These have become popular spring break activities for University students, especially as service learning gains recognition as an important element in a well-rounded education.

Nearly 200 students will leave campus for New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C., to work on homelessness, at-risk youth, AIDS, drug addiction, and other social service needs; for Chicago to especially target the effects of these issues on children; for Harrisburg to emphasize interaction with high school students; for Vermont and North Carolina to focus on environmental issues; and for New Mexico to highlight women’s issues in the Carlsbad Caverns area.

“Students involved in the Alternative Spring Break club work all year toward their trips,” says journalism student Ashanté Kirby, public relations chair for the club and coordinator of the Washington, D.C. project. “Trip coordinators have regular meetings to prepare their project members, and we also have big club meetings where everybody gathers for workshops and speakers. ASB volunteers also work in the Centre region and on campus throughout the year.”

Kirby also reports that a club trip to New Orleans during the recent winter break addressed many of the same urban issues featured in some of next week’s excursions.

ASB trips are planned to create interest in and inspire the spirit of volunteerism, and encourage thoughtful, meaningful service. Although the club is an outgrowth of earlier community service efforts by College of Education students that targeted an inner city school district in Harrisburg, today’s members come from majors across the Penn State curricula.

More information is available on the ASB Club’s website at http://www.clubs.psu.edu/asb.

*gwc*

Contacts:
Gary Cramer, Department of Public Information, (814) 865-7517, gwc104@psu.edu
Ashanté Kirby, ASB trip coordinator, (814) 862-8672, ank109@psu.edu