Campus Ministry

Christian Service

The Gonzaga Service Program provides experiences that increase in depth and intensity as the student matures—what begins as a sheltered exposure to the poor during freshman year grows into deeper relationships with society’s marginalized by graduation. 
All Gonzaga students have regular ongoing opportunities to serve the local community, support broader outreach, and promote the common good - answering the call to be men for others and love those living on the margins. A schedule of events with detailed descriptions of the opportunities as well as information on service requirements, is accessible to students by clicking on the Campus Ministry link in each class year’s Canvas course. Reminders about your class specific requirement will be shared with students from the Campus Ministry and Religion departments. Students are asked to record any service participation, both on campus and off, on their MobileServe account; we love knowing what students are doing and hope to celebrate student service, whether it goes toward completing a requirement or simply reflects their interests and attention to the good of the community.

Class Year Service Requirement

Class Service Requirements, which are the student's responsibility to meet, must be completed to progress to the next year and to graduate. Each class has a designated service coordinator in Campus Ministry, who in addition to checking in with all students about satisfying their requirement, will visit classes to clarify the process and offer additional support in partnership with teaching faculty. In addition to fulfilling your service requirement on your own, every Gonzaga student is expected to participate in two schoolwide dates of service: December 8 and April 24. Information about each service day will be provided throughout the year.

List of 4 items.

  • Freshman Year

    Freshmen will have a required service and justice element introduced for the first time, exposing them to the DC community. During their year, freshmen will be asked to complete four hours of direct service, along with participation in the two school-wide Gonzaga Days of Service.

  • Sophomore Year

    Sophomores will have a required service and justice element that builds on their experience from the year prior. During their year, sophomores will be asked to complete six hours of direct service, along with participation in the two school-wide Gonzaga Days of Service.

  • Junior Year

    Juniors will have a required service and justice element that continues to build on the encounters they’ve had during their first half of their high school experience. During their year, juniors will be asked to complete eight hours of direct service, along with participation in the two school-wide Gonzaga Days of Service.

  • Senior Year

    To graduate, each senior is required to complete 15 pre-approved direct service experiences in the summer before senior year, if not attending a Summer Immersion Trip. Their summer service should be logged on MobileServe before the start of senior year. This formation program, embedded in the senior religion curriculum, aims to reflect the Graduate at Graduation’s commitments leading students to engage in direct service to the poor and marginalized, combined with theological reflection, social analysis, and advocacy work. During their year, seniors will be asked to complete ten additional hours of direct service, one shift at So Others Might Eat (S.O.M.E.) during their Social Justice course, and participation in the two school-wide Gonzaga Days of Service. Seniors should reach out to Ms. Danielle Flood (dflood@gonzaga.org) with any questions.

Local Service Opportunities

Campus Ministry coordinates and promotes a variety of local direct service opportunities during the academic year. Participation frequently requires signing up in advance as space can be limited. The Gonzaga Local Service program begins the first week of school, and continues weekly all year.

List of 4 items.

  • The McKenna Center

    The McKenna Center is a drop-in center for homeless men that’s located in the basement of St. Aloysius Church, right on Gonzaga's campus. Students are invited to volunteer on Thursday and Friday mornings with the breakfast program, or Thursdays and Fridays during their lunch periods to serve lunch to the guests there. 

  • Unique Residential

    Unique Residential is a nursing home next door to Gonzaga on Eye Street. Students are invited weekly on Wednesday afternoons, directly after school, to spend time with the residents of Unique by playing bingo and other games. We often partner with Unique as well for different holiday events and special occasions.

  • The Gonzaga Kitchen Project

    In 2005, Gonzaga was proud to open the inaugural high school chapter of Campus Kitchen. A national food recycling program, Campus Kitchen used food that might otherwise be discarded by cafeterias to make nutritious meals for the elderly and home-bound. Although the national organization closed in 2020, Gonzaga continued the program as The Gonzaga Kitchen Project.

    Students of all grade levels prepare meals in the McKenna Center kitchen and then deliver them to neighbors in need in our community. Meal packaging happens each Tuesday during the last block of the school day, and meal delivery takes place each Tuesday directly after school. 

