Spring Break is coming, and while some students are looking forward to two weeks of rest and relaxation, 66 students will see their spring breaks take them to New Mexico, Mississippi, Peru, New York City, Guatemala, and Thailand. These students will be traveling as part of Bowdoin's Alternative Spring Break (ASB), a program that has existed for five years at the College.
"[The trips] offer an alternative to more traditional spring break vacations," said Coordinator of Community Service Programs Sarah Seames.
The ASB trips, which focus on service and learning, started out with students organizing and running trips on their own before the Community Service Resource Center (CSRC) took the trips under its wing.
The CSRC, wanting to continue this same tradition of student-powered activism, still places the responsibility for the trips largely on students' shoulders.
"It's definitely student run, student driven," said Seames. Since its creation, the program has continued to grow at Bowdoin. This year, there are six trips going out, the largest number of trips so far.
"I think it's a sign of the success of the program to have so many interested," Seames said.
The trips are centered on doing service in new communities and learning through service to others.
"It's a great way to get others involved and also do service in a part of the country I've never been before," said Meaghan Kennedy '06, who is leading the New Mexico trip. In New Mexico, students will be working closely with a Native American community to build an adobe seating area, according to Kennedy.
In Guatemala, students will be helping at an education center for children living at the Guatemala City garbage dump.
Another trip will be joining Habitat for Humanity in Mississippi.
In New York City, the focus will be on after-school programs in Harlem.
In Peru, students will experience rural poverty first hand by helping with building projects in shanty towns.
On the ASB trip to Thailand, participants will be working with organizations focused on the sex trade.
"That's the only trip we have a staff person going on," Seames said.
"Because of our subject matter, there were certain hurdles," said Michelle Chan '06, who is leading the Thailand trip with Jae Lee '06.
In Thailand, students will work with four organizations. The first helps minorities living in rural areas, educating them about the risks of the sex trade.
"[People who come in] offer the family 'this amount for your daughter, and we'll take her to Bangkok, and she can make more money then she ever will here as a waitress.' But they don't become waitresses; they get sold into the sex trade," Chan said.
Another group the trip will work with is a shelter for escapees from the sex trade, and a third provides a support group for sex workers.
Finally, the students will help an organization that focuses on protecting children from the slums. There, trip participants will give English lessons to local students.
After the trips return, there will be a presentation held in Smith Union titled "Perspectives," which will feature students' reflections after coming home from their service trips.
"Each trip will have a section," said Seames. "Some are journals, some are responses after returning."
After a year of planning and with the trips fast approaching, Seames has high hopes. "They've been getting better and better every year, and we have every reason to believe they will continue to do so," she said.