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Dateline: 6/18/2007

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

CLP Students Begin Long Journey Home from Zambia

Visit the blog written about this trip by CLP Director Josh Armstrong. The group is beginning its long journey home.

A childhood dream of serving others in Africa is becoming a reality for Gonzaga University sophomore Marci McGillivray. In the spirit of its mission to develop leaders for the common good, Gonzaga’s Comprehensive Leadership Program (CLP), in collaboration with Gonzaga’s Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL), is completing its one-month intercultural servant leadership program in Zambia, Africa. McGillivray and nine other Gonzaga undergraduates and two administrators are on this inaugural CLP trip that departed May 22.

Missioning Service in University Chapel As Students Prepare for Trip
Zambia, a southern African country, is a “twinned province” with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, the province to which Gonzaga belongs. CCASL Director Sima Thorpe said this intercultural immersion program will help “advance one of Gonzaga’s global initiatives, which is to strengthen intercultural competence and develop an ethic of civic engagement and service learning.”

GU undergraduate students enrolled in this unique servant leadership program will participate in three phases of instruction: classroom instruction, field experience and community/social justice outreach. The trip began with an excursion to Victoria Falls and wildlife viewing in Livingstone, Zambia. Students and faculty then went to the town of Zambezi (population 15,000) at the headwaters of the Zambezi River.

The students spent three weeks at the Catholic mission compound in Zambezi, which includes a convent, school and priest’s house. Here, the CLP students took part in educational and service activities, including youth outreach at the mission school, to a local AIDS hospice and other Zambezi organizations.

The Zambia experience will continue beyond the students’ return to the United States. To assist with re-entry to the U.S. culture, processing the experience, and making recommendations for future programs, students will engage in reflective discussions both online and on the GU campus. Also, students will be encouraged to take follow-up courses and engage in activities to share their experiences to better comprehend their role as leaders and positive agents for global justice.

According to CLP Director Josh Armstrong, the trip “embodies the Gonzaga and CLP missions, which are to foster the development of men and women who lead for the common good. We hope to make a difference in the lives of the Zambians that we encounter, but we know that each of our students will be transformed by this experience.”

For CLP student McGillivray, this transformative experience began with the fulfillment of a childhood dream.

Established in 2002, the CLP at Gonzaga is a three-year concentration designed to offer students curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities to develop knowledge and skills for leadership. The Zambia Intercultural Servant Leadership Program is a part of CLP.

For more information about the CLP, please call Katie Herzog at (509) 323-3579; or visit its Web site at  Comprehensive Leadership Program.