Across the nation, college students are planning spring break getaways to such exotic hot spots as Panama City, Cancun, Mexico or Daytona Beach. But UC students are among a growing trend joining alternative spring breaks that trade the sand for service.
Jill Piacitelli is executive director of Break Away, a national non-profit organization that prepares and connects leaders for Alternative Spring Break programs. Piacitelli predicts a 10 percent national increase of students committing to service-related spring break trips this year, with as many as 55,000 students getting involved. Last year, she says Break Away totaled 1.5 million in service hours that students performed on service-related spring break trips.
The University of Cincinnati is a member of Ohio Campus Compact, a statewide coalition of 49 colleges and universities that work together to promote and develop the civic purposes of higher education. Richard Kinsley, executive director of Ohio Campus Compact, adds that in the Buckeye State, the majority of college campuses, including UC, now offer alternative break experiences during winter and spring breaks.
At the University of Cincinnati, alternative spring breaks are organized by organizations such as UC Campus Ministries, the Center for Community Engagement and the student organization founded at UC, Serve Beyond Cincinnati.
UC Alternative Spring Break Trips
The UC student organization Serve Beyond Cincinnati is organizing four service-related trips. Read more about Serve Beyond Cincinnati.
Saltillo, Mexico – Fifteen student representatives of the UC student organization, Serve Beyond Cincinnati, will spend a week working in some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Mexico, approximately four hours southwest of McAllen, Texas. The students will be building bathroom facilities for homes built two years ago by Serve Beyond Cincinnati. Volunteers will be working alongside homeowners and local workers. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 21 and return on March 30. The cost of the trip runs around $1,000 per student. Each student must pay $500 in deposits and meet a $250 fundraising quota. SBC supplements the cost of the trip through group fundraising and private donations.
Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala – Serve Beyond Cincinnati will be sending 15 students to Guatemala during Spring Break. The team will join a UC alum in working to increase the quality of life for local residents. Projects include building efficient, safe stoves as well as water filtration, management, and storage. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 21 and return on March 30. The cost of the trip is more than $1,200 per student. Each student must pay $500 in deposits and meet a $500 fundraising quota through a personal fundraising campaign. SBC supplements the cost of the trip through group fundraising and private donations.
Lanett, Ala. – For the second year, 11 members of Serve Beyond Cincinnati will travel to the south in an effort to completely eliminate poverty housing in the Chattahoochee Valley region. Working with the Fuller Center for Housing, Habitat for Humanity and volunteers from around the country, the team will work on several single-family Habitat homes doing roofing, insulation, painting, flooring and much more. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 23 and return by March 29. The total cost of the trip to each participants is $250.
Shreveport, La. – Ten UC students will represent the Center for Community Engagement and Serve Beyond Cincinnati while building “on higher ground.” The team will participate in the construction of several homes to be built for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina by working on all aspects of the construction of the homes. Students will depart Cincinnati on March 23 and return by March 29. The total cost to each participant of this trip is $200. Some costs of the trip are supplemented by the UC Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and the team is also fundraising to contribute to the project.
St. Monica-St. George Spring Break Mission Trips
St. Monica-St. George Campus Ministry is organizing five service-related trips. All trips are meant to be experiences that offer students the opportunity to go beyond their comfort zone to serve and be served. Students were required to do fundraising for the trips, which run $125 per student.
Savanna la mar, Jamaica – A group of six UC students representing the St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center will travel to St. Joseph Church in the Westmoreland Parish of Jamaica. The students will visit mission parishes as they spend the week learning about the culture of Jamaica and aspects of the twinning relationship between St. Joe’s and St. Monica-St. George. The group will depart Cincinnati on March 18 and return on March 30.
Gainesville, Fla. – Six students with the St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center take part in the Catholic Worker Movement as they spend the week in fellowship at the Gainesville Catholic Worker House, a gospel-based community that serves the hungry and homeless. Students will serve meals to the homeless and will volunteer service in a garden and school. Through the experience, campus minister Michael Schreiner says the students will learn more about the economic, political and social factors of poverty and oppression. The group departs Cincinnati on March 18 and returns on March 30.
St. Louis, Mo. – Five UC students representing the St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center will join St. Matthew the Apostle Church in serving the needs of the neighborhood town known as The Ville, the historic heart of African-American St. Louis, as well as the Jesuit Parish of St. Matthew. Students will also explore the economic and social aspects of racism. The group departs Cincinnati on March 18.
