Applications for the Center for Community Engagement’s Alternative Spring Break program opened Aug. 28, leaving it up to students to take advantage of the abroad opportunity.
The Alternative Spring Breaks are week-long service trips that take students to different locations to learn about a number of different social issues as opposed to a traditional spring break trip.
This year, service trips are scheduled to take students to Hawaii for environmental justice, Texas for affordable housing and immigration, New Orleans for racial justice and Puerto Rico for social services.
The service trips are led by a professional staff member as well as two Suffolk student leaders. Allison Smith, a sophomore who attended last year’s ASB trip to Bel Air, Maryland, with Habitat for Humanity, will be leading this year’s service trip to Laredo, Texas, for affordable housing and immigration.
“I wanted to be an ASB leader because of the incredible experience I had on my first trip,” Smith said. “As a freshman, the trip was my first big experience with Suffolk. It introduced me to so many new people in the Suffolk community but also the people we met while working in Maryland.”
Avery Martin, another sophomore who attended last year’s trip to Maryland, will also be leading a trip this year headed for New Orleans and centered around racial justice.
“Last spring I was able to see a community come together to help each other, and to even be a small part of that was really inspiring,” said Martin. “I’m excited to be able to bring my experiences to a new group, to get them involved and make a difference.”
ASB trips have paired up with many notable service organizations in the past, including the Trevor Project, to give students first-hand experience with their respective social issues.
Patrick Walsh, a junior who attended last year’s LGBTQ+ rights trip to New York City, said that working with these organizations was one of the most enriching parts of the experience.
“Meeting with local advocacy groups who directly help queer people with things like healthcare, housing and legal services was really inspiring,” said Walsh. “We got to meet the people who devote their own time and resources to help the queer community to the best of their ability.”
This year’s trips are paired with a number of organizations set to help with education on the respective social issues.
“We are pairing with a lot of organizations this year,” said Martin. “I am really excited for them to be announced.”
On the application, students are able to rank which location they would like to go to.
“We take students’ rankings into account along with the other parts of their application to place them on the best trip with the best group that we can,” said Smith.
Priority applications were due Oct. 4, but an extension was just added, giving students another chance to apply.
“There’s a written application and an interview,” said Smith “We’re still accepting applications on a rolling basis though, so if anyone is interested in applying, I couldn’t recommend that they do enough.”
