“From the beginning,” Gery Short, Director of the Office of Education of the De La Salle Institute, explains, “VENAVER has been about education, not service, educating students about the lives and circumstances of their brothers and sisters in communities they rarely see.” Service is part of the experience, according to Brother Richard Orona, current Sub-Director of the Holy Family Community at Mont La Salle, but as is usually the case, “those offering service receive more than they give.” Gery Short and Brother Richard were instrumental in the brainstorming, planning, and establishing, along with Brother Michael Murphy, the first VENAVER immersion to Centro La Salle in Tijuana where Brother Richard was ministering. He ran the program there from 1988 to 1992. Our own President Robert Jordan managed the VENAVER program from 1999-2005 during his tenure at the Office of Education as Assistant Director of Education.