While other students sprawled on tropical beaches or curled up on couches watching hours of MTV’s Spring Break coverage, 180 Northwestern students chose to spend their holiday with Alternative Spring Break.
ASB sends student participants to different sites in North America to tackle community service projects. ASB organized trips to 16 different sites this year, from Portland, Ore., to Miami.
Maureen Farrell, who helped develop sites for each trip, led a group to the U.S.S. Maritime Museum Foundation in Providence, R.I.
“So many NU students are crazy busy with all their classes and activities and they never get the chance to do service work and volunteering during the year,” said Farrell, a Weinberg senior. “Personally, I can’t think of a better way to spend the week.”
In Providence, Farrell’s group prepared a Russian submarine to open as a museum by painting, cleaning, welding and decorating it. By the end, Farrell said the group became experts on submarine parts and “learned how to use all kinds of fun power tools, like drop saws, grinders and nail guns.”
“When else would NU students get the chance to hang out on a Russian sub for a week?” she asked.
ASB participant and Weinberg freshman Megan Portanova went with her group to Cleveland, where she helped out with soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other urban centers.
“One night I sat down with three men who were either homeless or too poor to afford food,” she said. “We talked for two hours about everything, from our lives to education to social policy. Not only did we get to know the people running the sites, but we learned a lot about the people who frequented them.”
Allyson Jo Freeman, a Medill sophomore, went to Rhode Island where she farmed and transformed run-down urban space into gardens for the Southside Community Land Trust.
“I came back feeling extremely passionate about the issue of community gardening,” she said. “It builds a sense of community and allows people to have a source of fresh vegetables at a low cost.”
Having participated in ASB last year, Freeman said she chose to go on the program again not only because of the things she learned, but also because of the students she bonded with during the course of the week.
Mike Wong also said he enjoyed meeting other students, calling the bonding experience just as significant as the project itself. Wong went to Jonesville, Va., where he repaired houses in poverty-stricken Central Appalachian regions.
“I’ll probably remember the 11 strangers I met on the trip more than the experience itself,” said Wong, a Weinberg sophomore.
ASB organizers will display pictures and more detailed information about the 16 sites during an exposition April 9 at Norris University Center. Group leaders also are preparing two Spring Quarter weekend service trips for students who want a taste of the ASB experience .
