The majority of AU students are just beginning to plan their spring breaks, focusing the trips on sunshine, tourist traps and fly honeys. Meanwhile, somewhere between 60 to 90 graduate and undergraduate students have had theirs in the works since before the weather was cool enough to miss sunshine in the first place, centering their trips around global social justice issues.
AU's Alternative Spring Break program, running from March 11 - 19, will send students to Appalachia, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Mexican-American border. While social justice is the focus of these trips, students will be working specifically with issues ranging from sustainable development to rural youth empowerment.
Shoshanna Sumka, the Community Service Center's Alternative Break Coordinator, said that she believes AU students have shown they have an interest in social justice not only in a traditional academic setting, but also in putting what they've learned in class to practice.
Sumka, who joined students on an Alternative Break to Zambia this summer, described her experience as "amazing," and emphasized the role students lead in organizing and planning these trips. The trips are created almost entirely by the student leaders involved,- the exception being when the popularity of certain trips, such as Zambia's HIV/AIDS alternative break, influence the Community Service Center to replicate the program, said Sumka.
Applications to lead or attend Alternative Breaks are available on the Office of Campus Life Web site. Check back in with The Eagle in late March to read about how the trips went.
Need a different kind of break?
Appalachia Working with Beans and Rice, Inc., students on this trip will earn a certificate in community development in Radford, Va. This trip costs $300 and is accepting student applications until Friday, Jan. 27. Find the application on the Office of Campus Life Web site at www.american.edu/ocl.
Belize Students will work with Garifuna communities and explore current issues in the Afro-Caribbean culture along the Belize Coast.
Guatemala Student Government President Kyle Taylor will be co-leading this Pura Vida-organized trip examining sustainable development.
Honduras Working with a non-governmental organization, students will focus on rural youth empowerment and meet various government officials.
Mexico-U.S. Border Immigration and human rights, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement, are the focus of this trip.
Nicaragua Through meetings with international non-governmental organizations, labor unions, grass roots activists and women's groups, students will study the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the Sandinista Revolution.
