Details of the Nogales Trip

Begun in 2000, the Nogales Immersion Trip is primarily taken by Brophy Juniors as a fulfillment of their Junior Justice Project.  The trip is coordinated through an agency called Borderlinks, which is based in Tucson and runs border-awareness trips to Nogales for American individuals, schools, and companies.  Borderlinks seeks to give Americans a realistic experience of life on the border, and also seeks to inform Americans about the many influences that the American way of life and economy have on Mexico and its citizens.  While the trip does not involve a great amount of "service work", it is rich in the experiences of getting to know life on the border and the people that live on the Mexican side.  Students will split time between homestays with Mexican families and staying at the Casa de la Misericordia, a soup kitchen that feeds many children in Nogales lunch each day.  Students typically tour a Maquiladora, or U.S.-owned factory in Mexico, the U.S. Border Patrol, and other places of interest and importance to border life.  They will meet a variety of people, listen to guest speakers talk about life on the border, and have organized reflection meetings that give great insight to the challenges of living in Mexico and the interconnectedness between Mexico's economy and that of the U.S.  The trip is typically eight days long and includes roughly 20 Brophy students, three Brophy faculty, and two Borderlinks staff.  Students apply for the trip, and their applications are weighed with faculty input to determine the group.