Ignacio Volunteers (Iggy Vols) Program

The Ignacio Volunteers program provides international and domestic service immersion opportunities for undergraduate students at Loyola University New Orleans. This program aims to turn the university’s mission into tangible action by recruiting students from diverse backgrounds to come together to be people for and with others; to pursue truth, wisdom, and knowledge through meaningful pre-trip education, service, and immersion; and to find God in all that they encounter.

Participants of all service trips travel, serve, and live as one community during the experience. Participants are chosen a few months before the trip and meet regularly in advance of the actual travel. All trips are rooted in an Ignatian spiritual foundation of finding God in all things and include ongoing reflection within the community and on the trips. Fundraising for the trip is done by the group and as individuals.

Program Goals

TO SERVE: Participants will work with those of the greatest need — the impoverished and challenged, the disadvantaged young and the elderly.

TO LEARN: Participants will have an opportunity to explore the political, sociological, and economic issues that have created the environment and situation in which they will find themselves.

Program Core Values

SERVICE: Ignacio Volunteers put faith and compassion into action by keeping an open heart and a spirit of self-giving; by seeking first to understand, rather than to be understood; by being open to learning, even and especially, when it directly challenges them.

SOLIDARITY: Ignacio Volunteers serve not so much to “do for” but to “learn from” and to “be with” by encountering the joys, hopes, grief, and anxieties of those they serve by walking alongside them.

COMMUNITY: Ignacio Volunteers recognize that strength in community deepens their concern and compassion for others by loving and building community with those whom they share their journey—sharing desires, fears, hopes, questions, faith and love with each other.

SPIRITUALITY: Ignacio Volunteers commit to being fully engaged in the questions of faith, to share these questions in community, and to be open to the diversity of all traditions and experiences for Ignatian spirituality teaches us that each person’s relationship with their God is unique.

Ignacio Volunteer Spring/Summer Programs:

• NOLA Urban Immersion (Temporarily Suspended due to COVID-19)
• The South Africa Experience (Temporarily Suspended)
• Jamaica Experience (Temporarily Suspended due to COVID-19)

*Recruitment for Summer Programs are held in Sept/Oct of each year*

Ignacio Volunteer Winter Programs:

• NOLA Urban Winter Immersion (Temporarily Suspended due to COVID-19)
• Jamaica Winter Experience (Temporarily Suspended due to COVID-19)

*Recruitment for Winter Programs are held in March/April of each year*