face to face encounters with immigrants and with those who are struggling to keep their families together in Mexico,” said Goicochea. “They said they would never again be able to disconnect the faces and moral aspects of immigration, and they want to work toward more humane immigration reform.”

    Project Mexico partnered with Los Niños, a San Diego-based community development organization for the student visit. “I have been working with many groups on border issues,” said Juan Carlos Rivas of Los Niños, “but the Loyola students seem to get it right away. They are well prepared and they are not afraid to engage with everyone. We saw this clearly when they visited the day labor sites and other locations along the border.”