Your first immersion paper is due this week.
Be sure to build your assignment utilizing the detailed instructions and grading rubric below.
This paper should roughly be 50% of writing analyzing your observations of the “other” and 50% of writing analyzing your self-observations.
Remember, you are APPLYING the course constructs covered thus far to your experience. You are not writing a narrative summary of your experience.
This is an application paper. It should be clear what concepts you saw come to life. This paper should be written and formatted in APA style.
Read the detailed instructions regarding immersions, and then explore your local community for diverse churches, activities, or events that will meet the requirements for the immersion experience.
Immersion/Exposure Experience and Applied Learning Paper:
Watch this Immersion Experience Explanation Video (17:15)
Students participate in 3 cross cultural immersion/exposure experiences each lasting a minimum of 3 hours. Three of these experiences can be participation in services at worship centers that are composed of a primary ethnic community that is distinct from own ethnic and racial identification, and is not Euro-American and is not multi-ethnic. See the Immersion addendum at the end of the syllabus.
One of the experiences can be attendance of at least 3 hours at one of the following museums:
Japanese American National Museum, 369 East First Street
Los Angeles, California 90012 http://www.janm.org/Links to an external site.
California African American Museum, 600 state drive, exposition park, LA 910037; www.caamuseum.orgLinks to an external site.
Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Plaza, 9786 West Pico Blvd (southeast corner of Pico Boulevard and Roxbury Drive) Los Angeles, CA 90035; www.museumoftolerance.comLinks to an external site.
IF you feel you are unable to schedule immersion experiences, schedule a zoom meeting with your faculty to discuss indirect/asynchronous options. This option is HIGHLY DISCOURAGED, as immersions are consistently reported to be the most valuable learning experience in this class.
Following each immersion experience, you are required to write a 3-page paper (APA Style), citing a minimum of 5 distinct constructs from your readings into your thoughtful reflection on the learning that you engaged in. These papers should not be a report of what you did, but an application of the course readings to what you LEARNED and EXPERIENCED.
Immersion 1- Should include a minimum of 5 constructs from Chapters 1-4
Immersion 2 – Should include a minimum of 5 constructs from Chapters 5-10; you are encouraged to exceed 5 constructs and utilize constructs from all completed reading.
Immersion 3 – Should include a minimum of 5 constructs from Chapters 11-15; you are encouraged to exceed 5 constructs and utilize constructs from all completed reading.
Cross-Cultural immersion and exposure experience opportunities
The faith community continues to be one of the most segregated communities in our society. If you are blessed to attend a multicultural/multiethnic faith community, that is wonderful. However, your faith community experience is an exception. Finding a primarily monocultural/monoethnic faith community will not be difficult. Examples of potential faith groups include: African American churches, Chinese Churches, Latino Churches, Coptic Churches, etc. You are not required to attend a worship service that is of a different FAITH than your own, only a different ethnic/cultural group than your own. With that in mind, remember that there are many denominations of the Christian faith. If you have never attended Mass, consider a Catholic service (within one of the diverse ethnic groups discussed above). Again, you are welcome to stay with your own denomination but encouraged to consider trying an immersion/exposure experience that you would not ordinarily be exposed to. Regardless of the denomination attended, it MUST be of a different ethnoracial group than your own and neither a predominantly white church nor a multi-ethnic church.
To make the most of these immersion experiences, you are encouraged to engage with people in attendance at the events and build relationships. Be respectful and polite and once rapport is established, most people are willing to teach those who wish to learn (i.e. answer genuine, respectful questions). If you are invited to stay for a meal or socialization period, I would recommend doing so. It will enhance your learning experience.
The focus of these immersion experiences is to begin to build your own cultural competence in terms of enhancing your own self-awareness as a cultural psychological being, to begin increasing your awareness and knowledge of other cultural groups and how the cultural context influences individual and group psychology, as well as to enhance your skills in relating with people from distinct cultural backgrounds.
Worship center immersion experiences:
Examples of potential faith groups include: African American churches, Chinese Churches, Latino Churches, Russian Churches, Coptic Churches, etc. You are not required to attend a worship service that is of a different FAITH than your own, only a different ethnic/cultural group than your own (and is NOT Euro-American dominant). With that in mind, remember that there are many denominations of the Christian faith. Consider attending a Greek, Russian or Coptic Orthodox church, if you have never attended Mass, consider a Catholic service (within one of the diverse ethnic groups discussed above). Again, you are welcome to stay with your own denomination but encouraged to consider trying an immersion/exposure experience that you would not ordinarily be exposed to.
For example: http://www.la-archdiocese.org/org/oem/Pages/Liturgies.aspxLinks to an external site.
http://www.la-archdiocese.org/Pages/Parishes/EasternCatholicParishes.aspxLinks to an external site.
The LA Archdiocese links here will give you a listing of locations for the catholic mass of many cultural and linguistic groups!
You may also choose to participate in an LGBT Christian community faith center, for example, the Metropolitan community church in LALinks to an external site..
With that said, if you are interested, you are welcome to also use this as an opportunity to attend services at worship centers of a different faith than your own. For example, if you identify as Christian, you may consider attending a Jewish Synagogue (there are several denominations of Judaism), a Mosque, or a Temple. Los Angeles has the second-largest Jewish community in the U.S. Use this linkLinks to an external site. to help you find a synagogue that you may be interested in attending.