Archive for the ‘Language Study’ Category

Service Trips Coming Out of Our Ears!!!

Friday, February 20th, 2009

24 Days Until Tulum!

We are busy bees here at Enchanting Challenge, little elves working away in our service-trip workshop!!  Plans have come underway to finalize the itinerary of the service spring breakers in Tulum, which is looking action-packed with awesome eco-work!  We have exciting news of a partnership with the Amigos de Sian Ka’an , meaning that Enchanting Challenge service breakers will work to fulfill some of the Amigos’ projects, such as wildlife management, bird conservation, and community-based natural resource management.   It will be a week filled with fun AND important activities!  Enchanting Challenge will film this week of eco-service and post videos on our blogs and websites, so that our readers can learn about these service trips and be inspired to take part in the future.

amigos(photo taken from the Amigos website)

Coming Up Next: Mendoza!

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As mentioned in yesterday’s post, if you can not make it to the Tulum service trip in March, do not fear that you have lost your opportunity to embark upon an Enchanting experience!!  Our next service trip opportunity will take place in August in Mendoza, Argentina! 

Service Trip to Mendoza with Enchanting Challenge

& Fundación Viviencias Argentinas

 

Attention all study-abroad students, backpackers, ex-pats, and tourists!!!  Come join Enchanting Challenge and their Mendocino (meaning from Mendoza) partners at Fundación Viviencias Argentinas this August for a two-week service trip in the Mendoza province.  As a re-cap, this is what the trip will entail:

 

Week One:

Week One will be spent in the city of Mendoza, working with the disadvantaged children of this community.  All English-speaking volunteers will stay with a Mendocino family for this week, learning about the Mendocino culture, sharing in the language experience, and eating meals with their host family.  During the day, volunteers will work with the children, participating in the following activities:

  1. Organizing a donation drive for shoes, clothing, toys, and games
  2. Coordinating and participating in recreational activities
  3. Assisting children with their school work
  4. Addressing any health-care needs that are not being met

 

Week Two:

Week Two will be spent in the Desierto Lavalle, working with the indigenous Huarpes community on various community development projects.  20-25 Mendocino volunteers are expected to go—all school children between the ages of 15-18 from the Colegio San José de los Hermanos Maristas de la Provincia de Mendoza.  English-speaking tourist/back-packing/study-abroad/ex-pat volunteers will work side-by-side with their Mendocino counter-parts, taking part in the following activities:

  1. Organizing a donation drive for shoes, clothing, toys, and games
  2. Teaching and demonstrating methods for sustainable living and farming practices, such as cooking in a solar-powered kitchen
  3. Coordinating a donation drive for items necessary in a rural region, such as electricity generators, vaccines, and medications
  4. Collecting items for school children, such as computers and clothing for uniforms
  5. Participating in community cultural events and festivities

 This experience has the ability to turn your stay in Argentina into something more than just a vacation.  It can help give you a profound sense of place, and Argentina will leave its mark upon you as you simultaneously leave your mark upon it.  There is perhaps no more rewarding way to travel than through service travel.

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Posted in Children, Education, Environment, Family Volunteering, Language Study, Service, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Tulum Eco Spring Break Service Trip | 2 Comments »

Countdown to Tulum: 25 Days!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

ECOTULUM HERE WE COME!!!

2 students have officially bought their plane tickets to MEXICO for the Educational Ecological Service Trip!!!  Hurray!!  We are on our way to rainforest reconstruction, learning lessons in sustainability from the ancient Mayan culture, and so much more…4 more students are looking into plane tickets, but there are more spaces awaiting, so just let me know if you want to join in this exciting ecological mission!!!

The students will arrive in Tulum on Monday, March 16th.  At the resort, they will be met by the lovely Gabriela Miranda, who will welcome them and help them to settle in.  The service breakers will eat a scrumptious dinner on the evening of their arrival, and then will go to sleep in their cabana, getting ready for the first day of service on Tuesday, March 17th.

