The affordable housing team assisted Habitat for Humanity in Jackson, Mississippi, during spring break.
More than 100 students from The University of Texas at Dallas invested their 2016 spring break week as volunteers with community service projects at nonprofit agencies across the country.
The Alternative Spring Break (ASB) program, in its 21st year at UT Dallas, benefits more than the community organizations the students serve. It also helps the students develop leadership skills and learn about current social issues.
Organized by the Office of Student Volunteerism, each ASB trip is designed around a social issue such as affordable housing, sustainability and environmental conservation. Students prepare for their service projects by studying the issues in small groups for months and researching the services their agencies offer.
Working on such projects often changes students’ outlook on social issues, said Christopher Swanson, a Residential Life coordinator for Residence Hall Southwest who has led student teams on several ASB trips.
“We worked on Habitat for Humanity homes in Jackson, Mississippi, last spring, and it really opened students’ eyes to their privilege,” Swanson said.
“We’re creating a culture of service. It’s fun and energizing. It’s hard to describe, but it’s something at UT Dallas that I look forward to every year.”
ASB participants include staff and faculty team advisors, as well as student leaders and team members. Many participants enjoy the experience so much they return year after year for another service trip, so organizers try to find new sites each year.
From left: Octavio Zarraga, Abby Durden and Haofeng Wu do the heavy lifting while clearing out a waste dump site. The sustainability team served at the Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest in Mount Vernon, Kentucky.
Among the 10 trips this year was a new site — the Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, where participants on the ASB sustainability team learned about sustainable development and resource management in food systems, ecosystems, energy and culture.
Abby Durden, an economics junior who wants to pursue graduate degrees in agricultural economics, worked in an organic garden and cleaned up a waste dump site.
“It was really scary,” she said. “We collected 170 bags of trash, including five tires, diapers, Mountain Dew bottles and needles.
“It made me think about what I throw away and take stock of my choices. It also is making my career choice more certain. People are struggling with food choices because they are struggling with poverty. I want to learn how to help fix that and change their outcome.”
Another new site this year was Variety’s Peaceable Kingdom Retreat for Children in Killeen, Texas, which helps more than 4,000 children with chronic illnesses and special needs each year.
UT Dallas students on the ASB health care team assisted with camp programming and helped with activities and project work such as painting and repairing camp facilities.
ASB participants often find the trips so life-changing that they seek to make an impact on campus when they return, said Sarah Amberson, a Residential Life coordinator who helped lead the social services team at the San Antonio Food Bank.
“Alternative Spring Break is a high-impact, service learning experience that gets students out of their comfort zone, gives them tangible ways to give back and illustrates the effect they can have on a community in a short period of time,” she said. “The experiences they have in a week bring them back to our community as advocates of social change.”