Apt Alternatives

Student groups choose service and learning for their spring breaks

April 14, 2009

Josh Handelsman '12 noted in the trip journal, "We destroyed the ceiling, wrecked a bathroom and annihilated a wall. I can't imagine anything more fun." From left: Rachel Gilbert '12, Handelsman, Brittany Tang-Sundquist '09 and Denise Del Gaudio '10.

Since time immemorial, college students have bounded off to places like Daytona Beach, Cancun and Jackson Hole for spring break. The growing trend of alternatives, however, has many of them seeking out not-so-posh locales and packing tool belts instead of beach towels or skis.

Serve the World—The Crescent City

This March was the fourth spring-break and seventh overall trip to post-Katrina New Orleans for Serve the World, one of Dickinson's student service-trip organizations. "It's become the spring-break trip, since we continue to see the need," said Mira Hewlett, interim director of religious life and community service.

The group of 28 students and four staff members, divided into three teams and assigned houses in the Ninth Ward where the damage was the greatest, gutted interiors and painted exteriors while getting to know some of the grateful homeowners.

Cameron Kerr '09 has participated in every Serve the World trip to New Orleans since his first year at Dickinson, and this year the ROTC cadet was the student coordinator. "Our experience in New Orleans really drove home the importance of the reconstruction efforts, as well as an understanding of the magnitude of the Katrina disaster," Kerr said.

Volcanoes and Society—New Mexico

When Professor of Geology Jeff Niemitz's students in his Volcanoes and Society class suggested a spring-break field trip, none of them expected to log 1,500 miles in five days. Niemitz, Geology Technician Rob Dean and 11 students camped and navigated a loop through west Texas and New Mexico, from El Paso to Silver City, Albuquerque to Santa Fe, then south through Carlsbad, White Sands and the Guadalupe Mountains.

One primary stop was El Chino Mine, the world's second-largest open-pit copper mine still in operation. According to Niemitz, because the copper there is widely dispersed in the rock, "to make it economic, large volumes of ore need to be removed. The mine extracts 25 to 30 million tons a year, creating one of the largest holes in the Earth and large man-made mountains of waste material."

The group toured the site and saw the effects up close. Alyssa Chaplin '10, who is seeking her teaching certification for ninth-grade Earth Science, chose some rocks for her growing collection, which she will use when she starts teaching. "I collect rock samples to have something to show my students," she said. "It is much more authentic if I bring in a sample and say, 'Hey, I got this in Canada, New Mexico or Italy,' than something that was ordered from a catalog."

Alternative Spring Break (ASB)—Arizona

Nine students and two staff coordinators joined members of the Pisinemo Recreation Center in the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation for a week of community cleanup. In between pulling weeds and scraping old paint, they also enjoyed (and lost) multiple volleyball bouts against a practiced team of reservation teens.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is among the most poverty-stricken communities in the United States, according to Megan Jenny '09, one of the student leaders of ASB. Deeply isolated, the tribe struggles with high unemployment, poor health care and few educational opportunities.

The group also worked closely with children and elderly members of the community. "In some ways, I feel like I 'engaged the world' more completely [here] than I did during the year I spent in England," said Jenny. "I have never felt so welcomed into a community before—a sentiment that I know others on the trip experienced as well."

Habitat for Humanity—Miami

Eight students and two staff members took a 19-hour road trip to Homestead, Fla., and helped build three houses in the Miami area through Collegiate Challenge, a national Habitat for Humanity alternative spring-break program.

The work was strenuous but well worth it, according to Frances Cardenas '10, one of the team leaders. "It was really rewarding to see the product of our labor," she recalled. "Even though we didn't get to finish the house, it was still nice to know that we left our mark and helped build a home for a family who really needs it."

Cardenas has volunteered with Habitat for seven years, but this was the first time she led a group and coordinated a trip. She says that the experience renewed her sense of service and has led her to consider a career with Habitat.

Hillel—Montevideo, Uruguay

After a 14-hour flight, the Dickinson Hillel group arrived in Uruguay just in time for Purim, a Jewish holiday of masquerades. The late-night celebration with a salsa zest immediately signaled their arrival in Latin America.

Les Poolman, director of athletics, and Barry Tesman, professor of mathematics, joined 12 students in building houses in Nuevo Buenos Aires, a shantytown outside the Montevideo city limits. Led by staff organizers at the Montevideo Hillel chapter and Un Techo para mi País (A Roof for My Country), a nongovernmental organization, they raised three tin-roof dwellings—20 feet by 10 feet—for homeless families. A grant from Hillel International, through the Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life at Dickinson, partially funded the trip, according to Ted Merwin, director of the center and assistant professor of religion.

Daniel Grover '12, who plans to join the Peace Corps, was stunned by the living conditions. "I had never seen that kind of poverty," he said. "And especially, I had never realized just how close the impoverished areas are to the upper-class neighborhoods—in this case, a matter of five city blocks."

For several students, returning to Dickinson was the true culture shock. "I had this enormous sense of guilt when I left," said Emily Olman '11. "Why am I sitting here doing schoolwork? But I know that this is what I have to do to be able to go back and help them in the future."