LMU students have been making the 145-mile journey to Tijuana, Mexico through the De Colores program since 1985. These monthly faith-based service-immersion weekends are grounded in the values of accompaniment, solidarity, and community. Student participants leave behind the comforts of the LMU campus (including cell phones) and step into a different reality. Students are asked to work on a construction project to help build a home for a local family in the community of El Florido in Tijuana.
After our time with the community of El Florido, students are invited to share a meal at Casa Del Migrante, an organization that provides basic human services to deportees, displaced persons, migrants in transit, and refugees. Throughout the weekend, students will be invited to reflect on the experience. These weekends provide an opportunity for an encounter of stepping beyond borders; physical, cultural, linguistic, and personal. Our hope for all student participants is that they return home with a more informed awareness of some of the world's greatest injustices and a deeper sense of gratitude.
All though these are faith-based service immersion weekends that does not mean that other faiths are excluded. We encourage those of other faiths with the passion for service to join us on these weekends if time permits them too.
Please note that these De Colores weekends are open only to LMU undergraduate students.
How to Attend
Any LMU undergraduate student may attend by applying for individual spots.
Cost
$80 (This cost is all inclusive) *Scholarships available
If you would like more information or have any questions, please feel free to contact Flor Ordoñez, Campus Minister for Faith, Service, and Justice, at Flor.Ordonez@lmu.edu.
Expectations
- Students will be expected to fully participate as we meet with various stakeholders and communities & fully engage in group reflections before, during, and after a De Colores weekend.
- Cellphones: Part of the De Colores tradition is that we leave our cellphones at home these weekends. We invite (and challenge)
A Brief History
LMU Alumni and founders of the Build a Miracle (BAM) Foundation, Julianne and Chris North, initially coordinated these trips with the help of the LMU retreat program in Campus Ministry. Sr. Agnes Marie Schon, CSJ and Fernando Moreno, campus minister for Social Justice at the time and later went on to be Director of Campus Ministry, played a key role in supporting and organizing these initial 'retreat' service trips.
As relationships grew with the Tijuana community and the number of student participants increased, students were encouraged to develop their own trips. By 1988, LMU students were leading and making frequent trips that have grown into what has become known as "De Colores."