It is important to bring some sort of closure to your time at the immersion site. This is a time to look back at the whole week and honor the shared experience of your group, the bonding, the insight, the growth and laughter. It is a time to appreciate with gratitude the community that has been built. Yet, it is also a time to challenge the group with the question “Now what?” On the journey home seize every opportunity together to develop some concrete action steps. Brainstorm possible action plan ideas for both individuals and the group. How will your actions, behaviors, and decisions going to be different now?

Be sure to take some time before the trip to plan out a closing activity and bring whatever materials you may need. Some possible activities for this closing reflection include:

• Letters to Self: Hand out letters to self and have them read them silently. You might also hand back their applications for them to look at.
• Letter to Next Year’s Participants: What do you want to share with the group that will be at this site next year?
• Affirmation Letters: Writing affirmation letters to each other. You could also have brown paper bags that you use throughout the week to share notes. Another option is having people write in each other’s journals.
• Circle of Gratitude: Have each person sit in the circle and everyone placing a hand on them verbally say something they are grateful for about this person or something they will never forget about them. Note that this activity can take quite a while. Be sure to give clear instructions of how much time you have for it so people keep their comments brief.
• Guardian Angel: Reveal the guardian angels if you chose angels for the week.
• New Truths/Myths Uncovered: Sharing new truths that were discovered (about self or world) and also myths that were uncovered.
• Judge – Act – Evaluate – Celebrate: See reflection book for details
• Begin, Stop, Continue: Share these questions from the 8th Day Center for Justice with your group. See reflection book for details.
• Guided Reflection: Go back to the very beginning of your experience together from the day they applied to go on an immersion trip. Walk them through each of the moments
  asking them to remember what they felt and experienced.
• Blessing of Compassion: Have each person pair up with someone. Adapt the blessing to be specific for what happened on your immersion trip. See reflection book for details.
• Bring Change Back Home: On the van or plane ride home brainstorm together all the ways that you will bring what you have learned back home. The longer the list the better
  and dream big! Be sure to have someone record all of your ideas to return to later.
• Top 10 List: Record the top 10 moments or new things learned.
• Take off Your Shoes: Just as many of you were asked to take off your shoes as you entered into a new place and experience do the same as you enter back into the familiar. Enter back home with the same curiosity and openness that you left.
• Blessing from Hosts: Ask the hosts or people you have worked with for the week to send you forth in a special way giving you a blessing to go and share the story and experience you had with them.

Returning Home Conversation Starters: Be sure to talk about some of the reverse culture shock that participants may experience going back home especially if it is over winter break.
Brainstorm some ways you will continue to support each other and stay connected during this time and when life gets busy.

• For what are you most grateful?
• What have you learned that you hope never to forget?
• What expectations do you have about coming back home to your friends? Family? DePaul? Chicago?
• What are your hopes and fears for coming back home?
• Who is the first person you are going to talk to about this?
• Who do you think is someone in your life who is going to understand or will be open to trying to understand this experience?
• What will you do if no one seems to want to listen to your stories?
• What is the first thing you are going to do when you get back?
• How are you feeling about re-entering the regular routine again?

Guided imagery: Engage all senses to replay/relive experiences from the day. Guide the group to those moments, asking them to remember their feelings as vividly as they can. Ask: What was the most profound memory for you?

Journaling: Journaling is a tool to be intentional about the dialogue within your mind, heart, and spirit. Take time to listen and reflect upon all you are seeing, feeling, and thinking each day.

• Free writing: Reflect on whatever feels most pressing.
• Write a letter to yourself or to another person. Writing an unsent letter can be helpful when you want to process or confront something.
• Flow writing or stream of consciousness: Don’t censor, just write!
• Write a dialogue with yourself.
• Write affirmations in each other’s journals at the end of a shared experience (like an immersion)

What? – So What? – Now What?: (Adapted from the work of John Bortaon)

• First, we ask ― WHAT? (describe) What happened today, what did you notice, what did you see, hear, and feel?
• Next, we ask SO WHAT? (interpret) Why does this happen, who has power, who is affected, what do my faith tradition or value systems say about what is happening here? How can I look at what happened in a deeper way?
• Lastly, we ask, NOW WHAT? (apply) What am I going to do differently, how has my view of the world been changed, how can we effect change in our communities?

Mutual Invitation: Eric Laws: One person begins and then mutually invites someone else from the group to share. “When you are ready, I invite you to share and then invite someone else to share using their name.”

Talking Stick/Object: Place an object in the center of the room. When someone is ready to share, they take the object and speak. When they are finished, they return it to the center. When someone has the talking stick/object, all others are asked to focus on listening.

Think, Pair, Share: First ask participants to think/reflect individually, then to pair up with one other person and share, and then bring it back to the large group to share insights.

Consistent Question: Choose the same question to ask at several points throughout the day, or every day. For example: How do you feel? What is challenging you? What does being a Vincentian in Action mean to you right now?

Mapping: Draw a map of the high points and low points, joys and sorrows, significant relationships and events from your experience.

Free Association: Free association is a simple technique that captures the true expertise of the group. Ask participants to freely associate answers to certain questions. Answers can be sthared out loud, written on a flip chart, or posted on Post-It notes.

Art: Use art or other creative mediums (clay, watercolors, chalk, crayons…) to express your experience.

This I Believe: Modeled after NPR’s “Speaking of Faith” series, invited students write their own statement of “This I believe: _____”

Parking Lot: Create a space to write ideas that may be “off-topic” so that the group can come back to them later. Invite the group to write these ideas down as they go.

Images: Display various images and have participants select an image to represent how they feel. This can be used multiple times.

Object Sharing: Ask participants to bring a meaningful personal object they feel comfortable sharing with a group. After they share the object and tell its story, pass the object around the room to model that this is a significant object. Ask the group to receive the object and treat it with respect.