Venaver: San Diego

This month 10 CB students will embark on a life changing service immersion trip. Venaver is a service immersion trip for juniors and seniors at Christian Brothers where students travel to areas in the U.S. to help the needy.

This year the Venaver group will travel to San Diego, California and later in the year, Tuscon, Arizona. The group used to travel to Tijuana, Mexico, but due to cartel activity, CB Venaver attendees will only travel within the United States.

Three-time Venaver chaperone Mr. Tomas Capogreco ’86 attended Venaver when it was still in Tijuana. It does not bother him that the location has been changed.

“We can study the same border issues, but not actually go into Mexico” he explained.

The group will spend one day following the life of the border patrol and the rest of their time with the Border Angels, a humanitarian group dedicated to providing basic necessities, such as water and shelter, to the immigrants.

Mr. Capogreco or “Cap”, as many of his students refer to him, holds a strong opinion on immigration. His reasons are that of a true humanitarian.

“To me, people are people, and I hate to see anybody suffer” the passionate Spanish teacher said.

The San Diego Venaver experience will be a way for each of the 10 students to be exposed to the brutal conditions under which the immigrants are placed.

[pullquote]”To me, people are people, and I hate to see anybody suffer”[/pullquote]

“We hear about illegal immigration all the time — Venaver is a way to understand what [the illegal immigrants] reasons for crossing and [what their] expectations are” Cap revealed.

Each student given the opportunity to attend this amazing service trip was carefully selected by Ms. Jennifer Lystrup, the Venaver moderator.

She struggled to narrow down 100 students into two groups of 10 — one group attending Venaver San Diego and one group attending Venaver Tuscon.

The hardworking Christian Service Corps leader told the Talon that there were so many good choices.

“It was just to hard to choose” she said.

Next year, Ms.Lystrup is excited to announce that there will be a summer Venaver. This Venaver will be for the incoming seniors so that they are able to balance the amount of missed school days.

Although the students attending Venaver San Diego are missing a week of school, they will be providing the Lasallian Core Principle of Social Justice to many needy people. The team dedicated a lot of time in preparing for their journey.

“There are seven mandatory meetings before we leave,” Ms. Lystrup explained. “Theres a lot of work that goes into it.”

The Christian Brothers volunteers will spend their precious time in San Diego doing all that they can to make an impact.

Their accommodations however, will not be luxurious. The students will cook for each other and support each other in daily activities.

” Once [the students] get to San Diego, they live very simply in community,” Ms.Lystrup added.

This year at Christian Brothers, the Social Justice theme is border issues. Being that our school is in California, it is important for us to understand the situations of the Immigrants.

“It’s a very timely issue” Ms. Lystrup says.

Our fellow Falcons start their journey on October 14th and as they do so, it is our responsibility as Lasallian students to pray for their safety and well being during their outreach.