Alternative break

Being immersed in diverse environments enables participants to experience, discuss, and understand social issues in a significant way.

The aim of the experience is to contribute volunteer hours to communities in need and to positively influence the life of the alternative breaker.

Breakers are emboldened to take educated steps toward valuing and prioritizing their own communities in life choices such as recycling, donating resources, voting, etc.

[1] Rather than travel to a traditional spring break location, groups of students came together to form a new community that was immersed in education on social issues, service work, and reflection.

• Becoming active citizens • Interest in specific social issues addressed by trips • Further involvement in student body • Previous service experience • Lack of service experience • Word-of-mouth • Interest in new experiences • Desire to meet new people within university and external communities • Leadership opportunities (alternative breaks are overwhelmingly student-led) • College credit through curriculum-based alternative breaks • Less expensive than "traditional" spring breaks • Desire for experiences that will inform future career path • Resume building [2] Strong Direct Service: Should provide an opportunity for participants to engage in direct or “hands on” projects and activities that address unmet social needs, as determined by the community.

Education: Breakers learn about the complexity of the social issue through reading materials, speaker panels, documentaries, and guest lecturers related to current trends and historical context.

Reorientation (the post-trip application of the experience) is the essential purpose of an alternative break – to provide a platform for participants to work towards lifelong active citizenship.

The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass."

(Privilege, Power, and Difference, 2001, Allan G. Johnson) Alcohol & Drug Free: Alternative breaks are alcohol- and drug-free.

(cite – voluntourism.org) Volunteer vacations are not alternative breaks because participants arrive as individuals with no prior preparation with educational components or group building.

Alternative breaks typically involve college students from the same institution, while most groups going on volunteer vacations will meet for the first time when they arrive at the location of the trip.