Service activities will be planned for Tuesday, March 17th; Wednesday, March 18th; Thursday, March 19th; and Friday March 20th.  Saturday, March 21st will be a free, do-as-you-please beach day.  Go splash in the Caribbean Sea and reward yourself for all your eco-accomplishments during this wonderful week!!  The specifics of the service activities will be planned in the upcoming days ahead.  (Join in the planning: the first meeting is on our Facebook Group: Tulum-Bound, tonight at 5:30 pm CST!)  The options for the activities include a beach clean-up at the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, volunteering in a Mayan hospital and/or Mayan library, a day in the jungle (perhaps accompanied by a biologist!), a day learning and participating in Mayan cultural activities, and a day visiting and learning from Mayan ruins!!

INSPIRATION

Check out the amazing site “Imaginative Traveller” for inspiration on why service vacations are the MOST rewarding and the MOST fun!!  As the volunteer-trip organizer Bruch Haxton sums up, “There is a huge amount of fun [in service trips] and people don’t always understand that.  It is about having fun & doing something worthwhile at the same time.”

MORE ON THE DOCKET…

If you can not come to the Educational Ecological Service Trip in Tulum this March, do not despair, for there are a handful of other exciting Enchanting Challenge opportunities just around the corner!  The next one takes place this August in Mendoza, Argentina.  Here is a profile of the Mendoza program scheduled for August.

Fundacion Viviencias Argentinas

For the Mendoza service trip, Enchanting Challenge will partner with Fundacion Viviencias Argentinas, a foundation that has been running service trips for the past 10 years in Mendoza.  This year they have decided to open their doors and welcome anyone to do service with them, which is where Enchanting Challenge comes in!  We at Enchanting Challenge want to invite any interested parties in joining on this lovely adventure to serve the Mendoza community.  Together on this trip we will spend one week working with orphans and disadvantaged families in the city of Mendoza.  After one week we will trek out to the nearby Desierto Lavalle (also in the Mendoza province) for another week, where together we will work with the indigenous communities, participating in various community development activities.  Read below for a list of activities that will be covered in these two weeks.

Working with Orphans and Disadvantaged Families in the City of Mendoza

During our one week in Mendoza, we will do a number of community-enriching activities with the children of Mendoza.  These activities will include the following:

  1. Helping with school work
  2. Helping with health care needs
  3. Organizing donation drives for clothing, shoes, toys, games, and more
  4. Organizing and participating in recreational activities

Working in the Desierto Lavalle

For the second week of the Mendoza service trip, our group will head into the Desierto Lavalle, where we will work with the Huarpes Community, an indigenous community native to this region.  We will participate in the following activities:

  1. Organizing donation drives for shoes and games for more than 35o children (a tall task, but one that I know we can accomplish)
  2. Organizing donation drives for the fundamental elements necessary for rural life, such as electricity generators, medicines, and vaccines
  3. Organizing donation drives for school-children’s needs, such as clothing and computers
  4. Helping to teach energy efficient living and farming practices, such as cooking in a solar kitchen, sustainable planting and harvesting methods, and methods to increase the quality of the drinking water
  5. Participating in the important cultural events of this region

Contact Me if You are Interested!!

The two core parts of the Mendoza service trip–the week in the city and the week in the desert–come together to create a rejuvenating and rewarding experience.  Volunteers on this trip will stay in homestays, making it a cultural experience as well!!!  For more information on the Mendoza service trips, check out Agustin’s blog here.  If you are interested in joining this trip, please contact me at sarahannmaxwell@gmail.com and I can give you more details!!!  And, most touching and exciting of all, check out pictures of this service trip here and here.  They will melt your heart!!!

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Posted in Children, Education, Environment, Family Volunteering, Language Study, Service, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Tulum Eco Spring Break Service Trip | No Comments »

Why the Economic Crisis is a Good Time to Embrace Service

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

With the economic crisis affecting us all in some way, and with scary headlines sweeping our newspapers everyday, it may feel like a pretty dark time.  However, although it might be hard to believe, this is also a time of unlimited opportunity.  As the saying goes, “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste” (Paul Romer, economist).  Let me explain.