Spencer, W. Va. – Ten UC students with the St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center will spend the week in the spirit of the Catholic Worker Movement at St. Isaac of Nineveh Gift of Tears Catholic Worker Farm, located in a rural setting in West Virginia Appalachia. Students will be invited to immerse themselves in the culture and life of the people of Appalachia through daily reflection, communal meals and hard work, breaking down stereotypes and building community with local residents and each other. They’ll also be learning about the effects of mountaintop removal for coal extraction on the geography and the people. They’ll depart on March 18 and return to Cincinnati on March 29.
Toledo, Ohio – Ten students representing the UC Baptist Collegiate Ministry will travel to Toledo to help a sister ministry become better established at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green Campuses. Pastor Ken Dillard says the students will be also become involved in community outreach and assistance on the trip.
Slidell and New Orleans, La. – A group of 25 UC students representing the Lutheran Campus Ministry and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Kenwood will be gutting or rebuilding hurricane-ravaged homes. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is covering the cost of the students’ participation in the mission trip. The group departs from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Monday, March 24, and will return Saturday evening, March 29. The work will be coordinated by the Lutheran Disaster Response. Volunteers will be housed at Peace Lutheran Church in Slidell.
UC Service-Learning Trips
Service-learning is defined by UC as “a reflective educational experience in which students earn academic credit by participating in meaningful service activities. Service-learning experiences are designed to foster deeper understanding of course content and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.”
Clay and Jackson Counties, Ky. – Twelve University Honors students will travel to the Appalachian region of Kentucky to complete their winter UC course, “Appalachian Culture and Intercultural Communication.” Students will explore intercultural communication strategies as they apply to Appalachian culture. From March 24-March 28, the class will travel to eastern or south-central Kentucky to work with the non-profit organization, Christian Appalachian Project (CAP), to build or rehab homes.
Hilton Head/Beaufort/Charleston, S.C. – Ten students finishing the University Honors winter course, “Conroy County and the Southern Experience,” will travel to South Carolina as part of their place-as-text course that examines the regions described in the books by popular novelist Pat Conroy. Students will explore the history, culture, ecology and geography of the region, their relationships to current environmental controversies and to setting, imagery and character development in Conroy’s works. As part of the service-learning component of their experience, students will assist the Coastal Discovery Museum in Hilton Head, installing a heritage garden and cleaning up around the edge of the museum’s marsh and trails.
San Juan La Laguna and Antigua, Guatemala – Sixteen business and Spanish undergraduate students will acquire a cultural awareness, improve their Spanish language skills and develop leadership skills as they volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Guatemala to build a home for a family. The work will take place in San Juan La Laguna and the sightseeing tour will take students through Antigua.
UC International Programs Spring Break Trips
Andiamo in Italia – Four students and two faculty members representing the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) will travel to Italy March 21-29 to explore the culture, language, tradition, geography, history, art and cuisine of Italy. In past years, students have toured Rome and Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria regions and the northern lake region of Italy.
Contemporary Paris – Three faculty members representing A&S and the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) will lead 43 students on a contemporary Paris study tour March 21-29. Students will compare the old and the new as they explore cultural and architectural changes in Paris. The tour includes a stop at the new Opera, the Orsay and the Pompidou museums. Students will also be introduced to the foods of France.
College of Business Spring Break Programs
Paris and Nantes, France – A graduate international seminar March 20-30 will give UC graduate students a perspective on doing business in Europe and France as they participate in classes with MBA students from Audencia Nantes Ecole de Management and through company visits to a variety of industries in Paris and Nantes, France.
Querétaro, Mexico – Eighteen UC seniors will learn about doing business in Mexico and about Mexican culture March 23-30. The trip includes university lectures, company visits, presentations by industry experts, sightseeing trips and living with a host family.
Brussels, Belgium, and Paris, France – Through presentations, company visits and conversations with expatriates at multi-national firms, 11 students will build and understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to do business in the changing European market March 21-30. The program begins in Brussels, the administrative heart of the European Union, where visits will focus on the importance of the European Union as a trading partner. The trip concludes with company visits to P&G and Nestle in Paris, France.
Other Spring Break Trips
Atlanta, Ga. – Twenty-five student members of the UC Career Development Center’s ADVANCE program will travel to Atlanta, Ga., as part of the Spring Break Corporate Excursion from March 22-29. The trip will provide an opportunity for UC students of color to meet with corporate executives, private businesses, government and social service agencies, and with leaders at African-American businesses.
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