Meaningful spring breaks.
SINCE HURRICANE KATRINA DEVASTATED THE Gulf Coast in 2005, it has
been fashionable for college students to spend spring break in that
region helping with recovery efforts. But at some IHEs, "service
breaks" have been taking place for years. The Global Partnerships
program, for example, launched at North Park University (Ill.) eight
years ago. Students get sent to international locations like Zambia and
Thailand and domestic locations like Appalachia to work with
underprivileged children. Richard Johnson, director of University
Ministries, says such trips have been happening unofficially since the
school's founding. This year a total of 140 students will go on
trips during the spring, summer, and winter breaks. Gannon University
(Pa.) students have been spending part of summer break at a Lakota-Sioux
summer camp in South Dakota since 1993 and working with Habitat for
Humanity since 1995. Students also work in a soup kitchen in New York
City and on the Arizona/Mexico border. Arlene Montevecchio, director of
the Center for Social Concerns, says they had to turn students away from
the program this year. And, of course, both schools have sent groups to
New Orleans.--A.M.
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