Students choose service over sun on alternative breaks

Since 1990, University of Wisconsin–Madison student spring breakers have abandoned the luxury of sandy beaches to travel across the country and volunteer during their precious week of spring break.

Alternative Breaks, a program sponsored by the Morgridge Center for Public Service, challenges hundreds of students every year to step outside their comfort zones, pick up a shovel, hammer or kitchen apron and experience hands-on volunteer experiences in environments drastically different from home.

This spring break, Alternative Breaks has 12 trips going everywhere from a wet shelter in Boston to the devastation in New Orleans to the Everglades in Florida. The deadline for applying is noon on Friday, Feb. 8. 

The program has always been a program organized by students for students. This year’s Alternative Breaks director, Maya Oyarbide-Sanchez, a senior majoring in psychology and Chicano/Latino studies, shares her experience with the program and her advice to students considering alternative breaks.

Q: When did you first here about alternative breaks? Why did you decide to take the leap and go?

A: "A little over a year ago, I was looking for something to do over winter break and stumbled upon the alternative break Web site. To be honest, I was kind of sick of my roommates. I just wanted to do something over break without them that wasn’t just sitting around all break. I wanted to do something that had more meaning to it and I could get something out of. So I applied to go on an alt break trip. I went to San Juan, Texas, last winter, and I have gone on two trips since then — to a wet shelter in Boston and to help with hurricane relief in New Orleans."

Q: What were you expecting going into the trip? What was the reality?

A: "I went into the alt break with the mentality a lot of people have. ‘This is going to be so cool. I’m going to volunteer. I’m going to help people.’ And then after my trip, a lot of it was more how the trip impacted me. You go down there for a week, sometimes two. You are not actually doing that much work. And sometimes people say, ‘I thought I was going to do more work.’ But it is actually just about awareness and bringing that back to campus to educate more people. I really didn’t expect it to have as much of an effect on me as it did."

Q: Who did you meet on the trip and what did you take away?

A: "The trips I liked the most were the ones where you got to actually talk to people from the community. When you are talking to someone who tells you what their life is like and what they need and why they are in their situation, that is when you really get to understand more.

"This one guy from the Boston wet shelter sticks out in my memory. He was just kind of this crazy 50-year-old guy who would come in with a Batman mask on or Mardi Gras beads and always doing something kind of ridiculous. From the beginning, he always called me his niece and he was my uncle Bruce. Anytime anyone at the shelter would give me a hard time he would say, ‘Leave my niece alone.’ He just took me under his wing. When I left, he gave me a hug and said, ‘You remember if anyone is after you, you tell them Uncle Bruce is coming to get them.’ I just started crying. I just didn’t expect to get so attached to someone in a week."

Q: What is the most common response you get from returning students?

A: "Like me, I think a lot of students feel that culture shock. They didn’t really expect that the trip would have that much of an effect on them. I think a lot of people just think they are going down there to volunteer and don’t think about how much it is going to change their own perspective on things. People come back a lot more affected than they thought they were going to be."

Q: Any advice for students thinking of applying?

A: "I think a lot of students are hesitant to go with people that they don’t know. They want to go with their friends. But for me, it is one of the coolest things to see. You have 10 kids at the beginning of orientation who don’t say anything to each other and are afraid to talk to each other. And then they all come back after a week and are hugging and want to hang out. People really make cool friendships out of this. I know I have a lot of friends I made out of my alt breaks. If anyone is hesitating for reasons like that, I would just encourage them to go for it."