While many students flocked to tropical paradises, others spent the first week of their Spring Break participating in student-led Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trips, oriented around community service and learning.
PONTOTOC, MISS.
Lifetime New Hampshire resident Jamilah Gurwala '11 left Pontotoc with a Southern accent. Though it disappeared as quickly as it came, Gurwala has many other memories of her weeklong Alternative Spring Break trip that will last.
Gurwala and others spent a week finishing a house through Habitat for Humanity. When they arrived at the site, the structure of the home was already built, so students focused on siding, roofing, tiling, cabinetry, and electrical installation.
When not working on the house, the students were able to spend time with local church members, who cooked dinner for them nightly. They also spent a day in Memphis visiting the Civil Rights Museum.
"Southern hospitality is one of the true stereotypes of the South," said Luke Mondello '10, who appreciated the cultural immersion, which included attending two church services. While students may expect to encounter cultural differences on a trip abroad, Mondello noted that Pontotoc felt like "an entirely different world" than what most Bowdoin students are accustomed to.
Group leaders Sean Morris '10 and Mondello said they didn't have to organize reflection because their group members were so eager to talk about the service experience.
Students were fortunate to meet the family moving into the house they worked on. "It's always great to put a face to the service you are doing," said Mondello.
LIMA, PERU
According to trip leader Steven Bartus '08, ASB trips are a great way to break out of the Bowdoin bubble. Twelve students traveled to Peru to accomplish just that.
Working in the shantytowns outside of Lima, students refurbished two parks that previous ASB trip groups constructed.
"A big part of this trip is getting the community involved," said Bartus.
The park is a way to foster community, and with many people pitching in, "the relationships formed are more important than the construction of a park," said trip leader Lauren Belden '08.
The interaction is also a way to "show these communities that people outside of their community care," said Ross Cowman '10.
The group encountered some challenges, including a lack of supplies and difficulty getting consistent electricity. "It was difficult to get the equipment we needed to build successfully," said Belden.
Although such struggles are part of everyday life for people who live in the shantytown, Cowman said he met two locals who "stressed how happy they were."
"Despite the difference with backgrounds, there is a universal human connection that exists and enables relationships to be formed," said Belden.
After six days of hard work and the occasional soccer match, group members left newly refurbished parks for the shantytown communities.
GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
Paying homage to the late Hanley Denning, a Bowdoin alumna, students traveled to Guatemala to volunteer with Camino Seguro or Safe Passage.
Camino Seguro was founded by Denning in 1999 and aims to provide children whose parents are employed by Guatemala City Dump with a supplement to their education. In Guatemala, if children are lucky enough to attend school, they are only in class for half the day. For the other half of the day, the children of the Guatemala City Dump are left to occupy themselves in an incredibly dangerous environment.
For a week, Bowdoin students worked with kids from two to three years of age all the way up to 16-year-olds, designing games and activities for the participants of Camino Seguro.
Camino Seguro has changed the lives of many of its participants. According to trip leader Allegra Spalding '08, Camino Seguro helps to combat poverty through education.
"Rather than a traditional afterschool program, Camino Seguro is more of a supplemental education program," said Spalding. "Here, the kids get lunch and snacks, a clinic for medical services, and a safe environment in which to pass their time."
Participants in the program were moved by what they saw. "Seeing all of this really put poverty at a human level. The statistics are always there, but only when you really see it does it become tangible," Spalding said.
The group also was able to experience Guatemalan culture from the town in which they stayed, Antigua. Because their stay coincided with Holy Week, the trip participants witnessed the traditional Guatemalan observance of Easter and Lent related celebrations.
But the real meaning of the trip hit closer to home.
"Seeing the extent of the poverty there really allows you to realize how privileged everyone at Bowdoin is simply to have an education," trip leader Jake Stevens '08 remarked. His co-leader, Spalding agreed.
"In the Bowdoin bubble we can only talk about it [poverty] but through this organization, we can hopefully break out of that shelter," Spalding said.
PHOENIX, LA.
Travel down the offshoot in the road and you'll come to a small town called Phoenix. Only about a half-mile wide, where streets are named for the families who live on them, lies a rural community devastated by the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This was the destination for Bowdoin students who participated in Lending a Hand in Louisiana, an ASB trip that helped to rebuild homes for Phoenix residents. Trip members worked mostly on the roofing and decking on a house belonging to Ms. Hazel, an 80-year-old resident, and the house of Hazel's daughter just down the road.
According to trip leader Laura Onderko '08, "The Hazel family had been in the house [that was] destroyed by flooding from the hurricanes for over five generations."
While the community had suffered great losses as a result of the hurricanes, "they were still so welcoming and loved to hear about our experiences and where we were from," Onderko remarked.
Throughout the weeklong service project, Bowdoin students cooked their meals in a nearby church and slept at a bunk house.