This week, Luke Russert interviewed former President Bill Clinton.  And you will not believe the advice Bill Clinton gave to young people who are about to finish their 4-year degrees!  Read it and get excited:

  • Stay in school if you can or want to
  • Volunteer
  • Go abroad
  • Any combination of the above options

Because of our shaken-up economy, now is most likely not the moment you are going to find the career that allows you to save millions of dollars.  Though that may seem to be a gloomy fact, that reality also frees you from obligations of normal societal expectations, such as embarking upon your career path.   Now is the time that you have nothing to lose, which awards you the freedom to take risks, to follow your dreams and to do the things that seem unwise and unsafe when you have a secure office job at stake.  A crisis truly is a terrible thing to waste, as it allows you to remake and redefine the reality of your life. 

So what are your options?  If you are graduating, programs like AmeriCorps and PeaceCorps are amazing options.  So are shorter-term volunteer opportunities, such as Visions in Action .   

peace-corps(photo taken from Peace Corps website)

americorps1(image taken from the AmeriCorps VISTA site)

There are also some certification programs that you can embark upon either before or after graduation that can lead to altnerative career opportunities, such as a job within the emerging and highly-demanded green economy.  One of the best of these programs that I can recommend is Green For All, a vocational program (for which you DO NOT need a 4-year college degree!) that trains people and helps to place them somewhere in the alternative energy field.  Another interesting option in this genre is Green Corps, a very cool one-year program that teaches its trainees to organize environmental service and volunteer drives within communities, campuses, and more.  Let me know if you are interested in any of these programs and I can help to give you more information!

green-for-all(photo taken from the Green For All site)

And of course, what else can you do?? Enchanting Challenge service trips!!! We are getting ready to embark on the first one next month in Tulum, Mexico; we are busy plotting away the second one in August in Mendoza, Argentina; and we are putting together the pieces for the third one scheduled to take place in October in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.  Get ready for tomorrow’s post, as it will be a re-cap on all of these amazing service destinations!!!

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Posted in Animals, Children, Education, Environment, Family Volunteering, Language Study, Service, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Tulum Eco Spring Break Service Trip, Winter Break | No Comments »

Time to Plan Your Post-Graduation Service Abroad

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

 

Why Volunteer Abroad After Graduation?

Although this blog has focused on what you can do as a university student, service does not end with graduation.  In fact, after graduation, so many more doors open up, as you are a working member of society and can devote your career,  your free time, and/or some of your extra money to service-related causes.  You can volunteer locally in your free time, spend your vacations volunteering, and/or help work with social service entrepreneurship, if you have the funds.  

One of the most amazing ways to serve post-graduation is by going abroad with an organized service trip if you have the time, the will, and the means.  Going abroad to serve can be a truly exciting option, as it allows you to devote a solid block of your time to a service project, away from your daily life, and thus away from routine, allowing you to open yourself up to the place in which you are serving. 

Like we said in yesterday’s blog post,

While traveling, routine becomes impossible.  You are forced to deal with uncomfortable situations, to reach into the depths of yourself and trust your instinct.  You are forced to reach outside of yourself and make relationships based on respect and interest.  You can not rely on normalcy, on expectation.  You live with intuition.  At times you are desperately nervous, but to act in your truest calling takes being uncomfortable, takes putting yourself in situations where you simply can not expect the outcome.  In these situations you become AWARE, and thus become able to act out simple truths of service in your own unique, sincere way. 

  

 

 If the thought of this type of service work excites you, there are some amazing programs out there just waiting for your application.  See below for an Enchanting Challenge recommended list.

 

Visions in Action

 

 Visions in Action is an amazing option for the college graduate is looking for a little adventure, and to give a little back along the way. Their self-described mission is to achieve “social and economic justice in the developing world through grassroots programs and communities of self-reliant volunteers.  This is accomplished through our classic volunteer program, which supports NGOs in our program countries, and through our supported volunteer program, which staffs our development programs.” A pretty admirable mission, wouldn’t you say?  These programs range in length from 6-12 months, and are currently available in the following countries: Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Mexico, and Liberia.  To apply to serve with Visions in Action, click here. If 6-12 months is just a little too long for you, there is a short-term volunteer program, available in Tanzania and Mexico, to which you can apply here. 

