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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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3-8-2006 Students forgo sun and sand to lend a handIt's that time again. Spring break. While some students are thinking beaches, sun and tropical fruit, others are contemplating battered women in Chicago, ragged children in Ecuador and retired elephants in Tennessee. Since 2003, the Ohio Union Activities Board has offered an Alternative Spring Break program to students, faculty and staff looking for organized, weeklong community service and civic engagement alternatives to the annual spring ritual. On past trips, students have built homes with Habitat for Humanity, delivered meals to HIV and AIDS victims in New York City and worked with children at a Native American HeadStart agency in Oklahoma. Others have embarked on a whirlwind cross-country Civil Rights Tour to places like the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. This year, 10 trips - each with nine student participants, two student trip leaders and one faculty/staff adviser - are planned. Senior Ryan Edmiston, a finance and social science major, is leading a group to Hohenwald, Tenn., to the Elephant Sanctuary, a refuge for elephants who have spent their lives in the entertainment industry. "We're working with the on-site coordinator on what kinds of activities we'll be doing," Edmiston explained. "We'll probably end up working with infrastructure, cleaning up and taking care of the barns and storage facilities." Cristen Porter, a graduate student working in the Ohio Union's Student Activities Office, will be the staff adviser on a trip to a Chicago domestic violence shelter. "We're required to complete 10 hours of training before we go, and our trip leaders plan pretty much our entire week, including how and what we're going to eat, what we'll do in our free time and when we leave and return to Ohio." Her role, she said, is to serve as a resource if students encounter questions they can't answer or need materials they can't get on their own. Fellow faculty/staff adviser Bob Eckhart, a lecturer in the College of Education, is accompanying a contingent to Ecuador - the only international trip offered this year, and one of the most popular offerings so far. "For our service, we know we will be working with the children in Quito, either in an orphanage or with the kids who live on the street," he said. "I have some experience doing literacy tutoring here in Ohio in the homeless shelters, so I thought it would be a good fit." Eckhart has been impressed by the commitment to service shown by Ohio State students who, he said, have grown up in the culture of service. "The story really isn't about us, it's about these students," he mused. "Where do they come from? What makes them want to give up their spring break and give something back? It's inspiring to see this generation of students, for whom it is a fundamental part of their identity to give and keep giving." Porter concurs with Eckhart's assessment of the students who volunteer to be part of the ASB experience. During break last fall, she traveled with a team of students to Slidell, La., to help rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The students experienced a real transformation that, she said, was meaningful to her. "When they first signed up for the trip, they just wanted to go down and do the physical work of reconstruction. But when the trip was over, they had learned so much about the social issues affecting the area," she said. "They realized it was more about the change they were helping to make in those people's lives." "Giving back to the community has been instilled in me from a very young age," said Edmiston, who plans to enter law school after graduation and focus on alternative dispute resolution. "What I look forward to most, though, is being able to spread the Buckeye message of community, to show people that at Ohio State, we really are dedicated to giving back." For more information about Alternative Spring Break and where students are going, visit http://ohiounion.osu.edu/activityfee/asb.asp.
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