While many AU students spent their spring breaks lounging on beaches, spending time with friends or simply sleeping, a few broadened their cultural horizons through AU's Alternative Spring Break program.
This year, the program led trips to Brazil, Jamaica, Greece, Vietnam and the Cherokee Nation in western North Carolina, with students traveling in groups to explore the areas' cultures and to study societal issues.
"The goal of this is to expose people to different social-justice issues that they can continue to work on in the U.S. when they return," said Alternative Spring Break club President Mike Haack.
The trips are largely student-led, with groups ranging from eight to 15 people per trip. As leader of the Vietnam trip, Jared Hall, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, had to recruit participants, set the itinerary and spend several hours a day planning the logistics of the visit. During his trip, the students met with Vietnamese university students, learned about children and poverty, and visited cultural and historical sites.
"This trip gave us a deeper understanding of what Vietnam is about," Hall said. "Normally when people think Vietnam, they think about the war. This allowed us to see it as a country, and see the Vietnamese people as people."
Sonya Mendoza, a senior who led the Brazil trip with School of International Service professor Miguel Carter, said she also had an eye-opening experience. Mendoza's group stayed in a squatter encampment with the Brazilian rural landless workers movement. Throughout their trip, the students learned about the movement's origins and tactics, and were able to talk to the workers about their struggle.
"I learned more in one week than I could have in an entire semester," Mendoza said. "We also got to interact with them a lot. We met the youth and went dancing with the natives and learned about their culture."
The Jamaica trip focused on the economic and social conditions of the region, and students visited human-rights and other organizations, as well as Trenchtown, the birthplace of singer Bob Marley.
In Greece, students worked in a refugee shelter, met with academic researchers and immigrants, and absorbed some Greek culture. Elizabeth Nichols, the trip leader and School of Communication student, said she was pleasantly surprised by the treatment the group received while overseas.
"We were treated very professionally by the people in Greece," she said. "I hope we made a positive impression on our host country, because I know that American college students aren't necessarily thought very highly of abroad."
Another group went to the Cherokee Nation, but group members could not be reached for comment at press time.
The trips are not charity-oriented and instead aim to inspire solidarity with people around the world, Haack said. However, Hall, who visited Vietnam, cautions that students should think critically about why they want to go.
"The purpose should be for social justice," he said. "If you're looking to party, then maybe this isn't the best thing for you."
Alternative Spring Break is in its eighth year at AU. In past years, Alternative Break students worked on projects ranging from setting up a nonprofit organization in Zambia to working on a divestment campaign in Burma.
The Alternative Breaks also run in the winter and summer, and the cost is all-inclusive and is usually around $1000 to go overseas, or $250 for the Cherokee Nation trip. The university provides scholarship money to help offset the costs.
Most Alternative Break participants have found the trips to be worth the money and say they would do it again.
"This is a great opportunity to take all those big words you learn in textbooks and make them real," Haack said. "People come back from these trips inspired to change things"