 

Transitions Abroad

 

Also, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, a mountain of information about different volunteer programs worldwide can be found at the Transitions Abroad website, which provides information for students AND graduates on how to volunteer abroad.  Transitions Abroad provides information on programs raning from the Peace Corps to United Planet, and in places from Argentina to Vietnam, and everywhere alphabetically in-between. 

 

Experiential Learning International

 

A third great resource to turn to is Experiential Learning International, an organization that develops partnerships with local organizations in 19 different countries, setting up volunteer work that can last 1 week to 1 year.  There is something for everyone, as their website sums up: “Whether you would like to devote your time to caring for orphans in the Philippines, teaching in a rural school in Ghana, breeding tortoises in the Galapagos, building a Holocaust memorial in Poland, working at a health camp in India, planting trees in rural Tanzania, or any of the hundreds of other options available, we can set up the right program for you.”  I’m sold by that description! 

 

Center for Cultural Interchange

 

A final great site that I truly recommend is the Center for Cultural Interchange.  This program is open to anyone 16 years old or older: high school students, college students, and professionals who are looking for something a little different.  Their programs seek to give the server a profound experience by giving them the opportunity to have a profound effect on their environment.  Service work through the Center for Cultural Interchange can last from 2-12 weeks, and can be served in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Benin, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, Tanzania, and Thailand.  If you are interested in applying, click here. 

 

Okay, I will stop boring you with my own descriptions, and simply conclude with a list of other sites that I recommend you check out.  Have fun, and as always, comment and email with any questions, comments, suggestions, and new ideas! Suerte!! 

 

Other Great Organizations 

**If you need a little extra encouragement to volunteer, I can guarantee this article will convince you! :-)

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Posted in Animals, Children, Education, Environment, Family Volunteering, Language Study, Service Abroad, Spring Break, Summer Break, Winter Break | No Comments »

Time to Plan Your Semester Abroad

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

As the spring semester dawns upon us, you may begin thinking about studying abroad in the upcoming academic school year.  Studying abroad is a wonderful way to travel in a structured yet liberated manner.  You have the security of a well-constructed academic program built around you, while also having the freedom outside of academia to build your own path within this journey.  It is the best of both worlds…An exploration simultaneously guided and free. 

Moreover, studying abroad is a profound exploration! Studying abroad gives you the time to come to know a place intimately, whether you decide to study abroad for a summer, a semester, or even an entire year.  It takes a long time to scratch beneath the surface of a place, time that is often not available in just a short vacation.  Studying abroad is a rare moment in one’s life when you are afforded the time it takes to build a deep relationship between you and your host city or host country.

Any type of studying abroad is invaluable to your life.  At home, often things are familiar, expected, predictable.  Most of the time, things can go according to plan, with some foresight.  However, when abroad, especially at first, there is a good chance that not much will go according to plan.  With the chaos of learning a new public transportation system, a new city grid, a new culture, and perhaps a new language, there are too many variables to be controlled.  Studying abroad allows you to develop the tools necessary to still function and succeed in an uncontrollable environment. Studying abroad teaches you how to be adaptable and flexible, how to turn to plan b, and often plans c and d, with fluidity and patience.  It is an experience that awards you the tools that are deeply valuable to your life and to handling the inevitable curveballs that will come with certain points of your life. 

Studying abroad imparts onto you not only the tools to navigate life, but also the tools to realize the truths within yourself.  While travelling, routine becomes impossible.  You are forced to deal with uncomfortable situations, to reach into the depths of yourself and trust your instinct.  You are forced to reach outside of yourself and make relationships based on respect and interest.  You can not rely on normalcy, on expectation.  You live with intuition.  At times you are desperately nervous, but I believe that to act in the ways in which you are called to act takes being uncomfortable, takes putting yourself in situations where you simply can not expect the outcome.  These situations are where you become AWARE, and thus become able to act upon simple truths in your own unique way.

