March 05, 2015

Spring break on the horizon, students ready to … volunteer!

Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu

Harrisburg – With another long, cold winter refusing to release its icy grip, college students across Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education are ready for spring break and a week away from classes. Many of them, however, won’t be heading to the beach to kick back and relax in the sunshine.

They’ll be volunteering instead, taking part in service-learning projects at dozens of locations; some, close to home; others far away.
More than 100 Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania students will fan out across the United States as part of the university’s CareBreak program, now in its 22nd year. Several hundred students from the 13 other State System universities will do likewise as part of alternative spring break programs that continue in their popularity.
"It is a chance for our students to be involved in extended service-learning experiences,” said Candice Blevins, a physical therapy graduate assistant in SRU's Center for Student Involvement and Leadership and CareBreak program organizer. “The trips also help create Slippery Rock University's international reputation as a place where students develop a strong ethic of service."
Slippery Rock’s CareBreak program has been operating since 1994. Since then more than 1,200 students have participated in more than 200,000 hours of volunteer time. This year, groups of students will travel to eight cities in seven states.
They will volunteer with Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration in Biloxi, Miss.; with Camp Restore Community Projects in New Orleans; and with Fresh Ministries in Jacksonville, Fla., where they will assist a variety of agencies that serve people in need. They also will travel to Oatland Island Wildlife Center in Savannah, Ga., to assist with trail maintenance, ground maintenance, exhibit reconstruction, landscaping and other projects while helping at the annual community Sheep Shearing Festival.

SRU students participating in the CareBreak program organize, plan and pay for their trips, including scheduling community service projects in conjunction with a host organization, often a local church or non-profit community organization.
Bloomsburg University students have two projects planned during spring break, which starts Monday and runs through next Friday. One group will travel to Stamford, Conn., where they will join with students from other colleges from across the country for an alternative spring break trip hosted by the Sisters of Life. The trip will combine prayer, service and education, including a three-day retreat and a variety of hands-on volunteer experiences. The students also will take a "Saints in the City Tour" and spend a free day in Manhattan.
Ten students in Bloomsburg’s Honors Program will travel to Jamaica for a mission trip, where they will volunteer at health clinics and schools and will help build a home for a family in need.
California University of Pennsylvania students will travel to Panama City, Fla., and Philadelphia. Ten members of New Life Christian Fellowship will serve their fellow college students through the Beach Reach mission in Panama City. Along with students from other universities, they will offer free pancakes and safe transportation to the thousands of young adults who flock to Panama City each spring. Beach Reach is organized by LifeWay, a nonprofit organization that conducts mission work and other ministries around the world.
“Panama City is known to be a big party destination for college students over spring break,” said Amanda Loeffler, New Life president. “We try to get to know them, see where they’re at with faith and try to provide hope. Most people think mission trips mean you leave the country, but there’s work to be done right here. Ministry work can literally be done right at your front door.”
Students from STAND Campus Ministry will spend their spring break repairing homes for economically challenged families in Philadelphia’s multi-cultural Roxborough neighborhood. This will be the group’s third trip to the community, where they will make free home repairs for elderly, single parents and low-income city residents.
“I think it’s always helpful to get away from your normal context,” said Pete Ware, campus minister for STAND. “For some students it’s a bit of a culture shock, because it’s their first inner-city contact, and they experience a lot of different cultures.”
Ware first took part in The Philadelphia Project as an undergraduate at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The hands-on work is just one aspect of the experience, he said.
“At night the students are debriefing what they saw and are really thinking about everything they observed,” Ware said. “The classic line is that college students are so poor, but with this experience they see that they’re not. They are very privileged. Things hit home.”
More than a dozen students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania will travel to Barnet, Vermont, to participate in a variety of maintenance projects at the nation’s oldest Buddhist meditation center. This will be the fifth trip to the location.
About 50 members of Rho Tau Chi, the military science honor fraternity at IUP, won’t really be traveling during spring break, but, instead, will host a 24-hour sleep out in front of a local shopping center to raise funds for homeless veterans in Pennsylvania.
Students from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, and Sumter, S.C., to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, where they will work on building and/or renovating affordable housing for families in the two communities. Another group from Kutztown will work with the Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization to prepare a two-acre plot for farming.
Eighteen students from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania’s Outreach for Humanity Club will travel to Georgetown, S.C., to work with Habitat for Humanity as part of the Collegiate Challenge, helping to build affordable housing for low-income families.
Another group of students from LHU’s Christian Student Fellowship will work with a variety of community organizations in and around Huntington, W.Va., to assist a variety of community organizations partnering with many different community organizations. They will perform a variety of maintenance projects, including painting and house repairs for elderly members of local churches and will paint an apartment that is used for “between housing” for homeless persons. The group also will volunteer with the Boys’ and Girls’ Club; Harmony House, a homeless shelter; and a pregnancy center.
A total of 36 Millersville University students will participate in several alternative spring break projects. Millersville’s Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project (CCERP) is sending 13 students on a five-day trip to Bithlo, Fla., where they will serve meals at a shelter, renovate neighborhood homes, participate in a landscaping project and complete a neighborhood canvassing initiative. At the end of each work day, students will have an opportunity to examine the root causes of the social issues involved in the effort to transform the Bithlo community.
Twelve more students from Millersville’s University Christian Fellowship will travel to Far Rockaway, Queens, N.Y., to help rebuild an area still recovering from Hurricane Sandy. The group will work with the Mennonite Disaster Service and the First Church of God in Far Rockaway during their “break.”
Eleven students in the Social Work Department at Millersville University are taking a seven-day trip to Heredia, Costa Rica., where they will explore the social issues of sexual violence and human trafficking. The students will be working with two non-profit organizations, La Posada de Belén, a shelter, and Fundación Rahab, a safe house for women. The students will teach English, attend workshops that focus on the women and children who have suffered through trafficking and will hand out flyers to promote awareness of trafficking in Hereida.
A dozen students from West Chester University of Pennsylvania’s College of Education will travel to Malpais, Costa Rica, where they will perform a variety of service projects at three local schools as part of Education Youth Across Borders. The students will assist in teacher training and engage children in academic activities. These students will teach their lessons using “CAPS Kits,” which are homemade learning tools created from recycled bottle caps.
Another group of West Chester students, working with the group Building Partnerships Through Service, will spend their spring break in Guatemala at the University Rafael Landivar, performing a variety of service-learning projects. A number of members of WCU fraternities and sororities will be being staying closer to home, volunteering with the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, while a separate group will travel to Buffalo, N.Y., as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge.
In a joint project, about 120 students from eight State System universities—Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities—will spend their spring break week at the Chincoteague Bay Field Station located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Since the field station was founded in 1968 thousands of elementary, high school and college students have visited the facility to learn about the unique barrier island ecosystems of Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. As part of the alternative spring break program there, students will take part in a variety of service projects, including painting, organizing, taking inventory and masonry work.
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, with about 110,000 students. The 14 State System universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study.
The universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The universities also operates branch campuses in Oil City (Clarion), Freeport and Punxsutawney (IUP) and Clearfield (Lock Haven), and offer classes and programs at several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and in Center City in Philadelphia.