Since its founding in 1992, Alternative Spring Break has provided University students with an escape from the stereotypical alcohol-fueled beach trip and the chance to spend their week-long break making a difference. ASB participants have traveled all over the world, from New Orleans and California to international locations such as Jamaica and Bangladesh.
Getting to know ASB
Each ASB participant and site leader is selected through an application process, ASB president Abbie Klinghoffer said. Trips are proposed in the spring by students applying to be site leaders and are approved by the Executive Board. The site leaders who receive approval from the Executive Board then spend the entire summer researching their sites and contacting the organizations with which they will be working, Klinghoffer said.
The application deadline for students wanting to participate in ASB trips is traditionally Nov. 1, according to Klinghoffer. This year, she said, every applicant was placed on a trip.
"Last year, we had to create a wait list of about 250 students because we only had spots for 500 students on 35 trips, so we made a concerted effort to be able to offer a greater number of trips this year," she explained.
After learning where they will be going, ASB participants spend the time remaining before Spring Break getting to know each other and learning about the community in which they will be living for a week.
ASB's mission, according to the organization's Web site, "is to bring together members of the University community, who might not otherwise interact in their usual social spheres, in the common goals of service to and education about the global community, in order to promote and train future service leaders of Virginia."
In reference to the first part of the mission statement, Klinghoffer described ASB as "an effective way to introduce people to one another and make the large U.Va. community a bit smaller."
To fulfill the second portion of the mission statement, ASB created the position of academic outreach coordinator, currently filled by fourth-year College student Jessalyn Elliott.
Learning from service
Education about the global community is an important aspect of the ASB experience, according to Elliott. She noted that the trips are a collaborative effort between students and the community in which they spend their week.
"ASB has been criticized for going places where they don't really need help, which is just not true," Elliott said, adding that the organization would never send a group somewhere without knowing that the local community welcomed ASB's help. "It's really an exchange of ideas: You learn about the places before you go and when you're actually on the trip you do experiential learning, comparing [your experiences] to the knowledge you learned ahead of time."
According to Klinghoffer, education about the global community is important because it takes students out of their comfort zones.
"Everyone at U.Va. is preparing to go out into the real world, and we think it's important to provide students with the opportunity to see a community or environment different than their own before they do so," she said.
Fourth-year College student Ryan McElveen, who has led Student Council in efforts to internationalize the University's curriculum, said, however, he did not think ASB enhances education about other cultures and communities.
"I think what they do domestically is very honorable ... but I do not see ASB as advancing the curricular aspect of internationalization," he said. "It's an extracurricular activity that people can enjoy, but in terms of educating people about cultures, I don't think it really does."
Klinghoffer noted, however, ASB also intends to have students return to the University with a broader perspective after having been exposed to various things to which they are not accustomed.
"[I'm] just one person in such a huge world, but little things really add up," Klinghoffer said. "You can make your own difference every day. But when groups of students come together to work on a project through ASB, their combined efforts are significant."
Responding to criticism
Klinghoffer noted that some critics have suggested ASB members should be concerned with volunteering in the local community before traveling to other areas to offer their services.
"Some people say, 'Why don't those who participate in ASB volunteer right here in Charlottesville?' Well, the truth is, many do," Klinghoffer said. "Many ASB participants volunteer through [Alpha Phi Omega], a co-ed service fraternity, and numerous who serve as Madison House program directors and ... volunteers do work year-round in Charlottesville and see Spring Break as an opportunity to serve in another community as well."
While some questions whether one week is long enough to produce change in a community, Elliott said the experience lasts longer than just a week.
"If people have a positive experience, it's not a week-long or yearlong thing," Elliott said. "It's more of a lifelong thing."
Elliott acknowledged that a week may not be long, but argued that any amount of assistance is better than nothing.
According to Klinghoffer, volunteering for so many consecutive hours can be very effective when compared to volunteering only once a week or once a month.