  • Washington Jesuit Academy

    All students are invited to play chess with students from the Washington Jesuit Academy, a Jesuit middle school serving boys from low-income areas in and around Washington, D.C., on Monday afternoons from 3-5pm. 

Service Immersion Trips

On a wide variety of immersion trips, led by members of the Gonzaga faculty and staff, Gonzaga outreach groups accompany and serve a host community. While there, students live simply, build community, participate in prayer and reflection, and work to understand both the gifts and hardships of a particular community.
 
Spring and summer immersion experiences are often a highlight in a student’s four years at Gonzaga. Application is required. Typically, juniors apply for upcoming spring and summer immersion trips in November and freshmen and sophomores apply in late January to attend one of four summer immersion trips based in Emmitsburg, Maryland and the McKenna Center.

List of 10 items.

  • Apopka

    The Apopka immersion trip provides a firsthand experience of the present immigration dilemma facing our country. Rising seniors spend the week living with immigrant families in homestays and working on farms and in nurseries throughout Apopka, FL. Students will work primarily with the Hope Community Center.

  • Belize City, Belize

    Students partner with Hand in Hand Ministries in Belize City, and work alongside community members to build a home for and with a local family. They learn about poverty and injustices throughout the country, as well as spend time with the students of St. John’s High School, the Jesuit, all-boys school located in Belize City. 

  • Camden

    The group of rising seniors will spent the week at Camden’s Oscar Romero Center & experience urban poverty in new ways by living simply, learning about issues through a Catholic lens, and serving at many of the city’s social service agencies. Because students work with a variety of sites, they are able to encounter justice from various angles.

  • Emmitsburg

    This project is open to freshmen and sophomores who are interested in growing in empathy for the rural poor of Emmitsburg, MD. While there, service projects include yard work, handy-work, and relational activities with the poor, elderly, and disabled of the community. Rising seniors serve as student leaders to freshman and sophomore participants.

  • Kansas City

    Rising seniors will spend the week Jerusalem Farm, living simply in a Catholic intentional community. The group will learn about urban poverty, sustainable farming, and environmental justice. Participants will have the opportunity to work on the farm located in the city, prepare meals, and deliver food to those in need.

  • Los Angeles

    Rising seniors will work alongside Homeboy Industries, founded by Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, and other ministries that support those living on Skid Row. The group will learn about gang violence, incarceration, and urban poverty in the city, as well as spend time with the people of Dolores Mission Parish, where they will stay for the week.

  • McKenna Immersion

    The McKenna Immersion is an encounter with urban poverty and run right out of our own McKenna Center; students will sleep on campus for the week. Students will get to know the men at the center, as well as serve at organizations such as SOME, Martha’s Table, & DC Central Kitchen. Rising seniors serve as student leaders to freshman and sophomore participants.

  • Quito, Ecuador

    Rising seniors work with the Working Boys Center, a Jesuit organization whose mission is to serve the local children of Quito in preparing for their next steps in life. Students live in a simple community on campus at the Center, work on repair projects in the neighborhood, and spend time with the children and family of Quito.

  • Salem, West Virginia

    Students (rising seniors) will partner with Nazareth Farm to live out the pillars of the Gonzaga Outreach program in rural Appalachia. Days will consist of home repair and construction, as well as meeting people in the community. There will be an intentional focus on simple living & learning about rural poverty through a faith perspective.

  • US/Mexico Border

    Rising seniors will travel to Nogales, AZ & Nogales, Mexico to learn of the realities of immigration. Students work with the Kino Border Initiative, a Jesuit organization seeking to meet the needs of migrants. The group will work at the KBI soup kitchen, meet with US Border Patrol, hear a deportation debriefing, & more. Passport mandatory.
Gonzaga's service requirement teaches you a sense of conviction. It makes you unsettled. As long as there’s progress to be made, as long as there are people suffering ... it stirs up, like, this hunger for justice.
As a member of the Jesuit Schools Network, Gonzaga and its students also have the opportunity to join several conferences and summits sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network throughout the school year. The Ignatian Family Teach-in for Justice in the fall and the Arrupe Leaders Summit in the spring help students cultivate the ideals of the Graduate at Graduation in community with their peers. These distinctive opportunities draw students from Jesuit high schools and universities around the world. Any interested student may apply to attend.
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