By: Jordan Grummer

Students who are looking to leave the beaches and ski slopes behind this Spring Break can find a unique service opportunity in Alternative Spring Break, sponsored by the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement and University Housing.

Three supervised Alternative Spring Break trips are planned for the spring, and each offers UA students different opportunities to get involved.

One will take students to southwest Arkansas, near Texarkana and Hope, to visit the hometown of Silas Hunt, the first black student admitted to the UA in the 20th Century. Students will spend the week working with community groups and visiting area youth.

Another group of students will travel to Northeast Oklahoma, where they will be introduced to Native American culture through participation in service and education.

And the final trip will focus on technology: Through it, students will help people in the Arkansas Delta learn about computers and text messaging. Because many children in the area don’t have access to computer or know how one works, UA students will participate in the “Computer Build Give,” a program where volunteers show students from a local charter school how to build a computer.

“So many of us take for granted that you go to college and you have a computer, but for a lot of people that’s just not the case,” said Angela Oxford, the associate director for the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement. “So our goal is to put computers in the hands of people who really need them and showing them how it actually works.”

In addition, many senior citizens in the area are tasked with raising their grandchildren, but they have trouble keeping up with them because they don’t know how to send or receive text messages. On this trip, student volunteers will spend time teaching senior citizens how to text, which is a service Oxford said is needed but often overlooked.

Last year, one of the Alternative Spring Break trip options was a “Civil Rights Tour of the South,” where students traveled to four different cities to meet former civil rights leaders, including the daughter of one of the Little Rock Nine, as well as a minister who was with Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated. Students also visited civil rights museums in each city.

Oxford said the experience was life-changing.

“It was something I’ve never had the opportunity to do before, and I was meeting people I had never had the opportunity to meet,” Oxford said. “We were learning a lot about history because we were hearing first-hand accounts of people who had actually been in the civil rights movement.”

Junior Sylvia Tran said last year’s trip interested her because she wanted to learn more about the time period.

“It was definitely a great experience being able to hear what they went through and hearing their stories first hand,” Tran said.

Tran came away from the trip with a new outlook on today’s culture.

“It made me realize that those attitudes are still here today, so now we have to continue to push forward Dr. King’s message,” she said. “It made me think of what we can do to help change those attitudes.”

Felisha Perrodin, assistant director for residence education in Housing, went on an Alternative Spring Break Trip last year to Galveston, Texas, for the Hurricane Ike relief effort. She and others worked on houses, planted grass to shore up the sand dunes and helped people clear their land in order to receive insurance money. 

“It was a great experience, and we had a great group of kids,” Perrodin said. “They might not have really known each other before the trip, but they developed strong relationships over the course of the week.” 

Tran said the people students meet on these trips is one of the best reasons to participate.

“I was able to meet a lot of amazing people who I’m still close with.” Tran said. “It’s nice to go with a group of your peers and be able to share your experiences with them.”

Participating in Alternative Spring Break costs $100, and applications are due in the Campus Life Office on the sixth floor of the Arkansas Union by Friday, Jan. 29.