Study Abroad

SSW provides an intensive border immersion course (SOWK 502/370) over Spring Break in Tucson and Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. On the Arizona-Mexico border, students examine oppression, privilege, and diversity in relation to immigration and border communities.

SSW also offers two immersive courses (SOWK 733 and SOWK 504) in Mexico City, which are required courses if students wish to participate in the Mexico summer course program. The courses include several pre-departure sessions and two weeks of intensive study in Mexico. 

Two week summer immersion courses in Mexico City provide SSW students in-depth knowledge on migration and community intervention while also providing students an opportunity to study migration-related issues alongside on-site partners. The immersion courses include field visits to government and non-governmental social work-oriented agencies as well as several cultural, historical, and religious sites.

Access application here: Migration Studies Track Application

SOWK 509: Policies and Strategies of Community Intervention:

• Instructor: Professor Ivan Medina. This is a 3-credit social work elective.
• Pre-requisite: None.
• Description: This course will focus on providing an understanding of community as a major element in the social environment that influences an individual’s development and behavior. Theoretical understandings of the community are explored include ecological systems, communitarian, and transnational perspectives. Organizational theory and theories about community change and the tactics and strategies are examined through an exploration of various local, national, and regional governmental and non-governmental organizations focused on migration.​
• Note: If you have already taken SOWK 509, please e-mail sowkmx@luc.edu and professor Medina at imedina@luc.edu to sign up for an independent study (SOWK 690).

SOWK 733: North American Migration Dynamics: Challenges, Opportunities, and Alternatives: 

• Instructor: Dr. Maria Vidal de Haymes. This is a 3-credit migration elective.
• Pre-requisite: this is a 700 level course that can be taken by both undergraduate and graduate students. It does not have any prerequisites.

Description: This course will focus on central themes concerning opportunities as well as challenges for fundamental social institutions presented by the contemporary migration dynamics and policies of North America. The course incorporates site visits and multiple interdisciplinary guest lectures by various researchers from Mexican Universities and research institutes, social workers from the Mexican public and private human services sector, and migrant rights advocacy organizations. The class will provide an opportunity for Loyola students and students from various Mexican universities to come together to study migration-related issues affecting our respective countries and shared region.

Social Work 502: Power, Oppression, Privilege, and Social Justice

• Allows students a visit the Arizona-Mexico border for an immersion course that examines oppression, privilege & diversity in relation to immigration and border communities. The class is comprised of several pre-departure sessions held in Chicago during the Spring semester, followed by a six-day immersion in Tucson and Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, during the spring break. A valid passport is required since part of the immersion takes place outside of the United States.
• This class can be taken by both undergraduate and graduate students as either SOWK 370-010(BSW) or SOWK 502-010(MSW), Power, Oppression, Privilege, and Social Justice taught by Professors Ivan Medina and Maria Vidal de Haymes. Students also have the option of taking the course as an independent study.