This winter, thousands of college students nationwide will cut their sleigh riding and hot chocolate sipping short to travel around the country and the world on service trips.
About 72,000 students went on "alternative" break trips in 2009, most of them spring break. But of 1,430 winter, spring, summer and weekend alternative breaks, about 140 were during winter break, says Samantha Giacobozzi, programs director for Break Away, an alternative-break resource that represents more than 140 participating colleges.
"Alternative breaks are meant to cultivate "a society of active citizens, of people who make community a life priority," Giacobozzi says. "We see alternative breaks as being a catalyst for pushing students to become activist citizens."
"Alternative breaks can really get a young person into doing this (service) and then when they go back home, they seek out similar experience near campus," says Maureen Curley, president of Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 1,100 colleges dedicated to community service and civic engagement.
"Episodic volunteering is a way that you can introduce a student to the power of service," she says.
Read More: http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/mind-soul/doing-good/2010-11-29-sharing-alternative-break_N.htm
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