Office of the Chaplain

SU CASA

Helping to Change the World through Faith and Service...

SU CASA is a national award-winning service-learning course and mission trip taught and led by SU Chaplain Mark Radecke. Participants travel to Costa Rica and Nicaragua for two weeks over winter break and earn two semester hours of academic credit while serving at mission sites including:

• congregations
• clinics
• refugee and immigrant communities
• hospitals; and
• an orphanage on Isla Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua.

Since SU CASA's inception in 1999, ten teams totaling more than 240 members of the Susquehanna University community have spent two weeks living, working, worshipping, playing and praying with members of local communities. They have delivered a combined total of more than $350,000 in materials and cash gifts and have contributed over 10,900 hours of volunteer service.

In 2008, SU CASA received two awards from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the preeminent national organization for student affairs in higher education. The first is the International Best Practice Award for Student Philanthropy, which recognizes internationally based programming sponsored by higher education institutions. The second is the Bronze Award for Excellence, which identifies SU CASA as one of the top three programs in the country in the category of Careers, Academic Support, Service Learning and Community Service.

Watch a video of a recent SU CASA Trip!! ... To watch it Flash Player must be installed on your machine.

What does SU CASA mean?

SU CASA is Spanish for "his/her/their house." As our Central American friends open their homes and churches to us, we experience the warm hospitality of their houses and the house of the Lord. (photo:Iglesia Bautista La Trinidad (Trinity Baptist Church), Costa Rica)

Where are the service sites?

Iglesia Luterana Jesús Nuestro Refugio (Jesus Our Refuge Lutheran Church), Pavas, Costa Rica

Iglesia Luterana Sola Fe (Faith Alone Lutheran Church), San Sebastian, Costa Rica

Centro Infantil Cristiano Nicaragüense (Nicaraguan Christian Orphanage), Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua

Clinics and hospitals in Pavas and Carpio, Costa Rica; and Moyogalpa, Altagracia and Balgüe on Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua