It’s been said that knowledge is power. Well, what is more powerful than spending a week you would normally use to do silly or unproductive things, helping and serving your community, your country or the world?
Spring break is a time to wind down, forget about classes and homework, and just have fun. But you can also make it a time to reach out and do good for the local community and the world, while forming amazing relationships and experiencing life outside your usual comfort zone.
“Alternative” spring breaks are not a new idea, but in recent years, they have become more and more popular with college students. Alternative spring breaks provide an essential service to participants, by allowing them to engage in volunteer service in their local community or aboard.
Spring break volunteer projects often focus on a particular issue, such as poverty, education, child development, refugee resettlement, the environment or disaster relief. Students typically learn about social issues and then perform week-long projects with nonprofit organizations.
At NSU, several student organizations — like Alpha Phi Omega, SISTUHS and Community Action Using Student Empowerment, and academic departments — like the Health Professions Division and the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, in association with the Graduate Business Students Association, plan an alternative spring break each year.
A particularly notable alternative spring break was in 2010, when several student groups worked together to organize a massive relief trip to Haiti after the devastating earthquake. The trip was covered by local media outlets, including NBC Miami and the Sun Sentinel.
The support of university faculty, staff and administrators, along with student organizations, are essential to the growth of alternative spring break projects. Community service is a vital part of a well-rounded education.
Options for spring break alternatives include home building projects, turtle conservation efforts, and teaching opportunities in Central American conservations. The United Way also sponsors alternative spring breaks, and non-profit house builders like Habitat for
Humanity have seen an increase in student volunteerism within the past few years.
Projects Abroad, one of the largest volunteer programs in the nation, now offers short-term volunteering opportunities, specifically designed for one-week spring break trips. Participants can propose and plan their own ideas for alternative spring breaks.
Details on these projects and others should be promoted to as many students as possible at NSU. Student groups, like the Student Events and Activities Board, have already formed relationships with many community service organizations, like Big Brothers Big Sisters and
The Salvation Army. These relationships should be encouraged and expanded to other groups.
Alternative spring breaks educate volunteers in the hope that these students will go home and fundraise or raise awareness about the problems they witnessed firsthand. They are important for a complete education, because they offer students an opportunity to contribute to the local or global community in ways that they might not have before.
