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Printer-Friendly ModeBreaking tradition, while making it
December 10, 2007 —
Three groups of SVSU students will spend part of their holidays giving back to communities in other states through this winter's Alternative Breaks program.
For the first of the Alternative Breaks, student site leaders Doug Collins, a communication and marketing senior, and Alexandria Umphrey, an elementary education sophomore, will lead 10 students to Atlanta from Dec. 15 to 22 to work with the International Rescue Committee and Refugee Family Services.
The International Rescue Committee and Refugee Family services are both organizations that deal with immigration.
"Refugees are going to be from around all over the world," Umphrey said. "The two organizations were both started in Atlanta after the Vietnam War-era, there was a lot of Southeast Asian refugees."
The International Rescue Committee students will help refugees resettle and they will help kindergarten to eighth grade students improve their English.
The second group of students will travel to Boston from Dec. 15 to 22 to work with Community Servings, an organization that makes and delivers meals to people with HIV, AIDS and other terminal illnesses. Biology senior Julie Akright and nursing junior Meghan Champeau are the site leaders for 10 students.
The last group will travel to Birmingham, Alabama from Dec. 15-22 to work with The Nature Conservancy of Alabama, a nation-wide agency with the mission "Protecting nature. Preserving life." Site leaders Julie Phenis, social work senior, and Kyle Miller, elementary education sophomore, and 10 other students will help prepare fire lines.
"A lot of leaf raking, leaf blowing, and hauling branches," Phenis said.
Alternative Breaks helps students learn about issues that can't be properly taught in the classroom.
"I like educating myself on an issue that I didn't know much about before," Champeau said. "Like last year I knew that abuse was a problem but I didn't think how relevant it was to children, especially in New Hampshire. This year I really wanted to do HIV and AIDS because I'm going into the medial field, but I didn't know a lot about the disease itself and who it affects."
"Last year I was able to go on an Alternative Break with little or no information about the program itself," Collins said. "I learned valuable information about relating with strangers and opening yourself up to other people in a different location altogether. I would hope that the students that Alex and I take on this trip would see things that would open their eyes to the world around them and make them more comfortable and appreciative because of it."
Students who go on Alternative Breaks pay an initial fee of $100 dollars and fundraise to subsidize the rest of the cost. They fundraise by pumping gas, having bottle drives, selling various items (food, spirit beads, candles, and so forth), and sending out adopt-a-breaker letters.
Sometimes groups use their fundraisers to help other organizations. The group going to Boston took the tabs off of the pop cans they collected and donated the tabs to Ronald McDonald House.
Giving back to the community doesn't just start and stop with the winter and spring based trips. Students have pre- and post- break community service projects. The groups usually try to work with organizations that relate to the issues they covered on their breaks.
The group going to Boston hopes to work with an organization that deals with cancer.
Alternative Breaks groups don't stay at hotels, but wherever they can stay for cheap.
The group going to Atlanta will stay in a community room within a commune for free, while the Boston group will stay in a cathedral and the Birmingham group will stay in bunkhouses in the woods.
Alternative Breaks has an application period in the early fall for both the spring and winter trips. This allows groups to meet and bond before they go on their trips.
Many students apply to go on the trips, but not everyone gets accepted.
"We have to turn down a number of students every year which is tough," biology senior and Director of Winter Alternative Breaks Thad McGiness said. "Over the years we've expanded our program to be able to allow as many students to go as possible."
Prior volunteer experience is not a requirement to go on an Alternative Break.
"We look for enthusiastic students," McGiness said. "We look for students who have a passion for the issue, because the students will apply for a certain issue. We want them to really be able to get a lot out of this trip."
"It's a great way to really spend a week getting to know people really well," Phenis said.
"You get to really know the people you are with and grow passionate about an issue and that can change your life for the better."