Stuff Mason Students Like #2: Alternative Spring Breaks

Last year during spring break, Mason students Liz Kallman and Katy McCarthey traveled with other members of Catholic Campus Ministry to the Domincan Republic. While there, they helped teach catechetics classes, repuild chapels and paint buildings.
(Photo courtesy of Katy McCarthey)

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[Writer's Note: Inspired by the popular blog, Stuff White People Like, “Stuff Mason Students Like” is pretty self-explanatory in drawing attention to the things George Mason University students like.  This column aims to foster a common culture among Mason’s student population, publish what people are thinking and saying, and most importantly, to poke some fun at the Mason student body.]

I have to say it: Spring Break is in less than a week! Wooooot!

What will you be doing for Spring Break? For those that ask college students this question, I am sure they have a preconceived notion about what we do with a week of no school. The beach + barely clad guys and girls + plenty of alcohol = the formula for what many students would consider a perfect Spring Break of non-stop partying.

Though there certainly is evidence to support the stereotype — ahem, MTV — there is still a handful of college kids that choose to spend their break in a different fashion. These students go on what is known as Alternative Spring Break, and it is a popular choice among Mason’s student body.

An Alternative Spring Break (ASB) involves community service, usually aimed at supporting a single issue. Students go to a location with an organized plan of what service they will be doing. College students are able to utilize this time to learn about something beyond their comfort zone and take these lessons back to campus, with the hopeful intention of impacting their school in a positive way.

Mason is a source of several opportunities for students interested in an ASB. Mason’s Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (CLCE) provides Mason students with opportunities to travel to various places domestic and abroad. The CLCE’s five destinations this Spring Break include a trip to Guatemala where students will participate in projects set up by the Kamalbe Spanish school that are targeted at youth education and community building. On the domestic front, the CLCE is sponsoring a trip to Philadelphia where students will assist with community needs.

Aside from the CLCE, students can look to student organizations for ASB opportunities, which is something I have done. I am going with Mason’s Campus Crusade for Christ down to Panama City Beach, Florida. What’s a Christian organization doing in the number one party city in the nation, you may ask? We are going down there to reach out to the college kids that are partying on the beach, in the hopes of sharing the gospel and introducing them to the One who truly satisfies: Jesus Christ.

Look within the organization you or your friends participate in. Are they sponsoring something? Or are they collaborating with another organization and partaking in what they have arranged? There are several Mason student organizations that desire to have an impact that reaches beyond the campus and are taking full advantage of the free week that Spring Break gives.

Perhaps an ASB opportunity will present itself outside of Mason. For instance, a friend of mine discovered an opportunity to volunteer with Casa Viva, an organization dedicated to the care of children in the developing world. She will be spending her Spring Break in Costa Rica, working with the organization to help meet the needs of abandoned and abused children.

Plenty of Mason students are choosing to partake in an Alternative Spring Break this year, be it with the CLCE, their student organization or an off-campus opportunity. When I ask my peers what they are doing for break, it is encouraging to hear several responses that revolve around an Alternative Break. Not to get on a soapbox, but it is always refreshing to see college students who desire to invest in something outside of themselves and not just live for a temporary high. Knowing our generation, this is not a common find. But at Mason, it seems more common than expected.