OUR IMMERSION LEARNING METHOD

Learning Culture Through Play

Mbuzu residents teach a student how to play the manketti nut game, Mbuzu Village, Kavango West, Namibia, June 2022. Photo by Xavier student, Roan Regnier

Our experiences broaden our own stories and thus enhance and diversify our shared human story. We grow when we fully immerse ourselves in a place and when we are genuinely open to learning from others (human and other-than-human). When we are open to others as our teachers, we become more inclusive to other points of view and to matters of injustice.

Arctic Immersion by Floatplane

Students on the way home after 8 days in Gates of the Arctic, 250 miles north of the Circle, August, 2021. Dr. Leon Chartrand photo.

We also enrich our own stories and become participants in a broader, shared story with others. This nurtures more open dialogue and empathetic encounters with place and the inhabitants of place. This also prepares us to become active participants in resolving matters of injustice. By awakening to how the reciprocity of story/experience shapes us, we take up life-ways dedicated to the wellbeing of others. To learn more about our programs, go to meet Our Guides/Professors or see Our Upcoming Expeditions.

The Experience & Story Goals

““Who are you?” Someone will ask me. To which I answer, “I am the story of myself.” It is true that we invest ourselves in story. And it is true, as our elders once said, that God made man because He loves stories.”
— N. Scott Momaday, Cherokee-Kiowa author and poet
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