Students will volunteer in six national and international locations during winter break
While most students head home to spend time with their family and friends during winter and spring breaks, University of Idaho junior Jessica Darney said she finds solace in traveling thousands of miles away to spend her time off with complete strangers.
“You really get to see a different culture, no matter where you go — if it’s a different country or a different state, even your own state there’s different cultures,” Darney said.
Over the years, Darney has participated in four Alternative Service Break trips through the UI Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, where she’s traveled to domestic and international locations to partake in service learning projects.
The ASB program allows UI students to engage in hands-on service projects in communities around the world. Many of the service opportunities are rooted in complex social and economic issues such as homelessness, poverty, racism, education and sustainability.
Applications for the two-week long winter ASB trips are due by midnight Sunday, and all undergraduate fee-paying students are eligible to apply at uidaho.com/volunteer.
This year, UI students have the opportunity to volunteer and travel abroad to Nicaragua or Peru or domestically to South Carolina, Pittsburgh or Atlanta. The trips will occur over a two-week period from Dec. 29 through Jan. 12.
Although the trips are subsided through ASUI, students must cover $500 for domestic travels and $1,200 for international trips.
“I feel like service is something every human needs to participate in,” Darney said. “It’s just a natural thing for you to want to do.”
According to Program Coordinator Natalie Magnus, this year’s locations are a mix between old and new. While El Balsamo and Santa Julia, Nicaragua, and Charleston, South Carolina, are new partnerships, the program will once again be traveling to Peru to work in both Cai Cay and Los Molinos, as well as in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
Magnus said this is the first year there will be six locations.
“I think if a student choses to give up part of their break to do service in a community, they shouldn’t be denied that opportunity,” Magnus said about the additional trips this year. “We know that it’s a great way for students to have their eyes opened to, not just a different culture and a different way of life, but also to the different struggles that go on.”
Typically, about 80 to 100 students apply for the trips, and Magnus said by adding locations they hope to have everyone who applies participate.
In El Balsamo, students will be focusing on poverty relief and sustainable energy through a partnership with Green Empowerment. The students will help install solar panels to help bring light to the community, Magnus said.
In the second location in Nicaragua, gender equality in economics and agriculture is the focus, she said. In Santa Julia, the students will be partnering with Panorama Service Expeditions and working with the women’s cooperative tending the coffee crop.
In Charleston, students will work with Palmetto Trust to preserve natural resources and historic landmarks, as well as to promote outdoor recreation through building outdoor trails, Magnus said.
Darney journeyed to Pittsburgh in December of 2012 — the same location other UI students will travel to in December — and said they helped repair roofs and tile floors, among other tasks, partnering with Rebuilding Pittsburgh.
Darney said she enjoyed meeting a family whose home she was helping to repair.
“We really got to see that no matter who you are, what you look like, what you do for a living, you are human and we have the same basic needs,” Darney said. “We’re very similar.”
When she visited Peru last winter, Darney said the trip centered on education, and she and her team played with children at local boys and girls clubs.
At the time, Darney said she questioned if she was really benefiting and helping children by simply playing with them.
“When I got back, I realized they needed that support, just someone to love them for two weeks,” she said.
In Atlanta, students will be prepackaging and delivering meals in addition to working at homeless shelters. Magnus said the Atlanta trip is grounded in eliminating hunger and homelessness.
When applying, students may not select which trip to go on, but are able to choose between an international or domestic trip as well as which social justice topics to potentially work in, Magnus said.
Darney said the biggest take away from her four ASB trips was that she learned a lesson that she would carry with her for the rest of her life.
“No matter where you go, you have the same dreams,” she said. “You want to do the same things, you want to provide for your family.”
Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected]