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.