The term “spring break” brings to collegiate minds a specific image – beaches, booze and a week of parties barely remembered. However, Eastern Michigan University offers a socially conscious alternative to this vision, as well as an escape for those who can’t afford a typical spring break.
The Alternative Breaks program, one of VISION’s biggest programs, offers a “break for people who don’t want to do the traditional college spring break,” said senior student Chelsea Riley, one of the student coordinators of AB.
AB assigns students to a volunteer group, based on their interests, who then spend the week in the south doing community service.
“We guarantee you a warm break,” Riley said.
This year, AB sent eight groups of students to southern state, to do everything from promoting HIV/AIDs awareness, to teaching disabled kids, to cleaning up the Everglades.
Riley’s group was sent to a HIV/AIDs Harm Reduction center in Atlanta. The group volunteered by helping provide the community with education, condom, and a needle exchange, as well as other employment services.
One of the most powerful moments for Riley’s group was when a man who had been coming to the center daily looking for jobs finally found one with the help of the center.
“It was really rewarding for us,” Riley said.
In addition to providing rewarding moments, these trips also help develop crucial life skills.
The AB’s graduate assistant, Allison Deguzman Nevalga, cites “seeing the transformations of student’s leadership skills” as one of the most rewarding aspects of her job.
“Its not what they did, its what they learned and took back to their community.” she said.
Nevalga and her team of student leaders like Riley are responsible for finding sites for the AB programs, housing, training site leader, and providing education for the students going on the trips about how to effectively volunteer and work in the cultures of the locations.
“Learning how to work in a team,” Nevalga said, is one of the most crucial things students learn.
When choosing sites, Nevalga explains, the team tries “to hear a demand of what social issues are important … we always take in consideration what the demand is.”
Besides the spring break trips, AB is piloting weekend Alternative Break trips. Senior Devin Phillips, shares that “it’s cheap, and you’re able to go on a great trip. We were in places normal people don’t get to go to.” He was also on the everglades trip, and in addition to going “backstage” in the Everglades, they got to go on a boat ride into the open ocean.
While there is a small program fee of around $200s, housing and food is all paid for Alternative Breakers. For this fee, students say, a lot is gained.
“Its absolutely life-changing,” Nevalga said. One can meet friends, obtain leadership skills, have problem-solving skills, work with budgets and different personalities – “there’s so many big things, it changes who you are inside and the things you do after the trip.”
Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the AB program at EMU, and “it’s going to be a big year for AB,” Nevalga said.
To learn more about Alternative Breaks, visit the VISION site at www.emich.edu/vision/program/alt_breaks.