"One week's labor is a ton of work ... when there's nothing distracting us from our goal for that day," Klinghoffer said.
The work students do would probably be done without their help, she said, adding that the service offers students an opportunity learn and also assists other organizations' efforts.
"We're saving non-profits thousands of dollars through our labor," she said. "People say, 'You can hire locals and increase employment,' but where is that money to pay them going to come from?"
Making a difference?
According to Richard Handler, Anthropology professor and associate dean of academic programs, the idea of service has recently become very popular, both among college students and the wider community, because people do not know how to make a difference politically.
"For example, consider the inability of the American public to stop the Iraq war, even though a large proportion of them are against it," he said.
Handler added that because some people lack a sense of political empowerment, they turn to service conducted by non-political organizations.
"The question then becomes, can non-political service work effect real change if such change in the end has to come from political struggles over resources and policies?" Handler asked.
According to Klinghoffer, while structural changes to the government could help in the future, there are still people and environments suffering in the present.
"As college students, we are still developing our knowledge base so that we can eventually impart well-informed and large-scale change," she said.
Klinghoffer added that she does not think any ASB participants believe immediate political change will occur as a result of their participation. Instead, she said, these participants view ASB as a positive learning experience in which they can apply the knowledge they have learned in the classroom and also learn from the communities and people with which they work. She said she hopes students return with knowledge and experiences that may affect their life or career goals and give them a new outlook on global issues.
Klinghoffer also argued that without firsthand experience in a community, structural change is far less likely to occur.
"You can read about AIDS in Africa or Washington, D.C., but until you interact directly with those affected, the likelihood of you having the knowledge and passion to do something about it is far less," she said.
Engaging in service guarantees definitive results, Klinghoffer said, while actions such as lobbying and petitioning cannot guarantee an outcome.
Klinghoffer acknowledged that ASB trips are not for everyone; however, she said she believes most participants return to the University pleased with their experience.
"According to the ASB Post-Trip Evaluation, 99 percent have wonderful experiences," she said. "Those that don't, we try to meet with to get some constructive criticism."
According to Kathleen Baireuther, 2006 College graduate and former ASB president, criticism from the University community can actually provide learning experiences for the organization. She also noted members of the ASB Executive Board do not dismiss critics.
"It's really fun to see the organization welcoming debates and participating in them," Baireuther said, noting that ASB members are "quite aware" that there are weaknesses and want to work together to fix them.
Life-changing experience
While the University community may disagree about the impact of the program, the organization has had a profound effect on some of its members.
2007 College graduate Katie Appel said when she arrived at the University, she had a desire to study abroad in the United Kingdom until she went on ASB trips to Guatemala and Ecuador.
"I had thought, in my first year, of doing the UK Fellows Program, but going to Latin America really got me interested in international development and developing countries," Appel said.
She fell in love with Latin America, Appel said, as well as the passion for life and generosity in its people, which she found to be infectious.
"What impacted me so much was not only the trip itself, which was so mind-blowing, but coming back ... [with the tools] to analyze it all and really appreciate it," Appel said.
Before graduating, Appel said she decided she wanted to spend a more time in a Latin American country. Appel now works for WorldTeach in Ecuador at a government-run school for adults who may not have the money for college to earn certificates in English.
One of Appel's students, the principal of a bilingual school, was looking for volunteers to help teach his students English.
"Because all the English teachers were Ecuadorian, the children had never heard native-spoken English," Appel said, adding that she was able to help organize an ASB trip to Ecuador this Spring Break to provide volunteers for the school.
"A week can't make that much difference [in learning English], but it definitely boosted the kids' confidence," Appel said. "I can't say how much the teachers and parents appreciated the volunteers."
According to Appel, ASB was such an important part of her college experience that she wanted to enable other students to have the same experience she had.
"The volunteers had a blast and worked really hard," she said. "It was awesome, and I'm really lucky to have been able to share in the experience with them"
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