During spring break, more than 150 UVM students fanned out to 15 sites across the country to get involved in service projects ranging from clean-up work at Cape Hatteras to therapeutic horseback lessons in North Carolina, from building with Habitat for Humanity in Charleston to art education activities in Chicago.

The volunteers are among a national force of college students who forgo more typical spring break activities in order to give back. Alternative breaks are popular at many college campuses, but only a handful of programs are designed and led by students. The UVM program, now in its 24th year, is one.

“We’re each others’ caretakers and advisers for the week,” said senior Emily Howe, one of four directors of this year’s trips. It’s the culmination of a year of hard work by Howe and her three co-directors.

Selecting all 15 locations and partner organizations is just one of the directors’ tasks. They also recruit, choose and educate the student site leaders; run the application process for participants; and help set up budgets and fundraise, for example. This year, they traveled to Los Angeles in February to present on their model at a national conference.

“It’s the best internship in higher education or non-profit work or event planning that you could ask for,” Howe says. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

While students take the lead, they also receive support from the university. Laura Megivern, assistant director of Leadership and Civic Engagement Programs, advises the student directors. Megivern provides training on budget and risk management issues and works to ensure reflection is part of the experience. Alternative Spring break, she says, “gives students a chance to put their values into action.” Social justice, she says, and not charity, is the goal of the trips. “It’s about doing with instead of doing for.”

Howe and one of her co-directors, senior Sarah Richardson, were the site leaders for a trip to Everglades National Park, where they pitched in on invasive species removal and park access projects. While Howe and Richardson are students in UVM’s College of Education and Social Services, the eight undergrads they traveled with are majors in forestry, environmental studies and environmental science. For those students, the trip was not only a chance to volunteer — and yes, go someplace warm — it was also a chance to immerse themselves in their studies beyond the classroom and beyond the Vermont landscape.

“I just clicked every environmental option there was,” said senior Maddie Cotter the Friday before break about how she ranked her top choices among the 15 trips. “When I found out it was the Everglades trip I was so happy. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it’s quite an amazing ecosystem.”

The 150 ASB participants aren’t the only UVM students who volunteered during break. For the third year, Hillel, the UVM Jewish student organization, organized its own Alternative Spring Break program focused on food justice here in Vermont. The goal of the program, says Sharon Silverman, director of Jewish student leadership for Hillel, “is to have students ‘burst their Burlington bubble’ and see that there are real issues relating to food justice and food security right in their own backyard.” To that end, students volunteered with a range of organizations, including the Vermont Foodbank, Hunger Free Vermont, Kayhart Brothers Dairy Farm, the Intervale and other locations.

All together, UVM students completed more than 4,500 hours of service during break. See the adventures they shared on social media with the hashtag #uvmasb.

PUBLISHED

03-02-2015