Now, with studying abroad becoming more popular and more viable, different kinds of programs are popping up all over the board.  With these different opportunites, many different study abroad opportunities centered on service have arisen.  And really, what better way to come to know a place–and to come to better know yourself–than by serving within it, by reaching into the heart of its hunger and helping to feed it with the nourishment it needs, and nourishing yourself in the process.  Anyone can visit a place and touch upon every guidebook marker the city boasts, but few can have an experience intimate enough to know the face of that city’s need, and even fewer have the reward of helping to fulfill that need.  By serving in a place, you move beyond infatuation and romanticism into love, which is always the ultimate goal anyways, right? :-)   Here are some steps that you should follow to find the service semester tailored to you:

  1. As a student wanting to study abroad, your first order of business is to visit your university’s study abroad office.  There is a 99% chance they will have a great office with tons of different programs from which you can choose, and most likely at least a few of these programs will include service.   The biggest benefit of embarking on a study abroad trip coordinated by your university is that it will then be very simple for your credits to transfer, making your road to graduation still a smooth road to walk.
  2. However, if your school does not offer a study abroad service trip that fits your needs, there are plenty of other opportunities to which you can turn.  They just might take a little extra paperwork to ensure the proper transfer of credits, but a little pen and paper never hurt anyone!  The very first website I would visit in your quest is the the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) site.   CIEE offers programs spanning the globe:  across Africa, throughout Europe, all over Latin America, and of course in Asia, Australia, and the Middle East as well.   And don’t worry, service learning is a major part of many of their programs.
  3. Another great webiste you should turn to in this hunt for your perfect service study abroad trip is the National Registration Center for Study Abroad.  This site is a collection of hundreds of study abroad programs, and the specific page that I have linked you to is a collection of programs that are available to United States university students.   On this page, the programs are categorized alphabetically by their language, which can be a great starting point.  To the right of the program’s language, country, and city information is a contact email, to which you can write and ask about service options.
  4. Another gold mine for service abroad is Cross-Cultural Solutions.  Although this organization does not partner up with universities, which would facilitate your journey during the school year, they offer 1-12-week programs that could be ideal for your summer vacation.  Cross-Cultural Solutions currently offers programs inthe following  twelve countries: Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Morocco, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Thailand.
  5. An amazing website to research a plethora of study abroad programs open to university undergraduate and graduate students is the Transitions Abroad website.  On their webpage, they describe themselves as a “portal for undergraduate and graduate study abroad,” and the description is spot-on.  There is a mountain of information there for you to explore, so have fun!
  6. For studying abroad in South America, specifically Argentina, GIC Argentina is a wonderful program to go through.  It offers semester abroad and summer abroad programs to Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and Patagonia.  They also coordinate a number of volunteer programs, with which your study abroad GIC program can work in conjunction.

As of now, that is the best information I can offer.  However, like always, any comments and suggestions are more than welcome, and if anyone in the audience has tips for studying abroad, hand ‘em over!  As a recap, these are the steps and sites that we recommend:

  1. Visit your university’s study abroad office.
  2. Visit the CIEE website.
  3. Visit the National Registration Center for Study Abroad.
  4. Visit the Cross-Cultural Solutions site.
  5. Visit the Transitions Abroad site.
  6. Visit the GIC Argentina site.

Remember to have fun while you research! :-)

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Posted in Animals, Children, Education, Environment, Family Volunteering, Language Study, Spring Break, Summer Break, Winter Break | No Comments »

An Interview with a Service Trip Guru

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

joanne1

Meet Joanne Dennis, the Alternative Breaks Coordinator for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.  She has some wonderful and inspiring insight to shed upon service trips and service in general, from the destinations of her service trips, to the effects they have had upon her students.

 

Can you give me a brief description of your job?

I am the Alternative Breaks Coordinator for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.  I work in the Center for Service and Action with a team of LMU students to coordinate domestic and international volunteer trips for LMU students, staff and faculty. 

 

 

How did you come to work for your job? Was there some sort of service that you did in your past that inspired you to work for service within your career?

I always knew that I wanted to work in a career that somehow contributes to the world.  I got my Bachelors and Masters of Social Work, and worked in a variety of social service environments, both domestic and international.  Most recently, I was a foster care social worker before coming to LMU.

