Seven new Alternative Break programs, including trips to Cuba, Israel, Alabama and Rwanda, were created for the upcoming year.
Alt Break trips generally last between 10 days and three weeks during the winter, spring and summer breaks.
The seven new trips will join seven returning trips, all of which are organized and led almost entirely by students.
The trips focus on social justice and advocacy and include service in the host country as well as meeting with nonprofit and governmental organizations, said Shoshanna Sumka, who oversees the Alternative Break programs through the Center for Community Engagement and Service.
“The trips are not so much about the place, they’re about the issues,” Sumka said.
Two student leaders usually lead and organize the trips, accompanied by a faculty or staff adviser.
“This is really about student initiative,” Sumka said.
Rwanda
A new Alt Break trip to Rwanda this summer will focus on healing and justice efforts since the 1994 genocide. The group will help with projects such as building homes, farming and reconciliation training, as well as engage in a dialogue with reformed genocide perpetrators, group leader Elizabeth Cheung said.
“We’re going to give service, but also learn from the organizations,” said Cheung, a junior in the School of International Service. “It’s an exchange [that will] really be about the concept of reconciliation.”
Israel
Instead of focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this year’s Israel group will learn about the issue of African refugees seeking asylum in Israel. Alex Mandel, a senior in SIS who spent over a year studying abroad and volunteering in Tel Aviv, organized the trip.
“This is on a really emerging topic — some people in Israel don’t even know about the issue,” Mandel said.
Students will meet with various groups of refugees and do a service project with a homeless shelter in the area, said co-leader Emma Giloth, a senior in SIS.
Cuba
A group of students will travel to Cuba to examine the education system of the country, where there are close ties between schools and communities. The trip, originally designed as an assignment for Global and Multicultural Education, will include service in D.C. organizations that promote the connection between schools and their communities.
“The idea of local and sustainable service is more attractive to the trip’s issues, and given the restrictions on engagement by foreign students in education-related service projects, this was a better option,” said Jessica Guttenberg, trip leader and second-year graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Alabama
An Alt Break group traveling this winter to Walker County, Ala. will focus on the impact of community organizations, especially faith-based ones, on the reconstruction process following the devastation of multiple hurricanes in April. It will also include a service project through Habitat for Humanity.
“I really wanted to do a domestic trip because I think there should be more focus on our own country, and this is a very current issue and it’s the perfect time to get involved,” said trip leader Alexandra France, a sophomore in CAS.
Other Trips
Other new Alt Break trips will venture to Liberia, Moldova and San Francisco.
The Liberia group will focus on the discrimination against women in the post civil-war country and empowerment through education.
The Moldova trip will also focus on discrimination and specifically on the rights of the LGBT, Roma and disabled communities in the country.
Another trip will explore the issue of queer youth homelessness in San Francisco and will explore how this issue also affects D.C.
The deadline for applications for winter and spring programs was Sept. 29, but applications will be accepted for the summer trips up until Feb. 13.
Applications are available on the CCES website. Most of the Alt Break groups will be holding presentations about their trips or engaging in activism after their return to campus, according to Sumka.
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