WEBVTT

00:00:00.030 --> 00:00:02.680
>> My name is Patrick Furlong [phonetic]
and I direct Emergent [phonetic] Experiences

00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:06.190
for Campus Ministry at Little [inaudible]
University [phonetic] where I spend

00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:09.980
at least a couple weekends a month
down in Tijuana doing some service

00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:14.100
and social justice work there with students,
and then spend time throughout the world really.

00:00:14.100 --> 00:00:17.820
So from Kenya to Ecuador, to
you name it, we take students

00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:22.220
and go through those alternative [inaudible]
type programs and those emergent experiences.

00:00:22.220 --> 00:00:26.790
Then when I'm not doing that, I'm back on campus
or kind of working here in L.A. So Pico-Union,

00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:31.290
Boyle Heights, Watts, taking students into
those communities, kind of those communities

00:00:31.290 --> 00:00:35.020
on the margins, and giving them an
opportunity to learn a little bit more

00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:37.850
about what opportunities exist
in social justice in that area.

00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:42.880
Usually do about three trips that are
longer -- that are one to three weeks.

00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:47.670
And I'll be on one kind of over winter break,
one over spring break, one over summer break.

00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:48.760
And so that's the extent of it.

00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:53.770
When I'm not there, part of it is again, working
in local communities like Boyle Heights or Watts

00:00:53.770 --> 00:00:58.040
or Pico-Union, but the real big part of it,
and that's really kind of where my degree came

00:00:58.040 --> 00:01:01.190
in to help me with it, is geared
administrating our programs.

00:01:01.190 --> 00:01:04.120
So you spend a lot of time
doing program management.

00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:07.570
Kind of creating leadership tools for the
students that are leading these trips,

00:01:07.570 --> 00:01:10.730
doing the budgeting, figuring out
everything else in between that.

00:01:10.730 --> 00:01:14.010
And what we see this as is not
necessarily a service trip, right?

00:01:14.010 --> 00:01:16.910
We don't think someone's going
to go in and in one week,

00:01:16.910 --> 00:01:19.210
make this grand impact that's
going to change a community.

00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:23.180
And so for us, our hope is, students go
and they get exposed to maybe a world

00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:26.700
that they're weren't aware
existed or they knew existed

00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.760
but they had never really
experienced it firsthand.

00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:32.140
And you kind of meet the world
in that nitty-gritty reality.

00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:34.610
And from there you hope that there's
some thought changes that happen.

00:01:34.610 --> 00:01:37.440
The students come back to the
United States and they begin

00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:39.630
to think, "Okay, what am I called to do?

00:01:39.630 --> 00:01:40.730
Who do I want to be?

00:01:40.730 --> 00:01:43.070
What am I looking to do with
my career and how does

00:01:43.070 --> 00:01:44.930
that impact those people
that live on the margins?

00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:49.380
And how can I make a positive impact to
really try to change what I've seen there?"

00:01:49.380 --> 00:01:52.950
So that's the hope is just to kind
of give a little dabble of experience

00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:57.200
so that people come back and think long-term
about how they're going to live their lives out.