Student Life Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trips are student planned and led week long volunteer service trips designed to challenge students and combat civic issues underlying larger societal concerns. This year 36 students will serve in Baltimore on 3 trips: Homelessness, Public Health, and The ARC. One trip of 11 students is traveling out of state to the Gesundheit Institute (of Patch Adams). Our UMBC ASB trips teach students the power of service and leave them with a sense of camaraderie, compassion, and empathy for the people of the world, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, intellectual/physical ability, or socioeconomic status.
Alternative Spring Break trips at UMBC are organized with three aspects of service learning in mind: education, volunteer work, and community. Beginning in October trip leaders are selected to plan trips along these themes for the following March spring break. Student participants, which are selected in November, will be immersed for the week into a social justice issue and will actively be engaged in service and reflection around the topic while living in a community together. To insure the safety of the students on the trips a UMBC faculty or staff member will also participate as a trip advisor and Student Life staff supervise the program. The participants for this year’s four trips have been preparing during the last few weeks with pre-break meetings, fundraising, team building activities, and research into the social issue their trip will be addressing.
As mentioned, because these trips take a great deal of coordination, Student Life recruits for ASB during the fall semester and the participants have already been selected for this year. Parents and students are encouraged to keep ASB in mind for next year and should look for advertisement to begin for leader selection in October and participant selection in November. Be sure to join the UMBCserves group on my.umbc.edu: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/serve to be kept in the loop on all service opportunities on campus, like: blood drives, welcome week service, and on or off campus service events. For students who would desire to participate in regular weekly service learning, please contact the Shriver Center at: http://shrivercenter.umbc.edu/.
A little more about each of this year’s trips:
Gesundheit! Institute Trip: This ASB trip to the Gesundheit Institute in beautiful West Virginia will allow students to delve deeper into alternative healthcare system. Participants will be given the opportunity to make a difference, learn about Patch Adam’s philosophy of laughter and life while reflection on yourself, and give back to the community.
Homelessness Trip: This ASB trip is designed to educate participants about the plight of homelessness in the hopes of eliminating stigma and uncovering the intricate complexities of homelessness. Participants will work with local organizations and interact with Baltimore’s population experiencing homelessness while reflecting and implementing small change projects.
Public Health Trip:This ASB Trip in Baltimore focuses on public health, including helping with free clinics or various health-focused non-profit organizations. Participants will learn about the current state of healthcare in Maryland, social factors that can affect health, populations that suffer from health disparities, and reflect on how they can change the public health.
ARC Trip: This educational ASB trip is focused on populations of people with intellectual and physical disabilities. Participants will spend time each day at the ARC of Carroll County developing relationships with clients, learning about the population, and dispelling stereotypes and stigma.