By Katie RessmeyerThe Daily Northwestern
Rebuilding houses in New Orleans; reaching out to AIDS victims in St. Louis; working with sea animals in California. All typical experiences for Northwestern students on Alternative Student Breaks.
The student service group announced Wednesday its seven Winter Break sites to potential participants.
The trips, which will be held over the first week of winter vacation, include both old and new locations.
“We looked at what types of issues are popular to students, doing research by word of mouth,” said Communication senior Mona Yeh, site development co-chair.
ASB projects include interacting with African refugees in Denver, Colo.; working to preserve the biodiversity of the environment in Point Reyes Station, Calif.; and providing healthcare in the rural town of Webster Springs, W.Va.
Sites on the Gulf Coast will give NU students the opportunity to help rebuild hurricane-battered areas.
Students traveling to Arcadia, Fla., will work with the DeSoto Disaster Recovery & Peace River Presbytery Disaster Response to reconstruct homes destroyed by Hurricane Charley.
Repeating a spring 2006 site, ASB has organized a trip to New Orleans to provide short-term relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
ASB also has planned volunteer opportunities with the St. Louis Effort for AIDS and Catholic Charities, a human services organization in Baltimore.
“I’m excited for the trips,” Yeh said. “There are more places to visit.”
ASB also announced a series of Winter Quarter classes that will be taught by students through the School of Education and Social Policy. Each class will culminate in a trip over Spring Break.
“Students will be studying something for nine weeks and then experiencing it,” said Mira Hart, a Weinberg senior who will be teaching one of the courses.
“Fighting for the Future Generations: HIV/AIDS Prevention in Africa” will focus on the African AIDS epidemic as well as prevention methods and programs.
Students taking the class will travel to Ghana over Spring Break to volunteer with African AIDS organizations.
A second class will focus on housing for low-income Americans and will include a trip to a large city such as Washington, D.C., or Atlanta.
Weinberg senior Ben Clark, a former Daily staffer, one of the class’s teachers, said ASB leaders are looking for a site that will allow the class to work with a variety of issues.
“Students will come into a community where people are talking about everyday issues,” said Weinberg senior Adele El-Khouri, one of the teachers for the course.
The final class, “Health Care Inequities in America,” will be a student-led seminar with a focus on healthcare access. The class will visit a large city to work in free clinics, community health centers and advocacy groups.
Applications for winter trips and Winter Quarter classes are due Oct. 13.
Reach Katie Ressmeyer at [email protected].