 

 

What kinds of service trips have you organized?  (i.e., to where, what kind of service work was involved, what kinds of activities)

We have a wide variety of trips—all over the U.S. and internationally.  This year we’re sponsoring 17 different trips, spanning 7 countries and 4 continents.  Check out our Alternative Breaks website at www.lmu.edu/csa for an idea about the variety of trips we sponsor.

 

What kind of feedback do you normally get from the students?

Students and staff love these trips, and often say that they’re life changing experiences.  Our motto is “changing the world, one student at a time.”  Although we can’t have too much of an impact on a community in 1-2 weeks of service,  our goal is for each trip to have a big impact on the students, with the hope that they’ll carry this experience with them for the rest of their lives, no matter which career they choose.

 

Is there one specific story from a student’s experience that jumps out at you?

Inspired by his Alternative Breaks trips to the Dominican Republic and Cambodia, LMU senior Brock Seraphin decided to start a microlending program with one of our local AB sites in California’s Central Valley.  The program is the first of its kind to support farm workers in the U.S., and current LMU students will get the chance to volunteer with the program while on their Alternative Breaks trip in March.

 

Are students from other universities allowed to go through Loyola and take part in your alternative spring breaks?

No, all participants must be LMU students, staff, or faculty.  If non-LMU students are interested in going on a volunteer trip, I suggest they check out Break Away: www.alternativebreaks.org.  This is the national organization that works with over 500 Alternative Breaks programs in the U.S.

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Posted in Animals, Children, Education, Environment, Interviews, Language Study, Spring Break, Summer Break, Winter Break | 4 Comments »

Why Going on a Service Trip is a Good Decision for Your Education and Career

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Nonprofit Management, Environmental Architecture, Peace and Conflict Studies…These are all new majors that are taking their rightful place within the education system.  With a degree in nonprofit management you will be equipped with the skills needed to manage the business side of a nonprofit corporation.  Being a certified environmental architect makes you a guru in designing sustainably, using the latest technology to utilize renewable resources and to minimize the energy used within building and designing.  With a background in peace and conflict studies, you can understand and evaluate the factors that lead to an ideal human coexistence, working to prevent war, lessen violence, and to map out solutions for social conflicts.  All of these majors have two things in common: they help to make the world a better place, AND they are all enhanced by a service trip.

 

At times it seems our world is in dire straits, reeling from harmful actions of the past and the present.  But it seems as though the world is responding, and most people are making it a part of their lives to give back to the world, to do their small part in putting it back together again.  Now, more than ever, college students and graduates are focused on giving back to their communities, and new majors have sprung up to fit this new altruistic mentality.  Everything from Business School to the School of Education are sending their students and graduates on to take part in this global clean-up, from MBAs Without Borders (http://mbaswithoutborders.org/) to Teach for America (http://www.teachforamerica.org/).

 

A service trip is an excellent way to prepare for such a major and future career.  It can last anywhere from one week to three months, and it can give you a preview of what it means to devote yourself to service, in whatever size capacity best suits you.  Since it is only for a temporary time, a service trip can help you to decipher what kind of service brings out your full potential; it can help you to decipher how and where you give best to the world.

 

Furthermore, taking a service trip displays one’s adaptability.  When working in an air-conditioned, structured office, there is little that tends to go wrong, or to not go according to plan.  While volunteering on a service trip, different cultures, a variety of needs, and a somewhat uncontrolled environment leads to an at-times unpredictable situation in which one needs to be prepared to jump to Plan B, and at times to Plans C and D.  Showing your willingness to adapt and your ability to be flexible is an attractive asset for employers and educators.  As education and entrepreneurs become more in-tuned with the needs of the world, both are looking for candidates who can be creative, compliant, and charismatic.  Taking a service trip illustrates these characteristics within you.  Therefore, by taking a service trip, you are helping the world, and you are helping your future education and career.

 

 

 

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You May Ask, What Exactly IS a Service Trip?

