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Alternative Spring Break

September 29, 2009

Applications for Alternative Spring Break are now being accepted in the SLiCE office. The Alternative Break program provides students with the opportunity to participate in community service projects nationally and internationally. Sign up today!

Sign up for the experience of a lifetime

Got plans for spring break? Forgo the usual and embrace an opportunity to leave a legacy and have an experience of a lifetime! With Alternative Breaks, you can get involved with a social issue you feel passionately about and share your passion with ten of your peers. In one week, you will travel and volunteer in another state, city, or country and embark on a journey that will challenge and motivate you on a variety of social causes.

The Alternative Break program is a week of immersion into different cultural, environmental, and socio-economic communities across the nation and in different countries around the world. Students provide volunteer service in exchange for education about current social and cultural issues facing the host communities.

Every spring, approximately 100 Colorado State University students ranging in age, major, upbringing, background and interest participate in an Alternative Break experience. This year, it could be you.

This year’s trips include:

• Achiote, Panama Participants will work with a local community center focusing on environmental conservation and ecotourism with the Panamanian Center for Research and Social Action (CEASPA).
• Catalina, California Participants stay in Catalina Island Camps, on Catalina Island, which is located southwest of Los Angeles and participate in numerous environmental projects.
• Independence, California Teaming up with CSU’s Asian Pacific American Student Services Office and the Manzanar National Historic Site, volunteers will work to preserve and learn about a former Japanese internment camp.
• Kanab, Utah Participants will volunteer for Best Friends Animal Society, the nation’s largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.
• Kissimmee, Florida Participants will volunteer for Give Kids the World, an amusement park for children that have terminal illnesses.
• Maryville, Tennessee Partnering with Once Upon a Time, CSU volunteers will assist with various projects in rural Appalachia and with the Cherokee Nation.
• Moab, Utah Participants will work with Plateau Restoration, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to “protect and restore of native habitats of the Plateau through hands-on research, education, re-vegetation, and restoration.”
• New Orleans, Louisiana (Disaster Relief) This trip features volunteer work with the United Way and St. Bernard Project to support disaster relief and rebuilding of homes as a result of the hurricane Katrina disaster.
• New Orleans, Louisiana (Animals) Participants will volunteer with Animal Rescue New Orleans, a nonprofit organization created and dedicated to the rescue and aid of abandoned and homeless animals in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
• New York City, New York This trip features volunteer work with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first and oldest organization in New York City committed to the fight against AIDS.
• Shiprock, New Mexico Partnering with CSU’s Little Shop of Physics, CSU volunteers will share the wonder of science with youth at various Navajo schools in the 4 corners region.
• Tucson, Arizona Volunteers will work with Humane Borders, a nonprofit organization providing humanitarian relief to those risking their lives and safety to cross the US/Mexico Border.
• Washington D.C. Participants on this trip will volunteer in the nation’s capital providing services to residents of the nation's largest transitional homeless shelter,Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV).

Application information

Applications for the trips are now available at the SLICE Office, located on the main level of the Lory Student Center.

For more details about the trips, locations, and cost, and pick up a participant application, please attend an information meeting:

Tuesday, October 13
Room 228, Lory Student Center
7-8 p.m.

Wednesday, October 14
Lory Student Center Rm. 224-226
7-8 p.m.

Alternative Spring Break is sponsored by the Office for Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement (SLiCE). For more information or an application, please contact Sam Bowersox-Daly at (970) 491-3922 or samboda@rams.colostate.edu or stop by the SLiCE Office.

Students interested in participating in Alternative Spring Break must turn in their applications to the SLiCE office by Wednesday, October 21 at 5 p.m.

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Contact: Jen Johnson
E-mail: jennifer.jo.johnson@colostate.edu
Phone: (970) 491-2955