JagBytes

Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: College News

From Top Left: IUPUI students Nicole Runyan, Kelie Carpenter, Rachel Jones, Angela Su, Andrew Lingg, Isaac Terry, Danka Gvero, Kai Davis, Heather Gregory, Melanie Ornelas, Kushtar Shamshidov, Rachel Bernstein, Kelsie Clayton, and Andrea Kernodle pose in front of the Jane Addams Hull House on the 2007 Alternative Spring Break to Chicago. The students went to the house to tie the work they'd done over the weekend to the work of a significant philanthropist and learn more about social issues. Photo Courtesy of: Angela DeMien

This spring many college students will embark on spring break trips across the world, but not everyone's trips will be defined by drinking and debauchery.

Once again, IUPUI will join the ranks of hundreds of colleges and universities that are sponsoring alternative spring breaks, in which students volunteer their time to address social, economic and humanitarian issues, rather than partying at the beach.

Three separate trips are being offered this spring through the Office of Community Service. They include a trip to Maryland to work for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian organization aimed at constructing affordable housing in partnership with people in need; a trip to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky to raise environmental awareness; and a journey to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, to work for Once Upon a Time, an outdoor excursion destination in the heart of Cherokee nation.

Angie DeMien, a linguistics major at IUPUI, is one of two student coordinators overseeing trips this spring, through an organization called Break Away, which exists to train, assist and connect campuses and communities in promoting quality alternative break programs.

"Going on an alternative spring break is really a life-changing experience," she said. "That's what happened to me. I went on an alternative break, and I was changed."

Alternative spring break programs have steadily grown in popularity during the past few years. Last spring former Sen. John Edwards teamed up with Habitat for Humanity, to bring more than 700 students from 82 colleges to New Orleans for a week of volunteering and providing aid to families whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

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