If summer is a time of relaxation for some students, it certainly wasn’t for LMU junior Beth Shaw.

Shaw spent her summer studying the immigration issue at the Office of Peace and Justice, Catholic Charities in Phoenix. Her study was supported by the William Fitzgerald Summer Grant, funded by Professor Emeritus William Fitzgerald to support student internships and volunteer opportunities.

Shaw helped to plan a conference on immigration that will be held in Hermosillo, Mexico. The conference will bring high school students from Mexico and the United States together to discuss immigration issues. It also will include a prayer service and lectures on the relationship between topics such as labor, economics and culture, on one hand, and Christian scripture, on the other.

“All summer, I watched the congressional debates on immigration in congress and saw nothing happen,” Shaw said. “Raising awareness in young people is the only hope we have to make change happen.”

Shaw also received first-hand experience in dealing with border issues by working with the Valley Interfaith Project and the Samaritans, two nonprofit organizations that work with immigrants in the Arizona-Mexico border area. The Valley Interfaith Project distributes “tool kits” to immigrants that contain information about their rights, health-care and what to do in an emergency. The recipients of the kits are then asked to share that information with other immigrants. With the Samaritans, Shaw provided food, water and extra clothing for migrants who were waiting to be deported to Mexico.

“The biggest challenge to social justice is not always being able to see the faces [of the people] that you are going to help,” Shaw said. “It’s humbling because a big component of the work is doing a lot of small things that ultimately contribute to change.

Shaw first became interested in social justice in high school and her commitment to it was deepened by her experiences at LMU. In 2005, she traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for peace in northern Uganda as a member of the student social justice committee. A 20-year conflict has raged there between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel guerilla army. More than 30,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA, which forces boys to be frontline soldiers and girls to be sexual slaves. Last year, Shaw protested the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation’s role in training foreign military and police officers. A U.S. military school formerly known as the School of the Americas and located in Ft. Benning, Ga., the WHISC has been charged with teaching torture techniques and graduating officials who have practiced torture after returning to their countries.

Although Shaw is two years away from graduation, she knows that her future is shaped by her experience at LMU. She plans to join a service program in Latin America and hopes to study international development in graduate school.

“I came to LMU to witness what the world is really about,” Shaw said. “The university is amazing in offering service opportunities that really open your eyes to reality.”

By Fred Puza