Guided by Mother Teresa's call to "Stay where you are.  Find your own Calcutta," the IWA Spring Break mission trip kept its focus on our local community, bringing ten students and two faculty members on a powerful trip to  San Juan, Texas. The days were split between playing with and ministering to children at the ARISE program and helping intake over 100 immigrants a day at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center. 

It was a powerful trip for everyone and inspired many of the students to look for those in need in their own neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. Victoria Bonilla, a senior who won the end-of-the-year Servant of the Word award, shared a moving moment from her time at the Respite Center: "I helped at Catholic Charities with the intake of illegal immigrants into the nation and helped them schedule court cases. I was helping a man who was about 35 years old and a father of two and he started crying in front of me. The mission trip really revealed to me that because of the position that I am in–the education that I received, the faith that I've grown up in–I should help those people. Anything less than that would be unfair." Victoria will begin her studies in public policy at the University of Chicago this fall and plans to earn a law degree.