Why It’s Essential for High School Students to Attend Mission Trips

Mission trips are opportunities for students to travel, experience cultures, learn about the world, and make a difference in communities. Mission trips, like St. Lawrence Seminary High School’s mission trip to McAllen, TX, bring much needed assistance to the community and provide an enriching experience for students. 

Why make it a priority to go on a mission trip while in high school?

 Mission trips are all about the students building relationships. Mission trip experiences deepen a student’s relationship with themselves as they learn about other cultures, poverty, and immigration. And students deepen their relationship with others through team building, shared tasks, reflection, and fun. Students increase their awareness of the world around them by serving, socializing, and being present with people in need.

It’s a big world out there and mission trips offer high school students a chance to get to know it and understand how it works.

What change happens in high school students after a mission trip?

Mission trips cause positive change for everyone involved, including the students. Students who open themselves up to different environments and new points of view experience a change in attitudes, because challenging experiences change our own point of view. Those who open themselves to what is happening around them can be deeply touched.

In other words, students’ consciousness is raised, and their worldview is broadened.

"This trip was literally a page turner in my life, not only did I get to experience the true meaning of poverty in this country, but I was also able to see that those people experiencing it were normal people like everybody else.” (Carlos Gomez 2015)

What do high school students learn on mission trips? 

• How to work as a team towards one overall goal
• About social and economical inequality
• Awareness of how a student can respond to people in need
• How to step outside of their comfort zone
• About a different culture
• How to broaden their view of the world
• Understand more deeply how one can make a difference in the lives of others  
  
  

Where do SLS students go on a mission trip?

The St, Lawrence Seminary Summer Mission Trip is an intensive summer experience to the U.S. – Mexico border. Ministry to and with others is one of the fundamental elements of life at St. Lawrence Seminary High School. Taking time to do an extended mission trip to the south Rio Grande Valley of Texas is an exciting part of our ministry program.

The McAllen area is located on the southern-most tip of Texas adjacent to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. This is an impoverished area both on the U.S. and Mexican sides of the border. Students will learn about immigration, border wall control, and poverty issues. Likewise, the mission trip also provides an opportunity to build stronger relationships with other mission trip team members and to know and build relationships with residents of the area. Finally, students will receive hands-on experiences helping to build or repair homes along with serving at local meal programs and other agencies working with the residents of the south valley.

If you would like to learn more about St. Lawrence Seminary High School, we encourage you to request more information!