What are Alternative Spring Breaks?
Alternative Spring Breaks fit into two categories:
- Student-Led Alternative Spring Break trips are a chance for a group of students to focus on community service together. Students can choose to work with a variety of organizations and populations on a variety of issues in a variety of places during their breaks. Here are a few Things to Consider when planning a Student-Led Alternative Spring Break trip. For more detailed information about how to plan a Student-Led Alternative Spring Break, please visit www.alternativebreaks.org.
All Student-Led trips are funded by students either through participant fees or through fundraisers.
- Volunteer Vacations are a chance for students to participate in a volunteer activity during break with an established organization. Students participating in Volunteer Vacations usually register to participate as an individual and they often have the opportunity to work with a variety of individuals of different ages and backgrounds. Many Volunteer Vacations are with agencies that do work outside of the United States. All Volunteer Vacations are funded by participants though scholarships are sometimes available through the host organization.
During Spring Break 2008, Whitman College students participated in the following Alternative Spring Breaks:
- Teaching tennis clinics in Vancouver, BC to 7-12 year olds who had never played tennis before.
- Building homes with Habitat for Humanity across the lake from New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Visiting the Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery and working and living with the monastic community on Whidbey Island, WA.
- Volunteer vacationing and practicing Spanish at a temporary medical clinic in Ecuador through The Tandana Foundation.
Whitman's Center for Community Service does not lead or financially
sponsor Alternative Spring Break trips. When we learn about possible Alternative Spring Break opportunities, we make this information available on
our website and often via our listservs. However, we do not screen the
agencies ourselves. If you are interested in coordinating or
participating in an Alternative Spring Break, we recommend you research
alternative break organizations to decide which of them would be a good fit for your trip.
