While there are still thousands of students flocking to scorching hot islands for spring break, some University students will spend the time on the third annual “Spring Break Alternative Trip.” This is a truly great alternative to the typical spring break wasted by getting wasted.
This new tradition started two years ago with an excursion to New Orleans to clean up after Hurricane Katrina and continued last year working at Navajo Indian Reservation in Utah. This time, students won’t be traveling very far at all-only two states over to Pennsylvania, where they will work in inner-city Philadelphia.
It’s heartwarming to see the many different programs going on at campuses across the country. During Carleton College’s spring break, the Carleton’s Acting in the Community Together Center is working with Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge program. Over 50 students from Minnesota College will build houses in Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas and Nebraska, competing in a year-long “spree” of constructing homes.
Kansas University students will travel to Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington, D.C. Some of the participants with this alternative spring break program even include high school students breaking the normal trend of spring break trips. The Kansas City Star reports the students will aide with “children’s services, conservation, health care, hurricane relief, language and culture acquisition, environmental preservation and people with disabilities.”
Many of these expeditions are entirely student-organized, which is refreshing to observe in a time when many young adults are consumed with modern technology and partying-especially during their precious spring break. And for students that don’t plan anything for break, possibly because of limited finances, these alternative trips often allow fundraising for the required fees and transportation.
The movement of showing compassion over breaks is not entirely new, although it is on this campus. Schools like Villanova University have mission trips around the globe, to locations such as South Africa, Nicaragua and India on every break-fall, winter and spring. It’s unfortunate it took so long for this tradition to catch on at the University, but hopefully it will continue to expand.