Friday, January 9th, 2009

A service trip is an organized student trip devoted to community service in a variety of destinations.  On a service trip, the students embark upon tasks and projects that aid a particular community.  The types of community service can vary from combating poverty, to preserving the environment, to health education and awareness, and everything in-between.  A number of universities across the United States run their own programs, often through student organizations or through university departments.  If your university does not have its own service trip department or program, many universities that do are open to students from other colleges taking part in their trips.  In addition, there are also some national programs that you may go through, such as Break Away, the national and unaffiliated alternative break coordinator.

 

Across the country, there are hundreds of universities with hundreds of unique service trip programs.  For example, Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, a Jesuit university with a mission of social justice, has a handful of student groups that organize service trips over the spring, winter, and summer breaks.  Their “Watumishi: People of Service” group strives to educate the Marquette Community about the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS around the world, specifically in Kenya.  To further their mission, Watumishi organizes book drives and takes a service trip every summer to Voi, Kenya, where the group is helping to build a library and fill it with all the books donated by Marquette students and alumni.  “MARDIS GRAS” (“Making a Real Difference in the Gulf Region and Area Surrounding”) is another student group at Marquette University that organizes service trips.  Their focus is the post-Katrina Gulf region, especially New Orleans, where the student group travels with volunteers at every available opportunity to take part in community-rebuilding tasks such as building houses. (Visit http://www.marquette.edu/about/service_studorgs.shtml for more information.)

 

Many other universities carry out similar campaigns, but if you would rather go through an unaffiliated, national program, such as Break Away, visit http://www.alternativebreaks.org/.  In the spring of 2006, about 36,000 students took part in an alternative break service trip.  It is a very popular and highly esteemed program, with trips ranging from working with migrant farmworkers in the state of Florida, to registering people to vote in rural areas of Mississippi.  As their website states, “Break Away seeks to use alternative breaks as a springboard into lifelong active citizenship…where the community becomes a priority in an individual’s life decisions.”  It is a wonderful program and one in which should be considered at the top of the list if you are interested in a service trip.

 

This blog will seek to investigate the many service trip programs that are available to you.  We will post interviews with coordinators and veterans of the trips, ways in which you can get involved with these programs, and lists of the ways the programs fit specific needs, such as affordability and regional preferences.  Keep on the lookout for further, informative posts!

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Posted in Animals, Children, Education, Environment, Language Study, Spring Break, Summer Break | 3 Comments »

Welcome to the World of Service Trips!

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Welcome to Enchanting Challenge’s blog about service trips! Through this blog, we hope to share with you the fun and rewarding experience of taking a service trip, and to show you how travel like this can help the world in its most dire of needs. This blog can act as a directory for you in finding an ecological or other service trip that suits you—from the most affordable trips to the most exotic, to the trips that will help you with your major, to the trips that will help you with your future professional career.

We want this blog to be a useful tool that will help you find the perfect service trip for you.

Service trips are a way to use your spring break, winter break, and/or summer break to get back to nature and to the community, to work for environmental preservation and community re-building within your dream destination, whether that be far or near. To the depths of the Costa Rican rainforests, to the bustling cities of Central America, to the redwood forests of California, or even inside the backyards of your own community, you can travel to a unique corner of the Earth and for a short but effective time, devote yourself to preserving and improving it.

On an ecological service trip, you can plant trees, clean up rivers, campaign to end the use of plastic bags and plastic bottles, work to educate the local community about sustainability, and so much more. By serving like this, you can work to sustain the most fundamental part of our existence: our environment. All things come from nature, and preserving the environment is the most pressing need of our time. Leave your footprint on the Earth by shrinking our collective, carbon footprint.

If you prefer to work with communities, you can help out by building a home for a family in need, working with underprivileged children, or teaching adults to read, among many other options.

If animals are your thing, consider volunteering at a shelter, on a natural disaster animal response team, or in programs to help endangered species. The options are unlimited, and you can help out all kinds of animals, both wild and domestic.

As a university student, you are armed with the power of education and filled with the knowledge that you can make a difference. This is a great starting point: embark upon a service trip. It can be exotic, affordable, fun, educational, and more than anything, rewarding.

Start gathering research today; then help out by taking a service break.

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