Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience

Thank you to everyone who supported the Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience last year. Last year’s programs were a great success with thirteen programs and 170 students. These students contributed over 15,000 total hours of community service to the communities in the  Camden, Georgia, Haiti, Honduras, Kentucky, Kenya, Montana,Ohio, and West Virginia.

2017-2018 LIVE Programs

Blackfeet Montana Browning, MT May 12-19, 2018	Camden Aware Camden, NJ May 13-19, 2018	EL Otro Lado El Paso, TX March 10-17, 2018
Habitat for Humanity-Spring Break Winston-Salem, NC March 10-17, 2018	Freedom Project Miami, FL  January 7- 14, 2018	Habitat for Humanity Tucker, GA May 12-19, 2018
Project Appalachia Harlan, KY March 10-17, 2018 & May 12-19, 2018 TORCH Missions Tegucigalpa, Honduras March 10-18, 2018       Resettlement Mission Atlanta, GA March 12-19,2018	Project Haiti Port-au-Prince, Haiti January 2-15, 2018     Coastal Development Project New Orleans, LA May 21-28, 2018	Project Mapendo Nyeri,Kenya May/June 2018               Jamaica St. Elizabeth, Jamaica March 10th-18th, 2018

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Our Mission

The mission of the Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience is to give students the opportunity to gain knowledge and first-hand experience of social justice issues, both at home and abroad, through meaningful service done in partnership with local communities to better live our common Lasallian values of faith, service, and community.

Our Purpose

UMAS offers students opportunities to confront the challenges that many local communities face. 

These Programs embody the Lasallian vision of intellectual and spiritual development by working together to foster growth, understanding, and change as students experience a deeper sense of what it means to live and work in solidarity with a community.

Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience is dedicated to living out Lasallian values by gaining understanding of the global community and the social justice issues that affect that community.

Through capacity building efforts, La Salle students discover the importance of giving back while learning about themselves and others.  Students partner with local communities and immerse themselves in cultures by building relationships with the people they serve.  Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience strive to improve the quality of life within the global community by acting on the natural human instinct to help each other.

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Direct Service

Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience give students experience in working directly with communities and working in solidarity to create appropriate solutions.  UMAS hopes to enable student participants as they respond to crises and concerns in local communities and around the world.

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Understanding Systematic Injustice

An important aspect of any Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience program is attempting to understand and address the underlying causes of the issue being addressed by the partnering organization. Coordinators are responsible for integrating experiences before and during the Trip which address the political, economic, historic and environmental factors that shape the issue.

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Reflection on Faith, Service and Community

In addition to being a way to experience social issues, the Lasallian Immersion & Volunteer Experience should be designed to provide space for participants to reflect on their own ethics, spiritual values and relationship to the issues they experience.

Too often, when we engage in service in our own communities, we don’t take the time to process our experiences.  Building reflection time into these programs is another way we choose to immerse ourselves into the experience.

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Evaluating Personal Habits and Lifestyle

A consequence of reflection is seeing participants evaluate the way they live, manifesting itself in changes in personal lifestyle (devotion to simplicity, new eating habits, etc), in a longer-term commitment to service (post-grad service, committing to regular volunteering) or in vocation (becoming a public servant, social worker, or religious life).