Jamaica trip represents UW’s first overseas alternative break

To party or to volunteer? This Spring Break, beginning March 13, UW–Madison students will have both options on the same trip.

For the first time, the Wisconsin Union Travel Center will sponsor two trips to Jamaica, one for service learning and another for more traditional fun in the sun. About two dozen students will take the volunteer experience, spending the week performing service-work in the rural province of Petersfield. Fifty miles north, the group of partiers will hit the beaches and nightclubs of Negril.

The volunteer trip costs students about $1,200; the party about $829.

While their peers sunbathe, the volunteers will be integrated into Jamaican culture. Students on the service-learning trip will spend six hours daily performing work in the community, including construction, landscaping, and assisting the elderly. The remainder of the trip will be devoted to exploring the area. Volunteers also will stay and dine with resident host families.

“The locals show the students around,” says Linda Klein, trip coordinator at the Morgridge Center. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to see the country from a local perspective.”