The community was far more remote and rural than many of the students had previously been exposed to.
The Bowdoin students' stay in Phoenix was also significant as it posed a contrast to some previous relief efforts. Onderko explained that with other supposed volunteer operations, the residents' experiences had been less than pleasant.
"There were situations in the past in which volunteers who were white entered the predominantly African-American community claiming to aid the town but instead took their money and left them with false promises." Onderko remarked, "There was a lot of mistrust."
While there were challenges to overcome, the trip was very positive for both parties. Members of the group felt that their hard work helped to dispel existing mistrust.
Bowdoin students left Phoenix with a standing invitation to return, be it for more volunteering or just to stop by and say hello.
PHOENIX, ARIZ. Both Carrie Roble '08 and Nellie Connolly '08 agree that after their ASB trip, any member of their group is well-equipped to be a non-profit consultant. Connolly and Roble co-led a trip to the Lost Boys Center in Phoenix, Arizona, focusing on educating trip members about the issues and challenges surrounding immigration to the United States.
"We met with a number of different groups and while we participated in volunteer activities with some of the groups, we spent much of our time learning and engaging in a dialogue with various non-profits," Roble explained.
The idea for this ASB trip began last spring, as both Roble and Connolly agreed that they wanted to lead a trip that focused on immigration. The Lost Boys Center for Sudanese refugees was especially appealing to both, given the large Sudanese population in Portland. The pair saw ample opportunity to work on an issue that "hit close to home," Roble said.
"We began with one contact at the Lost Boys Center," Connolly said, "from there we just got on the phone and tried to make contacts."
While both leaders agreed that initially they thought there would be more options directly through the Lost Boys Center, the results of their efforts turned out to be both eye-opening and, as Robel put it, "so special."
Throughout the weeklong trip, the group met with a variety of non-profits groups, including Sudanese for the Sudanese, the International Rescue Committee, the Lawyers Coalition, and professors from Arizona State University, among others.
Connolly and Roble both feel the experiences that their group had in Arizona taught them all "concrete ways to help refugees in Maine." Connolly explained her hopes for the future, saying "We would love to see a trip again that focuses on refugee and immigrant issues."
While she recognized that their particular trip required large amounts of organization and communication with non-profits, she expressed desire for other Bowdoin students to have similar experiences.
"We need to raise a dialogue and educate the student body. There needs to be more awareness about immigrant issues," said Connolly.
BRONX, N.Y.
After three consecutive Spring Breaks spent training with the crew team, Katie Wells '08 saw an ASB trip to the Bronx as "a last opportunity to get to know a random assortment of Bowdoin students." Wells wants to teach eventually and saw this immersion into urban education as a way to broaden her perspective.
The ASB group split its day between Public School (P.S.) 152 in the Bronx, where it assisted teachers, and Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), a program that seeks to foster community and education among underprivileged youth.
At P.S. 152, group members were able to interact with children in first through fifth-grade classrooms. Wells got to teach a lesson on shapes to her first grade students. "I felt needed," said Wells, who noted that a big challenge for teachers is the great disparity in student skill levels within one classroom.
Before Break, group members ran a successful book drive for HCZ and spent time cataloging and distributing those books to the main HCZ building and satellite school, as well as reading to and playing with children.
Bowdoin graduate Geoffrey Canada '74 has been the president and CEO of HCZ since 1990. The group had the opportunity to meet Canada. "Geoff is all about team effort. His mission is bigger than himself," said Wells.
Both Wells and Connie Chi '10 felt that the ambition of HCZ resides in its birth-to-college scope. The organization provides comprehensive programs for all ages and, according to Wells, promises that "if you are in the system, you will achieve."
Josh Magno '11 recalls on his last day at P.S. 152 speaking to a teacher who commented on the positive impact he had on students.
"Even if just for that one week, it's good to know we changed something," he said.
"My perspective on Bowdoin and community service changed on this trip," said Chi. "I am so grateful to be at Bowdoin where the Common Good is our goal. I want to make that a lifestyle."
"ALTERNATIVE" ASB, PUERTO RICO
John Browning '08 and David Wagoner-Edwards '08 went to Puerto Rico with ASB last March.
When the CSRC did not select to sponsor the trip in 2008, Browning and Edwards started planning on their own.
The seniors used an application process to select 13 students from over 25 applicants according to Browning. The group spent two days at a local elementary school teaching sustainability and the importance of community and two days working at Boriqua Farm, an organic farm.
According to Wagoner-Edwards, working outside of the CSRC allowed students "a level of freedom to work on our own time." Participants were able to influence the schedule to include what they were most interested in and some traveled to Puerto Rico early or stayed later.
Since they started serious fundraising in November, the group worked "like a legitimate non-profit" to solicit funds for the trip, said Browning. According to Wagoner-Edwards, the cost to students was lower this year than last year.
"It can be done," he said. "The money is out there."